PristonTale is a 3D fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

 that centers on action-based role-playing

Action role-playing game

Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...

. It was originally released in South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, 2001, by Yedang Online. It was created by Triglow Pictures Inc. (now known as Priston Inc.) and has since been published for Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and the Spanish-speaking

Hispanophone

Hispanophone or Hispanosphere denotes Spanish language speakers and the Spanish-speaking world. The word derives from the Latin political name of the Iberian Peninsula, Hispania, which comprised basically the territory of the modern states of Spain and Portugal.Hispanophones are estimated at...

 countries. In 2004, the English version of PristonTale went out of public beta (in which it had remained for nearly 2 years) and became a commercial pay-to-play game. On May 17, 2007, PristonTale announced free-to-play service for everyone; instead of paying for the game, PristonTale has a cash shop in which players can pay real money for game items. On September 30, 2008, the English server for Priston Tale closed; Suba Games opened a new English server three days later.

Some of the features of PristonTale include a clan system, in-game shops, eight character classes – all of which can use every item available if they have the correct upgraded statistics (with the exception of armour, robes, and orbs) – a four-tiered skill system for each class, item upgrades, a simple yet involving battle system and an easy to use interface. PristonTale is also intensive in potion using, and dying is moderately easy. The experience loss per death also tends to climb quite steeply (experience loss is based on a percentage of obtained experience), mirroring the ever increasing experience needed to level.

The amount of players participating in PristonTale had been on a slow but steady decline; however, when free-to-play arrived, many people rejoined the game and many new players came in, as well.

Gameplay

Gameplay mostly consists of levelling up, though there are several activities players can participate in that are essential to the game. Some of these activities are:

• Trading: Buying and selling items. Players usually find this necessary in order to gain money and equipment otherwise unobtainable from NPC merchants.
• Clans: Players can join clans, in which teamwork prevails. They are the core of the social community of the game. Clans can also participate in special events created for clans only. Clans can be made once a player reaches level 40 or higher.
• Bellatra: formerly known as Survive or Die, a competition in which four teams with members of the same clan are forced to fight monsters until two teams are declared finalists. These two teams will continue fighting monsters until the last one survives. The winning team is chosen by whichever one has the higher amount of points. Teams receive points by killing monsters and monster bosses. The Boss monsters give higher amounts of points. The winning team's Clan Chief acquires rights over the Bellatra by gaining the ability to modify the monsters when the Chief fights next, by receiving an income from Bellatra, etc.
• Bless Castle: Bless Castle is a Player vs. Player activity in which one clan holds and defends the castle from all other participating clans, which can use siege equipment.

The other aspects of game play are "training", "climbing", hunting, player vs. player fights and socializing.

• Training: A player levels by killing large amounts of monsters at one given time, or many individual monsters quickly. Players may be in "party's" of 2–6 and level together.
• Climbing : One will attempts to move their character in a way that causes s/he to be on top of structures inside the game.
• Hunting: One faces as few as one monster but usually no more than three, to look for certain items in the game.
• Player vs. Player: One goes to a specified area to compete against other players, sometimes only one and sometimes as many as twenty.
• Socializing: Self explanatory, used in PristonTale to obtain items, friends and anything else considered of value in the game.

Equipment

Throughout the game, the characters progress through a series of levels and acquire skill points. As they progress they get different items, such as weapons and armour, to help them in their quest of achieving the ultimate warrior. Items of this calibre usually require a larger amount of skill points in an area than the previous items. Armour in general helps the character stay alive longer by giving them different attributes. Weapons in general help the character defend themselves or attack any monster they wish with a lot more force.

At the same time, there are certain specifications as to when players may use such weapons and armour. These are mostly based on level and stat requirements. Also, there are certain specs for armour and weapons so that they may achieve their great performance and special stats. These may be found in game, written on the armour or weapon (e.g. Fighter Spec, Knight Spec, etc). Different Classes use different weapons; for example, the knight mainly uses two-handed swords and blades, whereas the Archer uses bows. The different items players may obtain with specs determine which types of character classes use them. Most swords will come as Knight or Mechanician spec when most wands/staves will come as Magician Spec or Priestess Spec.

At higher level's obtaining items can become quite difficult due to low supply and high demand for the "high level" items. Magic characters such a Priestess and Magician will find the market for their items is less competitive. Where as the melee characters such as Fighter, Pikeman, and Knight have a higher rate of competition for items.

Critical reception

PristonTale received an award for "Outstanding Online Game" in December 2002 and "Outstanding Programming" at the 2003 Korean Gaming Grand Ceremony.

Priston Tale 2

The sequel to Priston Tale was released in February 2008. The developers sought to take the basic concepts of the first game and improve upon them. The development team stated at one point that they were "inexperienced" and had "learnt a lot" from the first version and that the second has had much better planning. Screen shots of the new game from E3 2006 depict many recognizable characters, enemies, and environments, albeit altered significantly. It uses Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine

The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...

.

Currently, Priston Tale 2 has only been released outside of beta in South Korea. Player response in South Korea has been very good, with over 30,000 players online, playing simultaneously on the first day of open beta, and 40,000 players online simultaneously as of the third day. The game still maintains popularity and is competing with SP1 and Twelve Skies for market share, with tens of thousands of players online simultaneously at any given time.

Yedang Online has contracted with various publishers, and localized versions (including North America) will begin beta service in early to mid 2009.

The European closed beta of "Priston Tale 2" was released in October 2008. The open beta was released February 14, 2009 although access to the European open beta is subject to regional restrictions via an IP block on the login server.

External links

• Official English PristonTale Site starting October 2008
• English (European Only) PristonTale 2 site North America is IP blocked from playing.
• Priston Tale 2 Europe Official
• Priston Tale 2 Korean Official
• Priston Tale 2 SEA Official