168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Chrono Odyssey is an upcoming MMO from Chrono Studio, a South Korean studio made up of industry veterans from across the region. There’s a lot to get through in this review, so I’m going to start with the most pressing point: Chrono Odyssey is very similar to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Amazon’s New World.

This is due to its dual-weapon combat, focus on gathering and crafting, chest runs, and overall aesthetic. You would nℱever have gotten this impression from its initi🧸al marketing, but spend just a few minutes with Chrono Odyssey and the similarities are unmistakable.

And this association is no bad thing. While it had some serious missteps along the way, New World was, and still is, an incredible MMO that🐬 wasn’t afraid to take risks ꦜin the genre. I’m surprised it’s taken anoth🍌er studio this long to try and recreate some of its flash-in-the-pan success, which ♕saw a peak of over one million players at launch.

Chrono Odyssey has taken the formula of New World and changed it, tweakedꦍ i🐽t, and from what I’ve seen so far, made it much, much better.

Obvious Inspiration

The New World inspiration and sim🐬ilarities were evident almost immediately as I was sent on a bounty quest to kill three named enemies. But upon reaching the location, I was briefly taken aback. There 🅠were chests here. Elite chests at that.

Um, what game am I playing again?

Cue a flashback to 2021, where I was busy running through a ꧙point of interest with 60 players alongside me, killing elite mobs and collecting chests in New World. I was always quite fond of chest runs as they made the world feel alive, but they were also quite a divisive point of gameplay—repetitive and often laggy.

A pretty cool-looking mimic.

🌠Similar moments unfold in this game, albeit with one key difference. One of the chests I tried to loot stood up, grew legs, and turned into a hideous Mimic. Chrono Odyssey has taken the formula of New World and changed it, tweaked it, and from what I’ve seen so far, made it much, much better.

Unlike New World, you will be able to swim in this game at launch.

The World You Explore

Chrono Odyssey doesn’t hold your hand. As you’re emptied into the world of Setera as 🐓a penniless, rag-wearing noobie and complete your fir꧂st tasks - destroying corrupted monsters from another dimension, The Broken and the Void Invaders - you’ll encounter a swathe of organic quests as you traverse from area to area. There’s a range of quests, but when you encounter the first boss it’s up to you how you proceed—spend the next four hours fishing with a little frog companion, if that’s what you’re after.

Setera itself is a dark and gritty fantasy world. But there are also ducks. Loads of ducks. It’s a western fantasy world with the dash of originality that Korean studios frequently demonstrate in MMOs, from the enormous flying whale in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Throne and Liberty to the island dance parties in Lost Ark. The aesthetic of the corrupt⭕ed enemies is more Aliens than anything else, and the first encounter with a boss is pretty grotesque, with oozing tubes and slimy walls rendered in gorgeous Unreal Engine 5.

Dual Combat Is Brilliant

For starters, the combat is fantastic. Itꦛ has a lot more punch to it than ꧂New World, with more flashy effects and combos to boot, but the basic premise is the same: you switch between two primary weapons, leveling up your mastery as you use them.

There are several classes to choose from, which provide a slightly more re🌺stricted (yet refined) approach to weapon usage compared to New World’s more freestyle combo system. There’s the Sorcerer, equipped with a Staff, Manasphere, or Grimoire, or the Berserker, with Chain Blades, Twin Axes, and the Battle Axe.

Here's A Look At Every Class So Far In Chrono Odyssey

For this preview, I played the Berserker. If you ever used the Hatchet in New World, you’ll see an insta𝓡nt similarity. This class revolves around stacking Bloodlust, an on-hit buff that builds over time, providing you with health regen and extra damage. The Battle Axe is much like the Great Axe in New World, with sweeping crowd-control attacks and the ability to knock your opponents to the ground. This class felt amazing to play, and even though it’s not usually my staple in MMOs (ranged until I die), I’m tempted to pick it up at launch, because I had so much fun.

Even though combat is flashy and smooth, it can also be quite difficult. You can’t just bash your way through foes with ease. You need to take it slow, learning enemy patterns (even for the most basic mobs, like wolves and zombies), while dodging attacks and swinging when the time is right. I approached low-level mobs like I would in any other MMO - face-rolling my keyboard - and quickly learned that this is not how Chrono Odyssey works.

The Chronote💯ctor, a separate utility item, allows you to warp time on the battlefield. There are multiple functions and to be honest, I didn’t get to play around with it much. I th♈ink it will only allow for more skill expression, though.

The first boss fight I encountered against a corrupt enemy called the Thousandfold Piercer, was an epic confrontation, both in setting and in the amount of time I had to practice and level up my character before being able to take𝔍 it down𒁏.

I actually love this aspect and I hope Chrono Odyssey demonstrates more of it: if you are very good, you will be able to kill the Thousandfold Piercer quickly with low-level gear. If you’re not very good, you’ll need to lev🐼el up your character to reach a point where the fight becomes easier. MMOs shouldn’t just be about those who pay the most money to get the best gear—skill expression is still so important for player engagement.

I didn’t get to engage with a🀅ny group content or PvP, so I can’t comment on those.

Gathering, Crafting, Immersion

Take a look at these flowers. Do they look familiar to you? If, like me, you spent 100 hours farming Hemp in New World, you also probably did a double-take.

I only caught a glimpse of the gathering and crafting system in Chrono during my playtest, but I can tell you now, I know I’m going to love it as much as I did in New World. While the game doesn’t quite nail the 🐼absolute immersion and superb sound design of New World, the principles are the same. There are different tiers of gathering tools, and these allow you to gather different tiers of materials. These can be used to craft weapons, armor, and potions. I didn’t get far enough to see if there were other crafting trees you could explore, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other ways to utilize the mate♛rials you gather in the world.

I also found i🔯t quite important to engage with these crafting activities very early on. Not because the game forced me to do so via a quest or anything like that, but because I needed a decent pair of trousers to help me defeat the Thousandfold Piercer. I was hoping I could simply find one in a chest somewhere, but when none turned up, I took some time to gather some iron and some leather and crafted some. It felt great. I had some agency over my actions. Such a simple thing, but it really stood out to me.

The Biggest Fears

Even after this incredibly short preview session, Chrono Odyssey has me completely hooked. I’m a sucker for MMOs and have enjoyed Ko😼rean takes on the genre so much over the past few years. Throne And Liberty and Lost Ark are especially brilliant, but my enjoyment was eventu🌸ally ruined by awful monetization and repetitive, time-gated daily grinds.

Chrono Studio CEO Bong-Gun Bae is on record saying there will be no “pay-to-win” and the Chrono Odyssey YouTube channel posted a short confirming this to be the case. What that actually means is another matte𝄹r, as the terminology has been warped in the past. If they stick to their guns and keep monetization at either a subscription level or cosmetics, then I’m all in.

My other big fear concerns endgame content. Obviousl🔯y, I didn’t get to see this, and I have no idea what it might entail. P൲lease, please, please, Chrono Studio, no dungeons I need to run every day on repeat over and over again. Give me meaningful tasks to complete in the endgame with incremental and satisfying progression that isn’t locked behind RNG crafting and premium currencies.

Chrono Odyssey exceeded my expectations, and has now become my most anticipated game of the y𝓀ear. It’s about time we got a really great modern MMO, and perhaps Chrono Odyssey is the one to do it. Time will tell.