Games worth discovering

A disappointing old school themed MMORPG | Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore - Review

2K View2023-05-06

Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore

3.7

Get

Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore is an MMORPG with voxel based graphics, old school looks, and hardcore mechanics.

🟩Pros

+old school and hardcore MMORPG experience

🟥Cons

-slow and clunky movement

-unresponsive UI and dialogue interactions

-server issues

-feels like an early access game overall

-subscription-based model to access all content

Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore is not your typical MMORPG. It is an old school, hardcore game with high ambitions and a promising idea, featuring voxel based graphics and a gameplay bordering sandbox and simulation elements rather than being an actual action-based game. The game has a strong resemblance to classic RPG games such as Runescape. Moreover, it boasts an adventurous orchestral soundtrack that will make medieval fantasy fans feel right at home.

Following its deep rooted hardcore playstyle, the movement and the interactions in the game are slower than usual. You can basically interact with and inspect most of the environment and objects, while roaming freely across the land in a rotatable top-down view of the world around you. The game features voxel based graphics with low-poly aesthetics predominantly noticeable on the characters, while the environments around him are more modern looking and have decent lighting effects.

The player can only strictly move in four directions, meaning there are no diagonal movements or full 360 degrees of movement, which can be a bit jarring for new players especially those not used to this style. You can use the WASD to move, or use mouse clicks to anywhere near the character or the mini-map to move to that specific location automatically with decent pathing.

Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore started with me learning the ropes and slowly being introduced to the mechanics. Starting with learning how to pick up resources from the environment, and a bit offbeat tutorial teaching me how to cook first, above anything else.

Then I was tasked to kill some Rats and that’s where I saw some minor combat action. The tutorial and the overall dialogue system is a bit long-winded and clunky to interact with, but aside from that, the new player experience does a pretty decent job of introducing the game to the player without overwhelming him with too much information.

The game then proceeds to offer me quest after quest, providing a guided exploration experience across the land while gradually introducing mechanics such as repairs, crafting, and healing.

The world layout is fairly typical for an MMORPG, including towns, treacherous countryside brimming with unusual dangers such as oversized spiders or rats, as well as roaming NPCs, dungeons, forests, roads, and more. However, in line with the game's hardcore feel, the pacing is slow overall. Movement is sluggish, combat feels lethargic, and interacting with the environment can be a bit tedious.

The game itself shows signs of promise — especially those who like the old-school aesthetic — but it's filled with design issues, bugs, and general clunkiness that it hurts the overall experience.

The dialogue system is clunky and very unresponsive when being interacted with. Some quests are broken, especially when you accidentally stumble upon things in advance by randomly exploring, before than the developers intended.

In many instances, the world around you won’t load properly and I found myself bumping a lot with invisible elements that haven’t loaded yet. World elements such as walls, bridges, and houses will render very late. Items will constantly despawn, duplicate, and get lost for some reason. The performance, for its low poly visuals, isn’t even able to achieve a smooth 60fps performance even for a high end GPU (RTX 3080).

There are many classes and subclasses to choose from, including fighters, protectors, archers, rogues, arcanists, and mystics. Perhaps more than the usual offering in MMORPGs, especially new ones. Each class offers widely varying opportunities for playstyles and approaches to combat, giving players the opportunity to customize their gameplay experience to their liking. The class names are very straightforward and easy to understand.

The fighters' subclasses seem to offer different approaches to combat, such as the berserker's aggressive playstyle or the spellblade's mix of melee and magic. The protectors' subclasses, on the other hand, seem to focus more on defensive playstyles, with the guardian and earthguard providing different approaches to tanking.

The archers' subclasses offer different approaches to ranged combat, with the hunter and ranger offering different specializations in the use of bows and arrows. The rogues' subclasses offer different approaches to stealth and melee combat, with the assassin and shadowblade providing different approaches to dealing high damage.

The arcanists' subclasses provide different approaches to magic, with the elementalists focusing on manipulating the elements and the shadowcaster using dark magic and illusions. Lastly, the mystics' subclasses offer different approaches to support roles, with the enchanter focusing on crowd control and buffing allies and the priest providing healing and protective spells.

As for the potential costs of playing the game, Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore is going to cost around $10/month to access the entirety of the content, while the free-to-play option only gives access to the first two areas, including the tutorial area, which amounts to around 10 to 20 hours of gameplay.

While a lifetime (of the game only, not the player) subscription fee of $300 is available as an option, it may not be worth considering due to the current state of the game. The game launched a week ago plagued with problems even outside the game with purchases and server issues, and is planned to be 'relaunched' come May 12th, with the servers getting a full wipe.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore doesn't meet expectations for an MMORPG game of any genre. While the combination of old school graphics and hardcore gameplay mechanics is a promising concept, the game falls short in several areas. Considering its current state, an early access tag and a non-subscription based model would be more fitting. The only redeeming quality is the free-to-play aspect, allowing everyone to try the game.

Mentioned games

Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore

3.7

Get

This feels like an Early Access title | Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore - First Impressions

lyndonguitar2K2023-05-06