Worst MMO Ever? - Granado Espada

[@mystman7722]

*Here are all the Josh nicknames for the game* - Granada Babado - Granespa Abespa - Grandiose Pomegranate - Pomegranate Land - Grand Cabbage - Grindibli Adibli - Grand Vegetable - Granabado Ababado - Grandedada Abedada - Granado Encanto - Grandada Spandex - Grandi Espandi

[@Nana721nah]

Not all heroes wear capes

[@Revilerify]

Grandiose Pomegranate was funniest lol

[@markup6394]

He really outdit himself here XD

[@NatLaS]

Josh Strife Names

[@HasegawaRayven]

​@@Revilerify extra funny to me because Granado is the pomegranate word

[@MyAwfulUsername]

I remember this game. Tried it for a while as a kid. It went a little like this: Play game > Pretty boring > Exit game > Game music still keeps playing on desktop for some reason > Uninstall

[@tzeentch800]

Cursed.

[@badrequest5596]

Lol pretty much same thing as me except no music played outside of the game

[@gwensstepbro4966]

I kekked

[@Jason0binladen]

Wuhclassmistmahha

[@ZeldaTheSwordsman]

The EXE was probably taking a while to fully spool down. I bet you would have seen it still spinning if you'd checked the processes tab of Task Manager.

[@Xaen82]

"A man so aggressively french just being near him makes me wana protest something" XD

[@Real-Name..Maqavoy]

*La Bagutee?*

[@kokocaptainqc]

@@Real-Name..Maqavoy thats not even a word in any language

[@Pundae]

​@@kokocaptainqcHe's a single letter off baguette

[@kokocaptainqc]

@@Pundae several letters...

[@sutorippuwebmaster8783]

Fun fact: This game was released as "Sword of the New World" on CD-ROM back in the early 2000s, complete with an exclusive version of a character card of another recruitable NPC. It had English voices and everything. But the translation, if you'll believe it, was even worse than it is now. They were slowly updating it, one step at a time, but in some places it was complete nonsense. Also, a hacker invaded the servers and for a day, every player was treated to the female characters all appearing fully nude. Fun times. I sort of miss this game but it was one big gimmick anyway.

[@RLMemeLord]

early 2000s? you mean 2007?

[@czarnoksiezhnik]

that explains why its designed like a 2000s game, with the weird key bindings and all

[@jakebennett9130]

damn, that hacker was the goat

[@Punkzinatra]

Wtf are u talking about theres no nude character in thus game. even if your character has no armor they will still have clothes

[@sutorippuwebmaster8783]

@@Punkzinatra This is true, but the hacker messed with the models and replaced them with nude versions. It took over a day to fix.

[@jonathonphillips4056]

I remember this waaay back in 2007, my friend and I got to level 100 and got to the end-game land. I left out the part where about 70% of the game was stocking up on ammo and healing items, going into a field and afk grinding while I was at college. My wife still has a mix CD we made from the music from this game.

[@mattforthelikes]

The music, artstyle and setting of this game were all so amazing. I get so much nostalgia from it.

[@Lorddraigo]

For anyone wondering at 22:45, 27,887 hours is 1,162 days or 3.2 years. And after all that time, he got banned...

[@Cybeldar]

First thing I did was do the math. That's insane.

[@Daniels101]

I don't know why but this makes me so sad...

[@powerplay9422]

NO ONE SAID THERE'D BE MATH

[@shinrailp1416]

Did that math too and to be honest it is better for them, clearly they need to see some sun or something. At 27k hours that is an addiction and the ban really did him a favor there.

[@mrtoestie2707]

thats sus. possibly a bot user who had a field day for years until randomly banned. or just afk'd that much lul

[@manaquinn5837]

This has always been the issue with end of life MMOs. I started this game back when it first came out, The quests were more theme park. That first quest where he gets teleported into a fight? That was not how it was originally. They tell you to do essentially all the stuff he does -after- until you reach that area through quests. It wasn't even a fight with a random demon, it was a fight with a very important NPC boss that you find out things about inside that big building on the other side of the bridge. Crescemento equipment was not in the game. Random equips were all you could use back then and they would change the look of basic units like the Warlock (Use to be called Elementalist), Scout, etc. The last thing, the translations were always bad. This is because this game was thrown around multiple publishers and the first one had so many issues with even getting updates from the main publisher from Korea. There was a whole year of no updates and worries it would die over here before publishers were changed. As a player, I don't know the specifics of what happened, but if you guys remember K2 and GamersFirst and when this game was called "Sword of the New World". There is clearly a way the game was meant to be played and the streamlined choices to push people to end game as quickly as possible just ruins that "learning" that helps you take the systems this game has in bite size bits. So it became overwhelming and 'boring'. A game of its time in every sense of the word. I miss it, but hate what it became.

[@czarkusa2018]

It's a sad trend, I miss when levelling WAS the game in many MMOs that have since been cut down into instant teleport quest farces. Lord of the Rings Online is the only one I can think of that maintains the philosophy of 400 hours of leveling per character.

[@hsanrb]

That's seemingly the way some of these "Worst MMO..." videos go. IF you go visit an end of life MMO they just boost your way towards the end to get where everyone else is, or you get a game that is genuinely bad. There's no money to be made if someone has to play X hours on their own to eventually find someone leveling a new character. Some of these games were fun to play when it was new and buzzing, and the mechanics are actually required because you didn't have your HP boosted to insane levels. I'd actually hate to replay games I played when I was 15 now and notice the entire early game just doesn't exist anymore. Even something like the critique about the hotkeys for maps and quests and things, well when you have 20 keybinds for your party as default, how are you supposed to use Q for quests when Q is a skill. Combined that some people (like modern MMO players) use alt and ctrl as key modifiers to map multiple skills for Q and they make sense. I used to play a golf MMO, and I'm pretty sure if I logged in now, the first course isn't the first course anymore (they added a 9H) and new quests so the path to 21 or 41 is accelerated instead of playing a hundred rounds on stock gear learning how to play the game. When you finally got out of Beginner, the people you were playing with actually expected you to be competent because who wants to play foursomes (the fastest leveling method) with someone who couldn't hit a fairway to save their life. Your bad play meant your teammate could potentially lose XP.

[@madamepoutine2807]

​@@hsanrbpangya?

[@hsanrb]

@@madamepoutine2807 Shot Online

[@lunar69666]

I miss sword of the new world when it first launched

[@ElkiLG]

10:10 Fun fact, in french we call this game "exquisite corpse". The original game is played with words instead of a drawing, and the very first instance of that game gave the sentence "The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine."

[@joeyj6808]

Invented by the Dada Movement, adopted by the Surrealists! Glad to hear people still do this!

[@jacuul6735]

I actually did this in college when I took an animation class. Everyone had a week to come up with their starting frame, which was then passed onto the next person, who had two weeks to come up with a 6 second clip to come up with a transition between the frame they were given and the frame they came up with, which makes a very fast paced and surreal 5 minute video

[@BloodfelX]

(When the comments section is more fun and cultured than the video game that is being reviewed)

[@Real-Name..Maqavoy]

@@BloodfelX It do be like dat; Nowadays.

