TERA Online (PC)

[Eidelon]

Developer: Bluehole Studio
Publisher: En Masse Entertainment (NA) Frogster Interactive Pictures (EU)
Release dates: May 01, 2012 (NA), May 03, 2012 (EU)
Platform: PC
Genre: Action MMORPG

TERA Online is a action based MMORPG from Korea which is just about to be released in the NA/EU. It's been out for just over a year in Korea and it's main selling point is the focus on action based combat and on a political system which allows Guild Leaders to run for election and then have control over a territory in the World which gives them some powers over that area. All this takes place in an Eastern RPG style of world with fantastical creature designs to match (Some of the designers worked on Final Fantasy games, so you can imagine) and has a total of 7 races players can play as and 8 unique classes to choose from.

The Combat in TERA is different to other MMO's in that it is not based around clicking and then spamming the hotkeys for your abilities. It actually has collision detection, and you have to aim your swings/shots/spells etc. and is one of the games key selling points. This is perhaps the biggest feature (Closely followed by the Political System) that this game has over other MMO's out there (With the exception of GW2 when it comes out) and is said to set it aside from the other MMO's in the market currently. Finally there is currently no Raiding in TERA and alll the focus is on running Dungeons and killing BAMS (Big-Ass Monsters) that inhabit the world and generally take 5 man teams to kill. This gives it a fresh feel free from the stranglehold of Raiding at endgame which happens in most MMO's for the time being, however Raids are said to be getting implemented later on down the line.

Other then that I don't think there is much to cover in this OP in regards to TERA. So are you excited for the game? Will you be playing or at least Trialing the game when the option arise? And if you've played or read about TERA what are your thoughts and comments about this self proclaimed 'Next-Gen MMO?'

[Crymzen]

i don't think this is a game for me to be honest..a few of the people i play swtor with said it wasn't all that ( though it was just a beta) they were also disturbed at how many 8 year old looking girls were running around wearing next to nothing

[Eidelon]

i don't think this is a game for me to be honest..a few of the people i play swtor with said it wasn't all that ( though it was just a beta) they were also disturbed at how many 8 year old looking girls were running around wearing next to nothing

As a TOR player I can say TERA offers far more Endgame content then TOR however it doesn't beat TOR in the storytelling aspect, but then no other MMO really does. And TERA is a little more polished then TOR, which you'd expect since it has been out for just over a year in Korea before coming here.

In regards to the Elin (The 11yr old looking girl race who are meant to be 1000+yrs old lorewise, which really doesn't help) I can state they do not wear anything more revealing then the traditional Japanese schoolgirl style you see in most anime, which personally does not bother me it's an Eastern thing. To be honest most of the fuss about the Elin is childish (I get the irony ) immaturity from some people who have played the game but more often then not haven't. I personally neither like or dislike the Elin they are just there, and to avoid the game just because of them is a mistake indeed.

I hope people get past the Elin rumors, the Elin are no different to the anime girls we play in other JRPG's (For instance in the Persona games) and this whole 'they barely wear anything' rubbish I see around I can definately confirm does not exist, unless you consider those japanese schoolgirl outfits as revealing which I wouldn't. On a final note the only people I know playing Elin (Because each Beta has seen the amount of Elin players decrease) are female so make of that what you will, it's certainly a wierd yet interesting clash of cultures in regards to the Elin though thats for sure.

[Crymzen]

personaly the whoel young looking girl thing doesn't bother me...90% of the time its a 20 somthing year old dude anyways *shrugs* it doesn't suprise me that it would have more endgame than swtor...swtor has a serious lack of it wich is why alot of people seem to be leaving (mainly the ones on PvP servers) TERA isn't somthing i would go out of my way to play as im super happy with swtor right now and have no intention of taking on another MMO for a good while

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I was worried about the Elin thing. They've definitely played them off as more mischievious and mysterious than hyper-sexual (although I have no clue how anyone could compare them to the Persona girls who are much older and less revealingly dressed, Eidelon :P ).

