The Latest Game Is Too Amazing

Two weeks after Another World’s closed beta test ended, the open beta test is finally starting.

The biggest difference between the closed and open beta tests is whether or not there’s a limit to the number of users acting as testers. The closed beta test has a limit while the open beta test doesn’t. I’m not a developer, so these are just my personal impressions, but I think closed beta tests put more emphasis on checking that there are no fatal malfunctions to the game’s progress, while open beta tests function more similarly to the official release to test the server load and adjust the game balance for the official release.

The open beta test lasts for a month and a half. It sort of feels like it’s not long enough, but according to the predictions, they’ll start the official release in mid-July. In other words, they’re aiming to start it in time for the students’ summer vacation.

I wonder if they’ll be okay with such a tight schedule even though this is the world’s first VRMMO. Since it’s an unknown game system, there’s no telling what sort of bugs it’ll have, so I feel like it’d be fine to make it longer. Well, unlike offline games, online games can update their software; since they can alter the game, they can fix any problems that may occur later, and as long as there are no fatal malfunctions, it’s not uncommon to start service even if some defects remain. There have been MMOs in the past where, even after the official release, there were so many bugs that users got pissed and flooded the support forums with complaints like “They’re making us pay money for a beta test!” I hope Another World doesn’t have those kinds of problems.

Just as I explained earlier, the game software updates to make adjustments to the game, and it’s been updating for a while now. It’s taking quite a bit of time, so it looks like they’re adding a lot of new features and fixes to bugs found in the closed beta test. While waiting for the update to finish, I look on Another World’s official website to see the contents of the update.

As I thought, there are a lot of bug fixes, but there are also several new features and technical changes. The bug fix section is so long that it’d be a pain to look through all of it, so I look through the new features and technical changes. One of the new features is the addition of the present inventory. It’s an inventory exclusively for receiving and storing items distributed by the game admins, like store items and event items.

Store items are items used within the game that users can purchase with real money. For example, in other games’ item stores, there are items that double the experience points you gain for a certain period of time, items that are useful in gameplay such as mounts that increase your movement speed, items that reset your stats or skills and return your spent stat points or skill points so you can reallocate them, and costume items for making your character’s appearance different from their armor.

Since it’s still the beta test, we can’t purchase store items yet, so it’s still unclear what specific types of items there are, but apparently, testers will receive five of the item that doubles experience, the Book of Blessings, as thanks for participating in the open beta test, which I am very grateful for.

There’s another section on technical changes to status ailments. Status ailments are conditions that give you a disadvantage in battle. The status ailments are Poison, Burn, Slow, Paralysis, Sleep, and Silence.

Poison and Burn are conditions where you take damage over time (DoT) over a fixed interval. The damage and duration have been reduced and it’s been adjusted so that the Poison damage stacks. That means that if the enemy has two Poison skills, A and B, and uses them both to inflict the Poison effect on you, you’ll have to take both A’s DoT and B’s DoT. However, you can cure it completely by using skills or antidotes. This change is a headache for classes with low HP but good news for classes with multiple Poison skills like Assassins and Hunters.

Just as the name suggests, Slow decreases your movement speed. Magicians can occasionally inflict Slow with water element spells that use ice.

Paralysis and Sleep are status ailments that make you unable to move in different ways. Paralysis will keep you from moving for a fixed interval, and Sleep does the same, but allows you to wake up once you take damage.

The last one, Silence, is a skill that prevents you from using skills for a fixed interval. Since magic skills are my main strategy, this is a condition that I must avoid at all costs.

Although, there are recovery items for all of them except Paralysis and Sleep, so as long as I buy them, I’ll have countermeasures for it. Paralysis and Sleep can be cured if a healer uses a status recovery skill on you. There are no monsters that use status ailment skills early in the game, so it’s not a problem as long as you’re in a party by then, but… Will I be able to join a party…? Even in the closed beta test, I only joined a party one time, after all. …Well, there’s no point in being pessimistic. I should go into the open beta with a positive attitude.

I plan to play a Magician in the open beta test, too. There’s also the Book of Blessings this time, and the game wiki has information from the closed beta on easy monster hunting locations, so if everything goes well, I’ll be able to go up to a Rank 2 class.

A Rank 2 class is a class that allows you to acquire stronger skills than a Rank 1 class – Magician, in my case. The conditions to move up to Rank 2 are that you must reach level 50 in the Rank 1 class and then clear the appropriate Rank 2 class change quest. Also, if the Rank 1 class is a combat class, you’ll have three Rank 2 classes to choose from. For example, for Warriors, there’s the Knight which excels in offense and defense, the Paladin which has high defense and can use healing magic skills, and the Berserker which has low defense but specializes in attack skills. Naturally, Magicians also have three types of Rank 2 classes.

The first is Wizard. It’s a class that explores the strengths of Magicians and makes heavy use of high damage magic skills. It’s considered the strongest for crowd control out of all the classes.

The second is Sage. Unlike Magicians, its attack skills are poor, but it has buff skills for allies and debuff skills (skills that weaken the target) for enemies. Apparently, it’s the type class that’s bad for solo combat but raises the overall DPS for party combat.

The third is Summoner. It’s a class where you summon monsters from the spirit world and have them fight for you. Since you can fight along with the summoned monster, it seems to be better for solo combat compared to the other classes with a fighting style where you can lead enemies around by the nose.

