"Ark of Destiny" national costume trial: a magnificent fantasy epic

On July 13, "Ark of Destiny" opened its early landing. I believe that many people have long been mentally prepared for the popularity of the game, but it is estimated that they still did not expect that just some of the reserved players would have literally "crowded" the game server. Even star players such as Chen He and PDD are lamenting that "everyone is equal in front of the queue", but the official had to quickly open a number of new servers to solve this problem for players.

I think this lively scene more or less recalls the Ark craze that swept the world when the game first landed on Steam two years ago, and how familiar it was in China at that time and now, although there were language barriers and network problems, but still could not withstand the enthusiasm of domestic players influx into the game.

Now, "Ark of Destiny" (national service) has finally crossed the ocean into China and is ready to fully open on July 20. Thanks to this, we can finally easily play this world-famous MMORPG. It can be said that the national version brings back all the advantages of the foreign service - inheriting the exquisite art style of Korean MMO, a magnificent fantasy adventure, excellent combat experience, and excellent audio and video performance in the MMO field.

The more gratifying news is that with the official arrival of the national service, domestic players no longer have to use Chinese plugins to watch and guess; or "jail" in the difficult group with hundreds of network delays; Not to mention the fear of being "sent home" at any time by operators in different places.

A magnificent magical epic

Ark of Destiny takes place in a fantasy world called "Acracia", and the story can include the role of races uniting to fight demons, and the player takes on the role of saving the world. All you have to do is solve all kinds of crises with NPC partners you know and search for lost arks on adventures across continents.

From the plot level alone, "Ark of Destiny" adopts the classic "defeat the devil, save the world" setting of the Western fantasy theme - but just as Link and Mario's mission is always to save the princess, the highlight of the story is always the experience on the adventure journey. What graces the story of Ark of Destiny and engages players in the adventure is the epic of the game's epic interpretation through story missions, grand scenes and god-killing quest challenges.

In fact, this is not only due to the fact that Ark of Destiny builds a huge worldview composed of humans, angels, demons, elves and other races, as well as civilizations with different customs, beliefs and technological levels, but also the game's careful design of the story flow.

For example, in the main story of the first continent that is about ten hours long, the game inserts a large number of elaborate cutscenes to enhance the sense of substitution, including large-scale magic confrontations, tribal battles and other grand and shocking action scenes. As far as the performance experience of the main story is concerned, in addition to being able to see other players on the road, the story experience of this work is very similar to a well-made single-camera top-down ARPG.

On the other hand, all kinds of whimsical level design make the story flow full of surprises.

What impressed me the most was the bridge that helped the prince of Lutland regain the throne. In this episode, players will step on a towering cloud cart, withstand a rain of arrows to attack a majestic and fortified city, and fight a tidal wave of enemies on the city wall. The roaring soundtrack, the roar of soldiers fighting, and the scattered gravel and other scenes renders the atmosphere of war to the extreme, making people feel the sadness of war at the same time.

In the Elven Realm called "Totok", a certain chapter will allow players to drink the shrinking potion and enter the world of the Elves and experience the world from their perspective. It's a wonderful feeling, we'll fight against all kinds of insects on the giant's body, and even ride a cute seven-star ladybug.

Set sail

Perhaps because the plot of "Ark of Destiny" unfolds in a fairly linear structure, in terms of map design, the game does not adopt the popular open world mode, but follows the classic box court world.

However, each box court map is like a miniature open world where players can freely explore as they progress through the main story to new areas. You can look for mocoa seeds all over the map like the Breath of the Wild collection haha; You can also defeat elite bosses or map bosses in the area to unlock the book; Or challenge a quest hidden in the corner of the map. In addition to fighting and exploring, you can also experience casual gameplay such as cutting trees, mining, fishing, and finding scenic spots.

Exploration gameplay is more like a spice to kill time and relax during the main journey, and players who are in a hurry to upgrade can also ignore them for a while, prioritizing the main quests that provide a lot of experience.

And when the player spends some time and completes the main story of the first continent, they can unlock the nautical gameplay. In Navigator mode, the entire world becomes a huge sandbox map.

The experience of maneuvering a small boat sailing in the endless sea is quite fun. Not only will I be able to travel to unknown islands scattered in the sea and unlock some exploration events and quests; It will also encounter various navigational threats such as sandstorms, hurricanes and ghost ships; Or steer ships to sail freely, salvage treasures floating in the sea, and sing to resonate with whales.

However, these adventures at sea are just appetizers, and the real feast is the adventures of continuing the search for the ark by driving the ship to areas that cannot be directly reached.

These continents across the sea have their own unique themes, cultures and customs, such as the people of Anyigu, which is based on Chinese culture, which advocates martial arts and is the birthplace of kung fu and qigong; Although Altain is located in a harsh desert environment, the people there have developed futuristic technology in the world of sword and magic.

Brilliant and creative battles

If you use one word to describe the battle scene of "Ark of Destiny", then the word "gorgeous" is not allowed.

Similar to most Korean MMORPGs, Ark of Destiny follows the classic 3D top-down ARPG combat design, where players need to manipulate their character's position while casting skills and normal attacks to clear the enemy's health bar.

Also in the same vein is another major feature of top-down action games - the refreshing sense of blow. As enemies fall layer by layer before your eyes like harvested wheat, the sensation of fist-to-flesh blows is addictive, and the thrill of "brush" game combat comes to life. And the cool skill effects of "Ark of Destiny" make the already exciting battle scenes more exciting, and also bring players a stronger sense of fun and satisfaction.

