Worst MMO Ever? - SoulWorker

[@TheKarishi]

It would be genuinely hilarious if you had a videogame with a bunch of characters and one of them is an absolute sociopath like this kid and then that character specifically can't pet the dog but petting the dog was available to the rest of the characters.

[@pinkius]

imagine if it was like that, but josh just got unlucky with his first character choice... sadly it's not lmao

[@Apudurangdinya]

that would be hillarious

[@sqentontheslime1967]

“I will not humour this canine! Hmph, pointless.”

[@Khiruji]

I'm sure playing such a character is more fun than this edgelord.

[@angelwater8987]

lol 😂😂😂

[@GcYoshi13]

Definitely dropping "the female figure is a feast I couldn't bear to forego" line on my next date.

[@UmmItsMJ]

Lmao, I can’t even believe that’s an actual line

[@kanayadeliz2584]

Wear a cape, too

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

@@kanayadeliz2584 and either a fedora or a suit shirt and cut-up jeans.

[@artur583]

Jus tried it. Don't. I got slapped. 😑

[@angelocarantino4803]

@@artur583 for real?

[@little_leo_john]

Fun fact! I worked as a QA on the mobile version of the game. We were talking to people from Game Forge and they did NOT KNOW HOW THE GAME IS EVEN SUPPOSED TO WORK. Developers were in Korea, and we weren't allowed to contact them directly. Localization was so painfully broken, we couldn't even figure what some systems do. I left pretty quickly, but it was a fun experience :D

[@vardiganxpl1698]

Yeah, I can tell that there was some communication issues involved with the development of the game

[@MrSonny6155]

Luckily, it still seems this is one of the more functional games in the weeb MMO market. Looking at some of these other Gameforge ones seems to be pretty worrying...

[@little_leo_john]

@@MrSonny6155 I used to play one of the old MMOs by Gameforge, 4Story. It was more than 10 years ago, and when I looked up how's the game doing two years ago, it's pretty much dead. I remember it closing several times

[@DevDreCW]

So I think this is a problem that hits many more industries than just game design. I worked in a clinical setting and we had the exact same issue, the company creating the product we had to sell was impossible to contact. They didn't even have a phone number. We had to contact our parent company, and they would have to set up some cryptic meeting to discuss 'key points' that our managers would have to put together in a correctly formatted email, and if it wasn't formatted right? Thrown out. It's insane, we had 1 very serious issue that in the 2 years I worked there not only never got fixed, none of us knew if the company ever got the information lol

[@frosteyetheseal9270]

of course it's from korea

[@canard93]

"The oldest character is 19 year old Lee Nabi who as we can see has huge caliber guns... she also uses a rifle" Just BRILLIANT

[@ever-changingbeing]

This. Anime cult FTW.

[@kurousagi1239]

"huge" caliber guns Ah yes, typical anime game

[@NaoyaYami]

I knew he was going there. I know this is a really easy joke to make. josh's delivery made it amazing nonetheless. ;)

[@planescaped]

The 19 year old looks and carries herself like she's 35. The 14 year old looks and carries herself like she's 19. Oh anime... -___-

[@-pressxtostart-]

@@planescaped hot af

[@Dreznin]

When you said that the game probably had a good difficulty curve and interesting mechanics once upon a time before they decided to give everyone OP gear and negate the challenge, that is 100% what Vindictus was too... you nailed it - this is Anime Vindictus.

[@matthewoconnor2742]

Isin't vindictus already kinda anime?

[@mephiston7253]

this is not anime vindictus because at least in this game you can CRAFT cosmetic outfits bypassing the cash shop altogether lol

[@laerin7931]

Pretty sure Tera has that as well, where the game will give you OP gear at regular intervals during leveling to ensure that you basically have no challenge until max level.

[@AndresLionheart]

Same with Balde & Soul. I tried it again when an engine update dropped and I was baffled by what they made of the early game. You get so much more experience now that you can just mash through everything. So many skills unlock so fast that is impossible to learn your class. On top of that they shower you with different kind of materials and things that you have no idea what they are for. Even though I knew the game from years ago I was overwhelmed. I logged out and unistalled it 30 minutes later.

[@kevadu]

So I'm not expert on this game (haven't even played it), but don't most long-running games usually do this because of catch-up mechanics? They generally didn't *start* that way, it's just that after a game has been going for years they want new players to be able to get to end-game content as quickly as possible. And once you get there they're usually a lot more challenging with more meaningful upgrades, etc. It's not a perfect system by any means but I'm also not sure what a better way to handle things would be.

[@ranggasetya1984]

the plot and characters made me appreciate what real life offers

[@dankultimate3929]

Real

[@olivercharles2930]

@@dankultimate3929 bot

[@blazeinaba3195]

ikr, this game also teach you if you feel like a total screw up then talk to a mirror and do self-introspection.

[@moseslalmuanpuia8988]

true. I'd definitely still play this game if I wasn't embarassed to be called a pedo wanking off to underage anime girls.

[@s_oba]

@@olivercharles2930 what?

[@snakeinthereeds]

Rather than "power" fantasy, it's a "power trip" fantasy, because while your character is overwhelmingly powerful, even that power is overshadowed by their even more overwhelmingly inflated ego.

[@gadberman9888]

the game is a grinding game and this youtuber is talking absolute nonsense

[@shadowsketch926]

@@gadberman9888 nah, the character really does make himself to be a doucheballoon, and grinding in mmo's is a given. it's the disparity between MC being reassured of their power non stop and being arrogant about it while getting their shit kicked in in-game because the game mechanics contradict it, and that's a different point to be made.

[@corporalcookie5299]

@@gadberman9888 literally every MMO is a grindy game but when youre given strong gear for free that invalidates your grinding its just bad design

[@Mark-vr7pt]

That's true. But this is an anime rpg, of course they have over-exaggerated plot and characters.

[@hazukichanx408]

Seems kinda like "Chuunibyou - The Game". At least the character Josh picked. But also, probably, the whole game. (Chuunibyou is a disease often caught by Japanese middle-schoolers; symptoms include edginess, poseurism, and elaborate "dark history" superpower origin backstories, typically involving demons in your bandage-shrouded right arm or eye or something.)

[@Nyghtking]

"I studied the blade" *plays a character that only uses a gun. I just found that to be funnier then you may have intended.

[@trustytrest]

He studied the blade and still decided guns were better haha

[@seifer447]

Real life tends to agree, but this is anime. Surely he should be parrying bullets.

[@ratoh1710]

@@trustytrest So did the rest of the world

[@aquaicecold5521]

He don't need the blade he is already edgy and adding the blade will only cut him

[@shirrenthewanderer414]

It's possible the "Blade" bay be in a metaphorical sense.

[@bannerturtoise1219]

I saw that the character selection screen had one other male character so I wanted to look into them. Jin Seipatsu is his name, and based on what I read so far, he is an absoulute chad. He took on part time jobs to help his family, became part of a rescue group to help people, and then only went into the void because he wanted to save those lost. Does that make him a bit of a gary stu? Probably, but I'd take that over Neckbeard fantasy anyday.

[@_Obey_]

That dude sounds way more relatable than the fedora wearing neckbeard disguised as a 12 year old anime boi though. This little twat is the most overly gary stu I've seen in a long time and the worst thing is, its not even meant as satire, they're fking serious.

[@stonks8849]

Until you realize he was merely trying numb his emptiness from having his dream shattered by the suddenly-appeared apocalypse and deathes of his loved ones. He can't help but doing all the good deeds just to make himself feel occupied and gain a slim delusion of self-worth. And the seem-heroic action of "went into void to save others" was actually a self-deception, an atempt to suicide.

[@hawkticus_history_corner]

@@stonks8849 Fucking hell thats a surprisingly deep character.

[@peasantinabottle4609]

@@hawkticus_history_corner welcome to soulworker, a lot of characters can be like this lol

[@quannguyenle9775]

@@stonks8849 the punchy guy is he

[@grantsamson2384]

Imagine a game that tested the player in some simulation for some space war. The gameplay was all trivially easy while the operators praise you the entire time for your overwhelming power. After beating the "final boss", you are told you that you were super high rated and that no one had ever matched your score, then sent you on a mission with a bunch of other guys on an aerial transport. On the troop carrier one of your fellows tells you not to worry, because he had the highest simulator rating in history and he'd take care of you. Then another guy speaks up saying he was told essentially same thing, that no one had scored such a high power rating. There's some confusion as the people on the transport start debating what this could mean, when outside a window you see another transport get shot out of the sky, killing everyone on board instantly. There's a sense of silent panic as the ship lands amid sounds of gunfire and explosions. The doors open and 3 of the guys who ran out are instantly shot down... then the game begins. That would be hilarious.

