A new game publisher named Kill3r Combo is breaking into North America and starting off strong with a much anticipated title named Elsword. For those that don't already know, Elsword is the spiritual sequel of Grand Chase. Elsword promises to feature fast and easy arcade action, off-the-wall anime and manga visuals, RPG elements and all that good stuff we come to expect from free-to-play titles.
To be honest, I was a bit on the fence about giving Elsword ED a try since I did end up playing East Fantasy Online (better known as "Fists of Fu") before playing this, and as I mentioned in my previous review on Fists of Fu, I didn't really like it that much. I was kind of thinking this was only going to be slightly better than Fists of Fu, since this was not a cheap imitation of another game. But on the other hand, I did enjoy playing the original Grand Chase way back, so I decide to give this a try after all.
From the get-go, the connection this game had with Grand Chase became more clear, as the main heroes available: Elsword (The male swordsman whose name is the same as the game's title), Aisha and Rena all bare resemblance to Grand Chase's first generation of heroes, Elesis, Arme and Lire, respectively. Well since I liked playing as Elesis and my first intention for any MMO is to pick the first class I see, I went with Elsword.
After I selected my character, the game's tutorial started off with a few comic book pages and a few cutscenes of Elsword ED about to beat up some punks. I controls were intuitive right away since it retains the same exact feel of Grand Chase's control scheme. Getting through the tutorial was simple and only took around a minute to blow through.
When I was dropped into the newbie town, I started to take in the scenery a lot more. The game definitely presents itself better than that rip-off game did, because the game sure has a lot of colorful and beautiful backgrounds that almost made me wish I could pop into the background for a bit and explore. The newbie town seemed a bit empty during my first play session, as I could only find a few players to try out the beginner dungeons with.
