Today, I will review Twelve Sky 2, which is a Free-to-Play MMORPG currently in Open Beta (in North America) from the folks over at Aeria Games. The game was first released in Korea from Alt1 games. It’s the sequel to the first 12 Sky game, also hosted by Aeria.

It’s a feudal Martial Arts game that takes place in China, along with Japanese and Korean themes. It’s one of the first free MMORPGs that I’ve really enjoyed over previous free MMOGs from other publishers. I will explain why this game has kept me busy over the course of a few weeks.

Gameplay

Upon starting Twelve Sky 2 for the first time, there are 3 factions to choose from: Guanyin, Fujin, and Jinong. All three factions focus on close-quarters (two per faction) and ranged combat (one per faction) and weapon uses are varied depending on the faction (Jinong players use Light Blades, Guanyin uses Sword, etc). While there are no magic based classes in Twelve Sky 2, spells can be used later during your character’s development.

Twelve Sky 2 uses the old fashioned Hack-and-Slash battle system, which doesn’t require much clicking as in the standard free MMORPGs; just click and forget. Skills and items can be assigned to the customizable hotbars using the F1~ and QWERTY buttons. Leveling in Twelve Sky 2 is really easy and it doesn’t take up a lot of time. The quests are awarded after leveling up and are straight forward. Experience points are rewarded as well upon their completion.

Twelve Sky 2 is also PvP based. You can enter battlefields that take place during parts of the day and depending on your character’s level (1-10, 90-99, etc). Like in modern MMORPGs, players can also challenge other players to a duel. The game features Party and Guild features to meet other players and to help out others in need, or when you need help—especially to participate with during Twelve Sky 2’s events held almost every week, which often includes double experience points.

Leveling your character to the max is worth the $0 as leveling up to 20 and beyond can be a piece of cake. Further customization is possible though ways of purchasing AeriaGames Prepaid cards at Target, 7-11, and HEB stores nationwide for $10 or $20.

Audio

The sound effects is on par with the overall environment and doesn’t get annoying after a while. While in PvP, however, the sound of NPCs fighting each other does get repetitive after a few minutes. I do give it that it does add to the imagination of being in the midst of a intense battle!

The music in Twelve Sky 2 reminds me of the game, Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (which also had an feature-length anime adaption), which brings back memories of the days of neo-feudal (if that is such a term) action. (Case in point: the music featured in the trailer). With Twelve Sky 2 taking place in such a setting, this points out my case. ^_^

Graphics

The graphics are pretty decent for a free MMORPG (compared to the premium retail games). If you have a high-end computer (with a decent video card, of course), you will get the most out of your gaming experience. On the other hand, the effects will interfere with the environment (such as hardware lags) if your computer hardware is not up to date.

Replay Value

With each level gained, there’s a lot to explore in Twelve Sky 2. In terms of the community: the behavior of other players varies depending on the time of day; It is possible for a player to come up to you and still kills and stalk you playfully (as usual in most games) or worse (getting scammed, random insults and the like).

But when a problem arises, Aeria’s awesome Game Masters (GMs; or Game Sages (GS) in Twelve Sky 2) are there to fix it. The Game Sages even appear in-game during events to answer questions from players; the appearance of live Game Masters is very lacking in other MMORPGs.

Overall Value

Twelve Sky 2 is worth looking into if you like games with feudal themes mixed in with Martial Arts. There are a few thing to look out for while playing it, such as Virtual Currency sellers and the usual scammer (which is common sense in any game). Regardless, it’s the best $0 you will ever spend. ^^

Rating:

Popularity: 4% [?]

Written by: Sanjo-chan (507 Posts)

Posted on: June 24, 2009 0:29 (Games)
Tag(s): 12 sky, aeria games, gaming, mmorpgs
Website: http://centakume.info/