Magerealm

If you ever wanted to feel like a clone, this is the game for you.

Magerealm is another "adventure" browser game that has mechanics almost identical to Blood and Jade, Bleach Online, and League of Angels. To its credit, it actually surpasses all of those in terms of gameplay and loading times as well as having less eye candy for male players (which might be a plus for some but I actually find a severe negative for this genre). However at its heart it is an idle game, with options to auto navigate to quests, auto fight through dungeons (but this time only those on your main quests - extra dungeons you must control yourself! How mean!), and meditate (AFK) for XP. Yup, you can gain levels by not playing. So... what's the point right? :P

You are unique, just like everyone else.

Where it goes lacking once again (if it wasn't lacking enough) was the single tracked quest path meaning you will see doppelgangers of yourself (other players) doing the exact same thing you are doing. The other games I mentioned try negate this somewhat by taking you out to other mini games, battle maps or having a pretty big map with a bunch of different objectives players can do but here it doesn't even attempt to hide just how on the rails it is. Also, I have to question the art assets being used, or perhaps re-used I should say. For the sake of being nice let's just say a lot of them feel like de ja vu?

Can you feel the originality?

In the end I give still only give this game one winged clone out of five, and recommend everyone give it a miss. If you really must play one of these types of games, League of Angels is still the best in my book - and that only scored two out of five.

Bleach Online

[Post #27 of the Blaugust Challenge!]

Fans of the manga and anime Bleach now have another medium to enjoy their hobby... somewhat. This browser based game plays a lot like Blood and Jade and League of Angels except with Bleach characters and anime styling. I still question how they got the rights to do this but whatever. The game begins with the player creating a soul from a choice from 6 "new" characters (not seen in Bleach before). There is no customization apart from adding a name to your avatar.

You will then find yourself with what I am guessing is the only quest hub in game. A gigantic area where all the NPCs regardless if they are on Earth or in the Shinigami realm or I suppose in Hueco Mundo (didn't get that far) show up to talk to. A portal leads you to battle zones which looks like a map with chibi versions of opponents. There are no divergent paths though. You have to beat monster A to get to monster B and so forth. Actually it's quite funny that the first person you fight is Aizen (one of the big bad guys), followed by what seems to be the series actual plot. I'm still not sure why because the translation is hilariously bad in most parts.

Yoruichi handles the cash shop in a maid outfit. Woo?

Fortunately random characters decide to join your team for some fights. You can also hire them to permanently be on your team from the tavern or from winning a best of 3 rock paper scissors gamble. Sounds like childs play? Well each attempt costs something like half a million gold so good luck. That's still around 75% cheaper than hiring them out right. You can gain a lot of skills as you level up, but in combat each character will only use the one you select as active, every other round. That is the extent of your input as in battle you basically just sit and watch, even in the pseudo PvP arena where you take on other players teams. Oh, you can try enslave the other players too and force them to work at your homestead - because uh... that didn't happen in Bleach.

And then there are the... "bonus" events. There's a lucky cat and gift timer boxes that give you money and items just for being logged in. You can try strip some random females of Soul Society as a daily task. You also have a homestead that you can upgrade and hunt down female hollows to steal their bikinis which you then use to upgrade your girlfriend who lives in your home (i think the first upgrade costs 500 bikinis?). And by upgrade I mean ditch the old one for a hotter one with bigger boobs. Oh you can interact with them too. Higher level girlfriends can give you more rewards when you talk to them, party with them, or "accidentally" fondle their breasts. There's actually a button for that.

While they got some voice lines directly from the anime I think, the music that I've encountered is repetetive and is not of the quality of League of Angels for example. The best part I think is the quiz which lets you answer one question about Bleach everytime you gain a level. Get it wrong and you gain a little money. Get it right and you get a lot of money. Nowhere near enough to save it though, because I give this game just one bankai out of five.

Blaugust Bonus: These are getting harder and harder to do so again I'll go with another of Belghast's writing prompts, one that has a short answer as to not let this post get too long. "Do you follow a games lore? There is often tons of lore both in game and out of game, do you follow it and even track down the tidbits that are not obvious.. or are you mostly oblivious to it?"

Generally speaking, no. The in-game story or world has to give it right to me (or at least feeds it passively through tasks for example) otherwise I don't actively look for it. Doubly so for anything outside the game because it's outside the game.

Today I Smiled: Blog Status Mid 2014

The last time I did this I was in the middle of upgrading my house. I find it interesting to see what's changed over one year. First let's start with my top posts of all time (so far)!

Proving that guides are the best way to get an audience...
Rank #1 - Fastest way to gain AP
Rank #2 - State of Decay: Tips to reach Level 10

Followed by "sex sells"...
Rank #3 - Blood and Jade
Rank #4 - League of Angels

And lastly, if you write (enough of it) it will be read... eventually...
Rank #5 - Skyrim's Adventure Journal

My current post count is 542 (up from 245).
Top 5 audience countries: USA, Australia, Russia, UK, and Germany.
Using: Firefox (34%), IE (32%) and Chrome (21%). The rest use weird stuff! ;P

Most common search keywords: Still "Skyrim Hamburger" and "Pile of Ash" at the top. Funny that "Blood and Jade" and "Emma Watson Latex" get a mention though!

