#windsneaker

[rena-erindel]

[itheaart]

Rena WS 3° Job. https://www.facebook.com/itheaart/

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen’s Ramblings: Reminiscing on Elsword

Well... looks like the Second Seinen Adventure will have to wait until tomorrow along with my Dictator’s Works on fanfiction, so apologies for those that are waiting on those. I’ve been having a lot thoughts about the MMO Elsword recently. The MMO Closers finally has an NA server and I’ve taken a good hour and a half to see what that was all about since I’ve been interested in at least trying it out for the last few years now. It’s a nice dungeon-crawler/side scrolling MMO that has some good animations and style in the combat department, and it’s controller friendly as well which is always a plus for me. My only issue so far is some of the audio mixing, as the music instantly blared out my laptop speakers when I was connected to my bluetooth speaker. I’m also not a huge fan of the soundtrack so far, but I’ll save my detailed thoughts on Closers for another time. But in playing Closers I felt like going back to Elsword for a bit as well. Elsword is also a Korean side-scroller MMO, and... I just wanted to see something familiar now that my interest for the genre sparked back up again. And with the final drop of the 3rd classes on the Korea severs announced along with the second drop of 3rd classes for the NA severs, I think now is a good time to finally talk about this series in depth.

So how about I start with my history with this MMO? Well, from the very beginning. And folks, I mean the very beginning.

I started playing Elsword when it first came out to the US in 2011. Actually no, my experience with Elsword can go back as far as when Fists of Fu was a thing, an MMO that was directly ripping off Elsword. Hell, I can take this a bit further and say I’ve been around since Grand Chase was a thing, Elsword’s spiritual predecessor. A little history for those that might not know, Elsword’s sister was originally called Elsa instead of Elesis, likely to  not confuse Grand Chase player with continuity. I still remember the fan wars between Grand Chase and Elsword fans... what times we lived in back then when Allen was still a young 13-year-old. But yes, I’ve known of Elsword since the very beginning. What attracted me was the mix of the artstyle and the gameplay. It looked like a mix of generic fantasy combined with a manga artstyle. Character close-ups would have manga panels textures over them before doing a big move, all the characters had a very bright and flashy character designs and colors, and those of us that were Grand Chase players were curious about how the game would played by comparison. It was a lot more combo based and played pretty close to a fighting game in some regard. It was very simple to pick up, but hard to master, especially if you were playing Aisha at the time with her pitiful physical damage and dependence on Chain Fireball for damage.

When I first picked up the game I picked up Elsword. I wanted to go for a simple character to warm myself up. I played around with everyone, at the time, but I settled on Rena since she could class change into a martial artist class, and that’s usually my preference in terms of character classes. I mained Jin and Amy in Grand Chase at the time after all. 7 seven years later and I am still now, and will always be a Windsneaker!Rena main, even if she’s utter garbage in PVE  nowadays (and honestly PVP too as of late). 

At that time, Elsword only had a level cap around the 40s or 50s if I remember correctly. There were only three characters: Elsword, Rena, and Aisha, there was a completely different skill tree system that focused on special point distribution. 7 years later and we have quadruple the characters, three class types, and three job advancements for each class. We have full English voice acting (with my favorite voice actress voicing my favorite character). We have an actual story with visual novel style cutscenes and very in depth lore for those that look deep enough into it. We have a level cap of 99. We have a costume cash shop that is teeming with options for mixing and matching outfits. To just looking back and seeing how far the game has come... I’m honestly proud to say I’ve been here since the beginning, even if I’m barely active nowadays. 

And I think it’d be criminal of me not to mention the artstyle.

I think one thing that’s definitely improved about the game is the presentation, the one thing that shows how long it’s been, is just seeing how much better the art has gotten over the years. I’ve always loved a lot of Elsword’s character designs, my favorites design-wise being Eve, Raven, Lu/Ciel. Yeah, Rena isn’t my favorite design-wise, but... well, she’s Best Girl in my heart anyway. 

And, of course, all the little animations are nice too. The poses and movements of the characters before starting a dungeon and after they beat one can range from cute to badass depending on the character. I’m honestly tempted to go back to Chiliarch/Dreadlord just because I like their animations a little more, but  Diabla/Demonio is a bit more rewarding in the gameplay department even if they make pretzels of my fingers.

