127 people found this review helpful
11 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.4 hrs last two weeks / 2,312.6 hrs on record (765.2 hrs at review time)
Posted: 8 Jul, 2019 @ 10:45pm

It's a bit hard to describe how I feel about this game. I think that it is a good game, though as the years have gone on it's confused itself, and there are glaring issues about the game that need to be resolved for me to be able to recommend it to others.

First off, the engine. It's no secret that this game is terribly unoptimized and full of hackers. This is largely due to the fact that it is running on adobe flash of all things, and it's really quite impressive how much they've done on such a bad engine for games of this scale. Though the game is being ported over to Unity with countless improvements as I'm writing this, it's currently still on flash and thus suffers because of it. The game will likely become so much better just from this port alone and I'll probably update this review after the unity port is completely done.

Second, it's revenue model. This game makes its money off of dungeon keys, pets, and quality of life buffs like vault chests and character slots (I wouldn't really call these quality of life as a certain number of them are essentially required to be able to fully enjoy the game, but I didn't know how else to describe them.) While some of each of these are given out for free every once in a while, there are still some that you are probably going to have to drop some cash on to get full enjoyment out of the game. You start off with one character slot and one vault chest. Character slots are self explanatory, and vault chests are places where you can store items between characters so that you don't lose them when you die. It is extremely difficult to enjoy this game when you can only use one character at a time and can only store up to 8 items at a time. In order to try any other characters or other classes, you have to kill your character. This is why it is basically essential that you drop some money on character slots to enjoy the game. Additionally, once you get further into the game, there are a lot of good items that you are going to want to store in your vault, yet you are only given 8 vault slots to do so. Lastly, dungeon keys. A lot of in-game events rely on the sale of dungeon keys. Basically, people sit in the Nexus, the game's safe haven or lobby area, and wait for people to open dungeons using these dungeon keys. It completely skips the step of having to go out into the realm and fight enemies in order to have a chance of the dungeon spawning, and makes it much easier to get good loot when participating in these events. Unfortunately, this results in much of the gameplay these days being you sitting in the Nexus waiting for dungeons to be popped due to how common these events are.

Next, on to pets. Pets give you buffs such as healing you insane amounts every couple second and restoring your mana points insanely fast. Pets are able to be levelled up without paying a dime, but the grind is an insane amount and these days, it's very hard to enjoy the game as a new player without a pet because most of the new content in the game revolves around the idea of you having a high level pet to keep your health up. Though pets are what saved the game from shutting down in 2014 by the revenue they generated, they ultimately hurt the game by making most of the game's content redundant and extremely easy.

DECA took over the game in 2016 and have been good, for the most part. I believe that there has been some mishandling of the game here and there, but it is clear that their intentions are good and they're doing as much as can be realistically expected with their resources to allow the game to continue thriving. In order for the game to be successful in the future, it all depends on how they continue going forward from now. The unity port will be the largest determining factor for the future of this game, and it should be a clear sign of how they are going to handle it going forward.

