The most anticipated online game by NCSoft, Aion Online is almost here with 2008 ending in a few days. There’s a rumor as well that China will have it’s Aion Online Beta on January 1, 2009. This leads for us to anticipate that an english version will probably come soon on the European version by April – June 2009.

So far, the english official sites remain silent on the dates of the release. Let’s just hope they release a news on the dates soon!

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Great news to those who are waiting for Rohan Philippines!

You may now view its website at: http://www.rohan.ph/

It contains the Rohan trailer and information on Revenge System, Township Battle and Exchange Center. It also has gallery and a link to its official blog .

Stay tuned for the Rohan Online Philippines Client. Be updated when the Rohan Client comes out by subscribing to RohanPH news feed.

Don’t be a noob, be updated by joining RohanPH message board and RohanPH Plurk!

See ya in game soon!

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Greetings! My name is Kahto, a mage from Montt city. I’m here today to teach you about the tutorial zone.

The tutorial zone is the best place for a newbie to learn the basics of playing the game. It will teach you about using your inventory, talking to NPCs, trading with NPCs, and killing monsters.

You will start in the Hall of Revelation. Approach the blue orb in front of you and with the right click button, click the blue orb to talk to the Light of Revelation. The Light of Revelation will teach you about using your inventory and will give pointers about questing. You will receive 2 novice health potions and 2 novice mana potions when you’re done reading. Continue to the next blue orb to learn more about hunting monsters. Your first real quest will be killing a young varg that can be found just outside of the Hall of Revelation. Don’t forget to equip your weapon by opening your inventory and double-clicking the weapon in your bag or dragging the weapon from your inventory to your weapon slot in the character window. Young vargs are easy to kill and will only take 2-3 hits. Also, don’t forget to pick up the crones and equipments that the monster will drop when they die.

Proceed to the Teacher of Progress (Skill) after killing 1 young varg. You will get a reward for completing your first quest. The Teacher of Progress (Skill) can be found northwest of the first chamber. It will teach you how to increase the level of your skills. Move forward and talk to the next blue orb NPC, the Teacher of Progress (Stat).

The next part of the tutorial area will teach you more about trading, forging and refining equipments. The first NPC you will encounter is the Teacher of Trade. This NPC will teach you about NPC trading. It will also show you the icons that represent different merchant NPCs when you open your map.

Let’s continue with the next NPC, The Knowledge of Forging. Forging has three kinds: Weapon forging, armor forging and potion mixing(alchemy). Forging is available to all players and doesn’t require additional fees. The NPC will reward you with 3 types of weapons and 2 for each type. By talking to the master weaponsmith, you will be able to forge using the materials given to you.

We move on to the Teacher of Refine. Refining is a technique that lowers the requirements of equipments, excluding accessories. There are two types of refining: Level refining and Stat refining. If you choose to refine your freshly-made weapon, talk to the Level Refiner. You can reduce your equipments level by 1, 2 or 3 levels. The price will depend on the option you choose. You can also talk to the Status Refiner but since your weapon has no stat requirement you can’t use it right now.

The final part of the tutorial zone involves killing. The first NPC you’ll see is the Light of Split Path. This NPC will give you a quest depending on your race. Humans, Elves, Half Elves, Dark Elves, Giants and Halflings will have a different path from Dhans and Dekans.

Your next quest is to find the Teacher of Battle Strategy. The Teacher of Battle Strategy will teach you about the monster kill bonus experience. Monster kill or M.kill indicates the number of monsters you have hunted. The M.kill bonus experience is an additional experience award you will get for every 20 monsters hunted. Your first task is to kill ten young vargs and 10 young imps. After that, return to the Teacher of Battle Strategy to receive a new task. This time you will have to kill 10 more monsters. Submit the Proof of a Swift Hunter to the Light of Dispatch.

The Light of Dispatch will award you newbie accessories, adventurer’s talisman and a fishing pole that will help you with your adventures outside the tutorial zone. This ends your adventures in the Hall of Revelation. You can go outside by talking to the Gatekeeper of Hall of Revelation.

This concludes my lecture about the Tutorial Zone. Your journey to the world of Rohan will lie on your choices and your dreams will start to unfold.

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As promised, here are the steps with screenies on character creation.

Since I have already posted stuff about how to get inside the game, I’ll start with this screen - character selection/creation.  This time, click on the <Create> button.

You will then have this screen after you click on the <Create> button.  Click on the image of the character you wanna create and then click on the <Next> button.  I’ve selected Human (male)  for this tutorial.  The image/character you selected gets highlighted after you click on it.

You may now choose your desired Face and Hair for your character.  Click on the <Next> button when done and you’re back to the character selection/creation screen.

Here’s a video on character creation as well.

Enjoy!

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Some of you might be curious on how to get inside the game so I’ve posted here the steps and screenies for each step.

