F2P Arcade Brawler 'Continent Of The Ninth Seal' Released In English AT LONG LAST

[Dominic Tarason]

I've been literally waiting on this game for years. Vindictus is nice and all, but even from the earliest Korean gameplay videos, Continent Of The Ninth (they added 'Seal' to the global version) looked pretty hot to me. I'm currently downloading the client, and the Global version went into open beta as of yesterday. You can get it here. Here's some shinies:



As you can see, it's a pure action game built around mouse/keyboard style play. There's arena PvP stuff if you want, but the focus is on hacking and slashing through tons of monsters. It's been out in Korea for ages, but looks pretty modern. So, who else up is for giving this a spin?

[Dominic Tarason]

And here's more shinies:

[SandmanXC]

The animations seem incredibly clunky and awkward.

[cosmicolor]

It looks good but if it's like Vindictus and kills itself with horrible grind for everything then it won't be for me. But I guess I could try it.

[bigelowlqebc]

I guess I could try it.

[arathain]

That actually looks really good. I mean, I didn't get too far into the grind of Vindictus, but that was heaps of fun right from the start. Where Sandman above sees clunky I see a fluid but deliberate animation style, and Monster Hunter + Diablo seems like a fantastic notion.

[Finicky]

That actually looks really good. I mean, I didn't get too far into the grind of Vindictus, but that was heaps of fun right from the start. Where Sandman above sees clunky I see a fluid but deliberate animation style, and Monster Hunter + Diablo seems like a fantastic notion.

Aye on the former (nay on the latter:p) , the animations remind me a bit of streetfighter with a clear beginning and end to them to signal animation length (like, done on purpose, not just an excuse for terrible animation).

I'm not saying the game plays or is anything like street fighter btw... just the purpose behind the animations.

[Space Indaver]

So there's nothing RPGish about it? It's just pick your character and go? I can't believe Vindictus is the only MMO that actually appeals to me, and I can't play it...

[Finicky]

It plays a lot like dragon's nest if you have played that.
There's hub towns with npcs and stores and quests and an AH, then you go to instanced missions (also like vindictus).

The main difference is you can choose to play in an 'open' instance for each mission where other people can join to pk you or play with you without invitation (which removes the big drawback that makes games like vindictus etc closer to cs than an mmo).

Animations are only street fighter choppy esque for the warrior char in the video it seems, I made a bladewitch or w/e it's called and her animations are fluid, fast and easily chained together, she is very mobile while hitting things and can cancel out of attacks too.


Gameplay is far better than in tera, closer to vindictus (you even have grabs like a scythe evie does) and smooth, I'm only level 18 but have quite a lot of abilities and combos already and haven't even unlocked the first subclass yet.

It kind of misses the OOMPH that vindictus combat has though, in vindictus your attacks feel super connected , here not quite as much (though it's still good enough, not nearly as bad as in most mmos or bad action games).

It feels pretty good to get combos going and dodging seems challenging (you don't get long tells like you would in tera).

If the game is any good or not will depend on how grindy and repetetive the missions are and how archaic the f2p mechanics of the game is.
So far I know f2p wise :
-there is no stamina or other retarded no fun allowed mechanic like vindictus used to have before they came to their senses.

-you get a limited amount of resses per mission before you have to reset the dungeon

-there's a hell mode where you can't res at all and would have to retry if you died

-24 inventory slots as baseline , the rest is bought in the cash shop I hear(quest items have their own bag) , and it's not enough imo, you can manage with the bank but it's needlessly tedious, I hate when games do that, it's a fantasy world, tedium and inconvenience do NOT belong. (one of the reasons I despise f2p in general)

-weapons and armor come out with up to +9 when crafted, I assume this is another one of those massive moneysink cashgrab f2p enchant mechanics like in dragon's nest, but don't know yet (pretty safe bet).


Game wise :
-dungeon rewards are like in dragons nest; you get a score at the end then get to pick more boxes the better you do, boxes have random loot.

-there is an AH

-the 'open' mode for dungeons where other people can join to pk gives more loot and exp

-so far from what I can see from the chat the community is surprisingly decent, unlike in tera where the community was absolutely insufferable from day one.

-The game looks outdated on one side, on the other side the lighting is nice (similar to age of conan lighting) , the image quality is good (think older games, not unreal engine 3 IQ MESS) and the framerate is EXTREMELY smooth (which sadly these days is uncommon , most games have wild fps fluctuations and on amd cards several stutter despite indicating a high framerate)

-the ui seems good enough, though the chat font is way too small @1600x1200

-char models look way too much the same

-music is repetitive, not awful like in many f2p games but then again the bar in mmos is set extremely extremely low.

[Space Indaver]

I'm in Japan, I'd love to try any of the three. I'll have to look into whether there's region-blocking or it'll force me to go on Japanese servers.

[Acacia]

I think most people are already tied up with Nuclear Dawn or Fray...I've been kind of considering Mauraders but supposedly Aion is so awesome that the developers have started giving it away free.

There were a lot of people playing Tribes Ascend but it looks like a third of them broke away for Blacklight.

[kstress71]

If the gameplay is anything like Devil May Cry, I'll give it a shot. Not an MMO guy in general, but that type of gameplay could break me :)