Exos Saga

Full Review

Exos Saga Review

By, Herman Y.

Exos Saga is a free-to-play, online social RPG developed by Oozoo, a small Korean mobile developer behind the Rhythm RPG, Brandnew Boy, and published by Eyedentity Mobile (formerly known as Actoz Soft), a Korean game publisher most known for their mobile games, Iron Knights, Grand Chase M, and Wonder5 Masters. Exos Saga is a hero-collecting RPG much like Grand Chase M and Wonder5 Masters with very similar gameplay. However, it features very particular, anime-inspired graphics that looks very artistic and stands out from most other mobile games. There are over 150 hand-drawn Heroes to collect, each with unique classes, sub-classes, and abilities, and it is a lot easier to obtain high rank Heroes compared to most hero-collecting RPGs. These features alone help Exos Saga maintain an entertaining experience despite the generic, automated combat.

Fighting Through the Stages
Like many free-to-play mobile RPGs, Exos Saga is stage-based. The world is broken down into several continents and each continent has many stages, which are further divided into three chapters each. Each chapter has three difficulties (Normal, Hero, Legend) and completing a chapter on Normal unlocks the next difficulty, as well as the next chapter or stage. Each stage features new environments and enemies, although they repeat every now and then. Players will have to defeat waves of enemies in each stage, and the number of waves increase as the game goes on. Each wave is fairly short and players can bring along a friend’s character to assist them once a day, which helps complete harder levels. Completing stages gives out player and Hero experience, equipment, gold, and enhancement/evolution materials. Stages continually increase in difficulty and players will have to enhance, evolve, and equip their Heroes in order to take on the more difficult stages.

Streamlined, Automated Combat
Similar to Eyedentity Mobile’s Wonder5 Masters and Grand Chase M, Exos Saga features automated, side-scrolling combat. Players can assemble a party of 4 Heroes and then watch as they face off against monsters and bosses in various stages. Each Hero has a unique ability which can be activated by double tapping the Hero’s portrait (on the bottom of the screen), and the abilities have cooldowns before they can be activated again. Other than the manual control of unleashing skills, the combat itself is completely automated and players simply watch to observe the outcome. There is also an “Auto” option which allows Heroes to use skills automatically which in turn completely automates the combat, but skills are used less efficiently. Most of the strategy comes down to choosing the right Heroes to use (will be explained more later), although activating skills at the right time can be important too. The combat is overall disappointing and bland, but some harder battles can still be interesting to watch and the game is definitely more oriented for casual players.

Artistic, Anime-inspired Graphics
The most prominent aspect that sets Exos Saga apart from similar games is its unique art style. All the graphics were hand-drawn by professional visual artists and it has an artistic quality not seen in many games. The graphics are 2D and the style combines Eastern and Western influences for an overall unique appearance that has a sort of anime-inspired, Western mythological look to it. A lot of the Heroes are creatures like rats, birds, and bulls with humanoid features although there are also a lot of human Heroes. There are many different environments that are colorful that take place is mysterious, fantasy settings. The combat animations are quite good for a 2D game, with lots of bright and varied effects. The main Heroes’ skills are very cinematic with lots of flair and style, such as unleashing intertwining dragons into the sky or dropping a giant icicle from above, and regular Hero and monster attacks and skills are also flashy that provide splashes of color onto the screen.

Many Heroes to Collect
Exos Saga has over 150 Heroes to collect, which again, were all hand-drawn, and each Hero has a specific class and unique abilities. The main Hero classes include Tanker, Dealer, and Healer, and each class is broken down into further sub-classes such as Knight, Magician, Lancer, Cleric, and more, each with different attack styles, attack ranges, and bonuses against other classes. This in-depth class system adds a lot more strategy to the game in that it requires players to level up multiple Heroes to switch in and out of their party for various stages. Generally, Tankers have high defense and absorb damage for the team, Dealers have high attack power and puts out most of the damage, and Healers have supportive buffs and heals. Each Hero has four skills (1 active and 3 passive) which can be unlocked after they reach a certain level and rank. Heroes can be enhanced with enhancement material or by sacrificing other Heroes, and once they are fully enhanced and at max level, they can be evolved with evolution material. The evolution system is a lot simpler than in most hero-collecting RPGs and it doesn’t take long to evolve Heroes to max Rank (SS Rank). Evolving Heroes increases their stats, unlocks new abilities, and changes their appearance. Heroes can be unlocked from the game’s Gacha Summon system.