First, click this RohanOnline icon on your desktop.

And then it will load this screen.  In this stage; the system will scan the game files, check for new patches and optimize data.  The <Play>button is enabled as soon as its done with the process.  Click on it when you’re ready to play the game.

GameGuard will do its thing, securing the game, after you click on the <Play> button.

After GameGuard had made sure that everything’s OK, the next image that you will see is the YNK screen.  YNK is the developer of Rohan Online.

This is the log in screen.  Just enter your ID and Password and click on the <Login> button.  You may opt to tick the <SaveID> box if you don’t like typing your username everytime you log in.

After the server has authenticted the account info you’ve provided, it will then ask you to choose your server.  Rohan International has 5 servers: Torian, Silva, Syrephis, Marea and Ahkma. Click your desired server and then click on the <Confirm> button.

Then you will see one of Rohan Online’s loading screens.

You will see character selection next.  Just click on the character you wanna play (it will move forward after you click on it displaying the basic character information as well) and then click on the <Start> button.

And then another loading screen.

And Voila!  You’re now inside the game!

My Level 30 Healer

I will be posting about character creation soon so stay tuned!

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I did mention about dancing in Rohan Online in my 2nd blog post, didn’t I?

There are four kinds of dances in Rohan Online: Dance 1, Dance 2, Sexy and Bowling Pin Dance.

Below are the tracks for the regular dance. Yep, you can actually choose different tracks for each dance.

1. Let we Go
2. Drive with Me
3. Dive to your eyes
4. Groove Love
5. Strange Mind
6. Shake your Soul
7. Traffic
8. Inside of Me

And just to show you that I was not exaggerating when I said that the female characters of Rohan would give RF Online’s Cora a run for their money, here are some videos of the Babes of Rohan dancing.

Really. You wouldn’t get disappointed. You’d just wish for more.

This 1st dance is entitled Special Swimsuit Version. Hey, this is just the Regular dance. There’s still more.

Now this video entitled Christmas in Summer got all kinds of dance. I betcha can recognize the dance moves eh.

And if you still want more, well, I don’t wanna disappoint you, right? So here’s another dance video, Show Me your Love.

So what made the Rohan dance different from the other games? The way the character’s body moves, every inch of it. Do I hear a yes?

Now just so the guys won’t feel left out of this Rohan dance thingy, I have posted here a video of a male character dancing as well. Dekans out there, please don’t kill me.

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Atlantica Online
Developer: NDOORS

Atlantica Online is one of a kind MMORPG which bundles a turn-based tactical strategic online experience.  The main quest of your character is to find your way back to the lost city of Atlantis which closed its city walls upon the discovery behind the vast power of the Oriharukon, a crystal which who ever possessed could rule the entire world. The disappearance of the crystals brought chaos as Kings plagued the world into havoc as they desperately search for the remnants of the lost power. Behind the mystery of this ancient civilization, clues are left behind scattered all over the world as you try to collect as information and unlock dark secrets which eventually lead to the city of Atlantis.

Source: http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/

Game play: 9 out of 10

The game play is by far the best feature of Atlantica Online.  Just like any MMORPG, the game has its interactive features like NPC quests and monster hunting.  The stand out feature of Atlantica Online is the Battle system which uses a turn based approach to it.  Each player is given a party to control.  Phases are given to each party alternating each other until one singles the other out.  As your level increases, the amount of mercenaries in your party also increases and so is the time limit given to you in every phase.  Parties can reach a maximum of 9 characters including your main one.  The game also features a Mercenary system which you choose whom you want in your party.  Mercenaries aid you in battle who you can hire, fire or advance according to their level. There are 8 basic mercenaries which you could select from at the beginning namely a swordsman, spearman, archer, gunner, axe, monk, shaman, and an artilleryman. Each of the basic characters has its own unique skills and equipments to choose from.  Choosing the best tactical squad for your 9-man party might be tricky.  For there are times when you need to alter formations and recruit new mercenaries as you improve and adopt to new quests and higher level monsters.  Each Mercenary has its own set of skills and armors.  Keeping the right formation for your mercenaries is also a key in winning battles in the game.  Tankers should stay in the front and healers should stay at the back. You can also party up with two other people to finish quests more easily meaning you can have a total of 27 characters in just one battle.  The game also has a stamina system.  Stamina is limited to every player as you gain bonus experience and items when you keep your stamina on a high amount.  Each Battle consumes 1 Stamina point but do not be discouraged by this, for there are many ways to recover your stamina through various community related activities.

Guild System: 8 out of 10

The guild can do guild quests and perform guild crafts in order to increase their individual guild member contributions.  With the points earned, the guild can bid for control over a town which having successfully winning the town they gain control of  for 2 weeks.  Guilds that control towns can customize it using the town system feature.  In your town, you can add more buildings, improve the agriculture and invite more NPC’s to visit your town.  A guild with control of a town gets to change the tax rate of the town and can upgrade and maintain the town. At the end of their term, the guild has to bid on the town again to maintain control.  Guilds can merge into Nations as they take control a wider scale of territory in Atlantica.  In this way, guilds of the same nation can access each others town as if it were their own.

