Is it P2W?

Yeah, this is a real MMO where you can see other players running around, and no there's no P2W at the moment. You could spend money on gacha to obtain hero skills faster I guess (you also get a lot of free tries by just playing) but they usually have long cooldowns and don't make much of a difference in PvP or PvE.

it is an actual mmo. not p2w and pretty fun. the whales spent their money on the cosmetics and gacha cosmetics (for skins and costumes)

It lacks "grind areas" where you can farm mobs for some loot.
Otherwise, it has all the typical MMO activities, though some are gated by a daily/weekly cap (dungeons, professions, rating points...).

This is your typical PVx MMO in a nutshell. You get lots of exploration, quests, boss raids and pvp like roam gank, gvg , 3v3 , 6v6 with NPC objective, 12v12. (No penalty for pvp deaths in any modes) however you do get deranked in team deathmatches.

The unique part on the PVE portion is not that typical MMO as raidbosses phases/fights can consist of a side scroller (think Hollow Knight) roguelike and bullethell modes. Side quests with the good rewards require actual thinking and attention to complete. You won't be able to complete by just randomly clicking every option. Basically almost no handholding.

There is autopathing and 100% handholding for main quests however.

Powering up your character grind consists of an assortment of mini games and puzzles. (its not the usual grind goblins till level up) Gearing is based on gear slots. For example chest slot can be upgraded to +5 currently and I choose to imbue a power that shortens my skill cd by 0.1 for every 10% hp lost. Every subsequent new piece of chest will inherit the +5 and that power in the chest slot. You can save up to 3 powers on the gear slot and swap as needed. You do not need to waste time and resources on upgrading, enchanting specific pieces of gear only to discard it later as you get better gears

Lifeskills/gathering crafting is STAMINA based. You can't spend 20 hours fishing, you expand 25 Stamina every successful attempt. Current stamina cap is 1800.

Pay to Win in Fashion Only (Cosmetics) Yes there is a RANKING for how much money you put in fashion. Looking good, fresh and shiny is very expensive as its gacha based.

Battlepass and monthly pass gives a slight boost in currency gained, nothing really significant that you get to tower over non battle/monthly pass players. Hero gacha's skills are highly situational and niche, generally not very useful. You get draws and the currency to pull for free just playing the game but really no one does that.

Also mounts are quite insignificant as for travelling. You will be parkouring, gliding, flying, float, dash instead. Yes you can pay real money to LOOK like you are teleport upwards instead of jumping up with your legs like a peasant.

Interface wise, right now the global release is still using the Mobile UI which is a direct port. Its awkward to navigate on widescreen PC gaming. However The PC UI will release next year and will look and feel the same like in WoW/FF14.

Originally posted by Genocide Denier:

Side quests with the good rewards require actual thinking and attention to complete.
Powering up your character grind consists of an assortment of mini games and puzzles.

The problem is, some puzzles do lose nuances due the translation.
Like hint says "mountain" i.e. 山 (Shan). So a chinese player will know it is 三 (San) i.e. number "three".

But me a casual gweilo? Will be forced to google these codes on youtube.

This is a diluted MMO for kids. Pretty relaxing though

Well thanks to all the replies, think I will definitely give it a go, not sure how this slid under my radar!

Originally posted by Alex:

Originally posted by Genocide Denier:

Side quests with the good rewards require actual thinking and attention to complete.
Powering up your character grind consists of an assortment of mini games and puzzles.

The problem is, some puzzles do lose nuances due the translation.
Like hint says "mountain" i.e. 山 (Shan). So a chinese player will know it is 三 (San) i.e. number "three".

But me a casual gweilo? Will be forced to google these codes on youtube.

yes that is unfortunate because it was a direct translation from Chinese culture that won't make sense in another language

it all depends on your "view" of a "real MMO"

if u just look at tradidional MMO games then it shows a real MMO:
-doesn't have pay to win mechanics
-doesn't have any form of time gating mechanisms
-doesn't have mobile / autocombat

and if all 3 these iddues r in a MMO then u might aswel ignore the game cause it will be total trash.

so the anser for me is NO !
this is not a true traditional MMO. u could better classify it as a "new age, korean / asian game based on the MMO concept.

Originally posted by Wipkonijntje:

it all depends on your "view" of a "real MMO"

if u just look at tradidional MMO games then i shows a real MMO:
-doesn't have pay to win mechanics
-doesn't have any for of time gating mechanisms
-doesn't have mobile / autocombat

and if all 3 these iddues r in a MMO then u might aswel ignore the game cause it will be total trash.

so the anser for me is NO !
this is not a true traditional MMO. u could better classify it as a "new age, korean / asian game based on the MMO concept.

Me when I make ♥♥♥♥ up.

Originally posted by Nemeses:

Or is it like WWM? I am enjoying, if struggling a bit with WWM, but in no way is it a MMO.

Yes, Sword of Justice is a true MMO.
And Where Wind Meets is a single-player game with co-op.

Yes but UI is very bad, if you dont mind UI then its a good game

yea its fully mmo it has so much content so much stuff to do both pvp-pve or simply exploring and much more and the game is extremely fun and good for a mobile every day im shocked of how good it actually is and how can a mobile game be so good and better than 90% of pc mmos

Originally posted by Zephyr:

Is it P2W?

Are traps gay?
Do you need AlienWare to play it?

There, i have expanded your meme.