[@mastermenthe]

I've seen that. It is rarely done well, and always kills the story flow.

[@cvernon5256]

At first I thought you were explaining the basic premise of Ender's Game. It certainly sounded like it.

[@aerion4077]

@@mastermenthe where?

[@ConnorEilers]

@@mastermenthe That's a shame. It sounds like a pretty cool concept. I like the newbies-are-in-way-over-their-heads trope.

[@mastermenthe]

@@ConnorEilers the problem is that it only works as a one shot, being a subversion-of-premise in the /start/ of the novel. Subversion-of-premise is attacking the audience for having read the prologue/suspended their disbelief. The only way to do it well is to do it secretly, to sneak it past the audience by emphasizing other themes, or better yet, by telling an entirely different story where subversion-of-premise *is the premise*. TL;DR when a story title says "my slash romance with Sasuke" you don't betray the reader expectations so blatantly as swapping the Reader/Sasuke premise with a Reader/Naruto premise... *unless* the premise bait-and-switch happens inside the very first chapter the audience can view, before the audience can have any suspension of disbelief invested into the initial story premise.

[@rinwolfcren8583]

"You cannot pet the dog / 10..." Dang, that's gotta be the harshest rating he's ever given a game.

[@aliasunknown4879]

Simply put it is. Out of all the interactions a game can give the player, petting animals is the most important.

[@VixYW]

As a dog hater, I approve this rating. All hail the feline supremacy!

[@Skidipapaz]

@@VixYW Feline supremacy? Sheesh, definitely a virgin.

[@Gatorade151]

@@Skidipapaz or a furry lol

[@VixYW]

@@Skidipapaz Piece of advice my friend: women are really into cat loving guys. Just saying. ;)

[@freshairsnipe6592]

I'm so glad I picked the gauntlet guy when I tried this game out because that character he chose seems insufferable.

[@aerbon]

i played as a cat

[@MarioVSCulex]

That does open for the best character development though, since he's the only one who REALLY changes after Chapter 2.

[@Intelwinsbigly]

@@MarioVSCulex How does he change in chapter 2

[@ItsXetren]

@@MarioVSCulex Not really, Ephnel changes too. Her change isn't immediate, but it is the catalyst for her gradual change, which I'd say is better than any sudden change.

[@gazirelseiryuu7229]

Man, i do love Eric, he is just an edgy dick to everyone, in a way its almost Art. ... oh.. and his Candy Knight Transmog is just the best costume in the game, at least it was back when i played so many years ago.

[@hansjurgen4860]

"She also uses a rifle" that killed me

[@kyotheman69]

yes she does have high caliber guns

[@cattrucker8257]

That's what rifles are for!

[@dwavenminer]

"Get that bitch a cannon, bitches love cannons" -Alucard

[@GeorgeMonet]

@@dwavenminer Hellsing Abridged is trash made by idiots.

[@cl8804]

The kid got it from Futurama.

[@midnightflare9879]

"Oh no, I have made Gun Kirito, haven't I..?" *At that point, Josh realized he doomed himself. But it was too late to turn back.*

[@AscendantStoic]

This MC's ego actually far eclipses Kirito's ego, also... Gun Kirito already exists in Gun Gale Online 😏

[@LuriTV]

@@AscendantStoic no, even in Gun Gale Online Kirito uses swords because he is so much better than anyone else (even trained real live soldiers). True, Kirito's ego isn't that high as Erwins but his constant brooding and that everyone loves him or looking up to him is another kind of Mary Sue. I think he is even worse.

[@AscendantStoic]

@@LuriTV If I remember correctly he does use a handgun as a side-weapon besides his sword.

[@frtzkng]

"The female figure is a feast I couldn't bear to forgo!" I find it baffling how this sentence manages to put women on an enormous pedestal while also being incredibly degrading towards them.

[@Dappis]

It's min-maxing misogyny, honestly poetic

[@MetalHeartGunner]

Hard to tell wether they succeeded or totally failed on that one

[@Laezar1]

The word you're looking for is "Objectification"

[@Juel92]

That's a pick up line in a nutshell lol

[@ainulvr9808]

That´s basically what an incel would probably consider "flattering" for a woman

[@meghanhenderson6682]

The more you hate the character, the more you can decide the other people around him are building up his ego so they can watch him take on a challenge too big for him so they can watch him get eaten.

[@wolfeloma]

eaten by wha?

[@richmondvand147]

ROFL and there was much rejoicing kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5TMiWWjmq6ejqs

[@coolbread99]

I love that the phrasing when protagonist boy says the harem line implies that building a harem is an inevitability, as if he is aware he's in an anime game and knows where all this is going.

[@lunausagi8495]

Or... He's not self aware and is just a jerk faced a hole

[@gerardbufushanananananana7459]

"Never before have I ever wanted to reach through the screen and strangle the main character quite so badly." And this is why I absolutely hate Erwin. His attitude doesn't get any better the farther you go. Screw being one of the top dps for bosses, I can't enjoy the game wanting to choke the life out of the character I'm playing with my own two hands.

[@bblank_1278]

Noo y'all he gets better I swear - *crying in Erwin apologist* he even had a heart to heart with the egg mercenary guy late game he's actually improving a lot TT

[@_piranha]

Me watching literally 70% of anime, holy shit male anime MCs can get SO bad it literally ruins the entire source

[@jaskaranbajwa8443]

@@_piranha Just don't watch the garbage seasonal trash that people fawn over and you'll generally find less infuriating MCs (since the weeaboos can't self-insert)

[@Dead8Head]

You guys don't really understand writing at all, cause Rufus from Deponia is exactly like this. A completely egotistical sociopath that only wants to get to Elysium by any means necessary. Alot of people hated him, for me I enjoyed him cause he can be witty at times and he is also the cause of the main plot points which I find him more interesting. Cause without Rufus, none of the events in Deponia will happen so basically our character is a anti-hero and I find that refreshing. He does change significantly to call it change cause. (What soulworker does badly is sucking the main character dick while not genuinely reacting to the characters behavior in any realistic way. Say if a commander got disrespect for no reason and he doesn't punish his subordinate)

[@sauronmauron6965]

I didn't remember the name of the protagonist and i thought you had beef with the character from AoT

[@CharlesGriswold]

"You cannot pet the dog. Out of ten." That's just about the harshest rating I have ever witnessed.

[@diamondhamster4320]

True but it is at least not killing the dog like in TLOU 2.

[@LuriTV]

@@diamondhamster4320 *cough* a plague tale - innocence *cough*

[@Suicidalsheep]

Josh should make a award show at the end of the year and nominated some of the worst MMO's of the year

[@Chance57]

Josh should make an MMO

[@vxicepickxv]

@@Chance57 Josh should get professionals to make an MMO.

[@thebossofbox]

@@Chance57 he probably would if you can find someone to give him about 300 million

[@Chance57]

@@thebossofbox He's a smart guy. If his idea are good enough, someone would foot the bill. I'm sure he's played MMOs that cost significantly less and given them good scores so I don't know why he'd have to shoot for the moon with a $300,000,000 budget.

[@r8tedh8ted39]

The MMOH-NOs

[@rirururu4697]

I love how this video kind of turned into an analysis on difficulty curves and how a ton of modern MMO's have been screwing them up recently. I remember over 10 years ago, there was an MMO that I played for hours every day. It took me about 2 years to make it even close to the highest level and I was proud of my accomplishments. A few weeks later, the devs decided to introduce a tree that lets newbies get all their levels just by sitting and afk-ing under it. We're talking about a year of grinding levels condensed into a few hours of doing nothing. I'm sad to say that that was NOT the only MMO I played that suffered that problem months/years after I joined. Devs need to learn that giving people everything instead of letting them work for it by actually playing the game just kills any retention they could've had for it.

[@UryuCifer]

They let people work for their stuff, in endgame which is the whole point of MMOS, if the game helps you reach endgame easier/faster then its better. Who tf wants to spend months or years just to reach the actual start of a MMO

[@UryuCifer]

​@@EllaKarhu bUsSInES cOMpAnIES jUSt cARe aBOuT mOnEY

[@generaljuno6895]

@@UryuCifer well its more about the journey not the destination. If the MMO is only fun in the end game, then the MMO isnt done well.

