NosTale

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Game Title:NosTale

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NosTale is a 2D anime styled fantasy MMORPG by the Korean developer Entwell. In NosTale, players can catch and train various pets, decorate their homes and complete long story driven quest lines known as Acts. While NosTale only has 3 initial classes, an interesting card based class system is available with over 15 possibilities for higher level characters.

Publisher: Servex/Uforia
Playerbase: Medium
Graphics: Low
Type: MMORPG
EXP Rate: Fast
PvP: Yes
Filesize: 1160MB

Pros: +Fast leveling early on. +Simple gameplay & interface. +In depth pet system. +Player housing. +Instancing +Plenty of quests.

Cons: -Limited graphic options. -Poor translations and boring text. -Repetitive dungeon designs. -Only 3 first class choices.

Full Review

NosTale Full Review

By: Erhan Altay

Originally released in Korea back in 2006, NosTale is now available to the Western market but with a few complications. There are currently three sites vying for your sign up. The first one I Googled upon was the UK (United Kingdom) server hosted by GameForge, the next was the Global server hosted by Servex and the latest one is by the new publisher Uforia which doesn’t host its own server but serves as an alternative means to log into the global service. I’ve attempted to cut out as many middlemen as I could and link viewers straight to the Global service homepage, download and sign up.

Back to Basics

While NosTale is a relatively new game, its graphic style hearkens back to the good old days of 2D gaming. I would of imagined a game like this having a small client but the 1160 MB download proved me wrong. Character creation is nearly nonexistent; players chose their gender and one of two hairstyles along with a few hair color options. Like many other Asian MMORPGs, players do not select a class from the beginning, instead beginning as a newbie class until reaching a certain level. That level in Nostale is 15 which is higher than usual. Its also worth mentioning that characters in NosTale have two levels; a Job level and a Combat level. Your combat level continues to increase as you hunt monsters, complete questions and so on while your job level resets every time you switch jobs. The first dozen or so levels in NosTale go by quickly but only if you follow the starting quest line. Players are taught gameplay basics and led from one area to another by a bright arrow, gaining experience as they go.

Chicken, I Choose You!

If you follow the tutorial quests, you’ll eventually be taught how to catch animals and have them serve as pets. If you already have a pet with you, all new pets caught will be automatically transported to your ‘mini-land’ which acts as a personal home base. Pets can be trained and level up just like your character, they can learn new skills but must be fed and kept loyal or they will refuse to obey your commands. Players can have a single pet out in the gameworld at a time but may also hire an NPC mercenary called a NosMate. Both NosMates and pets can be set to auto follow and defend your main character or they can be given individual commands. NosMates also level up and can even be equipped with weapons and armor. During the first few dozen levels chances are you’ll be stuck with small pets like chickens, sheep, baby foxes and so on but eventually you’ll be able to catch dragons and other interesting monsters.

Easy Mode

Combat in NosTale is straight forward – left click your opponent to take a swing. As you level you’ll learn new skills which can be assigned to hotkeys and activated in battle. None of this is very original but it generally works well. My only complaint is that while fighting near teleporters (which link areas), you’ll occasionally end up teleporting instead of attacking. This gets frustrating especially during the game’s instanced dungeon missions (called time stones) which are scattered across the game world. Time Stone missions are timed and usually tied to the ongoing quest line. They are organized into a series of rooms nearly identical rooms which makes for repetitive gameplay. Completing these Time Stones not only provides players with a reward but is also necessary to finish each ‘Act’ and move on to the next. If you happen to die during one of these missions, you can simply come back to life up to 2-3 times (depending on the mission.) Things are even better outside the dungeons. As long as you’re under level 20 death has no penalty and players can elect to respawn right where they died. If your NosMate happens to die, they too will come back to life after three minutes. All this makes for a very easy game experience which is enjoyable at first since the experience rate is steady but after level 15 things begin to slow down.

All in the Family

Upon reaching level 15, players are given a meager three class choices; Swordsman, Archer, or Sorcerer. Luckily, each of these classes has four specializations which take the form of cards that players can obtain and use. For more information on the classes and their specializations, check out the overview tab. Another unique feature in NosTale is the mini land. Mini lands act as instanced homes that players can customize with furniture, trees, flowers and so on. As mentioned earlier, the mini land is where all additional pets caught by a player are stored. NosTale also has high level raids which take up to 15 players to complete. Players form a ‘Family’ rather than a guild in Nostale which gives it a more personal touch. NosTale even has PvP, players can drink a ‘battle potion’ which leaves them open to attack by others or can head into the arena and fight it in more structured battles.

Now for the Bad

I found the graphics in NosTale to be rather attractive but that may be because I have a soft spot for 2D games. The environments are nice and brightly colored, the monsters and characters are nicely designed but are recycled for too often. Every MMORPG recycles monster designs, changes their color a bit and slaps on a new name but NosTale has taken it a step too far. You’ll be fighting the same monsters at level 40 as you’ve been fighting at level 1 except that they will be a darker shade of red. Another fault is the game’s poor translations, NPC dialogue is at times incoherent and always dull. A quest tracker tells you how many of each monster you need to kill but finding where those monsters are located means deciphering quest text.

Final Verdict: Good

NosTale is not a revolutionary game but is easy to pick up and play. There’s enough in here for everyone. Pets, customizable homes and plenty of quests will appeal to the average gamer while instanced dungeons, raids and PvP entertain the dedicated crowd.