The More the Merrier
by Cody
“Micajah” Bye
When dealing with MMOGs, people often consider certain aspects
of these games to be the “traditional” way of doing
things. The use of hotkeys, the idea of a customizable character, even
some of the targeting methods have very embedded backgrounds. To many
people in the industry, the idea of doing anything different is
absolute nonsense. When many North American gamers first played
style="font-style: italic;"> Guild
Wars, they were appalled to find that the acceptable way
to move in the
game was via point-and-click responses, not the common WASD method
found in many of the other MMOGs of the day. Yet
style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars went on
to
sell over a million copies of their game, with more being sold every
day.
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style="font-style: italic;">Sword of the New World
features an amazing stylistic approach based on old Baroque
architecture.
But the stigma of the “original” way to do
things continues to hang over the majority of MMOGs like a cloud of
smog, blotting out any hope of a new ray of enlightenment making its
way inside. Every once in awhile, however, a new idea breaks through
that hideous cloud cover and blazes a new trail for other MMOG
developers to follow. Sword
of the New World: Granado Espada, developed
by famed Ragnarok developer Hak Kyu Kim and published by Western
importer K2 Networks, has landed like a meteor in the middle of the
MMOG marketplace and has caught the attention of a fair amount of
adventurous MMOG players.
Journeying to a New World
According to the developer log he gave exclusively to Ten Ton
Hammer, Hak Kyu Kim first devised of
style="font-style: italic;">Sword of the New World: Granado
Espada (titled just Granado
Espada in Korea) when he was traveling
through Europe. After viewing the architecture and famous landmarks of
the Western world, Kim proceeded develop a game that would not only be
visually different, but would stand out from the pack in terms of
gameplay as well.
What Kim devised was a world similar to America, where
individuals are fleeing a land for the new world – Granado
Espada – and you begin your tale as a hero in this world.
Instead of the common high fantasy theme of many MMOGs,
style="font-style: italic;">Sword of the
New World (commonly abbreviated
“Sword”) takes
place in a world that is very Baroque in its artistic style.
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In Sword, you'll
create a team of three characters that you'll control, rather than one
avatar.
Perhaps the most drastic difference in Hak Kyu Kim’s
game, however, is encountered before you even step foot in the game
world. As you begin your game, you’ll notice that instead of
a common character selection screen, Sword has you create your
characters in a “barracks”, which is part of your
family’s mansion. When you first enter Sword,
you’re asked to give your “family name”
– or a surname in other words. Once that has been
established, you proceed to create characters. Initially, your barracks
can only hold four characters. For those of you familiar to the
standard gameplay of MMOGs, that may seem like plenty of character
slots to begin with.
In Sword of
the New World, however, you are in control of more
than one character at once. You’ll be controlling three.
Utilizing an original and novel concept, Hak Kyu Kim developed the
Multi-Character Control system that allows players to manipulate three
individual characters at one time using a variety of mouse and keyboard
maneuvers. Instead of developing just one character as your personal
avatar, you can opt to create and control three at once.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Sword of the New World Game Page.