[@UryuCifer]

@Laurence Small except the end game is everything in mmos, so if the end game is amazing then its done well

[@SadoMessiahLP]

@@UryuCifer So in your opinion, they design this huge open world with a ton of quests and story, memorable locations etc. just for it to be ignored? Sure thing buddy, no go take your adhd meds xD

[@IAmKlagg]

I feel as though Josh's patreon list is going to continue growing until each name just becomes a line of pixels, and I think he's earned that right.

[@SylvieOnline]

We're gonna need 8k cinema monitors to read that list in 6 months :)))

[@GGG_gaming]

@@SylvieOnline 8k or not, you still need a microscope

[@Emelefpi]

He could start putting in joke names like 'Mike Ockhertz' or 'Dan Druff' and noone would be the wiser

[@lostgarbage4055]

Kinda a bit rude towards people who support him.

[@GGG_gaming]

@@lostgarbage4055 you mean the image at the end that he has constantly stated he wont add a second page and he is finding it funny to make it smaller? the thing he stated for atleast a year now and still people keep supporting him yeah i think they are all cool with it

[@the_exegete]

"Maybe not the target demographic you really wanna be going for." I guarantee the publishers of this game are going for that exact demographic.

[@Creocist]

Don't show Josh Azur Lane, Honkai or any of the Fate games, he's not ready to jump into the weeb rabbit hole

[@SporianSummit]

@@Creocist the realm of the weaboo is one of pure terror

[@timon7095]

@@Creocist played Azur Lane back in the day during covid Thinking back on it, holy fuck the community is an entirely new level of horny

[@SporianSummit]

@@stankobarabata2406 wait isnt fate an rpg series by wildtangent? I have no idea what that slavjanker is smoking

[@GrassSaint33]

@@stankobarabata2406 the original fate VN was porn. it was always like this lol

[@beyondnomore1230]

You'd have a polar opposite experience story-wise if you had chosen Jin as your character. He is super polite and humble

[@queerlibtardhippie9357]

I don't think he would have had a different conclusion because of the gameplay itself. He didn't compliment the character he chose, but he also didn't compliment the game except to say that it looks good. He consisitently says its repetitive, boring, and pay to win. It really wouldn't have mattered if he picked a nice character. He just wouldn't have complained about that one thing.

[@TheAtemAndrew]

@@queerlibtardhippie9357 You say that, but he critiqued the character several times and the devs by extension.

[@unixerse297]

@queer libtard hippie Picking the 'nice' character is not really related to the game bugs, and game designs that are obviously pretty bad

[@UryuCifer]

​@@queerlibtardhippie9357 ofc it was not gonna change anything, he got to lvl 11 only and thought he knew everything about the game 😂

[@UryuCifer]

​@UnIxerse random guy on the internet says its obviously pretty bad so it must be true amirigh

[@gulferamus4999]

The dynamic between josh and MC is comedic gold. I'd watch a TV Show where they have to share an apartment in NYC.

[@narutim097]

Just Josh eating cereal and the guy coming in saying something cringey followed by a laugh track. Still better than TBBT

[@aciDCXIV]

Fund it.

[@Timbolus97]

@@narutim097 but Josh can't be outright hostile since he needs the MC to fund the apartment

[@Thyunda]

Best part of this game is the way it includes quest dialogue in the chat window. Means we can get screenshots of Josh saying "I has done animal cruelty. I is sorry." Thing of beauty.

[@ZatomiAwake]

Everything Josh said is definitely true, but I will grant, each individual character has their own personality and dialogue throughout the story, so there's actually a ton of written text in the game accounting for interactions with NPCs. Gun boy is a tool, but some of the other characters range from basically okay, to actually interesting. The girl with the gun hammer thing is confident and rash, but also talks to the mission organizer lady like an older sister, constantly asking how she feels about things and if she's interested in any guys. It's very slapstick, but it's better the dual gun asshat lmao

[@whattodo3116]

Soulworker recently had a hack where the hacker would take over the announcement system and spammed the funniest things, it happened due to Lion Games are so incompetent with handling the game on the technical side. The hacker even notified and emailed them months before it happened, but they just did not care a single bit. There are 2 videos on my channel showing the incident as it happened.

[@danielramsey6141]

WOW!! 🤣 That is awful.

[@MrAvalonify]

having played this game multiple characters to 65, ALL its difficulty is in the end levels, especially the Desireworker upgrade stuff, that stuff will beat the living crap out of you over and over, and most of it because you kinda smooth sailing yourself all the way to 65. So you get introduced to this super hard questline (that you HAVE to do) but its only after you basically left clicked your way to the end. And then the quest line bosses kill you repeatedly for about 3hrs and teach you very quickly you better learn your skill combinations and combo queues, like...immediately. Its like from zero to 1million in the space of a few SECONDS.

[@killerkonnat]

They must'ce changed that significantly. Because after launch, the higher difficulty levels of dungeons of each area were REALLY hard. Like unbalanced levels of 2-shotting you so you had to dodge everything and often spend resurrects. And those dungeons were mandatory for exp and story progress.

[@belstar1128]

Reminds me of retail wow the first 99% of the game is super easy but then it suddenly gets super hard.

[@lostgarbage4055]

question - is the plot different for each character? Are females acting like genderbent neckbeards?

[@MrAvalonify]

@@lostgarbage4055 um no, Erwin is absolutely insufferable and stays that way throughout, but the other characters (once you meet them, story is actually half decent at this point) he's treated like a punching bag who is constantly being pulled away from whatever he's swooning over currently. Haru is the female character who wanted to be a doctor, before the portal to the SW world happened and dragged her in and forced her to fight. As a result she's absolutely mortified at her actions. Iris is the reliable Prefect top student. Chie is a cat. Don't think too hard on that one Jin is your reliable senpai with insecurity issues. Stella had an awful childhood and as a result has trouble making friends. They're the ones I remember off the top of my head.

[@MrAvalonify]

@@killerkonnat it hasn't been like that for awhile. Gear gravy train stops at 60 (55?) And from that point you have to do raids or Grind for it. And oh boy the grind makes you realise this sure is a Korean MMO. And to think the entire game used to be like this. No wonder it already died once .

[@damsonrhea]

You know, I'm sort of suprised how few games took notes from the Atelier series for crafting. It mastered making people want to go whole hog for crafting, and it isn't like it did anything complicated.

[@JasonEngman]

I think EQ2 had a little mini game for crafting but thats the only one I can think of, no where near as fully featured. Trying to balance that in a MMO would be nuts and is a game by itself (obviously). I feel the newer Atelier games almost got too complex and muddled in some of the alchemy stuff.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

I'm surpised how few games took notes on how to make crafting gameplay from... minecraft. Seriously, the thing is rather intuitive. Not perfect, but intuitive, and better than choosing stuff from menus.

[@Juliett-A]

"Who as we can see, has huge caliber guns. She also uses a rifle." This killed me.

[@ember_falls]

I gotta say, Lilly was a much more tolerable character. All she wanted to do was to kill monsters and that was something I very much could relate to.

[@NcrXnbi]

Most of us don't want anything fancy in our lives.... We just want to blow shit up to pieces. :D

[@yanisqwertyuiop]

There's also the fact that there is one way to reliably get more inventory space, and that is inside your welcome back package, which you can only get after 30 days without playing, and not in the daily login reward, you are LITERALLY compelled to stay away as far as possible from the game.

[@UryuCifer]

except you can buy inventory space with in game currency

[@thegamer101n]

Mad respect to Josh for sticking with that douche of a character for the whole review. Personally would have switch the instant I saw his text dialogue

[@_Sage967_]

i never actually played the game long enough to find his pretentiousness. i either forgot what existed in the tutorial or quickly switched to punch boy before dropping the game

[@hmmmooops]

I somehow doubt they wrote better dialogue for the women so this might be a blessing

[@colinduchilio4052]

@@hmmmooops Well, most characters are completely fine. Erwin also gets better later, but he is a horndog. His whole character revolves around the flaws of his pleasure-seeking nature. The only character I can say i dislike more at their core is Ephnel.

[@noahleach7690]

@@colinduchilio4052 go outside

[@WalkerRileyMC]

@@colinduchilio4052 Playboys are smooth talking charmers who know exactly what to say to get women into bed with them. Erwin is that edgy incel who thinks he's smooth but is really ridiculously cringy. He is also portrayed as one hell of a marty sue, which in of itself just showcases really bad writing.