[@EvanCWaters]

Oh yeah I've played that! Version I'm familiar with, you start with a sentence, then the player who gets that one draws a picture based on that sentence, and the player they pass too writes what they think that picture is, etc.

[@Remianen]

What I remember most about this game is its soundtrack. There was a song on it (Rosa Rosado) led by a Spanish guitar with what I thought were maracas in the background but turned out to be the Cabasa sound from a Roland keyboard. I never really paid much attention to the mashup of cultural aesthetics in the game though I do remember how AFK-friendly it was (like many Eastern games).

[@0That_Guy0]

"Two hours in there's a quest where you beat a child into adoption." There are strong openings, then there are Josh Strife Hayes' openings.

[@rusticgiraffe4262]

I got an ad for Dream World with this video. I’m amazed they’re still trying to make something of that.

[@Nerathul1]

You'd think they'd spent money making the game rather than advertise

[@rallae1]

Me too 😂

[@nathangaspar4989]

You’re joking, right?

[@rusticgiraffe4262]

@@nathangaspar4989 sadly no, it was advertising for a channel called PlayDreamWorld that’s what was advertised. I have no idea if it’s actually run by the Dream World devs but it’s an active channel and tries really hard to promote Dream World, apparently to the point of paying for advertising space.

[@serene1172]

@@nathangaspar4989nope. I’ve seen advertisements over the last few months.

[@kaidestinyz]

I played this game as a teenager and it was glorious. The game has one of the best PvP systems in "Colony wars". It was a global PvP mode between guilds and you could engage multiple guilds at once. Members of the opposing guild will appear "red" and you can attack them at any location. Guilds can declare wars on each other which would be announced on the top of the screen. This led to many interesting twists. Like the 2nd and 3rd guild teaming up to take on the top guild. The 3 characters that you control also made PvP very different from other games. RTS players actually have an advantage because of this. The OST is also unrivaled back in the day and probably even now. "Esa Promesa", "Main theme", "Al Quelt Moreza", "The G appears", "Forget me not" and plenty more. I sank so many hours and even years into this game back in 2007 and it was worth it. The game has since evolved into a pay2win mess so I wouldn't recommend it anymore.

[@ruekurei88]

The characters can be heavily tinted depending on how much money you pay though, PVP was always P2W in this game. It also didn't help that you could simply pay to get certain characters who were just straight up better than standard free characters. But if everyone paid the same amount of money, PVP could be cool.

[@Aiveq]

@@ruekurei88 dunno man. as long i played, fighter was top dog and that as default you get

[@Tenraio]

Remind me of that one early Taekwondo Korean dude where you had him fight with the Glacialo or whatever his name called. The red yanky guy that has quite an anime-ish character arc, ends up pipelining a cash shop product equivalent to a steroid like a salesman and then you have to bought those for the dude as a part of quest to recruit him 😂

[@RosefMudson1414]

korea@@ruekurei88

[@samuelsun3560]

it always has been P2W...

[@InvadeNormandy]

This was one of my most anticipated games ever, the in game style, the over the top class outfits and texture art for the time was gorgeous, (Hell the actual assets inside the game folders were hard password protected! One of the rarest things to do as a asian MMO at the time IMO which was funny given I wanted to peek and see some of the class armors ahead of time) but the actual gameplay was such a drag and the amount of "Pick a spot, that's where you're going to live for a day" that cropped up later was heinous. And when it practically had an in game botting system and you were absolutely expected to just park yourself somewhere at that point and not even play the game and I just blurted out "No." and had to drop it. It was a shame because some IDEAS were solid - Which is a how a lot of these dead games go. You had character class progression where some things could wildly diverge even if the role and purpose was identical (IE: you are damage rogue person, but instead you can go a knife juggler/thrower path) or instead of melee being boring fightman with the usual paths of BURST TREE, DUAL WIELD TREE and TANK TREE it's simply expanding upon how you fight. Like a stance based (Literally changing the animation btw - and your attacks full stop. Not just a bland modifier like WOW) 2H sword style, then having a bizarre hill guard version where you do a lot of fanciful leaps and if you have the high ground you punish enemies with counters, etc etc. Or just I THINK sword and pistol style. That and you could recruit NPCs after questlines to be playable characters in your roster, like I had a old man engineer with me who had a few neat abilities. It was however like all these things are, undercooked to hell in the gameplay. The actual amount of active abilities you had per advancement was thin, it would often feel like a crippled and bare bones ARPG where you simply don't get to progress in the world for days at a time with the amount of active abilities available to you and the sheer grind cliffs it had.

[@xxyoboigxx]

just gotta say, i love the different names you say throughout some of these videos. definitely gives me a good chuckle when i notice it

[@XCal]

I used to love Granado Espada. I usually play strategy or tactical games, and when it was announced and first opened, the 3-character system lured me in. What actually got me hooked the most were NPC soldiers sometimes fighting alongside you, which was a rare atmospheric detail that made it feel like there was a world out there caring about the problems and not just you doing all the things. But... it all went wrong in the end. Here's some things Josh didn't figure out because of the bad new player experience and the fundamental design flaws: The weapons type and stances system was amazing at the start, let's say you have Sword and Shield of a fighter class, that will give him Back Guard and High Guard stances, which aside of being real life historical fighting methods, each switch to a completely different set of bonuses and skills. In Back Guard, you do more damage while in High Guard, the fighter is a tank who has a high chance to block out damage completely, so Sword and Board type fighters are tanks, but can switch to damage - it's not as good as say, greatword or polearm DPS, but it's what you have on Sword + Shield config as an option. This meant aside of having 3 characters, each character contained several classes within themselves depending on your equipment configuration. Musketeer stances make them dual wield pistols or kneel down with rifles and snipe at a distance. The character cards you earn were also amazing, because those were often specific NPCs you met who had their own specific fighting style and equipment configurations. Take Panfilo de Narvaez for example, he is a battle cook, he is uniquely able to access a stance that involves Saber + Fire Elemental Bracelet where he combines melee attacks with fire spells. Sometimes, they had better stats than the stock characters you could always create or very focused fighting styles, like that boy Josh recruited, Ramiro, is capable of the highest movement speed in the game and I had hilarious fun making him be the Flash. While its true recruited characters outperform stock characters in most cases as a result, Stock characters always had versatility going for them, there's going to be recruited characters who are tankier than the base fighter, but they have equipment limitations while the fighter will take almost everything and goes as far as combining Sword + Pistol into a stance called Heaven & Hell that I was obsessed with getting. But recruited characters sometimes had completely out there fighting styles, such as Jack the Engineer and Yeganeh who just outright craft buildings and turrets onto the field or Catherine, who puppeteers dolls as AI summons to fight for her. Creating a unique team was a big thing for me, and I remember my combo of H&H Stock Fighter + Puppeteer Catherine + Soho of the Wind (does healing and martial arts) fondly. On a theoretical level, Granado Espada had the chance to be an amazingly tactical game, you could use your fighter to taunt and turtle, your scout could swap from healing to pouring in DPS if you tech it correctly, you cast CC spells to deal with the mobs and stunlock bosses into long animation of ultimate attacks. IN THEORY The reality was different and sad via several fundamental problems the game started with and never fixed. The first problem was the spawning patterns and enemy stats, namely en masse and all over the place with an HP to damage ratio that encouraged 1-2 shotting. If you were punching above your weight with a technical fighting style around teamwork and tactics, that wasn't going to work because the game never lets you 'solve' singular encounters, it's an endless horde all day, all the time, and if you wanted to stay sane, you just played it as an AFK autobattler where a scout autoheals and 2 people continuously kill the hapless spawns quickly. Sometimes, you might even cast an AoE spell if you're really pushing it, and sometimes a boss spawns and you actually get to use one of the cool single-target moves, but that was it. The game just insists on being an AFK-battler despite all the cool design around characters. The second problem was the diminishment of stock characters. It all started with there being no real reason to use a Stock musketeer over Grace Bernelli with rifles, who just had better stats period, that was fine at first, stock musks could run pistols, but over time more and more NPCs took away what roles the certain stock units had left. This flowed into the last problem, premium characters. They were only available for real money, and they were oftentimes superior versions of their existing free counterparts. A friend gifted me Soho of the Wind, the premium version of Soho and frankly, there was little reason for the original to exist. This meant that in a game about building cool teams, you just had some locked behind cash walls, unobtainable other than through the auction house for tons of ingame currency if the whales decided to sell them. I can get through bad new player experiences myself, because I'm a high research/engagement player, but knowing the game was never going to get better in the ways that counted, and every improvement usually involved interesting characters that half the time were gated behind real currency killed the fascination I once had.