Aside from the guild system, there is a mentor system in the game where low level players can become an apprentice of higher level players.  All in all, you can have a total of 10 students which you gain points for sending them gifts or helping them reach a higher level.

PVP: 9 out of 10

Atlantica Online has its unique choice of PVP pleasure.  As a player, you could go into sparring sessions with your friends or enemies. There is also a Challenge system where you can post your preferred matches with level restrictions and amount of mercenaries to be used.  Everyday, the game features a Free league where players can practice their strategic skills by participating in Leagues which match them with random opponents according to their division rankings.  Aside from the Free league, there is a Weekly Championship league, where the Champion gets a prize of a sweet Champions mount for the whole week.  There is also a unique training system which can be accessed in Rome where players can fight NPC generated characters of their choosing.  Players can set the level and main character class of who they want to fight.  The best feature of the PVP action in Atlantica is the Nation wars.  Nations composed of different guilds can attack each other and earn points for their Nation. When enough points are collected, a guild could take over towns which the losing guild controls.

Graphics and Sound: 8 out of 10

The graphics of the game is great.  The colorful zones and intricate character detail makes up for some of the best assets of this game visually.  The landscape of the game covers pretty much the real countries in the real world.  Although the map only covers Europe through Asia, the terrain still is stunning as you journey throughout the game.  The game is very detailed, making the quality of the game suffer if you have a low-end hardware.

The audio quality of the game is above average.  Each place sets a different mood in the sound it plays.  Every town, dungeon and battle has its own sound which matches the emotion felt by the player in the game.  The songs are pretty much like the music we hear from other MMORPG games which are not too epic and at the same time not so annoying.

Quests: 7 out of 10

In the game there are several types of quests.  There are Story quests, NPC quests, Mercenary Quests, Crafting Quests and Tutorial Quests.  The quests in Atlantica Online takes time.  It takes away the fun and welcomes frustrations especially upon completing a quest with an unfulfilling reward.  The story line of the game loses its main stream backbone as you get mixed up with different types of quests at the same time.  The only good thing about the quests system is the Auto-move feature where the game takes the player to the required quest NPC.  Some of the NPC’s are called “traveling NPC’s” which travel through out the world walking from town to town.  It’s not always the case where the NPC will be right in front of you. These traveling NPC’s gives players a frustrating time looking for them town after town.  The game however is very informative.  It includes a built in information drive which is useful for quests and crafting. All the necessary information you need, may it be towns, NPC’s, item recipes, previous dungeons and monsters you have encountered are recorded in an information log which you can refer to in case you forgot something. The economic system of the game is solely player-driven system. Crafting depends deeply on finding the necessary materials for completion so players are encouraged to exchange supplies in order to accomplish crafting jobs. One sure thing about Atlantica Online is that the Quest system is not one of its strong points.

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I was told to finish the tutorial because aside from learning a lot about the game and the different NPCs,  I’d get a lot of freebies after the tutorial most especially the talisman which could give me a 20% EXP boost for 8 hours.  I’d also have reached level 10 by the time I got out of the tutorial zone.

Since Chino’s character was a Dekan, meaning a damager, I wanted a “support” character so I could help him out. So my first character was a Human would be Defender.  I took the tutorial, got into level 10, did some quests, and I got bored.  I was even thinking that time that Rohan’s kinda not so nice.  I deleted this character.

And then I opted for a Dark Elf would be Wizard. I loved it.  I realized that I was more into wands and gowns than swords.  Dark Elves wore gowns.  I took the tutorial again, got into level 10 and partied with Chino’s Dekan.  And then I realized that even though playing a  Dark Elf character was cool, it didn’t feel good to be a damager too; I wanted to help Chino.  So I gave up this character as well.  Enough for gowns.

Finally, I created an Elf would be Priest.  I also enjoyed playing this character because it was a wand-user one.  Character build was 3 psy and 1 vit per level.  Yes, a very dedicated full support healer in the making.  So I took the tutorial and made it to level 10 and graduated in Vena.  I often referred to this town as vena sausage because I happened not to like this town that much, that with its small bridges.  An FYI to those RF Online players out there, the female elf would surely give Cora’s female a run for her money.  Really.  Just click on the dance emoticon and you’d know.

Did I ever get tired of the tutorial? No.  As I’ve already mentioned, it wasn’t boring.  I still got lost around it and it seemed like there was always something new to expore.

kahto will be posting about the tutorial soon so stay tuned!

This is kahto’s character in Rohan Online.  A level 1 Dark Elf would be Wizard.

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