[@mikato2]

"I get to customize him somewhat with different hairstyles and see how different outfits look on him, and I start the game, and- Oh *no*, I've made gun Kirito haven't I?" Got me cackling like a hyena on nitrous.

[@citronquartz2779]

love how not being able to pet the dog was the final straw for josh, causing him to list every critique he had of the game all at once

[@qfish2063]

As an existing player I've always agreed that the new player experience and the translation has always been the worst part and it's always been a shame. They don't teach you about a lot of stuff and it's at the point where people have written a 30 page new player guide because of the games failure to teach people. Also till this day idk why blue quests exist, they are so terrible. It's even more sad when you know that later on they are perfectly capable of making something good, but for some reason they are unable to introduce new players to it early on, even to the point where they fail to get you to open the skill page.

[@miorioff]

Do you recommend to give it a second try? Because I dropped it after maybe 15 hours and game was a joke mobile instanced action all the way through

[@alexandrebelair4360]

@@miorioff the game will die soon.

[@magatsudreemurr7717]

Played for hundreds of hours back 2017 when i was 17 and f2p. i always come back to the game when a new character comes out. it's a guilty pleasure i suppose. i also always play solo.

[@ratoh1710]

@@miorioff Haven't played it myself, but if I were to guess the game probably only gets interesting at the endgame. Them giving new players overpowered gear is usually an indication they just want you to get to that as soon as possible but don't want to put in the effort to rework the early to mid-game so they just give you overpowered stuff to get you there quicker or massive experience boosts.

[@qfish2063]

​@@miorioff Hard to say at what point you got to, and I also generally don't know what I’d say at the moment. I think to a big degree, the combat system in raids has a lot of depth and feels really good when you’re not just breezing through mazes, especially when you get to actual raids and you’re dealing with mechanics, it’s by far one of my favourite feeling combat systems and is probably the only reason I’m still playing at the moment. But while endgame fixes some issues josh addresses, new ones do arise. I think their actual raids have decent bosses but that also comes with a significant difficulty curve since pretty much all 'maze bosses' have mechanics that are pretty much ignored outside of like 1? If you’re not the far into the zones, you don't start doing raids until about level 65 (technically at 60 you unlock AoV which is the first raid with mechanics but it’s very hard before 65 gear) which I think is a slog for most people. And end game is entirely a self-improvement ranking based system once you have cleared all the content and got your gear so that may not be for everyone. Also, while there is no gear downgrading on upgrading, the system is still kind of shitty for a fresh player right now if you are rushing to endgame since upgrading requires you to stockpile resources. There is, however, significant changes coming to the season 2 version of the game with the new lead that appears to fix a lot of the problems, but is it acceptable that said solutions are 2 & 6 months away? I’d say not. I want to say give it a shot, but your also wasting a good portion of your time to get there right now, so overall I think i'd say no, but perhaps look up raids such as Hidden Hideout, Lunar Fall, Violet Sun and Broken Savior to see if you like the look of them, since those are the current and upcoming relevant raids to progress through in order.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Oh, it's another one of THESE games by the sounds of it. Who bets we're getting a fiery wing animation when we level up?

[@a4arick106]

Not rly tho, there's some fun to it. But idk what's josh opinion about it

[@Nathan_Coley]

"one of these games"?

[@DrFrogglePhD]

@@Nathan_Coley "Dogshit". He's talking about "Dogshit Games". "Games that are objectively dogshit".

[@zerosyaoran]

Nope. This is a character action anime game, so it's more like Elsword than it is Ragnarok Online, if Elsword was fully 3D.

[@zerosyaoran]

@@Nathan_Coley Korean MMOs have a bad tendency of being grindfests where all you do is just kill monsters by the droves in pretty landscapes instead of being an actual adventure.

[@jackmadiaga8907]

As someone who has played it i can say that the game only gets interesting AFTER you get to level 65. Seems like the game wanted to make you feel such a badass at first to hook you in and once you reach max only then will it start giving you a challenge. So for me. This game has one of the longest tutorials there is. 65 levels of it.

[@olixx1213]

So basically TERA

[@MarioVSCulex]

It sucks because it used to be different, but this is what all MMOs have become.

[@kentknightofcaelin4537]

​@@MarioVSCulex no, there are still good ones.

[@shinobuoshino5066]

@@kentknightofcaelin4537 you forgot to edit your comment to tell us the good ones. lol you didn't bother back then, don't bother now, we both know it's all trash

[@excalitto]

I've been playing this game for a while and i can confirm that their upgrade system (for late game) ends up being either pay-walled or time gated, completely rendering time/effort from farming pointless. The system works like this: -Every single piece of gear and weapon has a limit amount of times it can be ATTEMPTED to upgrade, the cap is 40 times which you most likely reach before hitting +6 or +7 when the goal is +9. In order to have more upgrade attempts you need an anti limiter, which decreases the count of used attempts by 5 (some rare version reduces it by 10) giving you 5 more attempts to upgrade. This anti limiter is NOT farmable, so you have to either buy it with real money, wait for the GM mail to provide the item on VERY rare occasions, get 1 or so from login (once a month) or get it very rarely from events. -When you reach +4, you will require an item called "anti-destruction device", which CANNOT be farmed on a regular basis, you have to either get a very limited amount from some quests (which are not repeatable), get it from events (also limited to 20-25, some times less, PER UPDATE) or buy ONE PER DAY on the gruton shop for an absurdly high price (gruton coins are farmable though). This Anti-destruction device is very important because after +4 the item has a chance (very high, mind you) to break and if it breaks its useless, so you'll have to use a revive cell to make it usable again, which cannot be farmed and is extremely rarely provided ( i got 2 or 3 of them in 6months, i dont even know from where). So to give you an idea of how bad it is to upgrade end game gear, I had been saving these 2 important types resources for 4 months (keep in mind they are not farmable, they are provided by events, daily login once a month and GM mails on limited very amounts) just for them all to be useless because 90% of them were wasted on ONE SINGLE piece of gear just to make it +8 and have it sitting there at +8 for 2 months there after. The thing failed about 300 times DURING x2 upgrade rate. As f2p i was stuck without being able to use that piece of gear for 2 months because it NEEDS to be +9 in for it to be useful because at +9 it gives the most important stat of the game (accuracy, which defines whether you make a hit or miss a hit), and missing this "bonus" makes you virtually do no dmg in mazes, therefore being unable to progress because i had no resources left to upgrade it or the rest of the gear until these 2 resources were provided by the game. My very outdated +9 piece of gear was more useful than BIS at +8. Finally after 2 months of being stuck with progression i managed to +9 that thing and now i have no resources for the rest of my gear because all of them are capped at 40 attempts and stuck at +5 or less, which makes BIS gear useless compared to mid-tier gear. Which means im, yet again, stuck on progression for the next months until the game provides anti limiters and anti destruction devices, IF the RNG isnt as bad as it always is. so TLDR, the upgrade system is designed to eventually hit a paywall and make the player spend money for progression. Edit: LG (the devs) sucks at design.

[@00110000]

Wow thanks for the explanation. I'm getting some Maplestory vibes here. Quick question: where are you and who's holding a gun to your head?

[@neurotoxic1830]

I feel sorry for you-

[@jld12er30]

@@00110000 that would be me the gun is not getting pulled away anytime soon but dont worry i do let him use the bathroom once a day lol

[@Sorain1]

You know, I've always wanted someone to buy out management of one of these BS RNG upgrade system games and just, drown people in materials (easier then adjusting the odds I bet) constantly for 2-3 months, then poll people about if this improved the experience. Because it would let me make a point that any fun their game _might_ have is being ruined by this upgrade stupidity. Or if I had more technical capacity, literally just 'patched upgrade system, it no longer fails, you can turn in assurance items for upgrade materials at the upgrade NPC now.' then watch the results.

[@brunobruno-c1d]

@@Sorain1 they dont care about fun tho, its a system made to help them get money, aggressively so, obviously it'd make the experience much better, but then less people would be willing to pay to make it so

[@mikoto7693]

So I always feel a short burst of happiness when I see a new “Worst MMO” episode from JoshStrifeHayes. And… “messenging Minfilia.” I felt that.

[@LeoPokemonBrasil1]

Pray,

[@LeicaFleury]

To

[@alden2085]

Man, we all know everyone in XIV is simping for Y'shtola, not Minfilia...

