Dragon Nest: The 2nd Look

Operating under the assumption that David (since he’s awesome and gets into Closed Beta games, usually) made a blog, Dragon Nest!

Note: Because I’m not David, I cannot be very descriptive of the game. Nor is my sense of humor as funny. Oh well.

(No screenshot or video has been taken at the beginning of the game. All screenshots and videos are somewhere a bit after the beginning, but not too deep.)

Controls

Dragon Nest default controls are like this:

AWSD: Strafe left, move forward, move backwards, and strafe right
1-0: Hotkeys for skills and items, or gestures
Tab: Sheath thy weapon
Left click: Attack
Right click: Special Attack
Spacebar: Jump
PrtScr/SysRq: Take screen shot (derp)
Scroll Lock: Start recording
Ctrl+PrtScr: Removes HUD (Making it look sorta like a movie)
Shift+Movement Key: Tumble/Dodge Roll/Unnecessary Combat Roll (Could also be done by double tapping the key, as if you’re trying to sprint)

The game plays in a different style: Over the shoulder! Though if you’re an archer and maybe sorceress, it plays more like a TPS.

Introduction

When you begin, you have a choice between two servers: East and West (derp). After choosing a server, you are introduced to four people resting under a tree. And by introduced, I mean shown.

From left to right: Cleric, Warrior, Sorceress, and Archer. Guess which ones are the easiest and hardest.

Each class can use three different weapons with different properties. I decided to choose a warrior. With a sword. Because Heroes Prefer Swords. Here’s how he looked back at level 6

Don’t mind me, just here in my blue pants.

OK, on to the game.

Plot plot plot plot plot

(Warrior and Archer plot. I don’t know about Cleric and Sorceress)

One day, two girls (Rose and Lily) decided to go walking in the woods, filled with dangerous Goblins and Ogres, in search of apples. Yay. Three guesses as to what happens.

They get chased by Goblins (shock!) and Lily trips. Rose stops and hurries over to help her up when an Ogre (maybe it was a Goblin…) came and swept her off her feet. And then kidnapped her. The two girls and left calling each others names (btw they’re sisters) and a Goblins move in onto their helpless prey (Lily is about 8 I think…).

Conveniently you (the player) came walking in about 10 seconds after the crime was committed. I’m talking about the KIDNAPPING here. You see the Lily, helpless on the ground. Time to go stabbing (or bludgeoning. Or arrowing. Or magicing. Or chopping. You get what I’m saying) !

Stab (or other verb) the goblins right?

Sure, why not? You pull out your weapon and get to work. The player is introduced to a pseudo-tutorial, displaying basic movements and combat. While in the middle of combat. Without pause! It’s all about immersion. Anyways, goblins are dead! Moving onto the girl now!

T-to save… right?

If it’ll make you feel more secure, fine. Could use the stabbing later…

To talk to NPCs, move the crosshair over the girl which turns into a speechbubble. This is how you speak to NPCs. On other players, it turns into a smiley. The girl simply says the name “Rose” before fainting. Carry her off to town then…

At Ironwood Village, it’s conveniently where the girl lives. Her grandfather thanks you for saving Lily, but worries about Rose. Lily had a pendent on her, which you showed him, causing major distress. You volunteer to help rescue Rose. Because as a Player Character, you’re clearly incapable of saving a girl whereas the NPCs are.

Tutorial! But chances are you know 9 out of 10 things they teach you. Free potion though.

Enough plot! More gameplay! (Reasons being is that I wrote this blog once before and when I clicked Save edits and publish, it didn’t do that. Stupid auto refresh)

Non-plot things

Towns

Towns all have the same things: Useless NPCs that grant quests, Potion Shops, Blacksmiths, Class trainers, mailboxes, and commission boards. Starting from the 2nd town, Crest Crafting is added.

Potion Shops: Usually run by a snobby girl. They double as a grocery store, but that’s off limits for PCs. You can buy potions that will heal you in dungeons. Though how useful potions are has yet to be decided, what with a 60 second cool down, though that’s more tame than a 360 second cool down…

Blacksmith: Run by some short guy with poochums supplying power. Players can buy armors, weapons and enhance certain equipment here. Though the equipment you buy from these guys tend to be less useful than the ones you find out dungeoning. Probably because they can’t be enhanced.

Class trainers: They enable players to advance skills and learn new ones. Though you may find skill books in dungeons on harder difficulties, players can end up buying new skills from these guys. More on skills later.

Mailboxes: You can check mail from other players or NPCs, check mail you’re sending out, or composing mail. You only get 5 free letters per day, but unlimited if you use express. I smell profit here…

Commissions boards: They act as the place you go to to turn in quests. They are placed outside most dungeons, though the ones in the field are universal.

Crest Crafting: Crest! These are used to enhance skills or stats. You get a plate which you can then craft into a Crest.

Dungeoning

I spy with my little eye… some goblins that are about to get several body piercings.

Dungeons are located in a few different maps sprawled outside of town. They are usually marked by a red portal. Blue portals tend to lead to another area.

Dungeons come in five difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, Master, Abyss. Anything after Normal has to be unlocked by just finishing the previous difficulty. A rise in difficulty tends to use more EP, give more money, and better rewards. When starting a dungeon, you can view rewards, quests that can be done, and achievements that can be earned.

Inside a dungeon, you have to clear the enemies out before you can continue. Enemies can, and will hurt you. Most annoyingly they can break you out of combos. But if you do kill them, they drop loot, which gets better at higher difficulties. When clearing a room, you can talk to quest NPCs or continue through the dungeon through the red portal.

Red portals usually mean bad things…

Quest NPCs tend to appear and disappear with quests. A notable situation would be the Goblin Grandchildren storyline. Despite going through the dungeon five times, you never meet all the NPCs at once. Which is weird since they all went missing at once. And that there’s only one path. Probably justified as that they were hiding. Or something. Who knows…

These Goblins are trapped… Maybe I should hel- did he just scratch himself?

Barrels mean coin. But that doesn’t look like coin to me…

During the dungeon, enemies will occasionally drop food items which drop in rarity at higher difficulties. Eating these items give either a boost or heal, but can also be a debuff or damaging. But the food items will usually say what will happen when eating it, so don’t be surprised when you eat a ‘Poison Apple (Poisons)’ and be surprised that you’re poisoned because… really. That’s just stupid.

(Though if negative food items are placed among coins and equipment, it’s sort of justified…)

That fish tasted like feet…

Skills

Every character is given four skills at the start of the game, a quick but weak attack skill, a slow but powerful attack skill, a special move to attack knocked down enemies, and Tumbling. Skills are advanced at certain levels and can be obtained at certain levels, be it from skill books (dungeon drop) or buying it from the proper Class trainer (uses money and some SP). Every skill has a cool down, and certain skills will have a decreased cool down upon higher ranks.

The skills are divided between two colors: Blue and Yellow. Blue skills are placed on the hotkeys (1-0) and used as any normal skill. Yellow skills are usually special moves that can be used under certain conditions and only a few have no cool down.

The main purpose of using skills is to rack up the combos, help keep enemies juggled and stunned. Combined with the normal attacks and special moves, the enemies will constantly be flying. Well, until they die.

Videos

Two gameplay videos of me failing at combos and running dungeons. The last one has a bit of plot in it.

Closing Comments

Good game, would play again when it’s out for reals.