[@zondor8123]

Ain't gonna read all that, but good luck to you or sorry if that happens

[@alphaluda]

Thanks for your perspective!

[@Arudon117]

I did read all that, and that is FASCINATING. That's such a cool design, and it actually makes me angry thinking about how the game devs squandered it. Ugh... Sounds like development got wires crossed somewhere or, probably more accurately, executive meddling. This stinks of the corporate changing what the game's supposed to be 80% of the way to completion, so they rush to patch the gaps and kick it out the door.

[@EmeffMonkey]

​@@zondor8123brainrot detected

[@jhonvargas7539]

That was interesting, and informative hoping if Josh ready it

[@futanahriadventures]

Banger OsT, played for like 3-4 years until a few patches past the whole Armonia episodes. Loved the vibes and art, but 90% of the gameplay was afk grinding, literally. You find a good spot for the your main 3 to farm (or just get a good undead weapon and farm those giant golems) and leave it there for hours and hours. Nowadays the game is on life support, where the devs are slowly releasing new upcs and cashing in on the gacha (yes, they implemented gacha around Armonia, it was dumb).

[@HikingFeral]

Why would you play a game like that? you are just wasting the electricity used to power your GPU and may as well use money to wipe your arse.

[@HowlingDoom]

IDK sounds like a good game to manage on the side while playing another game. @@HikingFeral

[@YourMomMyBed8000]

100% These aren't even games at all, just cashapps in disguise, designed to take your money @@HikingFeral

[@Lysinc825]

@@HikingFeral Despite all its flaws, it did have some things going for it that were unique and fun

[@derpingdead]

@@HikingFerali guess you are sooo young perhaps new born that you have never heard of runescape

[@Scarheart76]

I like how you have to have maps for the maps: the general map, the tourist map, and the map drunk Google gives you.

[@alderic]

Great video! It captures very well how confusing and strange Granado Espada is to a new player. I played this game for a long time and (sorry for the ad), I did write a series of blog post about it on user blog in Giantbomb, so I can maybe clarify a couple of things: - Fun fact: This game was made by the same guy behind Ragnarok online. - The reason why total play time is so huge on those reviews is because the idea is that you would left the game running while in autoplay. Later on, you do get a pet which can even auto collect stuff from the ground (but requires food) - The game itself would change hands a couple of times, which added to the confusion, as ideas, concepts and stuff would be added or removed. - This game is old, so it features a ton of systems, areas and stuff, which they tried to streamline but with little success, so that why all of those skips and rushed explanations. - Crescemento weapons and armor are meant to scale with the player level, until a fix point where they stop. But the game never explains this. - That rifle is meant to be used by the Musketeer class (and some unique recruitable npcs), but again the game never explain this. - The idea behind the Family aspect is that you would change between "stock" character (the ones which you made) or "unique" npcs which can get form quest (like the kid) or by cash shop.

[@Ezullof]

Sorry but what's the point of a game that plays itself? Honest question.

[@SteamedToast]

The RO connection makes so much sense, that cobble stone texture at the beginning, the health bars, the overuse of Alt shortcuts, music choices, a place called Rachel, the upgrade system...

[@alderic]

@@Ezullof to be fair, I don't know, it is one weirds aspect of the game. I wonder if it was meant (the game is from 2006) to combat bots (not that actually help in any way or form, the game is plagued with bots). It also creates a bizarre problem: early on the game is fairly easy to a point you never need to do anything, until you reach a later point, where suddenly using skills, potions, position suddenly matter a lot, but the player never trained the said muscles to do it so. Still, it is a way to get stuff to sell, as xp itself you mostly gain by using items.

[@kyoken8691]

@@Ezullof Because you play as 3 characters in real time combat the devs added some ease of use features like auto attack, auto move etc. This is a character collection game, with over 250 playable characters, and you'll need to level them up individually. So auto-grinding is how players do it, compare this to modern idle mobile games that play themselves with minimal player input.

[@SoulOfFenrir]

​@@Ezullof Power progression and character collection mainly (at least to me.)

[@b1ackwa1tz2]

"Like a vegtarian barbecue, there's no steaks"😂😂😂😂

[@Chrisuke81]

I actually laughed out loud for once.

[@BloodDX2]

8:16 I know it doesn't at all suit the game, but I'm ngl, I liked and searched up that music and to be fair... It slaps. Close Encounter - Phynn (For anyone interested)

[@jazzytunester]

I like how Josh starts to generate lalafell names the further he is into the video

[@Kelohmello]

I loved this game as a kid. Especially the music. This was conceived by the creator of Ragnarok Online and later Tree of Savior, which i think you can tell because it's so full of unique ideas. Seriously it's crazy enough you control a family of characters, but the fact that you can beat up some NPCs and then make them playable in your family is... what? I love it. I played the oldest version of granado espada when it first released in english. I don't remember there being anti-autoing mechanics back then, and i assumed that the fact that you could effectively bot for levels was a feature. That being said i also remember the dungeon having multiple music tracks in a playlist, not just that one with the chorus. As well, i remember a playlist part of the UI that told you what song was playing and who composed it. This game, like Ragnarok and ToS had lots of music by the legendary korea game music group soundtemp. It's been over a decade and a half since this released so I'm sure it's aged, but it was so fresh when i was a kid. Especially for an f2p MMO of the time.

[@NoneRain_]

Had the same experience. It was different and that made it exciting. I didn't play it as much as I played Ragnarok, but It was fun when I was a kid (:

[@Magemaster55]

Oh, that's way that paved stone texture reminded me of streets of Prontera.

[@TheNewCoalition]

Yeah, sword of the new world has the best music of any MMO and im not even kidding, it was EPIC especially the PVP arena music.

[@verzeihturncoat27]

Played it under the name "Sword of the New World" (Guess now I know why I could not find it again) when that server was opened. Best thing about the game was the feeling of how big the battle were when just a few player fought. 3 Player are already 9 Characters. Really wish another MMO would pick up this Gimmick.