[@AStrangeWindmill]

@@alden2085 Only because they put her in a knee-length church dress, sidelined her, and then got rid of her entirely.

[@Sch1sMx]

@@alden2085 speak for yourself i am simping for merlwyb

[@sneakymcbadguy5121]

For what it’s worth, i like the idea of your character actively jumping into the vortex doohickey because he wants some excitement but i’d prefer if it was like “oh this could be cool” instead of “heh… this whole world is so dull, when am i gonna get some REAL excitement?”

[@Farvadude]

0:07 this joke about the drop rate on her dragon plateskirt was probably the single best runescape related joke i've ever heard in my entire life. unquestionably. that line was legendary, and i hope everyone else notices it too.

[@DivineCocunut]

Had me laughing so hard had to go back to the start of the video cause I missed some of it.

[@MajorBraumstrong]

My quit moment for SoulWorker, was when the servers ran by Gameforge got closed, but players did not get the possibility to transfer their accounts to the new servers. 1,3k hours of gameplay gone just like that 💀

[@Darcmagikan1]

@RayIsNotReal they don't need to, since you never own anything you get in game or buy in the shop, with online games you just buy entry until the service ends

[@yurigagarine6998]

1,3k hours of holding left click.

[@Bluecho4]

Oof

[@solbradguy7628]

Wow thats some shit

[@alispeed5095]

Next time done play games by gameforge, after tera l donno why people still bother with those guys

[@A_Real_Rascal]

I feel that if you played any other characters you would've had a better time, I played as Chii Aruei and spent the whole time listening to her proclaiming that she's a cat, it was honestly really fun and adorable.

[@gildedmelody786]

to be fair the game has accurately given you the experience of being a character so powerful its boring, just way too well

[@Entroph08542]

No shit, Sherlock

[@InedibleMuffin]

Ahh soul worker, I used to have fun with this. Loved the combat, hated the progression, so I eventually played on a private server. Stopped eventually, but it was fun while it lasted. Also for what it's worth, Erwin starts off as quite the brat in the beginning, but he gets knocked down a few pegs later in the story as the weight of the situation hits him. He sees a character die or something and goes from self-centred douche to a "I must save everyone" cliche, which is significantly more bearable.

[@charcharmunr]

They don't hammer in that it's a bad thing that Erwin is such a dickbag early on, so the story sort of implicitly supports him being like this. Nobody really calls him out or anything.

[@estebanperez8133]

So he's still an insufferable narcissist, but now it's about looking like Jesus.

[@stungunnotapplicable1953]

But does the private server give you the ability to not have the spyware, or are you still going to want to spin up a virtual machine dedicated solely to it?

[@InedibleMuffin]

@@stungunnotapplicable1953 who knows, it was on my old computer, so whatever spyware came with it is gone now

[@ineffabletryx6528]

The "asking ur runescape girlfriend what the drop rate on her dragon skirt is" line is an amazing line that I don't think I will ever see matched.

[@98nchen]

I remember playing on a private server called burning soul worker. someone said it was better than the official. The story for other characters are different, and I think one of the other character's start at a different level/zone

[@primalmeridian]

My eyes lit up when I saw you did this game! I recall playing this game for exactly 3 days nonstop when I was in high school, and my only memories of it were of hanging out with a group of players in Rocco Town and one player playing a riddle game, then inviting me and another player to join their guild. We then proceeded to run a few levels together and show off some of our flashiest abilities, since we each played different classes (I played the scythe girl, if it matters). Unfortunately after those 3 days ran out, the full weight of how grindy it was and how expensive it was to get good outfit items hit me, and I was so burned out that I couldn't even muster the energy to re-open the game to tell my two friends goodbye. I wonder a lot about how they're doing nowadays...

[@jcrofficial4309]

Josh: Remember, this character is 15 years old. Designer: Ah yes, I did that. The world revolves around me.

[@557deadpool]

I mean, they're fictional so it doesn't matter

[@dankybutt1908]

@@557deadpool it does matter..?

[@557deadpool]

@@dankybutt1908 no?

[@imorgan3687]

@557deadpool, it does

[@557deadpool]

@@imorgan3687 no it really doesnt

[@Asin24]

I heard mentioning of dark and brooding and thought "yeah, those character backstories are pretty damn dark and depressing" and here Josh picks the one character that apparently is insufferable and doesn't have a backstory like that. That is only going to make the games issue and the story that much worst when you start with a obnoxious character like that.

[@charcharmunr]

I remember playing this a while back and I think he DOES grow out of the insufferability a bit but it takes far too long for him to be even remotely likeable. Like, the third or so main area has him strike up a friendship with a young girl and he's significantly less foppish around her, and then she dies and he gets less full of himself afterwards, but... Eh.

[@Esvald]

Yeah I mained Haru and found her pretty likable.

[@MoonTiger88]

@Gud Phrog Weirdly enough the younger characters' backstories are better. Not masterpieces obviously,but better. As for the difficulty, yeah, normal and hard are not too hard, but maniac is pretty decent.

[@upvoter8798]

@Gud Phrog A trope is not bad or good. It depends on how you use it. Which normally if a trope is used alot. It normally has been proven to work well in the past or something popular did it like south park very well and than everyone try to copy it without understanding it. Like how the sequel star wars films try to copy the original films and other things without understanding why they worked.

[@javonyounger5107]

@@charcharmunr Having a character like this is fine if other characters routinely call them out on it

[@gaberialangelfire]

I am not sure ive seen Josh get so tilted about a review before. The amount of well deserved salt in this video is so thick I threw a steak at my screen and got back beef jerky.

[@MyVanir]

Did you not watch the Isekai: Demon Waifu review?

[@defaulted9485]

I think his most tilted MMO is Ryzom. But on overall, Isekai Demon Waifu tilts him the most and all of us.

[@ShadowProject01]

@@MyVanir yes I spit out my drink watching that review. Josh went savage on that one 😂

[@SkullTheLegless]

Fun fact: the left 3 characters all start at higher levels than the right row. Sniper girl being the biggest of course (levelwise)

[@FrenziedFury]

"It is the 27th of January. Why is there a Christmas tree still up?" Meanwhile in Eorzea where they just started their Halloween seasonal...

[@shirrenthewanderer414]

Actually that was because they had to skip the Halloween season that year because of Endwalker development time. They really, really, REALLY wanted to make sure Endwalker had a perfect launch.

[@eikichionizuka2090]

2: 19 "she has huge calibur guns she also use a rifle" lmao i lost it there XD

[@brutalmclegend]

Just a few things I'd like to point out, as having played SoulWorker here and there for a couple years (Gameforge and re-release) in my downtime on FFXIV - Not all Cosmetics are Cash Shop, some "Mazes" Levels have them as rewards for killing the boss (or atleast the crafting blueprint for it) and likewise for end-game raids. Soulworker is a prime example of the early game is shit, the game doesn't actually pick up til end game, and while I personally enjoy a little bit of Hack n' Slash, Shoot n Loot here and there on it, I don't really encourage new players to pick it up, the first 50 odd hours, are boring, power fantasy, with everything handed to you, and then suddenly, you hit a brick wall and the boss 1 taps you repeatedly while you waste resurrection items to try and finish it off. The early-mid game doesn't prepare new players for anything like that, no explaining how important dodging is, etc, and like Josh said, Left-click Destroy everything works pretty much the same, right up until you hit endgame, when suddenly, Left-click attack, does... basically nothing? oh no, Now I have to redo my entire gear setup into Crit% and Crit#, and start using skills... The game teaches you nothing, because it expects you to buy outfits from the cash shop and sit in the Social Hubs all day, showing off your fashion, that's about it. Unless you plan to seriously get into just the end-game content, don't bother playing it, that's all I can say ^^

[@CyrilCommando]

As someone who's played this for hundreds of hours, I can say.. You pretty much nailed it on the head. The only thing I'd speak to is the way they give you the overpowered armor. The problem now is - there are no players in the early part of the game. The players who stuck around are all at the end game. You're correct that there was, once upon a time, a really great difficulty curve throughout the whole game. The problem now though, is that if they didn't give you overpowered armor (and boosted XP gain) you'd never make it out of the starting areas. When GameForge originally launched their version, you needed to grind EVERY area to get to the next level, and I mean every area. You had piss poor armor and had to upgrade it and grind the highest difficulty. Back then, you could ALWAYS find a team with "auto-team", because you'd NEED a team, believe me. You're right as well, that at the beginning of the game, that "Big Puppet" boss was actually a tough bastard. At launch, he was tough on normal and nuked 90% your HP bar on the highest difficulty. Basically, now, if they didn't give you the armor, you wouldn't make it anywhere. When I replayed the new launch I literally thought myself the exact same thing and thought it was a huge shame that that really fun, well crafted team-based experience was shit on for the sake of making sure people could actually play. I found myself routinely getting fatigued at how repetitive every single instance was being able to simply 1 shot everything without any effort. But, I think it's necessary. I also must speak to the endgame. The endgame difficulty spike is beyond absurd, in the original, and in the current state. You go from wiping out everything to getting 1 shotted, no exceptions. Ultimately what ruined this game for me is the difficulty spike at endgame. I've got about.. 750 hours across all versions, and the best way I can liken the entire experience is: It would be like if you just bought your dream car, are very excited, love it, but after driving it for 2 weeks, a dumbass drunkard totals it. It was an unfortunate waste that was fun while it lasted.

