DragonSoul is a PvP orientated free to play MMORPG based on Asian Mythology and oriental architecture. Here at xmmorpg our first review of a game is based around the new player experience so this DragonSoul review will tell you what the combat’s like, how in-depth the character customization options are and what you can expect from basic gameplay mechanics and features. After all, an awesome set of end-game content is worthless if the journey to get there is boring.

As with all our new player experience reviews, our first focus for this DragonSoul review will be character creation. DragonSoul features 5 distinct classes for players to choose from Warrior, Hunter, Mage and Assassin. Warriors are mainly for melee damage but are also quite adept at tanking. Hunters are the main source of single-target range DPS, utilizing a number of powerful moves and crowd-control abilities. Mages are obviously magic based, focusing on heals and AoE damage, and lastly, Assassins are the stealth-like class of the game. It’s the standard MMORPG archetype setup, providing classes to fulfill each role in combat. During character creation you’re able to check what your chosen class will look like as you progress through the game, choosing from 5 different armor sets ranging from practically naked to end-game gear. Other aspects of the character creation in DragonSoul include very basic appearance options such as face type and hairstyle, but you also get to choose from 5 different starting areas. Each starting area provides different quests, monsters, NPC’s and architecture, but for the duration of this DragonSoul review, I chose to start in Pluvianias.

Once you’ve created your character and chosen your name and starting village, you’re then teleported their straight away. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the models and graphics in Pluvianias, I was expecting the typical Korean approach to MMORPG games with hundreds of NPCs spaced out and dozens of monsters, but it was all very well designed and compact. A brief tutorial greets you at the start, displaying movement and interaction keys at the lower right of the screen. It takes a few seconds, teaches you the basics and then it’s on to questing.

I’ve done my fair share of reviews and I’m used to slay “X” amount of monsters or speak to “X” NPC for the first quest but DragonSoul surprised me yet again, by offering a mount as my first quest reward. After speaking to a character that looked like an oriental version of Gandalf, I was given the choice between a rather fat Panda or a valiant Horse. Not really being fond of Pandas, I chose to select the Horse as my faithful companion. The next quest I received was a typical monster slaying quest, I use the term “monster” loosely as I was tasked with slaying defenseless rabbits, not exactly the training I expected for a savior of the new world. Another pleasant surprise during this quest was the ability to enter combat while aboard my mount, I was swinging my swords like crazy, slicing every rabbit that got in my way, looting and then moving on. The combat, looting and movement processes are so well streamlined that it was almost effortless for me to slay the rabbits, loot the corpses and return to the NPC.

Die Rabbit! Die!

Overall, my experience as a new player in DragonSoul was a memorable one. The quests are traditional free to play MMO style quests, the combat is typical tab-targeting and button pressing, but each feature I experienced was streamlined and error free. I thoroughly enjoyed the mounted combat and I’ll probably continue to play past this review, which I don’t do all too often. Definitely worth a shot for fans of Asian style MMORPG’s.

Rating: 8.5

by Blaine Smith