First Star Online 3 (Day #02)

A simple throwback game that’s actually quite enjoyable thus far!

Today’s Goals: Level 10 in a weapon skill, complete a dungeon job, and level up at least 1 new trade skill.

Finished my first dungeon quest. This one has a metal slime to fight that will help you level up quite a bit if you are under level 10!

First Star Online 3 (FSO3) is a game world I entered in with very low expectations. The market is flooded with not only MMORPGs in general, but way too many pre-alpha state and severely-lacking-in-content pixel art MMORPGs. Not to downplay the amount of talent and effort required in designing many of these products, but the actual game experiences were subpar. Leafling and Elysium were two exceptions, but even these two titles were in desperate need of additional content and mechanics to hold my attention over an extended period. FSO3 surprisingly has quite a bit of depth compared to it’s competition, even if it is lacking a bit in the lore and story department. It’s definitely a grinder, but it’s a grinder with a bit of old school 16-bit era action RPG goodness mixed in.

Combat skills. You level them up through use.

Trade skills. You level them up through use. Each requires special tools with some of the tools being more difficult to acquire than others.

I defeated this metal slime multiple times, which helped level up my light weapons, heavy weapons, and brawling by multiple levels. When I logged off, I was level 12, 11, and 8 in each of those respectively.

Population peaked at 2 while I was playing. Hopefully this title catches on a bit more.

Found a random house and killed the guard. The guard hit me first, so I claim self-defense.

Lots of hidden NPCs with jobs strewn throughout the map.

The map is very maze-like, which might turn some people off. It’s very easy to get lost. Also, the holes are for a skill called cave crawling, yet I can’t figure out how to combine my rope and crawler to make a device to descend into the cave. Perhaps my crafting needs to be level 5 or greater?

I left the game after playing for over 2 hours today and had I not had other work to do, I could have easily logged another 2 hours. The cave crawling and other adventurer-related skills definitely intrigue me enough to push through the prerequisite grind.

Check back tomorrow for more coverage of my FSO3 adventures!