SUN: Soul of the Ultimate Nation (JP)

During the great MMO Drought of 2007-2008, I was desperate enough to be interested in a Korean F2P, SUN, Soul of Ultimate Nation from Webzen. However, the game doesn't seem to be making much headway over in the US, with it in OB status in Japan right now.

The SUN story:

Under the reign of the Immortal Emperor Schwarz, the Geist Empire has ruled the Blandis continent for five hundred years. By possessing Ether, the secret knowledge of Mother Nature, Emperor Schwarz converted the precious Ether into dark energy and used it to conquer the entire continent with his formidable armies. Continues extraction of Ether has impoverished the main land, causing the Empire to turn its eyes on rich lands of neighboring districts for its supremacy. Bringing about an inevitable insurrection, Ignis, a rebel leader formed an elite force called the Guidance declaring war against the Empire.

So...long story short, those of us Stateside prolly won't be seeing it for a while, but really, with the MMOs coming out, I might completely forget it by the time it does. But before I do, Game Watch had some pretty screenies and a mini review.

The Valkyrie character creation:

From the screenie, you can pick the standards for Korean games customization wise. First off is Hair Style, Face Type, Height, and Costume Type.

The Elementalist character creation screen:

It doesn't seem like you can pick stats, which is pretty normal, but there are two types of each class you can pick which influence the pre-determined stats. For the two tank/DPS classes: Berserker class, "Berserk" and "Defender," and Dragon Knight, "Combat" and "Draconic." For the two support/healing classes: Valkyrie, "Offensive," and "Summon," and finally Elementalist, "Ether" and "Circle."

Movement is WASD or by left mouse click, and attacks are performed by right clicking.

Leveling can be done in an eight man group via "Battle Zones," (like raid dungeons), or by questing and killing monster on the world field. The one nice thing it seems that if you're in a BZ, each member that participates receives the same items as everyone else. So sorry, Assholes out there, there will be no Ninja Looting. According to the reviewer however, questing was confusing as appropriate directions were not given in the quest logs.

Here is a slut in booty shorts attempting to fight in one of them so called Battle Zones:


And of course, there's the obligatory Enchanting and tearing your hair out breaking shit trying to make it glow crafting system.

Being a F2P game, there is a cash shop that utilizes Gems (in Japan, it was 1 Y to 1 Gem, so approximately $0.01 to 1 Gem.)

End game wise (Levels 60-80), there be talks of massive PVP battlegrounds and guild wars, however, at the time they don't seem to be implemented yet.

Ya, it was touted to be innovative and different but...seems like the same ole' same ole' to me. Still, free is free, and I'll never turn down a free game. Even "Pirates of the Caribbean!"