[@sylwesterkepa3283]

Hear, hear!

[@Krysnha]

I undertand when i see the games, are ending like that, when he do Lineage 2, a game i play it, and seen how it is now, is sad, and lets be honest, seen how they trhow things, because wow, put the idea that the only thing that matter is the end game, not the journey it is sad, wow itself used to have a nice story and now is a shadow

[@pallingtontheshrike6374]

so... basically, the dev has never heard of 'situation-based scaling,' to tune down hard levels when playing solo...

[@chunkyrabbit1032]

haha 69 likes nice

[@teocappy]

I feel the same thing for Elsword, when i started playing it was such a good and hard game where you had to grind and find people for dungeons because some dungeons had bosses with abusurd ammounts of health and deal close to two or one shot on everyone, it had mechanics to do and most dungeons had some gimmick and it was fun, but after the game died on Brazil and the only players left are people in the endgame griding PvP it feels just like a empty desert with abusrd cash shop that forces you either to destroy your wallet with upgrades and skip for dungeons/class quest/main scenario dungeons or to grind alone for days to not even make any progress so the game put another wall at your face so you have to grind even more, and good luck finding players in the early game to help you, good luck...

[@fuchswolfsson2622]

Lol, after you mentioned, that you cannot pet the dog, i immediately knew the final score for this game…

[@dorn0531]

It could only be that or “M’Lady”/10

[@_zealos_8213]

When I started, I was like "Oh guns! I like guns. That should be fun." and the character's personality made me uninstall the game That, and the point you made about holding left-click to win was all too evident. Similar reason I can't enjoy Closers.

[@bblank_1278]

Maybe you'd enjoy Nabi, the new rifle character... Although as an Erwin main, Nabi's just Erwin but less satisfying to play

[@KitOConnell]

Wow, the mini-boss exploded into a Disney+ ad. This game has amazing visual effects.

[@suqd674]

Leveling used to be kinda challenging when this game first came out back when Gameforge was publishing it. The current version on Steam is after the leveling difficulty has been streamlined and dumbed down massively. It's truly so boring I don't blame people for quitting before reaching level cap. Also it's so sad that once new content drops in this game, all the old content becomes redundant and forgotten. It would be so much more fun if they added new difficulty modes to old content, to make it relevant again. Why do MMORPG developers never think of doing that?

[@CharlesGriswold]

Because it would require at least a modicum of thought and effort.

[@Fexghadi]

The good ones do. FFXIV doesn't. But the reason GF made it difficult to level was to sell you more things. It was slower to level there than on the Eastern servers afaik.

[@citizensnips3850]

@@Fexghadi FFXIV literally has a minimum item-level sync option so you can play content at the brutal minimum required to complete it. Granted you can never exactltv what the content was on release because classes change but it certainly exists if you want it.

[@daniv2vil]

@@Fexghadi dont mention any mmorpg administrated by gameforge lvling in metin 2 for example was a pain in the ass even with any kind of boosters, cabal online had ways to exploit the lvling system but gameforge is predatory af and sadly those who decide to pay for the cash shop in gameforge games really have stockholm sd because it is predatory even for korean standardswich most of those games are

[@suqd674]

@@Fexghadi If I remember correctly, the leveling difficulty in GF version was similar as in JP server at some point.

[@HaydenX]

The "overpowered items early" thing has always bothered the hell out of me. As far as overpowered gear for new players is concerned...this is one of the few things I think WoW did the best. You reach level cap with a character, then it allows you to get items that scale with your level so that you can more easily level alts. That is what systems like this should be...the new player experience should not be like this...but the new *character* experience should be like this. I like when games allow you to quickly level alts because I am a serious long-time sufferer of altitis.

[@shirrenthewanderer414]

I think they added the items like that because Soulworker changed hands and all the characters got wiped, so they gave everyone super boxes so they can get their characters back.

[@AzureRoxe]

I'll always love when games, especially post-apocalyptic ones, reference the very thing they do and actively admit it's a bad thing. "People abused others and the world went to chaos because of it" said by a developer where the higher ups abuse their employees. "Idiots trying to make money" from a game with idiots doing everything possible to get money from you. "Slavery is bad" from the companies that treat their employees like slaves.

[@franciscobrisolladeoliveir9596]

Is the first one Naughty Dog? Third one is definitely EA

[@ekki1993]

@@franciscobrisolladeoliveir9596 They all represent the entirety of the AAA game industry. No exceptions.

[@HowlingDoom]

Thats because people who actually work on games aren't typically the multimillionaires who sit at the top. They're hard working people who want to use interactive media to tell a story or be fun.

[@steveheist6426]

@@franciscobrisolladeoliveir9596 Could also be ATVI

[@ekki1993]

@@HowlingDoom You're right but, to be fair, SoulWorker most likely isn't an example of that. They just seem to have used cliches and memes to speed up their writing process.

[@mugruncher7843]

"What's the drop rate of your dragon skirt?" 🤣 so simple yet so genius

[@shinoto.]

Its 1/512 for sure

[@quintiliuspebble722]

I consider this to be a story game. To me at least. Most of the dialog is rewritten for each character. Each character lives through the same events and people but build different relations. Different supporting characters get emphasis depending on witch player character you pick. One is an ashamed hero, one is a loyal demon cat who posed her owners corpse, one is a nurse in training who hates fighting, one is a little girl protected by ghosts, one is a broken girl who lost all that she loved, venting her sorrow and rage in bloodshed. I loved these stories. Never could make it to end game though. The gameplay to me felt like a boring obstacle with way to much grind. This current state is better than it used to be at least. Too bad Josh got the narcissist for his first pick. I don't like him ether.

[@SoggySoup]

Yeah a shame the translation is the official version is borked even if the GameForge version was worse in actual gameplay. Erwin's story arc of shitty angst to decent dude was really nice. Same about never making it to end game though.

[@quintiliuspebble722]

Recently as Haru Estia I got late in the game where we meet all the playable characters in story, and meeting Erwin was a shocker. He was the most put together. A leader even. He even became the support Haru needed to face her lingering issues. I was wrong to put Erwin aside like that. I love this story!!

[@SoggySoup]

@@quintiliuspebble722 Yeah I wish the game would be remade as a solo rpg experience. It’s sorta just lackluster as a multiplayer game anyway.

[@Bongyes]

This is one of those rare instances of me playing the game showed here fairly recently (month ago). Few small corrections -Yes, the plot of "Gun Kirito" is made to melt your brain and cry inside, but the "Rifle girl" Actually has the more serious plot. It's about how she was raised by hcaracter named "Grandmother" and is basically devoid of emotions and serving her unconditionally, while person you are assigned to work with later (Bernard) tries to make you think for yourself. There is also heroic knight dude as NPC, he was a little funny. I asume other characters have plot of varying deegree of quality. The main problem with the plot is also fact that theres too much of it and at some point you just skip it. -All the quests are easy EXCEPT that dungeon you didnt went to cause nobody queqed (not that it happened to me). That place i actually hard, you need all the skills, there are even maps with trap dodging (dark carnival) and bosses look amazing (not that their mechanics are too special, but "holding left" would just make you kill. On the other hand, game gives you approximately 600 healing items. So yeah, the game is i guess slightly better than the expirence in video might lead to, but overall it's still a grindy korean MMO (i dont care if its from Korea or not, its korean MMO, its a genre in itself) with anime characters.

