Grand Fantasia is a free to play 3D fantasy MMORPG.  It's a game that takes place in a world called Saphael.  There's many features to enjoy, but beware players who don't like cartoons, this is a grandparent's worst nightmare.  The game seems to be set for ages ranging from 13-25, but who's to judge how old players should be for games?  If you're gonna play it, nobody's gonna stop you!

Character Creation

The first impression of the game, the dream of advancement for your level 1 newbie, this is where it begins!  We were pleased with the options available.  You can change anything from the eyes, eye color, hair style, hair color, the obvious male / female, and even better, you can see what your character looks like at high levels with the class selector.  This doesn't set in your character's class in the beginning, that happens much later in the game.

Although the basics are covered for character design, there isn't much else for picky players.  You cannot change the size of you chin, there's no way to change the shape of your head, and the height / weight option?  No way.  It's just basic, but what is available should satisfy the average range of players.

Sprites

Is it a pet or a servant?  We like to call them our mascot that doesn't do much.  We've dug deeper and found that they're actually integral to the advancement of your character.  Sprites are important for crafting weapons, armor, and more.  They can also harvest, mine, gather resources, and probably even more than that at later levels.  It's a convenience that any player would want.  Even better, they're free!  Later on in the game, there's more sprites you can obtain.  We were content with just one, since sprites have a tendency to talk and talk... and talk....  But that's okay!

You choose your sprite's appearance at the character creation screen.  Here, you can name your sprite, give him a nifty hair style, and you can even give him odd shaped eyes, he probably doesn't care.  He just wants a master, and you just walked into the adoption agency and said "I'll take that one."  You choose what skills they have in the beginning.  They can advance in levels as well.

Quests

Quests are one thing this game doesn't lack.  There're a ton of them!  Most of them seem to be fetch and deliver like the average free MMO, but some of them are interesting enough to get caught up in and lose focus on grinding.  The only thing we found annoying about quests was the little popup that wouldn't go away, but once you've looked passed that, it's an enjoyment anyone can sit down to.

Questing Vs. Grinding is a hard choice amongst players nowadays.  Grand Fantasia has this covered, but we don't suggest grinding up to level 30 without questing first.  The grind fest begins to get tedious after level 5.

There are three types of quests in Grand Fantasia.  Solo quests, party quests, and guild quests.

Unique Feature - Player Statues

Okay, so it's been done before, but how often?  Players can have the honor of getting their image placed somewhere in the world in the form of a statue.  Now that's something anyone would want if you're a fame seeker.  You get your statue for defeatin Heralds, also known as bosses.

Story

The storyline sets itself in a world full of magic, mystical creatures, and wizardry.  The land is called Saphael, and you as the hero travel this enchanted land once raged by war, massacre, and desire for power.  There was many a great struggle in the past, but this is history of long ago.  In the present, the sprites uphold peace, balance, and and ensure security for all living beings.

It's a story that doesn't blend well with the game's cartoonisih graphics.  Nonetheless, it makes for an interesting experience once you dig yourself into the game.

Gameplay

Leveling is steady in the beginning, but it's a challenge afterwards.  Get ready to team up, it appears to be a very socially involved game!  The game could be a drag after level 15-20, so be prepared with some valuable equipments.

You could advance for hours and feel like you've made a small fortune.  It wasn't bad when we leveled up to 20.  We had enough money to buy all our necessary skills, equipment, and still had some left over.  This is without usage of the item mall, and it would definitely be a lot more if we had.

Game Variety

There's a lot to do in  Grand Fantasia.   The item selection is enough to satisfy all materialistic players, the game doesn't absolutely depend on the item mall to enjoy the features, there's just enough stuff to go around for everyone.  Battles are easy in the beginning, however the challenge curve is steep.  If you don't team up, you could find yourself lying on the floor every once in a while.

Although it's a free game, the item mall offers extras to enhance enjoyment of the game.  The items aren't that great, but that's okay since the game doesn't focus on the item mall entirely.  We were content with the selection of items you start with, and how wealth increase is steady enough for players to be happy with what they got.

The armors make for eye catchy appearances.  This has to be earned, but in what game is it not?  Overall, game variety was satisfactory.  Above average for free games.