[@michaelcalvin42]

I played this game in college (a good decade and a half ago). I'm kind of surprised it's still around. I never got super far because I'm not really an MMO person, but it was interesting to see it again after all these years. I always liked the music in the game. It doesn't fit at all thematically speaking, but I did listen to the soundtrack a lot back in the day. The song at 24:58 was always one of my favorites. I think it was the first time I ever heard a song with lyrics used as a BGM in a video game.

[@rozegunn]

I kinda want to see you do a video on Grand Fantasia. Hit my childhood where it hurts and make me remember the time I bonded with a stranger over Fullmetal Alchemist in a game that had absolutely nothing to do with FMA. Miss you, RedElric. Hope you're making it out there.

[@EJ_Red]

Gotta admit, making the crocs hop around and jab targets makes them really terrifying I know what to homebrew for my next campaign

[@tarnetskygge]

Granado Espada! What a wonderful phrase Granado Espada! Ain't no passing craze…

[@AvauntVanguard]

Imagine playing your favorite MMO. Kinda niche but you enjoy it. Then you see a small horde of alts named "Strife Hayes" run down the street. Oh no.

[@Tarutaru1234]

Same energy as eating in a restaurant when Gordon Ramsay walks in. It’s either a REALLY good or REALLY bad sign.

[@seasicksensei7699]

This review hurts my soul cos I used to play this game non-stop when I was younger. I had so much fun that I was willing to ignore and embrace its flaws. I still thank you for an honest review of the game I loved.

[@zondor8123]

Used to love the game but the more I grow up the more I realize this game sucks 😂 I even confused why the hell I liked it in the past

[@echiko4932]

Happens to the best of us.

[@mattforthelikes]

@@zondor8123 the art, the music, the setting, and the characters were all so amazing. The gameplay and the story were definitely the weak points.

[@AdekMaulana]

@@mattforthelikes fax

[@SilverMoonling]

Oh my goodness this takes me back. I played this game nearing 17 years ago when I was around 15 or 16, and mostly tried it because it was made by the same creators of Ragnarok Online and I had a major obsession for that game. My cousin managed to get myself and my siblings into the beta a short time before it fully released, and I remember playing it that there was a specific tree that had a texture error, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious seeing these trees that just had a big ERROR pasted all over them. When the game went live not long after I didn't play it at first because I think it started as subscription based, if I recall correctly. I remember money being a factor as to why I didn't immediately play. Being the kid with zero income I couldn't afford to just throw money at it, but it eventually went f2p and I remade my characters(which, hilariously enough, the male character I had looks a lot like your spiky grey haired guy) and had the last name of Crumpkins. I didn't play the game for especially long since the gameplay itself dragged and was basically just a grind fest, and I spent whatever income I had buying emote books and taking funny screenshots with my characters(Which I still have some of them!) I absolutely adore the soundtrack, though, and I still listen to it to this day.

[@CreedofDarkness]

Ran a DnD campaign a few years ago, couldn't think of a good name for the starting village, until it hit me. DeFalt. Everything was named DeFalt, the DeFalt Tavern and Inn, DeFalt Smithy and Armory Apothecary the whole shebang.

[@aaronsound]

that's so smart haha

[@00ABBITT00]

I don’t get it…

[@Artiquin]

@@00ABBITT00”DeFalt” = “Default”

[@CreedofDarkness]

@@00ABBITT00 Default. DeFalt. Keep up on this ruck, chubby or we'll leave you behind.

[@Nana721nah]

​@@00ABBITT00DeFalt is a pun on default

[@jonjosephsanjuan4693]

The OST had Soundtemp and Tiesto as well as artists from Black Hole Recordings, a well renown trance label. I was already a fan.

[@brunitop4753]

"Granado" actually refers to the tree that gives pomegranates, not the fruit itself. That would be "granada", which also means "grenade" in spanish. "Espada" means sword.

[@CyberMonkey03]

We call the fruit granadilla in Honduras

[@s.t.a.pstudios4231]

That's even worse icl

[@markup6394]

I mean... it still doesnt explain the idea behind the title ^^°

[@syleedlibra0712]

Alright so... "Pomegranate tree Sword"?

[@markup6394]

@@syleedlibra0712 whelp XD Makes as much sense as the rest of it :D

[@PrincessNoamie]

at around 25:23 when the lyrics started up i had a full-body twitch and felt Panic start rising in my brain. What kind of dark curse was cast over me...? (always glad to see a new MMO video come out... bonus for being one I actually haven't heard of before! lol)

[@Prizzlesticks]

Missed opportunity to name that enemy 'crocaroo.'

[@icestick3]

When Granado Espada introduced to me as a kid (local server version not the Steam one) it was very good. More players grinding and leveling, AFK system was cool coz you can take a break eating lunch or play LAN games like CS 1.6 or WC3 Dota with someone at your local computer shop while this game is on the background. Yeah the keybindings is weird but back then Korean MMORPGs' keybinding is just like they expect you to be a StarCraft player and interesting fact. The gaming company that created this game created Tree of Saviour and once developed Ragnarok Online

[@Tinil0]

HAH, really? This entire video I was thinking "This game seriously is just RO but with the 3 character gimmick". Glad to know I wasn't crazy

[@HolyXerxes]

Fun Fact, Granado Espada have an SEA version for SEA region it actually one of the better translation version and quite popular until it was closed to make way for Global release Yes, a better version had to be closed to make way for Global English version.

[@TironaBloodspiller]

Blizzard: Hold the breastmilk. We got a great idea for OW2

[@havenprice]

As someone from SEA, I wad actly quite surprises to see it here. It was popular a number of years back and had a good reputation

[@sufficientphrase7769]

I really liked it. It was certainly janky but some of the features were very different from the stuff I'd played before.

[@cain7925]

Ive played in sea too. Until they keep releasing p2w characters.

[@venmong8718]

Yea its quite popular in SEA server, don't know why its suddenly closed, because I was only playing for a while so i don't really care to find out. So thats the reason 😂😂😂

[@nibblesnarfer]

My childhood memories is overflowing me thanks to this.. AAAAAAAHH. Also, the system where you could use the NPC as your Playable Family member was one of my favorite system. I remembered I had to farm Catherine Torsche body part hours after hours. Gods, bring back memories.

[@Makri9]

Omg I remember this! Greatest experience of my childhood. And the most broken thing is a spin slash move of the scout that u unlock down the line that just rips apart everything in existence for some reason as the healer class. Loved it so goddamn much!

[@Zespeth]

This series has reminded me of Shaiya. An MMO i played around 15 years ago. I would love to see a video on it. See how much nostalgia hits :)

[@vraolet]

My god I remember playing that game for so long as a kid, looking back it was such a dumpster fire but I didn't know any better.

[@GabrielMaciel-tr9kl]

@@vraolet Grindiest shit I ever played, and I played some horrible MMOs.

[@jrrystone1398]

Shaiya was the best worst mmo in the 2000s

[@Warmaker01]

I remember way back in the 2000s anticipating the western release of this game. Originally from Asia and later got a western release. Granado Espada was the original game name. The western release was under the name Sword of the New World. I didn't play as long as I wanted because it was out during an extremely busy time in my life. Lots of travel and all that. I still recall in that old 2000s version there were a lot of gold sellers. There were zones to rent time to play in that gave higher rewards, better drops. I also remember that you had to AFK grind like mad, too.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

Holy shit Granado Espada. Hope you highlight the music, some of it is dope.