And the battle in "Ark of Destiny" is not only about the thrill of "mowing", when facing some bosses with special mechanics, the idea of the battle will change, which requires players to do something. What impressed me the most was the large demon named "Zrgan", in the game, this boss battle is highly integrated with the replica scene, so you must not only use dodging and positioning to avoid the range attack of the monster, but also watch out for its damage to the scene, and pay attention to the game's prompts to open the mechanism in time to limit the boss.

Similarly, "Ark of Destiny" also has a variety of career designs, which not only have their own characteristics and different positions, but also have the classic setting of "changing careers".

In addition to different skills, upgrading skills to a certain level adds additional passive effects and a unique ability independent of the skill (more like a characteristic combat mechanic). For example, summoners can accumulate energy when casting spells, and after reaching a certain level, they can use very powerful summoning techniques such as fire phoenixes, while demon hunters can switch between three different forms: pistol, shotgun and rifle.

However, in the skill column, no matter what class, you can only equip up to eight skills at the same time, but each character can learn more than that, which means that players need to make trade-offs about skills. And due to the limitation of the number of skills, players also need to control the cycle of skill use, if the skill is always good and released, then the benefit is far less high than the planned timing and then released.

But at the same time, this design also constitutes a rich school of skills. Ark of Destiny does not force players to cram a certain skill into the skill slot, it gives the player the right to choose, and even the bonus effect of skills when leveling up is for players to choose. In other words, Ark of Destiny allows players to make creative combinations according to their preferences, and the professional combat genre will be fully developed under the whimsy of a wide range of players, taking into account every possibility.

Reaching a full level means starting

Players familiar with MMORPGs often use "full level is the beginning" to tease the development content of such games, and Ark of Destiny is no exception.

When players complete a series of missions and reach level 50 and come to the northern continent of Peron to complete specific missions, they can unlock daily missions and quests such as Chaos Dungeons, Abyss Dungeons, and Crusades.

At this point, the focus of the game changes from advancing tasks to brushing the character with a set of graduation equipment and upgrade suits. Crafting in Ark of Destiny is a long-term quest where players need to spend a lot of thought to fully understand a series of development systems from collecting equipment to strengthening to engraving and card combinations.

Among them, there is no need to talk about the very classic cultivation system such as strengthening and engraving, and the card combination you can fully understand as a set effect. The cards in the game are divided into different packs according to geographical area and faction, and the way cards can be obtained is roughly divided into exploring the world, collecting, dropping quests, or completing missions. Cards from the same deck have a set effect when combined, and the effect varies depending on the deck and the number of cards. Similar to skills, the card system also provides players with the joy of building genres.

As another important gameplay for many MMO long-term content, the economic system is also one of the core features of "Ark of Destiny".

The core design of the economic system of Ark of Destiny is a set of free market models based on supply and demand. With the change of the overall progress and needs of players in the game, this model will spontaneously generate a dynamically balanced economic ecology based on player behavior, and conform to the economic laws of the real world. Simply put, the price of game props will change with the needs of players, whether it is the demand for consumables brought about by the opening of new dungeons, or the basic materials required for equipment improvement, it will cause changes in the in-game market environment, and eventually bring out a set of self-contained "merchant gameplay".

In fact, players will not be too limited in the economic gameplay of "Ark of Destiny", you can take advantage of the low market price of props to stock up on a large number of goods, and then sell when the price is high to earn a wave of price difference.

Not only that, but the game is also rich in the types of items that players can trade. From common recovery potions to a variety of battle items; From the reinforcement materials dropped by the brush map to the items produced in life, you can get gold coins by trading them through the trading bureau. In addition to exchanging props with other players, the gold coins accumulated by players can also be exchanged for blue diamonds for shopping mall consumption and purchase various mall props.

If you don't like long battles, being a businessman wholeheartedly in the game can also experience a completely different kind of gameplay.

Finally, let's talk about the characteristics of the national uniform.

In terms of game content, the most intuitive change is that "Ark of Destiny" finally has an official localization, allowing players to bid farewell to the era of "eating raw meat". In particular, the high-quality Chinese dubbing further deepens the sense of substitution of the game's plot.

Another advantage is that the national service has completely solved the delay problem, as far as the author's group-based experience in the Russian service in the past, even if the accelerator is on, the delay is about 100ms, which can only be said to be a level that can barely be played. If you encounter a network gank, the delay goes straight to 300ms, or even the connection is not impossible. However, in the national server, there is no trouble with network problems at all, and the scene of being unable to avoid the boss skill due to delay and failing to complete the quest mechanism and dying almost no longer exists.

Overall review

It can be said that "Ark of Destiny" perfectly encapsulates the excellent gameplay of contemporary MMORPGs. In terms of the most important MMO development mode, it is the master of "taking the essence and removing the waste", and in other aspects, the excellent audio and picture performance in the game, enough interesting exploration gameplay and rich combat system are enough to prove the gold content of this "Steam Millions Online" game in the MMO field.

Now, officially coming to China, it has made the most appropriate adjustments for domestic players, with the official Chinese, the addition of high-quality Chinese dubbing, and the improvement of network services, "Ark of Destiny" has brought a more complete experience to domestic players. For players who want to try, the more convenient national server is undoubtedly a just right opportunity.