[SwordOfLegendsOnline] Combat and... "Progression" Steam Review

The Combat is "Okay" at best. It feels stiff most of the time, and can get annoying later on. But what really grinds my gears is the whole "Stance" system. You, as a player, may have noticed when you selected a class at the start... that the class has two roles it takes on. We'll use the Fox Mage again as an example, as it's the only class I could be bothered to level up to Maximum Level. It has a DPS Stance that focuses on sustained DPS and has a small burst window, and a healing stance, which focuses on healing over time and slight bursts here and there. When you are thrust into the game, you CANNOT switch to the Healing Stance, there was a bug preventing you from going back to the DPS Stance until Level 13, so they specifically disallow you to unlock the stance switching in the first place until Level 13 now. After you are capable of switching to said stance, it will become IMMEDIATELY apparent that this game wants healers to heal and not help do damage. Because, while in a healing stance, at least for Fox Mage, you cannot cycle enemies, and instead cycle through players and NPCs around you. This is mainly thanks to the fact you have no DPS spells/actions while in said Healing Stance, and must stay out of your healing stance to do damage. Okay, fine, let's just try and change stances while in--Oh, you can't. You cannot change stances while you are in combat. Well... that's just great. (Not that it matters, since changing stances is a 6-8 second time loss of you standing still.)

So what about progression... surely that will redeem the game from such a system, right? [i][b]WRONG!!![/b][/i] The progression in this game is very short and bittersweet. You will gain XP from enemies and quests until "Beginner 36" as the game calls it. Once you hit that level of progression, the game requires you to finish tutorials in the Cultivation Window's "Heroic Feats" (I think that's what it's called) tab of the first category. If you are like me and progress super fast, you will be behind in tutorials, and have an extra 6 or so to do before you finally are able to progress. Once you level up to "Student 1" however, you might be thinking, "Oh, I can gain XP again now, just like if this was some Level Cap increase system from [i]Final Fantasy XI[/i] or [i]Phantasy Star Online 2[/i]'s Japanese servers." But no, you still cannot gain XP. You have to complete more "Tutorials," which are just it telling you to go to specific zones meant for Student Level characters.

In the Student Level zones, enemies start at "Level 150," which pertains to their Gear Score Level. The enemies here hit like trucks with their auto attacks, and even with the free Level 150 gear set I got, I couldn't take on more than one at a time without dying within seconds, despite the game clearly wanting you to take on more at times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhRNdQUD4FI

Once you hit "Student 9," you will need to do another tutorial to progress you to "Sage 1," which is the Level Cap at the time I'm posting this review. I hope you all enjoy this game more than I did though, as I will never be touching this game ever again.