Shaiya II

While the original game isn't any personal fun and was even ditched a bit quickly by the suggester, Shaiya is a pretty game. The game had cool looking graphics (I guess), even on the lowest settings with interesting combat skills and other things of that nature.

But back to the point of this post. While searching for Shaiya things such as gameplay videos and trailers I cam accross the Shaiya II trailer which was rleased back in summer of 2009. It's a cool video and if anyone who liked the first game who is like me and didn't care about the Aeria community all that much beyond their own game, this might interest.

Shaiya II Trailer


Supposedly to be released next year though information on the game wasn't searched for as the trailer itself was what was cool. If Solve Unamusement was to honestly suggest an MMORPG it would be Perfect World International.

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Quests (Shaiya Part 3)

The quest and questing system in Shaiya has been seen before. If anyone has played an MMO within the last five years knows how this works. You pick a person and, at first, you are interested in the story they are trying to weave. How mad these NPCs are that someone went and smashed up their food cart and now you need to get revenge on the beasties that did it. That sounds fun and good until the NPC drops, "Now go kill X amount of Y and come back for something special."

It's a good and easy way to get "free" experience but I feel as though the quests, if not doing them for items, worthless. The experience and gold given seem a bit weak, especially for the first bit of time. While I have played a few that had you leveling fast and throwing gold at you, those mostly had you spending your gold just to upgrade your skills, this seems a bit slow.

Why is that? Mainly because stopping in a field of monsters who are just a bit higher level then you who don't aggro and mopping them up isn't difficult. Finding such fields of weak willed mobs at anything under level 15 is common for most MMOs but it distracts from the fun.

Personally, I feel the quest system works but needs either more reward or less work. The game isn't charging me to play it so it shouldn't be trying to make me play it. While I do understand that the point of Aeria's games is to get you to actually buy items, it is quickly apparent that it REALLY WANTS YOU to do this.

On another note, leveling feels very slow. This is, however, probably because I refuse to spend more then a few hours playing every couple of days.

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A Few Hours (Shaiya Prt 2)

This post is simple and easy to understand. What does Shaiya have to give you after that first bit of "OOh look how pretty"? The raw tax of it is that it doesn't. Shaiya is very quickly just like every other MMO that is out there. You spawn near an NPC that wants to give you a quest about killing some monsters and then he gives you gold and experience.

It's a wonderful not broken formula that tricks all of us into playing these games even though we know it's just the same stuff that's been done before. Some things that made me happy is that, while the classes and races were similar, they didn't really matter. What side you have characters on makes zero difference unless you have friends on "the other side". It's the exact same game, at least so far, on both sides of the fence with only a difference in feel.

That feel that I mention, however, is brilliant! Each "side" of the torn in two world has it's own feel and magic to it. The "light side" of human and elf is cheery and clean with it's neat government types and tall sparkling spires. While the "dark side" is more gritty and broken down with its tyrannical type feel and it's Vail and The Nordein races. Each side keeps with it's color tone and general thought/feel which is very cool when you think on it.

Character creation isn't the most involved and detailed as I have seen in others (Like Perfect World) but the intro to the game is just wonderfully done and, again, keeps the feel for each side very well.

Shaiya Fan Made Intro


For being what I've seen before, this is looking very fun. After all, I didn't even realize I had spent three plus hours playing the first time I started.

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First Impressions (Shaiya)

Before anyone plays anything that has the commitment level that an MMORPG has, one should at least check out the things it has to offer. Such a thing was done with Shaiya and here are my initial thoughts on the game.

These are all preplay thoughts and based strictly on what information can be obtained about the game. This should be noted

One of the first things smart people will notice is that if they check out any gameplay vids is that this, like so many, are trying to be WoW without being WoW. I feel this was done poorly as it looks exactly like WoW. Though that is not a bad thing and from past experience such an interface works very well, it's still a bit "been there done that".

The second thing that would be noticed is that the game is very stylized and puts a bit of emphasis on how cool skills look. This is a great thing, especially sense these skills will be used over and over again. You want something flashy that'll keep people amused while they repeat the same behaviors for months on end.

But the real thing that will catch most of you and trick your brain into play this is that there is balance with counterbalance and still imbalance. Now, this makes ZERO sense when I say it like that but let me explain.

The world is broken into two sides, a "light" and a "dark". This is more a Eastside vs Westside type of deal then having to do with anything involving actual good vs evil. Each side has two races which work similar to the other two races but, at the same time, do not. One side is magic based, using more MP then SP while the other is flipped. Both sides have the exact same classes, from mage to healer to assassin and ranger, to tank and puller... they are all there. What does change things isn't how they play but more in how they seem to play. (Remember these are all preplay thoughts).

FINALLY, I just want to post the games trailor. A note that this isn't actual gameplay but more a showcase of how the classes, races and two sides play part.

Shaiya Theatrical Trailer


There is also a very interesting story behind how/why the world is in two pieces but it's not very important unless you are one for actually Roleplaying while playing an MMORPG.

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MMO Community (Aeria Games) games

There has actually been the intended post on this subject for sometime, as their concept of a huge online community stretched over many free games is an amusement in itself. Area Games was and is, as far as I'm concerned, the best place for Free To Play MMO games. There are multiple options with Dream of Mirror Online being one of it's first "real successes", at least from what I am aware of.

The community consists of sixteen different MMOs which, together, is enough to keep anyone involved in at least one of the said sixteen. They are mostly very "WoW like" but that doesn't stop them from being any good.

There will be a personal delve into one that was suggested by Sandy, a reader of Solve Unamusements. This game being one that has been running sense 2007 and now has a good amount of players to not be over crowded and annoying and not be naked. That game being Shaiya.

A few of the next blog posts will be covering this game from the first impressions to the first few hours of gameplay and then later on, perhaps a break to allow my own time with the game and other blog posts to commence.

One final note on what keeps the games free to play is their "system". If it is wished people may pay for individual perks, items, etc. It's nothing great and doesn't usually alter things to much but provides a nice steady income that allows the developers to still technically offer a free MMO to be played.

Aeria Games

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