[@AnimatronicBadgerlord]

I still listen to it regularly. Never actually played the game

[@sahaara7946]

@AnimatronicBadgerlord I also still listen to the soundtrack quite often. It´s charming and amazing!

[@owenreynolds8718]

The music? What about those loud grunts? Every single time a bi-croc pokes your sister in the chest with its snout: Huuueuhhh, Huooo, Huhwaaa. It sounds like Zangief's gym.

[@slanderpop8771]

It just doesn’t make sense when playing it. It’s so random with no common theme. If ya need a rave, techno, French orchestra playlist then yes ya get it here lol

[@LZ02-OVERTURE]

The music isn't fitting for the game. Fitting music is more important than just having good sounding stuff so I wouldn't call it a good soundtrack. Just a good collection of songs.

[@MrPsymind]

I used to play this game back when it first came out in english and it was so cool. Don't get me wrong, it was always p2w, you even had to buy cash shop itens with real money to finish NPC quests and get them in your party. But the game was new, well made and had a decent challenge if you wanted to advance instead of AFK grind forever. Also you could recruit basically every NPC with a name to your party, which was pretty crazy at the time. I still listen to the OST for this game to this day. It's fucking awesome.

[@ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.9777]

I remember an NPC with "Hwoarang" in his name/title. Something like "Spirit of Hwoarang". I also really liked Tekken at the time, so I really wanted to get him in my party. 😂 I don't remember if I did get him, so I probably didn't.

[@MrPsymind]

@@ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.9777 I might be wrong but I believe you're remembering Irawain? Or Gracielo. Both look a bit like Hwoarang! Gracielo was free but very hard to get and Irawain used to need cash itens to finish his quest iirc

[@Hellios]

ah I miss this game. best BGM hands down. Esa Promesa look it up the charm of this game was actually the ability to "recruit" the NPCs once you're done with their questline. also the appeal of the ability to just AFK play back then was much appreciated before the age of smartphones.

[@ccl19951]

I played it in the Eu version and the SEA version , music was great and the weapon system was really neat to see and learn. Recruitable NPC was really nice too as they all had their unique mechanics + paid versions , Dr torsche mansion was a really nice quest line for example , you crafted a RNPC . Most of the time it was a afk grind fest - pop your squad on a farm zone after taking some farm quest , buy a pet to pick items up etc and you leave em there for a day The newest global version is weird though , a scalable weapon which just outright wastes some of the named rare weapons you could get , 2-3currencies , and no more farm quests that I could remember from those statues weirded me out

[@Grimrapings]

SoundTemp did a fantastic job! To this day I still have some of the songs on a playlist. "IRIS" & "FORGET-ME-NOT" are amazing tracks.

[@MissRaynor]

still have GE, reb and auch bgm mp3 in my playlist. shits were good back then

[@dharmdevil]

soundtemp is a legend. they did amazing with ragnarok online as well.

[@Lagbeard]

Both SoundTemp and S.F.A. , the soundtrack has so much good stuff. Long ago found a way to pull the .mp3 files out of the game files and been listening to them since.

[@Alfkdna]

We have lee but you don't have still goes hard. SoundTemp's absolutely amazing.

[@Alugbati]

Esa promesa is the one that stuck with me after all these years

[@Dan1loBC]

Woah, I'd never expect to see Granado Espada here. I used to play it when it was ported as Sword of the New World and it was great. The enemies offered a decent challenge, you had none of that "new played 30-day boost" nonsense, cinematic events were a new thing, and the OST was a banger. The active skills and evolved jobs/classes were great, and it's the only MMO I know which features the Unique Playable Character concept, having you recruit people to you "family". My best memory was farming a new area, listening to the OST, spending a "Megaphone" to note how good that OST was, and then being invited to a clan full of positive people who enjoyed the game. The game has some cool skills, scenery, songs and quest lines, but isn't impressive or mindblown, and it's certainly nothing compared to more modern titles. It could feel similar to Genshin Impact in the sense that you collect UPCs and have them be in your party, but GI is way more fluid and enjoyable nowadays, even with the monetization aspect and gacha.

[@100Servings]

Exactly! I played it as well. It was originally supposed to be that you're exploring a fantasy version of America. It was fun, if a little simple.

[@TheNewCoalition]

yeah, the game is awesome, and unfortunately ...he's really misrepresenting the game, just sh*t talking it. Boring and pretty intellectually dishonest review in my opinion.

[@BigDrewski1000]

Same. My dumbass left it to play Shaiya tho. Mistakes were made. Lol

[@BigDrewski1000]

@@TheNewCoalition well to be fair it went downhill as time went on. I tried it again like a year ago & was honestly surprised how bastardized it was.

[@TheNewCoalition]

@@BigDrewski1000 THat sucks havent played it since launch but it was really fun at that time. Especially PVP, you actively had to control your 3 characters auto-combat wasnt good in pvp.

[@JoakimFigge]

Oh this game was my jam back in the days, I loved the fact you had 3 characters, making your own party, me and my friends had enough ranged characters to cover large portions of a zone just for us to grind on

[@triggered9325]

That intro had me hooked faster than id like to admit, instant like for you sir.

[@LG1ikLx]

27,887 hours is 1,161 days incase anyone was wondering

[@zondor8123]

The dude literally said that he afk the game 😂 so it doesn't count to his real time session and it's a lie

[@evamiller4886]

Those hopping bipedal crocodiles chasing you are so funny. It’s just too good

[@A_Stereotypical_Heretic]

The game supposedly translates to "Distinguished Sword", or "Royal Sword" if one uses synonyms.

[@THEPELADOMASTER]

I'm spanish, and let me tell you, that must be the most obscure way to say distinguished.

[@Ezullof]

If it said "lo mas granado de espadas" then you could translated it as "it's la creme de la creme of the swords". But just "granado espada" is like saying in english "creme sword", it doesn't make any sense and it can certainly not be considered a synonym of "royal sword".

[@takimi_nada]

@@Ezullofi adore "creme sword" so much

[@Clawthorne]

@@takimi_nada😏

[@nibblesnarfer]

They localized it into "The Sword of the New world."

[@goncalo33]

0:13 Coimbra's in Portugal, which makes it even better.

[@goncalomoncarcho9179]

Portugal caralho!

[@goncalo33]

@@goncalomoncarcho9179 30, CARALHO! :D

[@TheBorkLaser]

Portugal, crlho!

[@abra4662]

Devolve o ouro

[@goncalo33]

@@abra4662 Os reis gastaram-no todo em palácios, coches e outras coisas inúteis. Vai bater à porta da casa do António Costa; pode ser que tenhas sorte.

[@olegpustylnik732]

Wow I did not expect to see this here. The OST was exquisite. The mobs looked so different to anything you had back then. The scene was gorgeous. The UPCs were something I've never seen before or since, basically, genshin 15 years later. I still remember dr torache's mansion, that blue sky night was gorgeous. The controls were hard due to 3 characters having shortcuts for all of em. The game was so lively those first years, so many people played it the servers were always full. Uhh It was such a great game back then. It still aint shyte, but progression and time took its toll on it.

