They say it is not the punch you see, but the one you do not see coming which knocks you out. Elsword is that massive knock-out punch. You may not have heard of it, but once you see it, it hooks you square on the jaw and draws your attention with its beautiful art and visuals, in-depth and cross-continuity laden story and varied and rewarding gameplay. It is a testament to its polish as a game and its loving fan base (and perhaps its just as dedicated and loving, if not more so, development team at KOG) that it is both highly regarded and played worldwide, ranked in the top 100 active games on Steam. It is also a crime that it does not get as much publicity as it deserves, especially as a free to play game, which anyone can try at the click of their mouse, so read on to see why you should give Elsword a closer look!
First, a little background. Elsword has been going strong for almost a decade, and has only become more in-depth as time has gone by. A spiritual successor to KOG’s previous Grand Chase (although characters from this game, as well as others, cross over for intents of the storyline and as playable character), the game’s plot revolves around the titular character in an ever-expanding adventure beyond time and space. Elsword himself and a party of wild and crazy characters find themselves involved in the battle of balance between forces of the light and darkness, various gods, and more recently the workings and schemes of chaos itself. This is just a barebones description in order to avoid spoilers, but the scope of the story goes far, far beyond that and only continues to grow every few weeks with new updates. What is interesting is that all of the characters involved are playable and while you will experience the story no matter who you play as (with the exception of a newer character whose story runs parallel to the main one and catches up to the main cast through the most recent content release), each has a different tutorial and thus, a different story facet. While the game launched initially with a few core characters to the story, it now sits at an incredible thirteen. Why is thirteen so incredible? Well it is really more like forty because of how the game works!
This might sound confusing, but let me explain. Each of the 13 characters has three (or four) types of jobs (classes) they may proceed down at a certain level, with each leveling up over time. In a stylish move, not only does each class play differently despite being linked to the same character, they also have a story impact. While one job represents the true-blue characterization of a character, each of the others represents alternate version of their characters. Perhaps Elsword, instead of being a knight in shining armor, becomes a slightly darker mage knight. Instead of being an emissary of a god, a character may decide to embrace the freedom and insanity of chaos. This alone adds replay ability to the characters, all of which you can get to max level in typical MMORPG fashion, but as mentioned, they all play differently and each can be built stat wise with near unlimited possibilities, which is especially significant for its PVP modes (more on that later!).
All of this is a good setup to a varied game with multiple paths to gaming, but how does it play? I myself am not an MMORPG guy, but to call Elsword just that is an injustice. In the developers’ own words, “its like an MMORPG crossed with Super Smash Bros. – a side scrolling fighting RPG with big monsters, bigger weapons and the biggest of explosions and visual goodies you could ever want in a game.” Easy enough to pick up, hard to master comes to mind, especially when it comes to the PVE aspect, as the quickest draw on the keyboard and the multitudinous ways to strategize and build your character and a job type of theirs will see the day through in the most competitive of environments. While all of this is going on, the visuals and animations are fluid and great to look out throughout. I was truly enjoying just watching rather than playing the game for a significant amount of time due to how eye catching it is in motion.
On that note, the aforementioned visuals are excellent. While not everyone may be into the anime style, it is still vibrant and crisp enough that it is to be respected, and the game takes almost everyone anime trope and cliché you can think of and runs passionately with it. If you can think of a character type, it is in the game, and you will be pleased!
If this is not sill not enough for the ever-hungry gamer, the game is finishing up its “Reboot” phase, which has completely revamped the characters in the game in order to avoid the power creep most often seen with newer characters. New players will see a complete roster of viable builds and veteran players will gush over being able to playing the best variety and functionality that the game has ever seen. Not only are there a ton of options for each character, all are viable both in casual and competitive play.
All said and done, Elsword is an excellent package, and the right price for any buyer at free to play. The game certainly has in game items you can buy, but absolutely everything is grindable, and purchasable items serve to make attaining them easier, rather than substitution or supplementing them entirely, as the biggest and best weapons in the game are only attainable by playing it – there is no pay to win here! You can also purchase everyone’s favorite microtransaction since Team Fortress 2, cosmetics!
The more you dive into Elsword, the more it impresses. Perhaps even more impressive is the dedicated fan base that has built up over the eight years since its launch. Much credit has to be given to its fantastic developers, who not only listen to their player base, they are genuinely fun people and great players who are approachable and will give you the honest answer to your question unless they do not know the answer, in which case, they will find out as fast as humanely possible. Moshup, the company’s VP, and Rush, the community manager, are just two of the many passionate talents at the studio who you may find streaming the game weekly, enjoying the game with the player base and shooting the breeze about upcoming game mechanics. They are right there in the trenches gather the thoughts and feedback of the community each week, and it is spectacular.
Even if the genre is not your forte, I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and give Elsword a try, you will not be disappointed. At the very least you are supporting a truly dedicated developer who has the heart and passion that gamers everywhere hope to see, but so rarely do.
There are a lot of events going on in the coming weeks, so for both old and new players alike, here is a list of upcoming events from the developers themselves for your convenience. *Note: The game has content released every two to three weeks, on a delayed release from the Korean server, in order to avoid both overcrowding of the servers and in order to provide a more polished release for the North American player base*
Elsword Upcoming events:
- In a few weeks – Reboot Volume 4, the final update to the player characters in order to bring them up to speed.
- Currently: Growth Support – Allows veteran and new players to get a character to max level and awards a void weapon, which will allow them to play current content more immediately (give or take about two hours) rather than completely grind all the way up. This is a great way for new players to perhaps taste the new content or join up with friends already playing, or for veteran players to try out a new character or job.
- Following Reboot Vol. 4: The Third Wave Tournament for PVP – the North American winner will be representing our side of the world in the International Tournament in Korea. Good luck to that lucky and skilled player!
To learn more about Elsword please visit www.elsword.com and keep watching the official Facebook page here. In addition, Elsword is available for PC via Steam.
Related: ELSWORD Launches Third Round of Character Reboots
Your local neighborhood nutjob, gamer, and teacher! I'm an avid fan of many genres such as platformers, shooters, horror, etc. I am also an avid tabletop gamer - hugely into the worlds of Warhammer and all of their spinoffs. I'm a big believer in being objective - even if something is not my cup of tea, I want to talk about it on the objective level - is it well made, crafted with love, and with care for the fans? If so, that's a good game in my book for someone and well worth their hard earned dollarydoos!
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