If I had to name one of this MMO’s downsides it’d be how it handles its cash shop. It’s an issue of probably all MMOs, but Elsword can feel a little cheap at times with how some of the class advancement quests go, and even some of the quest to unlock certain skills. I don’t mind that non-paying players have work a little harder to get certain rewards, but... it can feel a little insidious at times. Now, I personally don’t mind giving money to MMOs, they have to make money somehow and if the base game is good, then I want to see it continue. I have probably sunk in about 450-ish dollars into this game over the last 7 years. That’s about 65 dollars a year, which is about $5.50 a month. That’s probably just a little more than my Crunchyroll subscription, so I’m fine with that, and they have sales and deals around Black Friday/Christmas time that I try to take advantage of as well. I only feel like that want you to pay for progress around the time you get to level 60-ish, when endgame stuff and PVP start to really pop into your mind. I’ll let the fandom decide on how pay-to-win this game is, but from a player that only plays this monthly for PVE, it’s fine. 

And then there’s just my general mindset in terms of how I play MMOs and video games in general. I mostly play console games, so I tend to play something for a month or two at most, then move onto something else. It differs a little with RPGs or shorter platformers like Sonic, but I don’t tend to play a game for the long term. Like I said, I pop in Elsword once or twice a month. I’ve had a Windsneaker!Rena for a few years now, but I only have her at level 60-ish in a game that now has a level 99 cap. That’s... a lot of grinding I personally don’t want to do when I’ve already got Dragonball Fighter Z and Nier Automata to play at the moment, but I hope to get more into Elsword this year since there is an actually story going on in this game that I’m curious about.

Overall, as a long time fan of this game, I think Elsword is fun to play and is worth getting into, despite some of its flaws. My personal favorite characters to play is Windsneaker, Diabla/Demonio, and maybe Rune Slayer. Feel free to ask for my usernames if you want, but just know... I play this thing monthly.

[sawa-pyon-blog]

Who cares about anathomy, I just love this ship. 4ever.

[enviousmoeran-blog]

Hheeerres the fan service fave, Rena! I might be posting Raven at a later time... I got OJT related stuffies tomorrow. #rena #elsword #fanart #inking #WindSneaker #GrandArcher #Nightwatcher

[deviant-graphics]

When two people spam Twice dance with the Void Light Head Acc in guild base...

ScreenShot by Surviving/ FairyJorja <3

[gerholt]

finaly lineart :]] if anyone want to colour this just do it, but give a credits and link to my tumblr 

[itheaart]

Wind Sneaker Icon.

[dlamp-dictator]

Some Thoughts on Laby (Elsword)

I’ve been playing Laby for the past few days now. There’s a lot I like about her, a lot I have issues with, and I just wanted to get my thoughts out there on the character and talk about something I like before I get into that deep dive and venomous torrent of anger that’ll my feelings Senran Kagura Shinovi Masters. 

Story/Writing

To my surprise, Laby’s storyline written well and I’m actually invested in her as a character. This is a far cry from the actual storyline of Elsword that I’m ambivalent to at best and apathetic to at worst. It’s easier to keep track of than the original story of losing the Elshard, fighting off a bandit, then a corrupt lord, then lizard people, then robots, then a demon army, and so on. That story just piled on layer after layer of factions and people to fight without developing the characters much, it’s why I think a lot of the story telling is more through the class changes and design than the actual story. 

Laby’s story is a lot more personal. It’s about an innocent, childish girl that was finally able to get out of the forest she lived in and explore the outside world, with all the good and bad that comes with it. She slowly matures her innocent nature and into a worldly one, and that growth in maturity is something I’ve been enjoying. It makes me wish all the characters got a set of dungeons specifically made for them, at least for the first stage before moving to Ruben proper.