[@elinasanglert1520]

At 12:30 you mention how the enemies look different but act the same. I thought it was quite the funny coincidence that the enemies happened to be spiders and a small flying creature. Im very new to game development but in one of the games i worked on we had a boss that spawned small flying bats and spiders. We artists communicated well with the programmers and planned so the creatures would act different from eachother. This game feel alot like the artists and programmers never really spoke to eachother.

[@fbgmerk8178]

Please remake a spartacus legends like gladiator game! From back in the day on Xbox. Like genuinely I beg you.

[@kokocaptainqc]

lots of people know about coding...but just a very few know HOW to code

[@gjits5307]

The bit-by-bit monster drawing is an example of 'exquisite corpse" art. From Wikipedia: Exquisite corpse (from the original French term cadavre exquis, literally exquisite cadaver) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.

[@Cat-sampo]

this one was great! cant wait for you to do Mabinogi!

[@Rhiusvell]

With how Nexon is running their games into the ground, Mabinogi definitely deserves to be here... even though I love the game.

[@Reyetta]

Also looking forward to seeing Mabinogi on here!

[@archertoon2]

I remember playing this game for a while and my favourite thing about this game is you can do get npc to join you after doing their quest, allowing you to create a new character as that npc and they usually have unique abilities, but after playing for a while I realised that it doesn’t really matter in levelling because you just do 2dps and scout for auto heal anyway, and that still continue to around level 50 at which I quitted and never return Also cool thing about stance for equipment, you granting new skill and attack pattern for different weapon and there’s many choices for fighter and musketeer like holding sword and gun, twohanded weapon, dual wielding, defensive stance, aggressive stance, but it also doesn’t really matter because you can do way more than enough damage with any build, just more fancy I also remember that in the very high level quest, you can get Andre (seen at 21:04) as a playable character and at one point I saw multiple Andre running around the town, that was weirdly fabulous

[@JohnNnny-te2fl]

Finally I was so hoping you would do this game! Well Done. I use to love this game but this is exactly how I feel about this game I love your videos. Keep going!

[@rielleleaf]

24:59 that AQM BGM is such a banger

[@zenalias3131]

Odyssey. That song slapped and still slaps

[@lurkergggg8759]

Still listen to the soundtrack to this ancient mmo. Some nice work music to be honest. Recommend the tracks Supercooled Girl (techno), Rosa Rosando (techno instrumental), Touch Me Not (techno), A Witch On A Diet (techno) and my fav is Ice Symphony.

[@banaman7746]

the real pomegranate sword is the friends you never met along the way

[@asteroth1986]

😂

[@MintyParsley]

Darn, I played this for 3 years in the late 00s, and back then some of these places made me hug the walls trying to sneak around without too much combat, because that hurt if I was on mob level. Lots. Seems they have catered quite a bit to make things 'less painful' (but I don't remember the UI being that clunky). Also, using the three characters unleashing their individual abilities were mostly in raids when I played, but that part of the game did not really matter until around lvl 80+, if I remember somewhat right. And getting to lvl 100 with active play was doable, but tough at levels past 80, but the levels after 100 - not doable without afk'ing a lot, if you also had (the resemblance) of a RL. I loved this game, met some amazing people, had spin parties, goofing around with the pose system, gossip about the other clans and whatever drama that happened on the server. And some of the music is just epic!

[@ShadowDaPk]

9:50 You've earned a subscriber for that reference to End of Ze World. No not the rest of the well written and made video, just that reference.

[@FunPolice6969]

But I'm le tired :(

[@The_10th_Man]

Came here to post this.

[@UzayzamanYolcusu]

Can you check out Neocron?

[@michel0dy]

I wanna give props to Josh's script writing. All the different ways to mock Gazebo Estrada's name with no repetition. Very good.

[@KaikiIsTaken]

I respect this guy for tolerating playing Grenade Spade for so long when you could tell how bad it was within the first hour or so

[@0Fyrebrand0]

That's a lot of effort to put into a video about Gazpacho Empanada!

[@Flailmorpho]

oh hey my friends retweet your furry erotica

[@metallboy25]

​@@KaikiIsTakenIve never played this game. But thats exactly how I feel about Old School Rune Scape. 😂

[@geovaughan8261]

Dude I loved this game back when it was known as “Sword of the New World”. It was so weird and janky, but the music really hooked me. So glad you’re covering this!

[@ThisIsntmyrealnameGoogle]

And just like that my entire weekend has been made! Love seeing another MMO review. If you ever do run out of content Josh (which im sure you wont) I would love to see you revist some MMOs after they have gotten some updates.

[@IamThatChris]

The music still rocks to this day. Played this game hundreds of hours back in the day when it was called Sword of the New World.

[@whtiequillBj]

tl;dr, If I look at a Korean keyboard will all the key-binds make sense? I have a question about key-binds using alt. Is it possible that alt isn't "alt" and its in-fact "alt-grave"? So the alt key it to change to using a different key-set then whatever the keyboard that is expected to be used and no one caught it in QA? This would be a non-issue if one was a Korean because they need to swap keyboards. Is this just not made for an English keyboard?

[@loganquasar5124]

It's because the basic keys are set to character skills.

[@MilkyWay-po6cg]

Ooh, I loved this one. It's dated now and its major problems even at the time, but the setting, visuals (especially for the time), and music was so good and it tried lot of really unique things I have yet to see since. What I wouldn't give for a new and better managed game with a similar spirit.

[@ItsBoyRed]

That guy with over 28.000 Hours in the game has single handedly spent more time on the game than the entire dev team has, making it.

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

I suspect, given context, that the main character's class wasn't supposed to be "Scout", but rather "Pioneer". Just a guess, but given how common mistranslations are, it's a pretty solid guess.

[@vatzfu]

That would be correct but actually they force you to create the scout first as a way to prevent early deaths as the potion usage in this game is hotkey based for each of them, you start with 4 slots and can create a fourth and replace it later.

[@SakamuG]

Hey Josh you inspired me to start with yt. You have the perfect structure of a video and the talent to get people hooked and watch games that they would never play. Keep up the Great Work!

[@martinlasek]

The day will come you will review Flyff. It is one of those old days MMORPGs that people fell in love with. Next to Guildears and World of Warcraft.

