I’ve seen the Elsword advertisement pop up a lot lately, so I decided I’d give it a play through. Elsword is a side-scroller MMO with standardized character models. I’ve been playing on the Ara Haan character, which was just released to get a feel for the game.
The first thing I noticed when starting up the game was the artwork. It’s actually pretty impressive. I definitely like the amount of work the artists put into the game. Having a good visual appeal is very important to me. I don’t like playing a game that looks bad.
This is the quality you can expect to see throughout the game.
Gameplay:
The combat and movement control is very easy to adapt to.
Movement:
Movement is done using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Here is a list of the commands for movement.
- Up Arrow: Character jumps
- Down Arrow: Character drops to the platform below their current platform.
- Left Arrow: Character moves left.
- Right Arrow: Character moves right
Combat:
Combat is also done through keyboard commands. You get two basic attack combo buttons and four starter skill slot buttons. You can unlock more skill slots from the cash shop.
- Z Button: Combo button one.
- X Button: Combo button two.
- A Button: Skill button one.
- S Button: Skill button two.
- D Button: Skill button three.
- C Button: Skill button four.
The combat focuses on chaining combos and skills to keep increasing your hit counter. In dungeons, you want to have a high combo for the experience bonus. Ara Haan’s X combo chain allows her to avoid taking damage by keeping most monsters on the ground. Certain monsters resist knockdown and don’t get knocked down as easily..
The combat feels like standard side-scroller combat, and it’s simple for anyone used to side-scrollers.
Leveling:
After only about an hour of total gameplay, I was able to reach level 13. So far the game doesn’t have a grind feel to it, but that could change as I get higher in level.
Stamina:
A stamina bar on the lower right hand side of the screen shows how much stamina your character has left. Several actions, such as dungeons deplete your stamina bar. Once empty, you won’t be able to enter a dungeon. As of right now I’m not sure how to regenerate stamina.
Dungeons:
Every dungeon except for the first dungeon has optional difficulty settings. These settings determine how many players the dungeon allows to enter. It’s also possible to enter the highest difficulty solo. If you’re confident in your skills this is a good challenge. In the video I took on Shadow Forest on the highest difficulty. I entered solo by clicking the start with current members button.
At the end of each dungeon there will be a rating system to determine bonus experience. The four categories are: time, damage (taken), combo, and technical score. Averaging these four together will give you your overall rank. Don’t be worried about taking a little extra time though even if you get an F on time you can still get an overall A rating if everything else is high.
This is Ara Haan, the character I use in Elsword.
Pay Walls:
So far the only pay wall I have encountered in the game is expandable inventory, active item, and skill slots. There are several cosmetic items you can buy as well. The accessories tab of the shop does have stat boosting accessories available, but you can obtain accessories by playing the game as well.
My Rating:
Overall I enjoy the game. I gave Elsword an 8 out of 10 for two reasons. The first reason is progression simplicity. I don’t need other players to play through the dungeons at max difficulty, and feel it’s too easy. The second is the pay walls, even though they are few they still exist in the game. I definitely recommend this game for anyone looking for an easy game to pick up for some fun.
