Priston Tale

PristonTale is a 3D fantasy MMORPG that centers on action-based role-playing. It was originally released in South Korea, 2001, by Yedang Online.^[1] It was created by Triglow Pictures Inc. (now known as Priston Inc.) and has since been published for Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, England, Philippines, Brazil and the Spanish-speaking 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, ten 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 five-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.

Due to the old-style nature of the game and the heavy grind, the game's current population is on a steady but rapid decline, with many players moving on to newer MMORPGs with more modern features. The active playerbase is estimated to be around 50 players as of June 2017, with each player owning multiple 'alts' or alternative characters, creating the illusion that the game has hundreds of players. A recent attempt at getting the game to Steam to increase player base has resulted in failure. ^[2]

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 (SoD), 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. Bellatra is located in the town Navisko and available for players level 80 and above.
• 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.
• Ghost Castle: Three characters of different classes play together, can be done once a day. Entrance to Ghost Castle is in Refuge of the Ancients.
• Ardor: Also known as Ricarten SoD, located in the town Ricarten by the exit to Garden of Freedom, this is SoD for players level 40 to level 79.

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, throwing friends at enemies 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. Whereas 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.^[1]

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.^[1] 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.

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.^[1] 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.^[3][4]

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.

As of March 25, 2013 English server of Priston Tale II closed down as announced by gamerkraft.

References

External links

• Korean main website
• English main website
• Vietnam main website