[@martinlasek]

I’m surprised you haven’t reviewed it just yet. Because it’s more known than some of the ones you already reviewed. but the day will come. It’s inevitable. And I can’t wait. It will probably be my favorite review and I’ve watched all of yours. :)

[@NauyaIsOnline]

Wow they really changed this game for the worse. The starting segments are almost completely unrecognizable. I remember playing it when it first came out and the experience was *completely* different. They didn't force you to make a Scout, the camera angles for NPCs matched their height, the starting area slowly taught you things and stacked mechanics on top of each other as you progressed, the quest dialogue was coherent and the story made sense. (I don't even recognize that starting "dungeon" or the random demon you fight, that was never in the game.) There was a good sense of progression both character and gear wise, the gear actually changed how you look and you wanted to keep your things up to date. Enemies were dangerous with attacks that could interrupt, CC, knock down your characters etc that you had to react to, your trio of characters actually mattered since Musketeers and Magic classes died very easily without a Fighter tanking and CCing using their melee abilities that knocked enemies down or stun locked them. Speaking of which, those abilities were so cool because they actually interacted with the enemies, blowing them away / tossing them into the dirt / hard stunning them / locking them into a cool canned combo animation / etc. There were segments where you had to actually micromanage your team to split up and tackle multiple enemies at once like an RTS which made your team comp matter even more like having the Fighter take one side on his own while the Mage and Musketeer went to another side to keep enemies at bay. Keeping a Dagger handy on the Scout was important because you want to toggle between healing and using the Dagger to dish out some nasty melee damage. The translation wasn't garbage, the theming was very tight to the New World / Renaissance era style. The list goes on. I guess the sign that it was going to be handed off a bunch and turned into garbage was right at the start. When the game first launched it was only playable on an eastern client and it was called Granado Espada, it was still fully translated for English IIRC. Then later on they released the official western version and it was titled "Sword of the New World". The versions were separate and each server was treated differently. You were basically a second class citizen if you played Sword of the New World as it had a lot of skip mechanics and it didn't receive some QoL things or even events that Granado Espada did. They didn't even have any protections against gold sellers and such which flooded SotNW like crazy. Now that I think about it, SotNW was heading towards the same direction that the current experience is like. Then I believe one or both of the servers shut down and the game was handed off to another group and it looks like whatever mess of a game that's in this video is the result. This was a game I looked forward to playing when I got back home from school back then cause the combat was cool and impactful, the 3 character system was engaging, and the music was a treat. Now even just seeing the state it's in is like watching a hollowed corpse being puppeteered for money. It honestly feels like you just played through a bad private server of the game with NPC's placed haphazardly everywhere and a massive mechanic dump at the start that expected you to already have played the real game for 100+ hours, boosted rates, free gear that scales with you till end game, and all of the game outside of the endgame basically trimmed out. The original vision and version of the game is just... gone. That's really sad honestly.

[@nibblesnarfer]

One of the system that I love in this game was the UPC(?). My favourite was gracielo, Catherine (doll) and Grace Bernelli. I think they also started in Port of Coimbra first, instead of Reboldeaux?

[@keivkamijo]

8:20 i cannot be the only one who digging this music

[@_Levison]

The music is arguably the best thing in the game; we all knew these games were shit when we were younger, that's why they had to be filled with bangers.

[@pawsouth2897]

it feels like tekken ost back from ps2 days

[@Tigreuh]

It was great, I encourage you to search for more tracks here on KZbin, the soundtrack for Tree of Savior (a more recent mmo from the same company) had some amazing tracks in the same style too.

[@tuanhuynh9006]

anyone know the song's name though?

[@KittyCatTV]

@@tuanhuynh9006It took me a while to find it, but I think it’s Close Encounter. Edit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5LOqpJrYpuYm9Usi=so4JUGLlmxVVgEbq

[@lesath7883]

jajajajajajajaj Granada Encanto. I love it when Josh twists the game name. ps: "granado" means the pomegranate tree. The fruit is "granada".

[@arkhe1n107]

14:22 this analogy was so brilliant it caught me off-guard. Top notch writing.

[@thegaymingavenger]

That dig at the French constantly striking/protesting is my favorite thing out of the entire video, thank you 😂❤

[@revenile]

"Can you guess what opens the inventory?" Me: "Alt...E" "Josh: THat's right, Alt+E" Me: "The hell?"

[@wiseSYW]

the game was revolutionary in 2010 great music, great world design, controlling 3 characters makes you a micro god no other MMO have ever used the Napoleonic era theme

[@coffzor123]

Turf Battles, called TB, has been "revived" and is back up under EonicGames. If you want to look at an MMO which was released somwhere between 2002-2005 if I remember correctly. Should be a good video as it's somewhat known around the world.

[@spike2718]

Hey Josh, I was wondering if you planned to check out toon town for this series? The original game is gone now but theirs alot of fan games including ToonTown Rewritten which is pretty faithful to the original game. I don't think its the worst MMO but would love to hear your thoughts on it.

[@TacticalHamsterDance]

P/f is definitely an error introduced by transcription to Korean and back without knowing the original word. I recall the same in Ragnarok manhwa versus the game (F/P-ayon), however I can understand the translator not having an idea how the author wanted to name a town but not them knowing the word "leap". I remember being interested by the game back when I used to play Ragnarok Online as the game was done by someone who was on the original team (making it one of the successors along with Tree of Savior, Ragnarok Online 2 1, Ragnarok Online 2 2 and few other games... kekek...) but never had the time and then decided to go for WoW as western games were better fleshed out than korean and chinese ones. The music slaps, however, especially Odyssey (around 25:00) - it was the same composer that did RO and managed to bring really good BGM (with a similar pattern - some are good, most average in the good sense, but overall it's all over the place), I even recall a Battle Bards podcast about it and they were similarly surprised. In the end, however... /shrug...

[@ludgerkresnik3972]

"Fire ze Missiles" aaaaah what a throwback

[@aguyhere7945]

Well take a nap first..

[@Moshmaschine]

AAAAAAH MOTHERLAND

[@Elora445]

@@aguyhere7945 Then FIRE ZE MISSSILES!

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

But I am Le Tired...

[@discountdisco2273]

The gameplay: 💤 The music: 🔥🔥🔥

[@DblBarrelShogun]

I remember this game for the inbuilt AI macros. You could park your team in a bottleneck and AFK farm

[@kailikwoh498]

Oh, that explains the staggering numbers of hours from those reviews.

[@kayleencovert1791]

I believe the line “Strap in” was a bit late into the experience. What a verbal vomit roller coster! Would love to see the blooper reel! That had to either taken a lot of time or unscripted chaos..

[@ArtThingies]

7:19 I'll be honest, the orienteering experience of having to use multiple forms of mapping together to locate a destination and then travel to it is kinda a neat feature.... like, using a compass and a map and your own environmental awareness to navigate, rather immersive and unique.... and I promise it was not designed at all with that intention. One of their more unique mechanics (note: not even necessarily a *good* mechanic, but certainly unique) and it was probably just an accident. Applause worthy, truly.

[@TechArtAlex]

The loading screen palace is a blend of the Palace of Versailles and the Dome Church of Les Invalides - possibly some other French monuments mixed in.

[@rodrimoso]

In fact it is so, the game has equivalents from all European countries and that palace in the loading screen is the equivalent of France in the game lol

[@BlackStarGabusGaben]

Oh man I remember playing this a long time ago. When that music hits, its so awesome. And the gameplay wasn't too bad. Granted it could get a bit confusing but I recall having fun :D

[@XDeadzX]

I loved this game. I was awful at it and never got anywhere, but I loved it. I lost access to guild wars for a while and was desperately looking for any form of game with npc party management, this game scratched the itch. Idle farming wasn't a big source of fun but it racked up my gameplay hours.

[@TheRoleplayer40k]

Sounds like a waste of your limited time on this Earth

[@NoneRain_]

@@TheRoleplayer40k if he had fun, it wasn't. Well, if you watched a review of a game that is a waste of time and was not looking into playing it in the first place, you kinda did the "bigger waste" of your time on this earth lol

[@XDeadzX]

@@TheRoleplayer40k Hell yeah it is; it's video games being played while I was doing other things instead of playing them. Could be a lot worse.

