Tree Of Savior Dispatch Week 1

For those of you who are familiar with the MMOs.com podcast (and those of you who aren’t should definitely give it a watch) you know that we’ve all been extremely hyped for Tree of Savior since it’s initial announcement and I’m glad to say that gameplay-wise its definitely living up to expectations. For the next few weeks of Closed Beta I’ll be taking you through my own magical journey through the game.

First off, the game definitely is unpolished (as to be expected from a Closed Beta). Tree of Savior is heavily plagued by lag that sticks to your screen like molasses, only to loosen its grip teasingly then tighten it once more. I found myself often waiting for more than a few seconds (an eternity in gamer time) just waiting for a quest NPC to give me the obligatory lore. I can’t really justify getting too upset though, it is a free Closed Beta after all in a world dominated by Founders Pack buy-ins.

Upon logging in the first thing I took note of was the gorgeous art. The simple sprite characters live on a background that seems painted— the soft glow reminds me of the artistic JRPG games by Vanillaware. Within the lodge that makes up your home you can find your characters hanging out, each a relative with the same surname which is chosen at the beginning of the game. I was quite happy at the prospect of giving my characters whatever first name I wanted without the fear that it would already be taken as my name usually is.

You enter the world through the same starting zone, with several other clueless nooblets such as yourself and only a short control tutorial to guide you. Within a minute or so you’re out and about in the world and can immediately party up with anyone. This is quite refreshing in a world where most modern MMORPGS tend to have a cinematic touch at the beginning that doesn’t allow you to immediately play with friends. I signed up to play an MMO, not watch some melodramatic railroaded cutscene straight out of a B-rated flick.

Now these controls—they do take some getting used to. They’re not standard, and they aren’t even Ragnarok Online. You find yourself awkwardly placing both hands onto the keyboard, letting go of the gaming mouse you’ve been accustomed to through your online gaming career. The arrow keys are used to control movement, while an array of keys and the spacebar control your character’s actions.

Be warned, Auto-Attacks are not welcome here. Every strike that you make is a deliberate mash of the ‘Z’ key with a flurry of abilities and spells on the other keys to bolster you. It’s not long before you pick up your second quest and find yourself ambushed by a flock of onions. No tears here though, only laughter…haha.

In two swings of my shortsword the foul and delicious beast explode, quite literally. If it weren’t for the whimsical fantasy setting, I could see Tree of Savior becoming one of those games that Mothers Against Video Game Violence would get their panties in a bunch over.

Despite the Closed Beta status, the sounds are crisp and visceral to the most minute detail. The sound of my sword slicing through the air, carving into an enemy, or dealing a mortal blow are all distinguished. I could hear the sound of packed dirt underneath my feet as I ran through the makeshift road, and the slightly wet sound of crushed flora while dashing through a more natural path. On the topic of nature—just a single screenshot of the starting zone yields eleven completely different species of plants that swayed in the wind.

From my limited experience with the game, I can say that Tree of Savior does value visceral feel. As enemies explode under your might, you can feel the power of heroes of old coursing through you. When you attain the next level of experience, you send a shockwave throughout the screen, damaging and pushing away all enemies. Its almost as if the entire world shudders under your might.

Next week, I’ll be taking a more in depth look at some of the core features of the game and the experience of leveling from level 1-50. I hope to see you then!