Followers: 2 (up from zero. Get in quick as there are only 49,998 spots left! LOL)
Page views: 56,473 (up from 10,101 - pretty sure this is thanks to two rounds the NBI!)
Comments - the stat I am happiest with: Previously 6.

Now: 320!

Yes, half of those is me replying but still! Thank you very much to everyone who has read and commented on my posts - it has definitely put a smile on my face. :D

Wartune is Out of Tune

We've all seen the sultry and most likely copyright breaking ads of this game around, probably even on this very site so I decided what the heck - I'll give it a try. Since it is hosted by the same folk who run Blood and Jade and League of Angels, you sort of know what to expect already. Browser game? Tick. Single path quest line? Tick. Auto-combat with very little combat input? Tick. Pay to win? Tick.

Scantily clad damsels? Tick.

Where it varies is that unlike the other two there is a small city building mini-game that serves as the main hub if you like and upgrading / building stuff takes time. While that's going on you can wander around with your army (my 200+ people were represented by 2 guys) to do campaigns (for quest line), conquer mines (for increased gold), and attack other player cities (to be a douchebag) where like League of Angels the PvP is not against the live person but a representation of their team at the time.

It is painfully obvious that this was their first / an early attempt into browser gaming though because unlike the other two which can technically play themselves with minimal input this one actually detects if it is not in focus and waits for you before resuming any actions. Coupled with the horrible loading times when traversing areas, entering combat, or just opening your backpack it just isn't worth playing when most of the time is spent waiting for screens to load. In this regard it really impresses me how they've improved the system in League of Angels where loading is almost inconsequential - it learned from the mistakes of the others I guess which is why League of Angels trumps the other two in my book.

As for Wartune though, I can safely say steer clear and give it zero hot girls out of five.

League of Angels

Much like Blood and Jade, this is a 2D based free to play (pay to win) browser based MMO which is really designed to sink its hooks into players through ease and accessibility. Basically it is an improved version of Blood and Jade without all the Eastern themes. Still present are the auto-pilot questing on a railroaded quest path, auto-combat systems but with more polish, and more musical tracks (pretty decent ones too) based on what you are doing at the time as opposed to the steady drone of the one track in the previous game. As a bonus though you can play both at the same time. Actually, you can let them play by themselves while you do something else! :P

Of course it still has the scantily clad hot chicks.

They added gaining EXP and gold through a variety of unlockable mini games, including fishing using a gun turret, a version of bejewelled, enslaving other players, and fighting other players in arena or domination modes (indirectly, you only fight their parties without actual player interaction). You also can gain gold from congratulating people on your friend list when they hit specific achievements and if that's still too hard you can literally stand still and just leave it alone and still gain EXP. Yep, it rewards you for just being logged in even if you aren't playing!

The best improvement though is the addition of a player "party". Other than your hero you can bring along up to 5 NPCs (once you reach high enough rank) who complement each other in various ways. Well, when I say "various" I actually mean "one", and it's usually a combo attack of some sort. It's easy to work out which units work best together, and throwing the various blessings of your guardian angel on top it can alter your party strategy. Usually though, you just pick the strongest of what's available to you and run with that.

All in all it IS a better game than Blood and Jade, but as a stand alone it is still pretty weak. You'll most likely find yourself to be grinding just shy of level 40 while trying to reach Dracula. Yerp, there were enough mini games to keep me busy up to that level! Anywho I give it a 2 out of 5 sexy angels, and it is definitely better enjoyed while playing Blood and Jade in a second browser window so you can alternate between the cool downs of the two. Or you know, you could just go play a real MMO. :P

Blood and Jade

If you want an MMO where the game will literally play itself for you, look no further than Blood and Jade! This free to play browser based game is 2.5D, which I think means they had 3D models that they flattened into sprites. The result isn't bad but with very few animation frames everything feels a bit robotic. Indeed, after awhile you too will feel like a robot! Quests are super grindy but feature an interesting mechanism where you can instantly teleport to the bunch of baddies you need to kill (if they are in a different zone).

Targetting manually is woeful and there seems to be no reason to explore at all but why do you need to? Just press a button and let autopilot take over. There seems to be a story behind it too but I didn't bother reading any of the quest text since the game simply teaches you to click and forget, making you take a very passive role in the whole thing. You can even garden, play a slot machine and sell stuff directly from your inventory (to who, I am not sure). In my first, brief session I reached level 40 and didn't die once while half the time not even paying attention to the screen.

Pretty much the only thing it has going for it.

Honestly though, I would give this one a miss. If you really, really, really want a browser based MMO that is F2P then you should try Sherwood Dungeon instead. The graphics may not be as swishy or sexy there but it is certainly more fun. Not bad for something made by one person.