The PVP Arena
In addition to the main Story mode, Exos Saga also has an Arena for PVP and additional modes for farming or leveling. In the PVP, players are matched up against random other players in the Arena and battle it out in completely automated, asynchronous combat. The battles are unintuitive but are somewhat interesting to watch and there is a leaderboard based on player’s rankings. It is fairly balanced as the game matches up players of similar rankings, although paying players may have a slight advantage. The Arena uses a separate form of energy and players can only participate in the Arena for a limited amount of times per day. There is a reward shop for PVP battles where players can purchase new Heroes, enhancement material, and more.

Additional Modes
The four additional modes in Exos Saga are: Raid, Treasure Island, and Daily Dungeon. Raid is an interesting Boss battle mode in which players can either solo with 12 of their Heroes or team up with 2 other players in real-time with 4 of their Heroes. Both methods involve 12 Heroes fighting against a giant boss. The combat is automated like in the main stage mode but the battles are entertaining to watch and there are many bosses and three difficulties to play though. Treasure Island is a unique stage-based mode where players must survive 10 stages against random other player’s parties of Heroes. Daily Dungeons are special dungeons that players can complete every day that are similar to regular Story dungeons but give better rewards. All three modes are great for farming enhancement/evolution material, gold, equipment, and more.

Cash Shop/In-App Purchases (IAP)
The in-app purchases in Exos Saga are based off of the standard Gacha system, but are very generous and largely optional. Players can use Xes (premium currency) to summon random Heroes (Rank B-S), equipment, and material, and purchase Vitality Points (Energy for Story mode stages) and Arena Points (Energy for Arena battles). Players can also purchase monthly plans that give out free Xes every day for a month (as well as bonus exp), or purchase Xes individually. Although the in-app purchases appear very typical of those seen in most hero-collecting RPGs, they are much more optional in Exos Saga. The game gives out a lot of Xes for free and it is a lot easier to evolve and obtain high rank Heroes without spending money. After playing Exos Saga for 2-3 hours, I already had multiple A and S rank Heroes (the highest rank is SS), which is uncommon in most hero-collecting RPGs. Normally, it would take months of grinding and farming to obtain high rank Heroes in these kinds of games, but it is oddly easy in Exos Saga. Overall, the game is very generous in giving out free Xes, the Gacha rates are actually quite good, and spending money is completely optional. Spending money will, however, increase the speed of evolving Heroes and give a slight edge in PVP.

Final Verdict – Good
Exos Saga is a decent mobile hero-collecting RPG with its fair shares of pros and cons. Although the game follows the generic, automated combat formula seen in Heroes Charge and other Eyedentity Mobile games, the unique art style, ease of obtaining good Heroes, and largely optional in-app purchases makes it one of the better mobile social RPGs within its category.

Screenshots

Exos Saga Screenshots

Videos

Exos Saga Videos

Links

OExos Saga Links

Exos Saga Official Site
Exos Saga Google Play
Exos Saga iOS Coming Soon
Exos Saga Official Facebook

System Requirements

Exos Saga System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Android 4.0.3 and up

Music

Exos Saga Music & Soundtrack

Additional Information

Exos Saga Additional Information

Developer: Oozoo
Publisher: Eyedentity Mobile
Platforms: Android, iOS
Release Date: September 29, 2015

Shut Down Date: December 28, 2016

Exos Saga was developed by Oozoo, a small Korean game developer behind the mobile game, Brandnew Boy, and published by Eyedentity Mobile, a Korean mobile game publisher most known for Iron Knights and Grand Chase M. Exos Saga takes on a familiar formula similar to Grand Chase M and Eyedentity Mobile’s newer game, Wonder5 Masters. Exos Saga launched worldwide on September 29, 2015 after a brief soft launch and reached over 100,000 downloads within a week of its release. Eyedentity Mobile was previously known as Actoz Soft, and is also the publisher of the popular mobile games, One for Eleven and Retimo Adventure. Exos Saga shut down in late 2016, but its successor, Exos Heroes, launched in May, 2020.