Text version and links:
Tera is FREE TO PLAY: http://tera.enmasse.com/ (US ver.)
If you enjoyed this video, consider supporting my output via patreon: http://www.patreon.com/digibrony
Or paypal: digitalboyreviews@gmail.com
Chech out my Solo Levelling Guide for Tera: https://myswordisunbelievablydull.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/tera-solo-leveling-guide-1-to-60-with-falario-fa/
And a tale of adventure from the game: https://myswordisunbelievablydull.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/adventures-in-tera-chasing-moby-dick/
This ten-second clip that I’m about to show you perfectly captures everything I love about Tera Online.
–roll clip–
Pretty satisfying, right?
Tera Online is a Korean MMORPG about sexy badasses fighting huge monsters in a gorgeously designed, very large open world fantasy setting. A lot of the game’s appeal for me is aesthetic. I adore the character designs; I love that I can play as a tiny pink-haired girl carrying an enormous blade, or a gay pink elf, or a dragon girl, etc. The game’s world is probably my favorite in all of video games, with a sense of scale that is nearly unmatched in other games, and a pretty high level of detail to boot. Traversing its many beautiful vistas for the first time was a joy in itself.
But what really makes Tera Online special, and makes it one of the few MMO games that I can tolerate, is the combat system. It’s not that the combat is particularly deep or difficult to master. It’s simply that the combat FEELS fucking awesome. The ten-second clip I showed you is of the main attack chain that I used throughout the majority of the game. It opens up with a sweeping strike that often knocks enemies off their feet, which chains into an overhead strike that hits instantly. I then used a stabbing move to close the distance between myself and the enemy, chained it into another overhead strike, and finished it off with a killing blow.
Inputting the commands to make this combo happen is immensely satisfying, as it has this consistent rhythm to it. There’s the second between pressing the 2 key, watching the move execute, and then slamming the spacebar to make the overhand strike happen–then making sure to chain into something else quickly. The animations have an amount of weight to them, as my Elin Slayer leaps into the air to build enough momentum for her enormous sword swing, which seems to flow perfectly into the overhand strike. Just that first attack alone feels so satisfying, especially when it’s causing enemies several times my size to fall over, that I could almost call just that one attack the real appeal of this game for me.
Tera Online is a perfect example of how kinaesthetics, the feeling of movement, can totally make a game. Running and horseback riding happen at just the right pace to feel satisfying. Attacks have awesome, weighty animations, with lots of flashy visuals and loud, impactful sound effects. Everything in the game is built in a way to make the experience as satisfying as possible. The aesthetic of its design, the build of its combat, which allows players to take on any enemy at any level on their own, as long as they have the patience and the skills, and the feeling of movement in the game are all designed to make the moment-to-moment experience FEEL as good as possible.
It’s for this reason alone that I’ve found myself able to pour more hours into Tera than I have into any other game. I realize that I play far less video games than most people, and that the hundred and fifty hours that I’ve put into Tera might not seem that impressive to a lot of gamers, but as someone who’s finished MAYBE five games that were over thirty hours long, it certainly means something significant to me. It means that even when a game is mostly just an endless series of identical enemy encounters and collection quests, if the overall aesthetic is appealing, it can override pretty much any sense of boredom I might otherwise feel.
My Sword Is Unbelievably Dull 