style="font-style: italic;">Perfect World International
(PWI) is Beijing Perfect World’s Western localization of their
sensational hit game Perfect World. Ten Ton Hammer’s Danny “Ralsu”
Gourley gave
it a go
back in September and was pleased with the effort put
into delivering a polished title that catered to its Western audience.
Among the laudable features of PWI is what has to be the most in-depth
character creation process available among free-to-play (F2P) games.
The graphics also stand out as being above average, and the fans are
almost religiously loyal.

Another great feature of PWI is the many ways to get the
client. Gamers can use the traditional download method direct from the
official website or from a number of mirrors, but the client is very
beefy, weighing in at over 2GB. For that reason, Beijing Perfect World
offers a mail order DVD that only costs shipping charges. It’s a unique
distribution tactic for F2P titles, one Ralsu praised in “ href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/50655">Distributive
Properties.”

The last time href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/47666">Ralsu had a
chance to chat with Jonathon Belliss, PWI’s product
manager, he asked about the localization efforts and got some unique
insight into the pressures F2P developers face that may result in
reduced quality. When he talked to Belliss this time, Ralsu focused on
the first expansion for PWI, The
Lost Empire
, which released on
December 3, 2008.


Ten Ton Hammer: Most F2P
games might occasionally provide a
free content update, but The
Lost Empire
is a full-blown expansion.
Talk about the difference between a content update and an expansion and
why PWI needs an expansion.

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style="font-style: italic;">Characters
can
totally fly in this game.

Jonathon Belliss:
A content update is something that happens almost every week for
us.  A content update could be localization changes, a new
quest here and there, or perhaps a seasonal event being added to the
game for a period of time.  An expansion is a complete set of
new content, monsters, zones, gear, and even game mechanics. 
I don’t like the sound of saying that style="font-style: italic;">Perfect World International
(PWI) “needs” an expansion.  I can however say that every
MMORPG can always use more content, which our developers have been
generous enough to provide us with.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is style="font-style: italic;">The Lost Empire free?
Can players order a disc for it from the website just as they can with
PWI?

Belliss:
The Lost Empire
is definitely free and players can order a new client if they have an
internet connection that is lacking in speed.  Over the past
several months we have been slowly pre-loading the expansion chunk by
chunk in order to decrease the overall size of the actual expansion’s
release on its launch day.

Ten Ton Hammer: We already
know one new device discovered is the Chrono Wheel, which allows time
travel. Can our actions in the past change the present?

Belliss:
Players’ actions in the past will not affect the present day world in
PWI.  This new feature will allow players to get a better feel
and understanding of the greater story at play.  Players can
gain access to key moments in Perfect
World
’s history and learn more about the events that
shaped the world into its current state.

Ten Ton Hammer: Give us a
hint about the other secrets we’ll learn from the empire that
disappeared over one thousand years ago.

Belliss:
Players will learn more about how Heaven’s Tear became the way it is
today.  Players will also discover new ancient weapon recipes
that can be completed through the gathering of items in both the
existing world and the new areas.

Ten Ton Hammer: When looking
at the new skills revealed for The
Lost Empire
, I notice the pattern of subtle power. That
is, the spells aren’t flashy by description, but it’s easy to see that
Myriad Rainbow (the new Venomancer spell that can cause multiple status
effects to a target) or Violent Triumph (the new Barbarian skill that
grants temporary immunity against several debuffs) will make our
characters much more powerful. Are most of the spells in the expansion
be like this, or will we see some powerful direct damage skills, too.

Belliss:
There is a wide variety of new skills available to players of all
classes.  There are some new skills that are direct damage
abilities as well as utility skills such as Violent Triumph. 
Overall the skills have been designed to accent each class’s strengths
and in some cases address their weaknesses.

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This is a
Panda
riding a two-headed dragon. Why aren't you downloading the game already?

Ten Ton Hammer: We’ve also
learned that The Lost
Empire
 introduces some new pets. Can you tell us
about them?

Belliss:
The Lost Empire
introduces battle pets into the game.  These are extremely
rare pets that can only be tamed by the Venomancer class. 
It’s needless to say that these pets are extremely strong and
unique.  Venomancers of all levels covet these pets, as they
add more depth to an already complex class.

Ten Ton Hammer: Clearly,
many of the quests in the expansion center on the Chrono Wheel
and unraveling the mysteries of the empire that fell long ago. Do these
quests include raid encounters?

Belliss: There
are a series of new bosses in-game that can be classified as “raid
encounters”.  These bosses can be found both in the original style="font-style: italic;">Perfect World areas
as well as the new expansion zones.  Needless to say that
these creatures will put up more than a decent fight, and will provide
many challenges even for existing veteran PWI players.

Ten Ton Hammer: What about
low level characters? Do they get any new quests that relate to the
discoveries going on in the world around them?

Belliss:
We actually released a new quest concurrently with the expansion for
low level players in order to help them progress through some of the
harder stages of Perfect
World International
.  We also will be launching
an Increased Experience Event in order to drive more players to the new
higher level content featured in the expansion.

Ten Ton Hammer: PWI has one
of the finest character customization systems available. What will the
expansion add in the way of fashions and options to make us look unique
and powerful?

Belliss:
We recently had a Character Creation Contest in which we invited
players to create custom characters and reward those who created
outstanding designs.  We actually will be adding more than 100
new character presets to the game in mid-December, all been designed by
our users.  Of course, new fashions and mounts are being
released as time goes by.

Ten Ton Hammer: What else
should gamers know about The
Lost Empire
?

Belliss:
The Lost Empire
[released] on December 3rd.  Once again its 100% Free to Play
with no subscription and no credit card required.  You really
have nothing to lose but a few minutes of your time by trying it
out.  I guarantee that PWI will impress you in one way or
another.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Perfect World International Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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