Long post, but these are just my thoughts on the game now that the beta’s ending. As a brief background, I mainly play 3D F2P MMOs like TERA, ArcheAge, Vindictus, PSO2, Eden Eternal, etc but have also played the likes of Diablo 2, Trickster Online, Maplestory, Dragonica, etc.
Overall, Tree of Savior’s been an enjoyable experience for me, even as a casual player. Once I got used to the controls, they were pretty tight and responsive, at least compared to how stiff it can get in some games. I was lucky enough to come across a blue mob early, so I didn’t hit the grind wall as quickly as others. But even upon hitting the grind, it still ended up being more fun than other games I’ve played recently.
The major reason for me was that, imo, IMC’s done a great job on hit effects, sound design, and damage ratio. It’s very satisfying hitting monsters because they generally go down quickly with an impactful explosion at the end. But like others, I eventually got stopped by higher-level monsters that did too much damage for the time it took to kill them.
But if it hadn’t been for this grind wall, I don’t think I would have had as much fun. My first reaction like others was to party up to get over the wall. It was easy to interact with other players because of this, although the broken friend system kind of made anything long-term difficult. I spent a good amount of time just socializing, but decided to solo up to actually play the game more.
Figuring out ways to get over the grind wall ended up making me explore and utilize more features in the game. Using TERA as an example, there’s no point in enhancing your equipment or even bothering with gear drops at all because the quest equips are guaranteed to carry you to the next set. There’s also no point in kiting or evaluating mob strength because you can just cleave through everything. In the end, all the difficulty is at the endgame, where the difficulty and gear expectations ramp up because of the level cap.
In ToS, I explored the map for hidden quests to get all the EXP. I hunted for gear drops to upgrade from the quest gear (as I wasn’t strong enough to fight in the next quest area for a while). I then anvil’d up and socketed to squeeze a bit more out of the gear. Studied attributes to improve my damage output. Incorporated jumping and maneuvering more to dodge mob attacks. Started weapon swapping to take advantage of extra damage by type.
These kinds of features aren’t unique to ToS. But in most games that I’ve played, they’re only relevant in the endgame, because that’s when things like maximizing damage output and varying your play style matters. But imo, these parts are really fun because it makes you feel like you’re making actual progression rather than just following the quest chain. I was surprised to find how easily I was able to slip into grinding on ToS just because of these little things.
Throw in the shiny mobs and EXP cards and, even playing casually, I was able to progress from area to area without spending too much extra time. The minibosses were a nice break in-between from grinding and also let me test out other ways of mitigating damage and maximizing output. The class system wasn’t too complex, but it kept things smooth and easy to pick up by minimizing hotkeyed skills and enhancing them instead. Achievements with actual rewards instead of just titles made me go out and grind even more!
So, in the end, my hats to you IMC for such a fun game. It’s been great in the beta, even with all the bugs. Whether deliberately or by accident, I’m glad that you forced me to try out as much of the game as possible instead of just WASD+click. You know a game’s just being tsundere when you start lagging so much that the boss attacks are invisible and off-timed, but you still have ways to kill him.