Maybe We Need a Cheaper Sword and a Newer World?

Granado Espada was released in North America under the name Sword of the New World : Granado Espada. Though the software is $20 only, it cost $8 per month to maintain your account of which I chose not to. Instead I went to Singapore's release of their english version of Granado Espada which was still in free beta until recently when they announced that they will charge you as well for an account though the details are much better (about $5.20 a month) and they offer you differing packages to suite your gameplay style. I guess .50 a day is kind of cool, think of it as sort of an overextended arcade game?

So is Granado Espada worth your money? I had previously mentioned this as an alternative to World of Warcraft because of it being free, but now that the charges are out what would draw one to play this game? Honestly, it is no WoW. The point and click controls are infuriating at times however it was necessary to allow all 3 of your characters to have quick keys for their macro bars. The graphics are certainly better than most MMORPGs, but I guess it's expected from Asia where style always beats substance. There are some problems with this game that I would like to avoid in games altogether.

For one thing it's a grind fest. Sure there's quests to do, but most of them are "kill 100 of these!" or "stop 200 of these from going to x". The combat is fast and furious as most creatures take about 1 to 2 hits to knock down, but they respawn faster than you can pick up your drops at times. Leveling was easy until level 15 where it just slows to a crawl and we're back to archaic times when killing random beasties equals a good play experience.

I have noted 1 interesting dilemma about this game. I've been grinding out random mobs in an area called Al Mor-something. Anyway, I noticed that every now and then I'll pass a room where a player has his group parked in a convenient corner and set on "patrol mode". What this does is causes the player's characters to stand in place and attack incoming enemies much like in the old Blizzard RTS'. The problem here is it's just about the same as botting, so I'm running around busting my butt when all it takes is to leave the game in the background while the computer kills these creatures? Granted I'll die once or twice thanks to a roaming boss spawn but then I just pay 100 vis to the waypoint, run back and bam I'm in business again.

Still I do like the game's fast pace action, it's ability to allow for multiple character controls, the costumes and the RNPC hunts (these are the NPCs you can recruit into your team). It's fun enough every now and then but don't go grinding out this game as it'll give you bad memories of Lineage II.

* Update : The pay to play system in Granado Espada International Edition is actually pretty awesome now that I understand it. Apparently your monthly subscription is refunded to you in game in the form of Gold-points which you can then spend in the cash shop for fancier items and possibly RNPC cards. Pretty darn good deal there.