Game Features

There's enough content in this game to be enjoyed by anyone.  There's PvP for you killers.  There's a guild system with many abundant features!  There's 10 Vs. 10 team battles, guild battles, and 1 Vs. 1 duels.  A branching class system allows for custom gameplay.  Sprite crafting, auction houses, mounts, dungeons, abundant quests, romance system, player statues, and world bosses make a feature rich game!

The branching class system starts off at level 5.  At that level, you choose your first class, one of four.  You get an additional branch at level 15, and another at level 30.  That makes a total of 8 different combinations for classes.  There's an alternate advanced system for further customization and development.

Mounts can be obtained by anyone.  There's different requirements for certain mounts, but in general the point is to allow players to have an enjoyable experience at the beginning of the game.

Auction houses are convenient.  There's a place in towns where players can simply list their items, and this makes it a convenience to buyers who would rather find items being sold in one place.

We've heard that guilds can have unique guild skills.  That's something we've yet to encounter in online games and can't wait to try it out and tell you about in the re-review!

User Friendliness

Hotkeys were satisfying.  We noticed there were two areas for hotkeys, one for your general use (row 1, row 2, etc,.) where you click / press the numbers on your keyboard, and one for quick access which used F keys.  The F keys could be hidden which is a nice feature since it adds more real estate to your screen.

The  heads up display wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst either.  The blocks are convenient, but they're hard to manage.  Sometimes you'll try to click on a region and there will be a block in your way.  Luckily there's several means of managing your blocks.  You can click on a tab to make the block click-through.  The  chat wasn't easy to work with either.  The filters are rugged for different types of chat.  Other than the filters, there wouldn't be any problem at all.

A common feature, and a must is you could configure the layout of your blocks.  Not all blocks could be moved such as the health bar, chat box, and map, but for the most part, it allows atleast some extent of customization.

Graphics

The graphics were very cartoony.  Based on your standpoint, this is either a dream come true, or you'll feel like you're in a kid's playground.  There's definitely effort put into the detail of the game.  Object glow was fantastic.  There was a lot of attention paid into the detail of characters and NPCs.  The scenery was often breath taking.  Looking up and around, you could see the world just come to life.

It all depends how you look at it.  Most of the graphics are simple, but the method in which they colored, shaded, rendered, it was very clever.  If you're not into games using simple, childish graphics, you probably won't find this eye candy, but to those who appreciate the effort placed into graphics that utilize every resource, it's not bad at all.

Performance

The developers of Grand Fantasia have developed SphereR Online Technology.  It's software that's supposed to increase the performance of online games.  It manipulates how data is sent between the server and the players' clients.  It increases speed, performance, and security.  To be honest, we didn't notice a huge difference using this software.  We're not even sure if it was used for Grand Fantasia.  The game was tested on 2 systems.  One system being better than the other, the game lags considerably when maximizing the graphics display on the older PC.  On a new PC, it was smooth.  If you have a PC that's older than 4 years, best to tone down your graphic values before going into the game.  Those with high end computers shouldn't worry.  This is after all the 21st century, get a better PC!

The hosts of Grand Fantasia are top of the line for free gaming.  The server speeds are great, so it's not their fault if the game lags.  If it does lag, be sure to check your connection, disable firewalls and anti-virus, and make sure you defrag your hard drive before installing.  The game uses up a good deal of space, but not too much for a 100GB drive.

You have options to configure the display.  Use them well!  You can tone down the graphics, turn off names, titles, effects, and so on.  There's enough customization to allow for maximum performance.

Game Support

The game is published under the ever so popular Aeria Games.  We have submitted inquiries 3 times and had a response within 9 hours, 12 hours, and the last one 4 hours.  It was a joy getting support from them.  They seem to have this game covered at all angles.  It's a free game, and support is not a guaranteed aspect of free games, but for these guys, applaud them well.

Community

We haven't had much of a chance to get involved with the community.  Maybe several conversations, but regardless there were many players logged into the game when we gave it a go.  Who we did talk to was friendly, but this is a statement of opinion.  You never know who you're gonna bump into.

The game allows for teams, duels, guilds, auctions, world chat, and more.  It's very focused on interaction, so we expect it to be a hit in the near future when players are already top level and decide to enjoy the social aspect of Grand Fantasia.

Overall

The final feeling of the game was good.  We've experienced a lot from a new game, and the advancement of it's community looks promising.  Grand Fantasia will be a memorable experience, and we suggest any player who's into fantasy games to give it a go.

Many features make this game what it is.  It's giving the players much to do, and the end results are more than satisfying.

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