[@davdev793]

I remember getting hyped after seeing some sort of trailer or news on it. Time passed and i forgot about it. Its really odd to remember it existed and to see how it exists.

[@Zevirem]

Gave it a try. Barrack system is actually insane. Doing quests for NPC's lets you eventually create and add most npcs to your party. Leveling them up lets you do personal quests involving that npc in your party. I have never been this invested in doing quests in an MMO before. You know those random really cool characters in mmos? Yea. Imagine doing quests in WoW and getting Khadgar in your group. It's exactly like that. Shame the combat is mostly an auto-fest so far. Using skills is faster yea, but with how many quest items you eventually need to complete things, it's better to just put it on low settings and let the little goobers farm overnight. Will poke at it for a month and get bored prob. Still a cool npc system.

[@K1ngKr0ne]

I miss thise mmo days where you and a group of friends searched for the perfect mmo out of 100+... Finally we found joy in metin2 and grinded the hell out of it. I know you already featured this game but in a unplayable state unfortunetly. What a great time

[@NoneRain_]

Good times indeed. Every mmo felt like an adventure!

[@Rurukuken]

Oh god do I feel old now. I remember playing this game at launch and played it a ton. SoundTemp being the composer was a massive selling point for me because of their work on Ragnarok Online.

[@cindyluu8523]

I still listen to RO music to this day. I love it so much

[@DJPao86]

there were tracks from Tiesto too !

[@TheGallicWitch]

As a proud French citizen, I can confirm this is a very good representation of the French experience. We are indeed all immensely rich, powerful and unkillable, we live our lives to a perpetual soundtrack of House music and we indeed believe that there is no worst crime against humanity than a stale baguette. Oh and since half my family is Italian, I'll throw in my approval from that country as well.

[@autobaron1410]

Although I am very happy that josh has finally taken the time to review this game, I feel like this is kind of a half hearted attempt at understanding the game. I have around 3000+ hours in this game in multiple steam accounts, and was one of the people who first played this game in the late 2000s. Not sure how many total hours I have. l dont play this game anymore as I have decided to not play MMOs anymore. 1. It is very clear this game is an end of life MMO, and it does not really cater to newbies in the way that Josh might have preferred. In short, what new players should do is to disregard the starting areas so that you can catch up with other players in the later towns. Josh claims he has spent days with the game, but the video shown that he has only played through the Rebouldeux quest line (first town) while also showing footage of Coimbra (second town). The game really starts once your characters reach veteran to expert level (100 - 110+), which can be done in a few hours in a day as your characters level up like 20+/30+ levels as a reward after clearing all the main quest in each of the beginner towns (Rebouldeux, Coimbra, Auch, Ustiur, Bahamar), and you get a generous amount of level up cards on the way. Once you reached this level, your character should be able to start doing solo raids. 2. Yes it is easy in the beginning as they intentionally made it so that you can blaze through the beginner sections. You can have your characters stop and get attacked by jumping crocodiles without any serious threat in the area literally just outside the starting town. The game definitely does not lack depth and challenge, and once you reached the late stages of the early game, you will start to consider positioning, team compositions, and timing when doing many quests and raids (even solo raids and dungeons), so long as youre not grossly over leveled, of course. for new players, its probably a good idea to invest in the fighter in the early game, as their job skill is "Provoke", which can aggro enemies to attack them. 3. This game really evolves around the stance system. The stance system is almost similar to the one guild wars 2 has, with each character class having access to different attacks and skills based on the weapons that they equip. Using the scout as an example, their basic stances includes access to the dagger and bare handed. Equipping one dagger has a different set of skills than for when you equip 2 daggers at once. When bare handed, the scout has access to 3 stances in the beginninng, one for first aid healing, and one for buffing (speed up, attack up, etc), the last is for placing traps. The reason why the scout does not has access to the Rifle, is because there is already a Musketeer class in the game, which can be chosen when starting the game, and can also equip pistols (single handed and dual handed). Once your scout reaches veteran and expert level, then they have access to better stances and skills that allow them give stronger buffs and look for hidden enemies, as well as a stronger dagger stance that can debuff and poison an enemy. 3. You can recruit UPCs (Unique Playable Characters), which are just "NPCs" that you can add to your family. There are hundreds of them, and some even have access to different sets of stances and Job skills. You can even have that blacksmith girl in the video in your crew (she wields greatswords and poles, and can reduce the DR of enemies). Some UPCs use Knuckles to beat enemies using martial arts, one even uses a crossbow like a Stalker class (My favorite UPC). This is one of the best highlights of the game, as there are many interesting characters with unique stance and skill combinations that you can play around with. 4. The reason why the armor values do not show up in the inventory screen is because the "Cresmento" line of gears scales with the characters level, with a max of base AR (Attack Rating) of 28 or DR (Defense Rating) of 28, and 30 if you upgrade it to +6. Once you have overgrown that gear class, you can invest in sexier gears with a higher AR/DR, which can be bought or obtained through various means, and can be upgraded to +13. 5. The trading system in this game is probably the cleanest and most efficient I have ever experienced in any online game and MMO. No clutter, no unecessary UI elements, nothing. You might have not accessed it yet as it is restricted to a certain level to avoid smurf accounts from crashing the Market. You can trade your goods in the market manager, and it is as simple as posting an item, naming the price, and waiting for a player to buy. No stupid timed auction stuff, just simple buy and sell. I cant really write anything more as there many great things about this game, as well as bad things, admitedlly. I cant fault Josh though as he must have played in Blind, like most players would. After a long hiatus, i used to send mesages to the global channel and there were usually veterans who are more than happy to show me the ropes. Maybe it is not like that anymore. It is just a shame that he barely scratched even the beginning of this game while already making a conclusion, like playing neverwinter but already making a conclusion after doing only reaching level 10

[@fourleggedlys]

Josh finally reviews Granado Espada, and it's not even my birthday! This game has been dead for a long while, dunno who or why keeps it on life support. It originally came out in 2006, I played it around 2010 maybe. There were lots of people, duels, guild wars, world events, an auction to trade items between players, and those dungeons where monsters never stop spawning barely had enough mobs for everyone. You could run through the whole dungeon and not find a spot to farm because there's somebody else's family around every corner. Torsche's Mansion is unforgettable, you had an opportunity to farm Catherine's body parts and make a whole Catherine eventually out of them. A human-sized doll made after dr Torsche's dead daughter's likeness, she could summon a whole army of smaller dolls. Everyone wanted Catherine in their collection of playable characters. But while some of her body parts, like arms or legs, were relatively easy to farm, some others were a rare drop and cost you your own arm and a leg at the auction. Catherine's ass was the rarest I was lucky to farm not just one but two! Never got to the endgame back then and tried GS again years later in 2019. There were maybe four people online, including myself... Much easier to get to level 100 now, but progress becomes slow as a snail after that. Your family can afk progress the whole day before that and acquire at least 1/3 of a level, or maybe even a couple levels. After that, it's more like 1/10. You're incentivized to buy various content since it becomes increasingly improbable to obtain for free. And there is a lot of content past level 100, according to maps and npcs, but I'll never get to see it. A pity.