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Prius Online is the latest Korean import by gPotato, but is more tailored to Western audiences than most Eastern imports and is F2P (free-to-play). The world of Prius is one of high fantasy mixed with a great deal of Asian influence and giant mechas.

The basic premise of Prius Online is that your character is a being of major importance, but who has recently died and then resurrected. You were once an extremely skilled and powerful person, but you now have to relearn all the skills you have forgotten. Naturally, you do this through questing. Along the way, you'll gain allies in the form of an Anima and a number of Gigas.

Cautions

There is no rating for Prius Online. There is some mild violence, but is safe for older children (10+) on up. I saw no harsh language in the game and the chat channel was clean.

Gameplay

87Very GoodThe gameplay for Prius Online is your standard MMOG fare and is solid overall. You move around with the WASD keys, fight by using various abilities that have cooldowns, and there are skill trees that grant you new powers as you level. There are a few differences to be found here though. The first is that classes are race and gender locked. If you want to play a Gunslinger, then you’re going to be a human female. If you want to play as a melee fighter, then you’re going to be a Lon Mas Berserker (a lion-man). There are only a few variations for modifying your character’s appearance at character creation, such as hair style and eye color.

Classes are race and gender locked.

The most intriguing aspect of Prius Online is what they call the 3C System, which stands for 3 Character System. You begin play with your main character, but at level 10, you unlock an Anima. An Anima is a little girl companion who has tremendous powers and is linked with your main character. Through her, you’ll do most of your crafting (cooking, cultivation, etc.) and her mood can impact her crafting. You can switch to Anima mode where you move her around and do actions. Your Anima will stick by your main character and help you in your quests. At around level 30, you gain access to Gigas, which are giant mechas that your Anima can summon and then you use to stomp some major pain. You can have more than one Gigas and you keep them in a deck in your Atrium, your home that you can decorate and do certain activities in.

Quests are your normal kill X of this creature, deliver package Y to person Z, or gather X number of items from creatures. Quests are easily found by checking the bulletin board in each town to see which NPC is offering a quest. Highlighting a quest shows a ring on your map where you need to fulfill it. There is also an automatic transit system called Celero that is a robotic mount that will take you to specific locations where a Celero station will be found.

Throwing down in Prius Online. Note that my Anima is setting my foes on fire.

While quests are your typical MMOG fare, the creatures you’ll fight at the end of a quest chain are incredibly strong and will result in your death if you’re not prepared. One weakness of the game is that if you fail a quest, you have to abandon it and travel back to the NPC that gave it to you and retake it.

Crafting is somewhat convoluted and the game could do a better job of walking you through the basic concepts. Also, there is a great deal of grammatical errors found in the text of the game, due to the fact that the game is a Korean import. Still, the gameplay is well done and the 3C System keeps the game from getting stale.

Graphics

82GoodThe visuals in Prius Online are nicely done, but not ground breaking. The game is definitely anime-inspired, so if you don’t like the anime style, then you should stay away from this game. Unless you’re playing as a Lon Mas (male lion man), you will not be a rugged male character. Women are anime-hot, and men are the typical anime-style androgynous. There is a touch of whimsy in the game, especially with some of the creatures that you encounter, such as the flying onions. The game has bright hues, appropriate for a high fantasy setting, and is not gritty or dark.

Using the Celero automatic transport system.

Sound

65AverageThe sound component of Prius Online is pretty sparse and utilitarian. Music is of the forgettable background music that you’ll ignore. There are adequate sounds for combat, but nothing too exciting or innovative. NPCs can have audio dialogue, but it just a sentence or two. The dialogue in the cutscenes is better, but they tend not to match up with the mouth animation of the characters. You will definitely want to have some other music running as you play the game for an extended period of time. There is one caveat to my opinion on the sound and that is the opening theme as the game loads. That theme is a beautifully haunting melody played slowly on a piano is incredibly well done. If music like that was more prevalent in the game, the score for sound would be higher.