Perfect World is a company that produces free to play games, best known of course for their title “Perfect World” which has an enormous international player base. I had played “Perfect World” myself a while back, and had greatly enjoyed their lovely graphics and game features, so I stopped by their booth at E3 to see what new offerings they had up their sleeve. Jonathan Beliss took the time to discuss some of the finer points of “Battle of the Immortals“, and for me, there is currently an irrepressible smile written over my face at the privilege of being able to relate this information to you.
Where should I begin? This PC-only MMORPG was originally released in China but is now also live in the United States. Its storyline revolves around a hybrid of Norse and Chinese mythology with 5 playable classes who rock insanely elaborate armor sets that grow along with the character. The look is wild, lush and whimsical—with phenomenal graphics that are really the best I have seen in any free to play game. The armor seems almost alive—with anime-inspired pieces that twist and turn of their own accord—and “Soul Gear” that gains experience itself and levels with use.
Yes, as most free-to-play games do, they have an item shop available where players can spend real world money on in-game currency/goods. However, I was told that the monetizing has been revised since the China version so that this currency can be traded and purchased from other players in game, and that the most desirable and powerful items must be earned, not bought.
I had to go smoke a cigarette before beginning this paragraph extolling their pet system. It is, hands down, the best that I have seen out there right now. Any character may own a pet—and in fact pets contribute a substantial amount to a players’ DPS. There are over 100,000 seizable (tamable) creatures in-game, and certain bosses fall into this category as well. Every pet has a full skill speccing/stat allocation system and there is a stabling function as well, so that it is possible to custom-tailor a set of pets for PvP, DPS, PvE, et cetera.
Now here’s the biggie: creatures are gendered, giving players the capability of mating pets. There are multiple tiers of rarity in both skins and stats, and the further down creatures are bred, the cooler they look—with near-endless combinations of model appearance. Stat strengths preserve integrity upon mating and can be inherited too, so if two high-DPS bred pets mate, the offspring will also be a high-DPS creature, but possibly moreso than its parents.
Their mount system is excellent as well. Aside from looking unbelievably cool, the dizzying assortment of mounts have utility outside of speed increase. Unique mounts give different buffs which are kept upon dismounting, and there are many multiplayer mounts that can hold up to 6 people. This means that a whole party can get these benefits if a member has earned this mount, strengthening the group as a whole.
“Battle of the Immortals” also showcases some very interesting social aspects. Instead of just being passive, users that are on your friends list in-game have friendship level bars. These bars fill with experience based on time spent grouped together. As this friendship function levels, you earn unique buffs and skills to use when grouped with these characters that are unavailable otherwise. This has its pros and cons in that players like myself who enjoy grouping, raiding and guild progression see measurable benefit to spending time together—though it certainly does not speak as much to casual gamers. It is even possible to get married, complete with an instanced ceremony, to another player in this game after leveling your friendship bar to a certain degree; and again this grants special bonus abilities exclusive to the couple such as the capability of resurrecting each other even if not a healing class.
Basically, I am a bit smitten with “Battle of the Immortals” right now, in case this was not already apparent. I am a sucker for sexy graphics and out-of-the-ordinary pet detailing, and although I am aware that this game has the potential to irritate me down the road with grinding, right now I feel it has too many wonderful features to ignore.
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