You know a game developer has an interesting sense of humor when they lead off their meeting invitation emails with a meme. That’s a bold move (Cotton), and they’d better be able to deliver. Fortunately, Legends of Aria has a lot to be proud of, and looks poised to carve a sustainable niche in the MMORPG market.
Legends of Aria, originally known as Shards Online, is proudly anachronistic in its design. Harkening back to ‘90s MMORPGs, when games were isometric and players created their own stories in big sandbox worlds, Legends of Aria brings these gameplay mechanics into modern gaming, blending classic styling with prettier graphics and other ease of life updates. Much like some of the other retro-inspired games that we’ve covered recently, it’s a design philosophy built around the idea of taking the best of the old school, and blending it with the lessons learned in the intervening time.
Congratulations, you found a piece of art for the Legends of Aria scavenger hunt!
My adventures in the LoA multiverse started with some basic character creation and picking up a pre-skilled class. Characters in LoA start with only basic skills, plus some user selected bonuses. These skills can be in anything, but for PAX East and other demos, Citadel Studios has provided a few options to help players get started faster. Otherwise it’s perfectly reasonable to start with just a few general proficiencies and learn what you want as you go.
I choose a character with some basic ranged specializations. This gave her some archery skills, which proved quite useful when we headed into the cellars of a local tavern to clear out a few rats. Combat will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s played any isometric action RPG made in the past twenty years, as it’s a matter of clicking on a target, then taking it down with a combination of auto attacks and learned skills. Looting the bodies of the rats my character killed provided supplies that I could later take to a crafter, or perhaps learn to utilize myself, should I choose to make my way down a crafting path.
With the game’s open ended character skills, it’s entirely possible to be a dedicated crafter and never deal with combat at all. Depending on how the world’s economy shapes out, there may also be a valid place for traders interfacing between hunter-gatherer types and crafters. Players looking for PVP elements won’t be disappointed either. Much like in Ultima Online or EVE Online, the entire world is essentially a PVP free-for-all zone. However, attacking players in a town will have serious repercussions. Interestingly enough, due to these consequences, most players who choose to play as bad characters tend to self-segregate themselves to one specific section of the game world.
Players will also have the chance to make their personalized marks on both their communities and the world at large with their own houses. In the closed beta world that Citadel was showing off at PAX, a number of enterprising crafters had tables set up outside their houses to showcase and sell their wares. Future plans include the ability to decorate house exteriors, allowing players to show off their favorite trophies.
Like most sandbox games, Legends of Aria caters to gamers who enjoy making their own adventures. The plan for the final game is to have moddable rulesets, and allow player-run servers that will cater to whatever style a particular sub-community is willing to try. Aria isn’t likely to steal a huge audience away from World of Warcraft or other big name themepark MMOs, but it looks as though it has a good chance to carve a unique niche all its own.
Legends of Aria is currently in closed beta. Various Founders Packs can be purchased to get in on the action immediately, or players can wait for the future open beta period. The game is planned for an eventual Steam release. Interested players should check out the game’s official website, and Citadel Studios’ Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube channels.
