TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

Love them or hate them, the graphics  in Fiesta Online use cel-shading and bright colors.

Graphics
Fiesta Online uses colorful cel-shaded graphics that are likely aimed at the younger audience. I actually like them and think many people who play World of Warcraft will feel at home with them. Players who prefer more realistic graphics will tend to dismiss the graphics in Fiesta Online as cartoonish or childish.

Damage numbers splash above enemies in starburst callouts, spells and attacks have colorful graphics, and the character models have fluid animation. Because of the graphical style used, the game does not have a lot of trouble rendering environments. Players can see to the cartoon horizon in any directions. Some trees and buildings may draw in as players get near enough to see them, though.

User Interface and Controls
The user interface in Fiesta Online is pretty clean and straightforward. Players can activate up to 3 hotbars for skills that correspond to the 1 through = keys. The second and third hotbars use either the shift or control key plus 1 through =. The hotbars also can be moved between horizontal and vertical positions.

Selected monsters and non-player characters are highlighted in a ring. I was unable to find any part of the interface that told me the level of my opponent or whether or not it was aggressive. Trial and error solved the riddles every time.

Players can click to move around, but the game supports WASD movement as well. One very frustrating thing was that opening the chat dialog box makes it impossible to move. In the heat of a close battle when you need to give orders, this can be a lethal control scheme.

Leveling

Monsters in Fiesta Online look like they escaped from a Nintendo game.

The Mage can blast to level 10 in just a few short hours. His spells do massive damage compared to the melee abilities of the other three classes in the early going. Kiting is pretty easy in the beginning, too, because so few monsters are aggressive. The starter quests keep players with something in their journals for those crucial beginner levels. As a player levels, he can visit a skills trainer to purchase upgrades to existing skills or to get new skills.

The Archer is a little tougher to get to level 10, as his attacks are just not enough to finish an opponent before close range combat begins. Te Cleric has the benefit of heals to make leveling easy in the beginning, but his melee damage dwindles with levels. I did not test a warrior.

After level 10, the curve steepens a fair bit. Monsters are now tough enough that solo play requires frequent rest. Quests pit players against swarms of monsters that are too tough to face alone.

Sadly, groups can be a little hard to find. My wife and I had a level 15 archer ask to join us when were only level 11. He said he couldn't find any other groups to play with.

Finally, if it is any indication of how tough the grind is, the game uses system announcements to alert everyone logged in when a player reaches level 20. That tells me that it gets really hard to gain a level at some point in the teens. The grind started to get to me by level 14.

Parting Thoughts
Fiesta Online serves as a great introductory MMOG. It's free-to-play, so your only investment is time. OutSpark doesn't bombard players with advertisements for their online mall, either. The archetypal classes teach budding players the roles they'll be expected to fill in other games. Early quests do a good job of teaching the fundamentals of the genre. Even the gold spammers in town serve to teach young players about using the ignore function, an important skill for future gaming. Adults can enjoy Fiesta Online, too, if they bring a group with them Finding a pick up group can be brutal and risky.

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