Vindictus (0)

Overview

Vindictus is a prequel to the popular MMORPG and is known as Mabinogi Heroes outside of North America and Europe. Vindictus takes place in the same setting used in Mabinogi, but is placed chronologically several hundred years prior to the first game during a period of war and strife. Nexon America, Nexon's North American division, announced the new name on March 12, 2010 at the in . The game entered closed beta in Europe on the 15th of September 2011.

Combat

Vindictus is one of the few MMOPGs to feature a fully realized action based combat system. The player is given a light and heavy attack that is assigned to their mouse keys (Left being for light and right being for heavy.) These attacks can be combined in various ways to give different results and often pull off special attacks. For example, Fiona can use three light attacks and two heavy attacks to unleash a special attack called the Ivy Sweep that does bonus damage. These attacks also change depending on what order you do them in. For example, if Fiona uses two light attacks and a heavy attack, the heavy attack will be a shield bash. If she uses four light attacks and a heavy attack, the heavy attack will be a strong kick.

On top of the actual fighting, Vindictus grades your combat based on what combos you can pull off. Every hit on an enemy counts one towards your combo, and if you are hit by an enemy this combo is lost. At the end of a level, the highest combo you achieved is graded and this grade goes towards your final score for the level.

Structure

Many people consider Vindictus to be more of an Action RPG than an MMORPG. This is because it has an odd structure for an MMO that is not unlike Guild Wars. Receiving and turning in quests, shopping and most player interaction is done in hub towns. In these towns the player can see all other players in the same place and channel them. However, when a quest is given in the town, it unlocks something called a "battle quest." These battle quests are instances that contain the bulk of Vindictus's gameplay. If players wish to play through these instances with other people, they have to create a lobby and either wait for other people to join or invite their friends.

Once inside the instance, the player must fight through groups of standard monsters and solve very simple puzzles, usually based around physics. After fighting all of the monsters and solving all of the puzzles, the player will reach the final area which contains a boss monster. This boss monster is usually a bigger version of the smaller monsters fought in the instance, often with colour variations and special equipment. These fights are pattern based, so the player has to figure out the signs that signal a particular type of attack and then take measures to avoid that attack before going in and dealing damage.

These boss monsters often drop crafting materials that allow the player to craft special items that are related to the boss. For example, the Gnoll Chieftain is a very large, red gnoll that drops Red Gnoll Leather. This leather can be combined with other standard crafting materials to create special armor that can only be created with the drops from this particular boss.

Crafting

The crafting system in Vindictus is like a very simplified version of the one found in Monster Hunter. Every boss monster at the end of an instance has special materials that it drops that allow the player to create new weapons and armor. These materials can range from raw resources such as skin, leather, and teeth to broken equipment that needs to be refurbished.

On top of the boss materials, the player may have to find various standard materials such as cloth or iron. These are usually obtained from standard monsters but can also be found in chests or urns that need to be smashed. Some materials can only be purchased from the crafters around town.

After obtaining these materials, the player has to visit one of the three crafters in the nearest hub area. These usually consist of a light armor specialist (a hunter or traveler,) a heavy armor and weapon specialist (a blacksmith) and a magic specialist. After paying a small fee and providing the crafter with the relevant materials, the player will receive the item.

Classes & Characters

There are currently three available to choose from. Each class is represented by a specifically named character.

Fiona

A class that wields a sword and shield. She uses her shield to block massive attacks while making strikes with her sword. One ability she has is to stun the enemies so the party can rush in to burst attack.

Lann

A duel wielding class that uses two swords or two spears. He has a lot of strong attacks that are chained by combos. Playing Lann requires more skill rather than numbers. The player must remember the combination of each attack that is being utilized.

Evie

This character has three types of classes into one. The first is support, using healing runes and feathers to revive fallen team mates. The second is magic, used to nuke the enemies down to zero. The third is melee, which uses a different set of skills from magic and support. Equipping a turns you into a melee class while having the staff makes you Support / Magic . This class is not yet available in the European version of the game.