Asda Story

Asda Story is a free MMORPG with cartoon-style graphics. It is fairly new, published by OnNet USA, developed by MaxOn Soft, and hosted by GamesCampus. Asda has some unique features that I haven’t seen used in other MMOs, like the Soulmate system. In game, you have to find yourself a Soulmate. Once you’ve found one, you can either go on your own character or theirs. If your Soulmate is in game even though you are not, you will also receive some experience points. Also, when they are in a party, you will gain the party experience along with the Soulmate experience points.

Another feature is the sowel system, where you place the sowel into a socket of the weapon or armor that the sowel says it can be equipped to. Most weapons already have sowel attached to them when you pick them up, but you can always switch the one already in, out of that socket slot. Sowel is dropped from any monster you can kill, and even the ones in instant dungeons. In instant dungeons, there are powerful monsters and a lot of quests that come along with them. There are only two instant dungeons, but each one has another part of it that isn’t in the same area, sort of like a mirror world. You’ll want to party with a few people to take these down, though. Sometimes there are a lot of people on all the channels, so it shouldn’t be hard to go and fetch yourself some other members. While in game you can just jump to the other channels of the server you are on through the mini-map. The exchange market is another feature, which is sort of like an auction. You can buy or register items, weapons, and armor there. There is also a class system.

The game begins with you creating a character, giving them a set of clothes, and choosing the name and gender. After you load in, you’ll notice that your job is set to beginner. Once you get to level 5, you can choose your own class, warrior, mage, or archer. These are the only classes, but each of them comes with three different skill sets. In every level you gain two points, and you use these points to get the skills. For example, a mage can use destructive spells for more spell damage, use healing spells to help out others and themselves, or use protective spells. Of course, you can bounce around in each of the three skill sets so you don’t just get to use the skill set you chose from the beginning. There may even be some surprises in the skill sets that you may not expect. At certain levels you can change or upgrade (so to speak) your class with a quest, and by doing so you will be able to use more and more of the skills and be able to buy them with your points. The max amount of times you can upgrade your class is twice.

On the interface is the chatting system where you choose where you want your typing to be seen, like in normal, where everyone can see what is in the same area as you are, and you can only see theirs. The quick-key slot is also on the bottom of the interface, where you can place your skills and items that are usable. You may need to double-click on the skill or item in order to use it, but I found it easier to use the hot keys for them. At the top, you’ve got your health and mana along with your name, portrait, and level. Your portrait depends on your class. You’ve also got the mini-map, which shows the location of your Soulmate, party members, yourself, the coordinates of your location, and even the environment around that area. Above the chat are the Find Soulmate and Find Party buttons. These will each show if someone is looking for a Soulmate or a party. Above the quick-key slots are character info, your inventory, the skills of your class, the quest log, community, item mall, and the option button. In the character info you can find info on your abilities, such as stats and how much you can carry depending on the weight.

In the inventory, you can find your equipment, such as a potion or weapon. You can also add any equipment your class is allowed to wear. In the skills, you can look at what the skill sets are and see what you’ve already got and what you can get later on. You can also drag the skill that you’ve already bought to your quick-key slots. In the quest log, you’ll find the quests you’ve got to do and the quests you’ve already done. In the community button, you can see who your Soulmate is, who you’ve got for friends and if they are on or not, your clan information, and who the leader is and the members, and who is on near your level in your area. In the item mall, you will find lots of items that you can buy using Campus Cash, which is bought through the site. And in the options, you’ll be able to set up shortcut keys, change the sound and settings through system, change the game settings, and exit or restart, which will bring you back to the login screen. The whole map can be seen by pushing the m key or clicking the “M” under the mini-map. In the map you can click on an area and move to it and also see the coordinates of that area, which helps a lot during quests.

The gameplay is smooth, except for some lag, only because a lot of people are usually online, especially in the instant dungeons. To move, you use the left mouse button on the area where you want to go. To fight enemies, you have to left-click on them and then use a skill or double left-click in order to go into melee range and just start hitting them. Some skills require time to cast, even though it is not mentioned in the description. All weapons attack quite fast, as far as I know, except for the two-handed sword, which does more damage (just at a lower attacking rate) than other weapons, and the staff, which you’ll most likely not use much, since you’ll be blasting monsters with spells. A shield can be worn if a one-handed sword is equipped. Everyone can use arrows if they are using a bow, crossbow, or ballista. All spells for a mage require a staff to be equipped in order for the spell to be used. Be careful, though, if you find yourself without a staff equipped. In instant dungeons, you will find yourself in a brand new area, like the Queens Palace, where there are more powerful monsters than on the outside. You will find people asking to go to them.

Overall, the best parts of Asda are the Soulmate system and the job and class system, as well as getting more experience points while your Soulmate is on. They can go on your own character, but they can’t do anything to any of your items or equipment, so you’ll feel safer when you’re not on. When your Soulmate is on your character, your character will also get whatever drops and experience they happen to get. You can only be one class per character, but as you advance levels you will gain more skills of that class if you upgrade that class. Even though you are on the second class and have done a lot in one skill set, you can still go into another set, but you can’t immediately go into the skills that are there for your second job level. You need to get the points in that skill set in order to get the more powerful skills.