Flyff

I've given this game a chance. Honest I have. But dear lord it's one of the worst free mmorpg's yet.

Most games start you off with a few tutorial quests. As soon as you log in your noob, there's some cheerful NPC there to welcome you to the world and give you a few quests that will help you learn how to play the game.

Flyff does not. Flyff has a little penguin thing in the corner of the screen to talk you through the controls. He's very unhelpful, having frozen a few times after I performed the task he asked, until finally sticking on the cryptic command "Quest Window." Yes, Penguin-thing, I opened my quest window. Closed it a few times. Nothing worked. Screw you, Penguin-thing.

So after a bit of running around and talking to equally unhelpful NPC's, I found out that there are no quests given until level 7. SEVEN. No novice tutorial quests. No silly little gear that will be useless in a few rounds but give you a sense of accomplishment. Well, now what am I supposed to do??

Seems I have to go hunt monsters to level up. I start to make my way out of town, cursing the movement system the whole way. To run across the landscape, you need to continually click and click and click where you want to go. No holding down the mouse button, no. You run, then stop wherever you clicked. Yes, you can use the keyboard, but I'm not a fan of the keyboard. I want to use my mouse to run.

The thing that is supposed to set Flyff apart from other games is the ability to fly. I came across an NPC who told me to buy a broom or board from the station to fly. Okay. Where is the station? Where is anything!?

I wanted to like this came for it's cute look and novel concept, but it's so unfriendly to new users that I simply can't get into it.

Don't even get me started on the music. Flyff marks the first time I've ever turned the music off in a game.

If you have persistence and patience beyond mine to figure out what the heck this game is all about (because it's sure as hell not going to help you,) then by all means, try Flyff. Me, I've given up after two separate attempts months apart and it has yet to grab me or let me have any fun.

Nostale

Nostale is another Korean mostly-free online game. Cute 2D anime style avatars scamper through a colorful 3D environment with their animal companions, or Nosmates as the game calls them. Just like other games in this genre, Nostale is free, with the option to pay real money to get more interesting and more powerful gear, outfits, and fairies.

I've been having a lot of fun with this one. Nostale gives you the ability to capture and collect up to 10 pets, keep them in your own little plot of land in the game. Guilds in the game are called families, and the community seems to be generally nice. The annoying vendors that you often find in these sorts of games are relegated to a specific area of the map, so you don't have to muck through a mess of player shops to go turn in a quest.

The downside is the lack of helpful information out there for this game, such as what the items are and what they do. I also had trouble figuring out how to open a chat window, and could find nothing in the FAQ. I also couldn't figure out how to get rid of a Nosmate that I found until finally coming across a forum post on the subject. I have some item that is supposed to change my avatar's hairstyle, and I have yet to get that to work. The in-game manual definitely needs a lot more work!

The music is nothing special, the graphics we've seen before and aren't exactly anything new, exciting, or groundbreaking. Character creation irked me a little, having been given only two hairstyles in eight colors to choose from.

It's your Mini-Land and the ability to capture, collect, and train NosMates that makes Nostale unique. Overall, it's a fun game that's actually held my attention for more than a few days. I'd recommend giving it a whirl.