KeyWord: Concerto Gate, Electronic Arts Date: 06-19-2008
Summary: The 1UP Network previews games with the philosophy that people want to hear our honest opinions on titles before they are released. If a game looks really promising, we\'ll pass on our excitement.
The 1UP Network previews games with the philosophy that people want to hear our honest opinions on titles before they are released. If a game looks really promising, we\'ll pass on our excitement. But if a game needs work, we\'ll let you know. Here are our Concerto Gate PC previews.
The details are as below:
Blame it on World of WarCraft. Blame it on the price of oil. Blame it on your momma. Whatever the cause, one clear trend is emerging in the early 21st century, at least as far as PC gaming goes: \"Free\" is the new 60 dollars. Free-to-play games are nothing new, of course, but what is new is that some of the biggest game companies on Earth, who got big precisely because of the money they charged, are now experimenting with the model. Exhibits A and B: Electronic Arts with Battlefield Heroes and Sony Online with the kid-oriented Free Realms. Exhibit C, now, is Square Enix, which is jumping into the free-to-play pool with Concerto Gate, an MMO that has nothing to do with its Final Fantasy games but stands a good chance of appealing to its legions of fans anyway, especially because, yeah, did we mention it\'s free?
Concerto Gate is actually a sequel to an MMO called Cross Gate, but if you\'ve never heard of it, don\'t worry. It was available only in Japan, China, and other parts of Asia and closed last September to get ready for the new game. And what is this new game? Your intrepid 1UP.com reporters had the same question, so we trekked down to the offices of OnNet USA, an online game publisher based in San Jose, CA, that is helping Square bring Concerto Gate to the U.S., to check the game out. We do this for you because we love you.
Video provided by video.mmosite.com
(Download HD version: Concerto Gate, Japanese Trailer)
After showing us the game\'s expectedly whimsical yet heartwarming trailer, OnNet then took us into the game itself. The setup: The Fahren Kingdom, as these fantasy kingdoms tend to go, is in trouble and needs a savior. Is it you? Why, no, it\'s not, but thanks for playing. It turns out, in fact, that after being transported to Lycelia Castle in the game\'s opening sequences, you actually fail to impress the king, who declares you \"un-hero\" material. Unfortunately, having been transported here straight from the character-creation screen, you now have no way of going back \"home,\" wherever that is. So now you get to start a new life in the Fahren Kingdom.
OnNet walked us through character creation, which is fairly simple and yet boasts, according to their calculations, some 628 trillion combinations. This is a bit odd considering they all end up looking like the same cute little JRPG characters we\'ve been playing for years. No matter. Once you get in the game, you\'ll be able to choose from 15 different professions, which range from standard archetypes like Soldier and Fighter to more unusual choices like Pharmacist, Chef, and Wanderer (which we hope is not a euphemism for \"hobo\").
And here\'s where Concerto Gate gets interesting: Once you pick a profession, this is the only profession your character will perform, ever. The classes break down into four basic categories, combat, craftsmen, gatherers, and \"special job\", and once you commit, this is mostly what you\'ll do in the game. Lumberjacks, for instance, will be mostly chopping wood and selling it to craftsmen, who will then make weapons to sell to the combat classes. (Lumberjacks can and will probably have to fight at times, but don\'t expect to be heavily enlisted for dungeon raids...). Fighters, conversely, can\'t craft at all, thus the need for the support classes. Players can have three characters per server, so one likely scenario is that you\'ll make your own support classes with your alts. (And additional character slots, OnNet hinted, might be available for a small fee.)
Another interesting aspect of professions: The game\'s terrain terraforms as players strip it of resources. Unlike in a game like WOW, resources won\'t simply respawn over and over as \"nodes\" in the exact same spots. Lumberjacks who have depleted an area of trees will need to replant them or seek out new spots to ravage, thus encouraging exploration and discouraging farming. Exploring the world may not be so easy, however, as Concerto Gate makes ample use, as we observed, of that JRPG staple: the random battle encounter. As OnNet game master Christopher Mattson attempted to demonstrate his lumberjacking skills for us, he stumbled into one random battle, which are location-based and not level-based, after another. When we laughed about the potential annoyance factor, OnNet assured us that the random-encounter frequency will be dialed up or down based on player feedback during the upcoming beta period. In addition, portals between cities will allow players to travel instantly and avoid encounters altogether.
