Ether Saga – Fun and Free to Play

I played Ether Saga for a few days last year, and didn’t like it much then. Not sure if things have changed or whether I have discovered new features. But it’s a fun game actually.

I recently have gotten bored with Guild Wars – more on that in another post sometime – and since 2Moons has been hit by a comet, I decided to try Ether Saga again. AKIA was fun for a day or so, but it has a very high attention load as you level and quest. So it’s tiresome to play.

I played EtherSaga last year for a while, but it did not seem very much fun then. Not sure whether they have updated the game or whether I just discovered a lot of new features. This time I started out with my boy Dragoon for a while, but then created a little girl Conjuror from scratch and did all the quests I could find. Leveling was easy and the gifts and quest rewards were pretty cool. Don’t depend on the loot drops tho. Maybe I’m missing something but they seem fairly useless. No armor or weapons drop, or at such a low rate as to be useless.

Pets are Great!

The the pet system is fantastic!! Your character comes with a pet – or should I say hero – out of the box. Your pet actually levels faster than you do and is a great health and damage buff.

But the great news is that you can capture about half of the wildlife in the world as pets.

The gorilla was my first capture. WindFlayer caught him using the first net. 20 silver is expensive for a level 16 character, but cheap once you pass level 20. He was caught at his native level of 14 and fought well from the start. And even better once I figured out how to put his skill in the skill bar so he would use his StinkKick skill.

Later Sandy tried to capture a level 21 Tiger when she was level 21 too. You must be at least the same level as the pet you are going to capture. Well she had to use 4 nets, so the tiger coast 80 Silver. Very pricey. And he was captured at level 1. Yes only level 1. Not sure if you have better luck if you are a few levels above your pet. WindFlayer was 16 when he captured the level 14 blueback.

The tiger leveled up quickly too, although he had to sit on the sidelines for quite a while before he could fight. It took about 4 hours to build it him to level 20+ along with Sandy so he is a real fighting machine.

There is an Auto Bot Built in to Ether Saga!

There is a Auto Bot that you get as a leveling gift at level 20 and you can purchase in the store. It’s an auto fighting machine that you can tend or apparently if you add a stone to it, you can leave it alone to level all day while you are at work. It’s not that expensive. $2 for a whole week – elapsed time not game time. Or $0.50 / a day if you buy the 24 hour model. The gift version is a 3 day version.

You set your skills and your pots for you and your pet into this and then you start it and it kills stuff to level you up. I saw a forum post that talked about needing to buy 1000 pots for a day while you were away at work. Apparently if you leave the system you have to purchase another stone so it won’t log you out or something, but that’s cheap too if you want it. I’ve always stayed there and looked around while it fought and never had any trouble.

The possessor has lots of options for what to kill and what loot to pick up. Takes the RMS – Repetitive Motion Stress – out of your game play for sure.

So Ether Saga is not Free to Play, but it’s cheap to play. No monthly fees and the items that matter are cheap like the possessor. While there are costumes that have no effect on your game play, the Possessor bot and the mounts that allow you to fight and the wings that allow you to get to quests quickly are a real benefit for game play. 2Moons seemed to have the ethic that store objects were not a real advantage to game play. Ether Saga has no such ethic. But it’s fun anyway. There are separate PVP Realms so there is no harassment in the game. Folks are friendly when I hear them talking and I’ve seen no cheating, which was rampant in 2Moons.

You can Dance or get Married.