Era of Legends Review: More Mobile MMOs Should Follow Its Example

MMORPGs on mobile went down a dark path when autoplay rose to dominance.

While the idea seemed cool at first because it theoretically allowed players to skip the tedious grind often seen in a typical MMORPG, it became way too overused and resulted in hundreds of games that feel exactly the same.

With Old School RuneScape now available, it’s even harder to find a reason to play those copy-paste games because, except for the fancy graphics, RuneScape has everything you’d want from an MMO. Oh, and here’s the best part: IT ACTUALLY LETS YOU PLAY THE FREAKING GAME!

Ok, we’re admittedly a bit biased when it comes to mobile MMORPGs, but you have to give us this one: We have every reason to be. So you can imagine that we were not exactly too excited to try out Era of Legends. It has every sign of “one of those games”: flashy visuals, gender-locked classes, popular in Asia, and autoplay.

Yet, a couple of hours in, we found ourselves pleasantly surprised. You see, the game is incredibly selective about when players can access its autoplay features. Basically, you can use it for open world questing and that’s about it.

Character creation: The good and the bad

But first, let’s discuss the experience it offers as a whole. You pick a class from 8 available options, which range from the standard RPG stuff like Warrior or Mage to the more interesting hybrids such as Shaman, Druid, and Witch.

Even though classes are gender-locked (something that should never be in an MMO), they do have their own races, which again range from the usual humans, dwarves or elves to the less common dark elves and minotaurs.

Also, it’s clear right off the bat that each of the classes has its own role. Having 8 unique classes actually brings a lot of options to the table and lets players play as some unconventional roles like pet summoner, shapeshifter, and debuffer.

One complaint about character creation is that there is absolutely no room for customization whatsoever. Like, literally none, you can’t even choose your hairstyle.

When you’ve finished creating your character, a brief tutorial will introduce you to the basic mechanics of the game, which isn’t anything new. You move around with a virtual joystick on the left and use skills through some on-screen buttons on the right. Still, the animations are outstanding – one of the best we’ve seen from a mobile MMORPG.

Gameplay is standard, but graphics and animation are great

While there’s no dedicated button for dodging, you can still move between attacks, which is nice. Another minor yet useful feature is that you’ll be warned of powerful attacks from enemies through a red marker.

But there’s little for you to worry about while questing since the game can automatically do that for you. All you have to do is watch as your character travels around talking to NPCs, killing enemies, and collecting items. You can skip the story too, there’s nothing special or worth noting about it.

Honestly, the entire questing affair is pretty dull, so having autoplay in this case is actually a good thing. That said, everything is absolutely gorgeous, especially the character models, and that’s probably where Era of Legends plans to make money.

New weapons and armor are not actually cosmetic in this game. Instead, you’ll unlock several skins for everything as you play. Additionally, you can earn many of those skins for free by achieving certain levels, clearing dungeons, or beating the arena.

So while there are things that require you to pay real money, you can’t really blame the developers here. They already gave you tons of free stuff to begin with.

No pay-to-win

The most important thing is, Era of Legends is in no way a pay-to-win game. You can’t just pay money to become a god. The best gear can only be obtained by clearing dungeons – and this is where the game REALLY makes it marks.

For starter, autoplay is completely shut down in dungeons, meaning you have nothing to rely on but your own skills. You must use abilities at the correct moments, move around to dodge enemy blows, and try to keep up with your party.

Speaking of party, you can either team up with friends or guildmates, or just use the matchmaking system. This system functions pretty well too, as it’ll try to assemble a wide variety of classes to create a balanced team. It’s the same with PvP. No autoplay is allowed so it’s all about skills.

All in all, we had a pretty good time with Era of Legends. Sure, it’s nowhere near Old School RuneScape level, but with the mobile MMORPG market being as it is, a game that is not pay-to-win deserves huge praises. It’s visually stunning, isn’t greedy nature, and actually rewards skilled players.