All of them are desirable classes. The recommended class on the wiki is Sage. Since Sage buffs are treated separately from healer-type buffs and affect all party members, they can raise a party’s overall DPS. It’d be fun to improve my abilities as a party member and play an active role.

However… I get the impression that a Sage build would be difficult to achieve, since a lot of the Sage’s skills rely on the Wisdom stat.

The Wisdom and Intelligence stats increase MP and affect magic-type skills, magical attack power, and magical defense power. Wisdom greatly increases magical defense power and mainly affects healing skills and buff skills. Intelligence greatly increases magical attack power and mainly affects attack skills. Increasing Wisdom also increases magical attack power, but not as much as Intelligence, and vice versa. Unless the skill description says otherwise, a skill’s power is determined by these rules.

In other words, the power of the Sages skills changes depending on the Wisdom stat, in contrast with the Rank 1 class, the Magician, whose skills will be less powerful if the Intelligence stat isn’t high, so the stats that put each class’s skills to full use conflict with one another. Currently, stats can’t be changed once the stat points are allocated, so if you’re planning to switch to Sage, the only way would be to allocate your points to Wisdom from the start. However, since the Magician’s first skill, Mana Bolt, becomes more or less powerful depending on your Intelligence stat, this build would definitely be difficult in the early game.

Considering this, I should give up on aiming for Sage this time at least. Which means it’d either be Wizard or Summoner. There are drawbacks to each. A Wizard’s skills are powerful, but casting and recasting takes too much time, and a Summoner’s MP is constantly depleted during a summon, so it’s easy to run out.

‘Hmm, which one should I choose?’ I ponder as I compare their skills. It’s pretty fun to think about skill composition. I’m far from the only one who fantasizes about how to use their limited skill points to become the person to come up with the strongest skill composition. There are actually heated discussions about this on the Another World forums. An unofficial skill simulator has already been created by some of the forum’s regulars. It allows you to simulate which skills you can acquire according to your level. I spend ten minutes humming in deep thought as I use it to compare skills as if assembling pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

As I fiddle with it, I suddenly realize something. With this, I might be able to eliminate the drawbacks. ‘Maybe if…’ I think as I tweak the skill simulator. I’ve thought of a skill composition where all the pieces fit together perfectly. Heh, heheheh. This just might work. Sure, it’ll take a lot of skill points, so I’ll need to be pretty high level to complete it and I probably won’t make it in time for the end of the open beta. But it seems interesting, so it’s worth a shot.

As I’m feeling satisfied about establishing my goal, just then, the update finally finishes. Alright, let’s get going. I log in and proceed to character creation. The character data from the closed beta has been deleted, so I have to remake it. The name will, of course, be Chaos. The character’s gender and appearance can be modified. Last time, I made it look as close to me as possible, so I’ll do the same this time. As I look at my character after I’m done, I start feeling a bit mischievous, so I increase the weight parameter to max. Watching my body plump up all at once, I burst out laughing. Wow, so this is what I’d look like if I got fat. Although, since it doesn’t change your stats, it doesn’t matter if you’re thin or fat. If you want to be something like an agile, fat Thief or a little girl Warrior, you can do it.

While I’m at it, I experiment a bit and give myself a supersized hairstyle, silver hair, and heterochromatic eyes. The end result is a fat, weird character with hair that’s as tall as he is. Oh no, I messed with the settings too much. Umm… I fix the weight and change the hair, and… I think it’s back to normal? I’ll collect myself and move on.

When I try to start the game, I’m given a choice of starting points. I have three options: Mouct, Stolbrussen, or Clermont. Mouct was the capital of Castal Kingdom. I think Stolbrussen is the capital of the Weichsel Empire and Clermont is the capital of the Allied Commune. Last time, I was suddenly put in the middle of a random forest, so it looks like it’s been changed so that I’ll start near the city. Though, that might have actually been a bug.

Since I was in Castal Kingdom in the closed beta, I’ll start somewhere else this time and go with Stolbrussen. Luckily, the Weichsel Empire region is also in the wiki. Now, I’ll start my new adventure!

Having won fame within the Castal Kingdom, the hero Chaos went missing for some time after defeating the Elder Treant. The reigning king, Wilfred, submitted a request to Adventurer’s Guild to search for Chaos, hoping to invite him. However, according to the records, after word of Chaos’s existence spread from the adventurers who accompanied the army, impersonators seeking a reward emerged endlessly, and as a result, the request was cancelled.

At around the same time, someone with the same name appeared in the neighboring country, the Weichsel Empire. However, although he was a mage with black hair and a similar appearance, he had black and blue heterochromatic eyes, and since changing one’s eye color was impossible with techniques of this era, he was treated by the Adventurer’s Guild as a different person with the same name. However, considering all he accomplished, the current prevailing theory is that he and the hero Chaos are the same person.

Debates in the academic world regarding how and why his eye color changed are still ongoing. One theory states that he disliked being unable to move freely after becoming too famous, so used a secret technique to change his eye color, but there are counterarguments that if this was the case, there would be no need to deliberately reveal his name to be Chaos. There are even scholars who present absurd theories such as one suggesting that he got into some sort of accident while he was missing which gave him a magical eye, or another which claims that “Chaos” is actually the name of a group of brilliant mages and that the two have a connection but are different people entirely.

The hero Chaos, whose existence is known to all even in the present day through his appearances in heroic tales, left behind many mysteries that still remain unsolved.