[@peperonitoni441]

There's also the fact that the expansions of the characters' stories is just kind of buried pretty late into the game. Like, I've only played Lily, and as far as I've gotten her story is basically "Her brother died and now she just wants to slaughter monsters," with her personality just being "asshole who secretly cares." I love her aesthetic, as well as her "noble girl who isn't nearly as composed as you'd expect" cliche, and I genuinely want to know more about what her deal is but there's so much wildly uninteresting story padding before you even gain access to that kind of thing.

[@stonearchitect116]

Dark carnival is extremely easy to solo if you use Lee Nabi, the sniper girl. She has an attack where she pulls out a massive minigun turret, and shoots the hell out of every character in her range. Any boss was super easy, just use passive dmg boost, pull out minigun, hold left click, and watch boss health bar melt.

[@미러-v4n]

Well the developers of Soul Worker, Lion Games, is a Korean company so yeah, this is a Korean MMO.

[@fernandoalfian1814]

and jin... omg... ma boi got really a dark story attached to him :(((

[@MarioVSCulex]

I still like Erwin's story because he's the one hit most by the end of Chapter 2. I'd love to see the rest of the story but after losing my Gameforge files and seeing what happened to the game, I don't think I'll feel like replaying it.

[@BlueAnimeCat21]

16:22 so fun fact, there is actually a condition called prosopagnosia (also called face blindness) in which the person with said condition has trouble remembering other peoples faces, but this is applies to everyones faces and doesnt normally only apply to only one gender like in this instance it was so close to bringing more awareness to a condition like this which is rarely ever mentioned but unfortunately the game just had to butcher it not that i was expecting the game not to do just that but as someone who suffers with prosopagnosia, its always fun finding characters who might also have the same condition as myself oh well

[@lahuk1194]

Do all faces blur together? Or is it more a memory issue, where you're unable to recall a specific face? Just curious

[@charcharmunr]

I believe this is something of a semi-common joke for the type of character Erwin is. He dislikes the company of other men and states he can't even remember their faces. I've seen similar lines from similar (better-executed) characters who claim the same thing, though it's more joking in those cases.

[@BlueAnimeCat21]

@@lahuk1194 its more of a memory issue i can physically see that people have faces, but they all just look alike and i end up forgetting a persons particular facial features when im not looking at them

[@charcharmunr]

@@malicetosociety No, it's just a joke about this type of character.

[@BlueAnimeCat21]

@@malicetosociety Nah, he's just sexist lol. I just wish I could find more characters that actually do have Prosopagnosia tho tbh

[@ZwalistyDrwal]

Speaking of creepy stuff in this game, you can also place showers/tubs in the housing system, and watch you character shower in them 🙄 in their underwear ofc. You can also watch them as they sleep, all with animations and sounds

[@aleksasekulic2048]

By that logic you are a creep if you play Sims?

[@Josie.770]

@@aleksasekulic2048 If your sim is a child and you're watching them bathe in their underwear, yes.

[@aleksasekulic2048]

@@Josie.770 Okay, just asking because i got weirded out by the whole thing that much and im doing really good with my sims family lmao

[@PeugeotRocket]

So what's the creepy part?

[@PeugeotRocket]

​@@Josie.770I don't see any children in this game, just teenagers which in some countries and even some US states are legal so...

[@Melodeream]

The most fun I had in this game was on JP on release and later on private server, Cuz the stamina system and other things was killing me. btw there are some cool plot if you follow it. And I liked how different character have a different personality and dialog. And who you choose is really bad xD. I like Haru the blonde girl with the sword she was humble and shy, and wanting to help people and learning to be a doctor so it was fun to relate to her. It's funny how this and vindictus were fun on release and now they throw op items on you and kinda removing the challenge and progression.

[@akhannar9368]

As somebody who played (emphasis on past tense) Soulworker, I would like to mention this. The different characters have different dialogs. The other guy is far more likeable, and respectful. He jumped into the void because he saw people getting pulled in, and wanted to help. And yes, the fact that this game has only 2 male playable characters, does make the costumes thing seem worse.

[@jorjavggg]

I remember playing this game a long time ago. The worst part of everything of me is that at some point you'll need to level up to do the next mission, and the only way I found to do it was to do the last mission over and over again. The worst part is that after leveling up you do 1 or 2 more missions and have to level up again so you repeat the process. I stopped playing shortly after that so I cant say if it gets better.

[@Gakusangi]

You know, it wouldn't even be that hard to take a game like this and really fine-tune it into something interesting and and fun to play... but it wouldn't be designs specifically to take the money out of your wallet if you did all that.

[@Kairos_Akuma]

I feel like it would be a pretty okay Sologame if you finetune the Characters and story and let's you make a team out of the "Charakters".

[@arachnofiend2859]

@@Kairos_Akuma You're describing Punishing: Gray Raven, though the story still isn't great (better than this crap but still not great) and it's a gacha with most of what that entails. Some of the best action combat I've ever played though.

[@BknMoonStudios]

@@arachnofiend2859 Punishing: Gray Raven is such a beautiful and fun game, and it legitimately has one of the best soundtracks in gaming. I actually learned of the game through the themes of Rosetta(?) and Lamia. Pure trance glory. I'm pretty sad with how they butchered the overseas version and killed a lot of the momentum the game was gaining prior to release. If the launch of the overseas version went great, I honestly think it could've rivaled Honkai and even Genshin in popularity.

[@arachnofiend2859]

@@BknMoonStudios I don't think it's that popular even in its native China, though the rough launch definitely did not help it here. Fortunately the game seems to have recovered its reputation just by letting its gameplay and aesthetics do the talking.

[@MrNScatt]

Now here’s the question that intrigues me...can the dudes wear the bunny outfit? That would completely change the dynamic!

[@PrimroseParadox]

Nope! They got a butler suit instead.

[@jvckiwai7715]

Of course not... These games profit off of sexualizing women

[@2004DodgeViper]

*with JFK voice* I don't care what gender you are PUT ON THE MAID OUTFIT

[@cynthetic4896]

I played this game when I was younger, I didn't think it was this bad, then again I was mashing skip and reading a book for every cutscene.

[@EJ_Red]

"While you were simping for Sylvanas, I was studying the blade" You got my Life right there

[@JeffreydeKogel]

Josh: "It is the 27th of january, why is there a Christmas tree still up?" Me: *Blankly stares at the countless Christmas decorations and tree in the living room, shrugs and continues watching the video.*

[@aka-47k]

this so much, lol josh says alot of right things, but he definitely fails at some.

[@verafeiyd]

I love how the "I has done animal cruelty, I is sorry" line devolved Josh into his OSRS roots, full spacebar quest skip mode

[@forget3100]

To be fair, it is in-character for your insufferable character to say, "the old world is full of idiots chasing money." Even if the game itself embodies that statement.

[@SkilletTom]

An intro so methodical, so cold, so calculated, I honestly believe this to be nothing short of equally significant as the discovery of the golden ratio

[@Cp-71]

This game reminds me of one 4chan greentext: >Knock on door >"GO AWAY IM BUSY" >Door opens, anon's parents take a timid step into the room. >Pissjugs fill most of the available floorspace >"Anon, what... What are you doing?" >Camera pans to anon, who sits crosslegged and hunched over a small dusty monitor, fat rolls flowing freely to reveal a completely naked figure except for some ripped, stained Y-fronts. >"I just found a small indie game on Steam where I can exploit an ingame mechanic to crash the servers *snortlaugh* *shart* I'm basically a hacker, you know." >A pale, chunky hand reaches into an industrial-sized bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. Some sounds, akin to that of a hungry hippopotamus devouring a small mammal, follow. The creature wipes the crumbs on its pallid body. >"O-okay, anon. We'll leave you to it." >The mother wipes away a single tear as she backs out the room. The father gives a single glare, a mix of regret, shame and stoic acceptance, before following suit and gently closing over the door. >A single balloon reading "Happy 30th birthday, son!" hovers for several days in the doorway unnoticed, until the helium leaks out of it and it slumps, almost wearily, to the floor.

[@MasterAarott]

I spent some time with this game as a new player recently, here are some things I thought I'd add - Even though this game seems meant to be played with a controller, switching to controller is a setting, and you can't access settings during the tutorial. So as a controller player, I had to play through the tutorial with a trackpad. - Every character has different dialogue and different NPC responses. They're all super tropey, but at least some player characters aren't completely insufferable. It gives the 'story' some replayability. - After playing through chapter 2 with the first character, I started the game with a new character and purposely avoided all the boxes with op equipment in them. I can report that, without the OP items and going through the base game, you will have to start dodging on Manic difficulty in chapter 2 or else perish very quickly.