 When I first talked about Elsword’s story I said I could care less about it due to how unnecessarily long and dragged out it felt for the sake of moving to some of the dungeons. With Laby, I’m hooked since the story is just about Laby and how she grows. The story focuses on her as a character and how she develops, not how the world does. That’s all it takes to tell a good story to me. Just focus on the character instead of the world around the character. Laby has basically followed the same beats that the original El-gang did in going through a forest area, then a city area with a corrupt lord, and getting to the mystical stuff in the later game, but because the focus is on Laby and how those elements effect her specifically, it makes her situation more personal, and I’m more invested as a result.

Gameplay

Laby's gameplay, at least for her first path, might as well be call “everything you wish Windsneaker had and more.” With her passive skills all of her magical damage becoming physical damage, she gets more aerial momentum, and a hitbox that actually reaches past her initial punches with particle effects that are included in said hitbox. That last one is especially something I’ve been wanting or Windsneaker for awhile now. I feel like they gifted me Laby at the cost of twisting the knife even harder into Windsneaker though... well, to an extent because despite all the improvements to a melee/martial artist character to be viable in this game I think I’ll probably stick with Windsneaker once I finish Laby’s storyline.

Overall I’ve been liking how she plays along with the brawler/monk class of her Sparky Child/Rumble Pumn path, but... it bugs me that there’s no change to her basic ZZZZ or XXXX combo like with every other class. That’s been a thing for nearly every class. As you advance, you character picks up new tricks for either their basic Z or X combo to show they’ve put more thought and study into whatever path they’ve chosen. The only exceptions I’ve seen is with Ain and Luciel’s Diabla class, and even that’s a stretch since their other combos are heavily involved in their gameplay. That’s not the case with Laby, she has her basic punch combo and that’s all you get in terms of BnB stuff. All the additions are included in her dash attacks and aerial dash attacks, things are meant to top off your tools and not... be the actual tools. I mean, her Z-combo can be looped pretty easily, but that basic combo doesn’t change throughout her classes, and it just bugs me. It makes me feel like she was rushed out the gate. Maybe we’ll get some improvements to her combos with a future patch once her 3rd path comes out, but... for now, that’s bugs me.

Something else that bugs me is how her dungeons work. I can only party with other Laby players, and with only 1 job type out right now that makes for a real lack in variety. For now, that’s just a minor annoyance, but as a level 80 Windsneaker main trying to get through the late game  I can tell you that as fun as figuring out the details and patterns of enemies are and triumphant feeling of successfully soloing these dungeons are, it won’t be fun for the level 80 Rumble Pumn that already has trouble gaining MP with a lack of a passive MP charge like Rena has and a lack of improved basic combos to help with said MP gain. Especially against bosses like Deborah that need some high DPS to not turn that fight into a dragged out slog. 

Her command skills also leave something to be desired. They work like fighting game inputs, but simplified, and you can’t really stock the command skills without either a bucket of MP potions, or accidentally setting one off. It’s annoying that there’s a timer for how long the skill is set in your little memorization bar, so you can’t stock up early on and unload on the boss once you’re in the final section. It’s just... the small issues can become big ones once all the hype dyes down and that solo queue starts looking like my solo queue when I’m playing Windsneaker.

Overall, I like her gameplay, but... it’s got its quirks.

Design

Design-wise, I’ll keep my opinion short until I see her 3rd path. But for now I like Laby’s 1st path a lot so far. A good mix of pink, white, and black where nothing clashes that much. Though I don’t care much for Eternity Winner’s design, something about all the straps just doesn’t mesh with me that well. It’s nice evolution of Rumble Pumn’s design it just... don’t appeal to me.

Again, gonna’ keep my thoughts on the design short until I see all her paths, but so far Rumble Pumn’s design is my favorite.

So yeah, that’s my opinion of Laby so far. Been enjoying her a lot, been liking her story, can’t wait to see how it concludes. Next... I guess it’s time to get salt ready for when I talk about Tiddy Ninjas.

[danneko]

One more :3 

[anira-chu]

Airin’s and my girls from Elsword as modified MMD models so far C: (+ 2 recolors)

[deviant-graphics]

These new free chairs in NA are so nice! Lu looks so happy to have her chair.

[gerholt]

Wind sneaker from elsword

i hope ill end it ;_;

[poofcio]

[elsword-rants]

Late night sketch of WS