Inspired by anime design and art, Luvinia Online is a unique MMORPG game that offers players a variety of interesting features. Luvinia Online presents players with a unique combination of intense PvP with highly extensive PvE and character customization options. This is a new player experience review focusing on the beginning aspects of Luvinia Online, giving players the lowdown on what they can expect from the first hour or two of game-play.

The first stage of character progression in Luvinia Online is quite impressive. Players are given the choice from 2 different factions, Empire and Federal. Each faction does have a unique starting area and progression route through the game, and they’re also the sides players will represent in PvP. Each faction also has 3 different countries, each with a unique background story and tutorial questing area. Other options in character creation include basic appearance settings such as face and hair types, as well as selecting a soundboard for your character, a feature I’ve not seen in many MMORPG titles.

Contrary to the typical MMORPG approach, Luvinia Online doesn’t give you your choice of classes until you enter the game world. Once you’ve loaded into your country of choice you’ll be offered 3 different starting quests, one for each of the available classes Warrior, Magician and Rogue. Each class does exactly what the name implies, Warriors are designed for melee damage and tanking, while Magicians focus on AoE DPS and other magical spells and lastly the Rogues specialize in speedy sneak attacks. A feature that I won’t get to experience in this new player review is the sub-class system. As players progress through the game they can unlock certain quests that reward players with a sub-class specialization choice, a smart feature but it’s nothing I haven’t seen in other MMO games of this type.

The world of Luvinia Online is a very colorful place, beautiful trees line the pathways, exotic animals inhabit the fields and highly detailed NPC’s litter the towns. Although I was destroying terrifying Squirrels and Rabbits during my period in Luvinia Online, I did come across some far more impressive specimens. The most notable of which was Sauron, not an evil wizard with a big beard, instead it was a larger than life tree patrolling the forest. I did attempt to introduce myself via a sword swipe but luckily for me he was a friendly tree, otherwise being a walking tree at level 100 I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted very long. Although I never got to find out what Sauron’s purpose was, I did feel safe slaughtering the innocent Squirrels with him nearby and it was a great way to demonstrate what Luvinia Online is capable of. I can only dream of what the monster designs are like later in the game.

The Friendly Tree Sauron

The questing system is pretty standard, offering a large variety of quests with the majority aiming towards traveling between towns and NPC characters or pummeling certain monsters into pulp. A nice feature that aids the quest system is the interactive map. Players can bring up the map using the “M” key, and are then able to select their destination. Your character will then walk to the location without any extra input, this is a common system in today’s game but the auto-pathing in Luvinia Online is faultless, not once did I get stuck or go the wrong way. The quest log is also interactive, giving players the option of clicking on an NPC or monster target and automatically traveling to the desired location.

Overall, the new player experience in Luvinia Online is a breath of fresh air for the MMORPG genre. I didn’t have to wait hours upon hours to find characters, monsters and locations that were worthy of a brief pause and the systems I experienced were well designed and cater to players from all walks of MMO life. It’s not a game changer but Luvinia Online is well worth playing for fans of anime inspired MMO titles.

Rating: 7.0

by Blaine Smith