[@orionar2461]

@Chris has a comment here explaining why this happens

[@PrimroseParadox]

That 14 year old character is also half possessed by a ghost called "The old man". Just to make it even worse.

[@mantazerted7155]

Thats fucked

[@2004DodgeViper]

Humanity is doomed, isn't it?

[@Zfanesque]

“Yes officer this game right here.” Is the same exact reaction when my buddy and I started playing this game.

[@Zapphiren]

I used to love Soul Worker a lot. Before on the NA/EU servers under a new publisher, they didn't have this amount of powercreep, the bosses would actually two-shot you. Now that's it self-published, they changed a lot of the progression and gearing. It's a MMO about the endgame and not the progression. I'm surprised Josh didn't talk about the Stamina system that used to get spent within 2 hours so, without it you couldnt get loot or exp iirc. That's how different it is nowadays. There's also a card system and brooch system for cosmetics that give stats- heavily pay-gated btw. The crafting was always pointless until you unlock a tower called Steel Graves that was literally the only way to gear. Upgrades were abysmally expensive and necessary to notice any difference. The game only gets fun after Lv45 and 65 aka when you get your "ultimate skill" and your class advancement. Newer characters skip directly to Lv30 or 45 or even 65. The plot had no direction other than edge-boy fodder. And finally, jump had 1 use, hitting the same 2 keys and staying off the ground so the enemies couldnt two-shot you because the gearing to progress was pretty sh*t from Lv15 - 30. It was kinda fun though. Now all of those are irrelevant with the self-published version on Steam. Until you reach the endgame.

[@Cactusssutcac]

What do you think about this game when comparing it to closers? This video has made me enjoy Closers more because I saw what it's doing right when it could all go wrong but I need someone else's opinion~

[@KennKuun]

"It's an MMO about the endgame" Yep, that's almost every MMO at this point. On release the pacing is fine, but after the game's been out a while and the influx of new players dies down, they dumb down the early game to rush new players to endgame, where the rest of the players are. And then the game becomes an endless grind of a small set of dungeons because they refuse to add more content but want people to continue playing the game and emptying their wallets for fanservice costumes. Really makes me appreciate the Monster Hunter franchise's approach to endgame content and grinding. Lots of diverse content so that you can choose what you want to do.

[@BknMoonStudios]

@@KennKuun To be fair, Monster Hunter is designed with Single Player content in mind. Arguably even more important than Multiplayer, though that's up for debate. It is part of the reason why Final Fantasy XIV is much more appealing for beginners (though it still has problems there). The MSQ and Side Missions aren't meant to be rushed. You are encouraged to take your time and enjoy the content slowly.

[@NeoGlitch1999]

The instruction help list is actually in Chinese, most likely Mandarin. I'm guessing this because the publisher for the American release of the game is the same as Taiwan's. Korea and Japan get their own publishers, so I'm interested to see if they're in the native language of those countries.

[@LilyMaeBlossom]

The reason is because this was a rushed publication from, as you said, the Taiwanese publishers. We originally had an American publisher but they shut it down due to a disagreement with the developers (publisher was one of the most greedy ones in America), so they rushed this one out so people weren't left without the game indefinitely.

[@Pundae]

16:35 I played this game years ago with my friend. I never saw any of this character's dialogue, but he picked it. I'm pretty sure the exact words "this character is badass" came out of his mouth at some point

[@pioneershark2230]

bruh

[@darkgrundi9543]

well i liked his moveset, not so much his dialogue, but i understood they had to make one douchebag character that actually has decent character development halfway through the game.

[@Ryan50Ryan]

If I could animate I would have fun with Josh saying "nothing personal kid" It has great potential.

[@godpigeon]

I have an answer to "why have jumping if you don't use it?".... Remember what happened to FFXIV on first launch. It didn't have jump as an option and was designed around not having it and they got blasted for saying that.

[@GheistXin]

Well except that in FFXIV they eventually released content that was actually designed around jumping. And it doesn't take long to get there.

[@Esvald]

Might be character specific. I know Haru has an aerial attack you need to jump for.

[@KianaWolf]

The lack of jumping in 1.0 was made worse by how many cliffs there were and how aggressively placed the invisible walls were. No walking off the cliff even if you could survive the fall. And even the ramps up and down were a lot narrower than they looked. The hill in Gridania was so bad about that it got patched out before the whole game was rebuilt for 2.0. There's also the psychological element for players: Even if the jump isn't useful most of the time (i.e. in almost every fight), having the option gives a sense of mobility, and thus freedom, to the player.

[@Setixir]

I agree. Jumping, whether used or not, needs to be in an Mmo. It feels so bad when you can't

[@Reikoku.]

All the characters have one or two aerial skills that require jumping and in the hard dungeons at end game bosses have attacks that can be dodged with jumping. The jumping isn't needed at the early game though.

[@Wheathn]

6:56 That doesn't sound like a 'poor design choice' that sounds like a hilariously obvious bug/oversight. How has the dev team not caught and fixed that?

[@Nightkrowler]

11:52 - what you refer to is actually called "lawnmower parenting", because you "mow down" challenges in front of the children. Helicopter parents just make mountains out of mole hills in regard to anything concerning their children. I believe a british teacher actually coined the term "lawnmower parents"

[@JeRefuseDeBienPrononcerBaleine]

Isn't helicopter parents when they hover around their children and never let them accomplish anything on their own or fail ?

[@Eld0ubleU]

Josh: "I play these so you don't have to!" Me: Tries out every single one of them ...

[@Dudebox64]

How was Wizard101? I used to play it to an unhealthy extent waaaaaaay back in 2008. Curious to see what they've added past the paywall but $60 for a game I don't technically even own gives me a bitter feeling.

[@Eld0ubleU]

@@Dudebox64 This one I actually skipped, because, just like you, I played it back in the days. I tend to try the ones that are new to me.

[@LWolf12]

Ah SoulWorker, I played that, for about 2 hours, then got ban for being behind a VPN.

[@hermdude]

This episode is just Josh letting us know that he knows more about anime than he lets on.

[@zacheray]

Just enough to know how juvenile this game is

[@4.1132]

Messy games I’ve come to expect but putting such a cute pupper in a game and then not being able to interact with it is a crime onto the universe xD Personally, I think there’s a huge misconception in interactive media that struggle is bad for engagement and retention, that the only way to achieve those is to try and flood people with as much supposedly positive experience that they get hooked on that dopamine and serotonin high. That’s not really how the majority of people function so it’s in the long term it doesn’t sustain anything xD

[@yuuni9134]

When i played this game at launch i remember it being kinda hard at first and even harder in the next towns but it seems they nerfed it... so many games kill all difficulty till the endgame these days. It's a shame the bosses used to have cool mechanics and that big puppet used to be tough... now seems like a joke.

[@Atariusz_]

so trueee

[@trancevivi5844]

Great video! Never before have I been so happy to not choose a character, and I would've probably quit Soulworker if I had to go through that. Thank you for your sacrifice!

[@Tenosyn]

The character dialog clicks a bit better when you play a second character. Each character has it's own dialog and is each a different flavor of heavily flawed. And yes, the player character is so overpowered in the story that they need you but some NPCs hate each player character differently. It's supposed to be a story about the MC slowly identifying and overcoming their personality flaws but it missed execution. It's like how a quest could have multiple endings but only makes sense when you see multiple. Someone tried and it didn't really work. A detail most miss.

[@Farvadude]

i was thinking about trying this one and i'm glad i saw this comment because if i do try it this will help me get a better idea of where they were trying to take the story. i actually think it looks pretty good stylistically and think this is among the better ones we've seen in this series. lots of flaws yes, but far more charm than the average game i've seen here, especially with your explanation.

[@professeurgideere5856]

"You make me rage with fury" wow. That's some good dialog.

[@KazeMemaryu]

First time SoulWorker came to my attention was when some dudes on 4chan were repeatedly posting a GIF of the spear chick Ephnel's idle animation or taunt, in which she rams her spear into the ground and does a quick pole dance move on it. I thought that was a really weird choice of animation, but it had my attention for having good animation. Then I saw what the actual game consisted of, and I was already done with it. I had played a frighteningly similar game in the past, and I only recently laid that to rest, with no interest to replace it with another hollow time sink.