I got only to level 10 on the last beta weekend (lazily skipped the previous ones). The combat is the definite selling point, as it makes the game less of a hotkey rotation game since you have to keep attacking and dodging. While this makes combat more "active" and positional, it's not without flaws. First off, it becomes click heavy a bit, especially early on because the game is REALLY easy. I found that while I could dodge all the attacks, there was no point because I took out enemies so fast just holding down left click. My AOE skill also does way more damage than my single target skill, so I could just run around and aggro like 20 enemies and then just AOE spam them. Levelling and money was easy to come by, too. It wouldn't surprise me if they buffed this for the beta to try to reel more people in. Generally though, the action combat was a welcome change of pace from hotkey queuing and spamming.

Because it is based on a targetting system that has a cursor, mouseovers are not the name of the game. It took a little while for me to get used to having to press alt to get a mouse cursor. This isn't a flaw really. Also, between that and collision detection this game bucks a few general trends. Think Monster Hunter + MMO.

There are a few things that concern me. There is a lot of foot travel and (at least the starting zone) is huge. That could be a big, empty wasteland in 6 months. The beta was also off-putting at first. I understand they wanted people to see what high level play was like, but throwing me into the game at level 30 with a dozen skills nad not telling me much left me more confused than anything. Once I got placed at level one it started to click. I do like the minimalistic and streamlined UI quite a lot.

The art design is pleasant and colourful, some of the monsters are especially twisted looking, which makes me wonder why they still send us to kill "pigletts" for one quest. The music sounds a bit like pre-searing Guild Wars, so I can't complain. The voice acting and animations are, well, not so great. Some of the former is prpetty amateur.

One thing I do really like is that you can be any crafting/gathering profession you want to be without limit. You don't have to choose two or three and then kick out one and start from scratch for another. That's nice.

I liked the beta; I can see the real-time combat being a nice change of pace. Just not really feeling like I will replace my TOR sub, and don't want to run two at the same time. The sub model is all but dead at this point, anyways.

Edit: Also, the community makes MOBA ones look like Nobel Peace forums. I can't even stress how TERRIBLE the general chat was in the beta. Words don't explain it properly, and this isn't hyperbole. Let's just say "shit, cawk, fag, balls, cunt" were all more common than "the, and, a" and there wasn't one mature voice to be found. Infact, a server admin went into all caps rage swearing homosexual slur mode at one point. Barrens chat is G rated kid friendly awesomeness compared to Tera. I have screenshots at home I might post if I don't feel lazy.

[Eidelon]

I was worried about the Elin thing. They've definitely played them off as more mischievious and mysterious than hyper-sexual (although I have no clue how anyone could compare them to the Persona girls who are much older and less revealingly dressed, Eidelon :P ).

Ok I admit it was a bad example but I couldn't think of another JRPG that entailed young girls in school uniform. However since then I have thought of one, the Disgaea games though maybe Rikku from FF would count she's 15 and wears some fairly revealing stuff. Man my memories of JRPG's are poor been so long since I played one (Excluding TERA).

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I hit level 14 today, and I am pleasantly surprised at how capable an MMO this is. The world is nice to look at, and the combat gets better every level I gain. It doesn't overload you with 20 quests per area, it simply gives you 5 or so and then you move on, so it's well paced.

[Squall-lionheart16]

i really want the Collector's edition but i can't find it in the UK D:

i'll probably start playing in a week's time, dont suppose anybody is on UK servers...

[StealthAssassin]

Trying to decide whether to give this a shot - alot of the things I have been seeing have been generally positive - and it has to be said I like the idea of not having click-lock combat!

[StealthAssassin]

i really want the Collector's edition but i can't find it in the UK D:

i'll probably start playing in a week's time, dont suppose anybody is on UK servers...

Play.com has the Collectors edition...I think. If you search for Tera on Play.com, the Collectors edition comes up to buy in the search results, and you can add it directly to your basket, but if you click on the actual item there is no buy button... so I'm confused...