Final Verdict: Keep an eye on the game, wait til the unity port to get yourself invested. Expect to have to drop some cash here and there to have a fun experience.
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31 Comments
InferlightX 16 Sep, 2021 @ 5:23am 
My friend you need to see the sun become black like me
Twisted_Code 8 Nov, 2019 @ 7:52pm 
oh, and the fact this is a flash game... yeah that is one of my major issues currently. It's why I wanted my account migrated to steam, so that at least I could play it in a standalone flashplayer. I'm glad the review mentioned that, as it's a pretty big deal. Make no mistake: the game started as a flash game when flash was still relatively decent, but the fact it took this long for them to start migrating the game is kind of a disappointment to me. Unity is superior in pretty much every way, and frankly even Silverlight would've been a decent alternative to Adobe Crash Player.
Twisted_Code 8 Nov, 2019 @ 7:47pm 
That said, I would like to add that DECA could have done a lot better in terms of player support. I've had to reverse my positive review to draw attention to the lack of a way to access my account from steam, and it seems I'm not the only one that has had issues with account/compensation related support. On one hand, I understand their reluctance to refund or otherwise mess with account data, as it's a delicate thing and they risk giving people free stuff they don't deserve or, worse yet, destroying data by mistake, but on the other hand, the two incidents I've noted (mine and someone that lost stuff and wanted in-game compensation) were both extreme enough that I feel they should have made exceptions
Twisted_Code 8 Nov, 2019 @ 7:47pm 
@Celendrin I agree with your original comment (series) almost completely (and the extent of my disagreement is so small I can't even describe it). This review is a bit unfair to be complaining so much about how the developers make the game profitable. Sure, it's a bit grindy at some points, but as someone with an interest in game design myself, I know from experience it's hard to balance this sort of thing.
Daffyff 17 Oct, 2019 @ 7:59pm 
Celendrin, I truly respect your approach to supporting good games. And your arguments with the OP are valid....$15-20 per month for hours of entertainment is reasonable. However, when i read that it was an Adobe Flash game (not like flash, but literally Flash) that is what decided it for me. I'm very thankful for that information. Flash is garbage, full of security holes, and i find it appalling that an MMO is based on it. I will wait for the unity port to be completed, as was recommended.
PS your idea that a review MUST contain discussion about mechanics is just silly. There are many facets to a game that people value besides mechanics such as hidden costs and avoiding Adobe products because Adobe is a garbage company that has ZERO respect for system resources. Free up my RAM you poop mongers.
Celendrin 15 Oct, 2019 @ 6:23pm 
(Part 3) --> I got a system now where if a game is cr-p I not only downvote it etc (as usual in reviews),

but I also make a point to promote any really good games, by buying multiple copies for friends etc (to play 4 players multiplayer),

to the point where I now gift games to people on my list simply to spend money on that game, like 4 or more even again just to make sure devs 'get the hint' to keep working on the type of game they made that was really good.

I might buy 5-6 copies of a game for friends, again just to make sure I'm supporting the actually really good games that are getting so hard to find nowadays.

If we don't do that as players we're going to keep getting garbage games thrown at us.
Celendrin 15 Oct, 2019 @ 6:21pm 
(Part 2) --> I realized instead of trying to just buy games 'on discount', trying to save every penny possible on every game I bought,

I realized I really need to actually be spending money on the -good- games I actually really like, that deserve my money.

Because cheaping out on any and all games I buy means I'm supporting the really good games I like as much as the nasty garbage that aren't worth anything.

In other words, I realized if I actually want to see 'good' games being made, by people that actually care about their game, I need to actually be supporting a game and not just buying it on sale for 2 bucks. -->
Celendrin 15 Oct, 2019 @ 6:19pm 
(Part 1) - You know wanted to mention something else, recently the last year especially I noticed steam has become a boatload of trash, nasty cash-grab games that waste your time and money.

Thing is, they're usually packaged with a really cool trailer or 'kickstarter' idea etc, and it's very difficult to tell what's actually 'good' or not anymore (without losing money to actually try it),

after loading up on games based on what I 'thought' they were going to be like, and finding out they were just garbage, I realized I had to do something -->
Celendrin 15 Oct, 2019 @ 6:17pm 
Yeah I thought you were going to say that (lol), that's what a lot of people are saying (trying to tell you to put things into context) the value you're getting out of the game is really really good if you're playing it for so many hours,

so it's not fair to 'rag on' the devs for wanting you to spend some money here and there to get the 'best' enjoyment out of the game you can.

Cause in many places of the world things are ridiculously expensive and paying 10-15 bucks for something (you play so much) is actually a very good deal.

Here in Canada a burger is like 7 bucks nowadays (only a burger, not a combo) and the freaking patty is like paper-thin.

You need like 15 bucks for a proper 'meal' nowadays and that's what 2 hours of satisfaction.
Sketched 15 Oct, 2019 @ 1:55pm 
US here, you can get a meal for like $5 ez