Grand Chase

A free to play 2D side scrolling arcade styled MMORPG influenced heavily by an Anime art style

Grand Chase was first introduced in China under the name 3 Young Heroes, but has since come through several iterations. The game uses at it's core a 2D side scrolling arcade style where players navigate through each level with their character, defeating enemies and gaining gold and experience as they do so. At the end of some levels there a boss fights, typically against larger monsters that are more difficult to defeat. The player has the choice from one of nearly twenty characters, each with different skills and play styles. The game is free to play, but real money can be used to buy better equipment and more character slots. The game default is four character slots.

Game Play

Atypical to most MMORPGs, players work their way through different 2D maps all accessible from a central grand map screen. Towns and open areas filled with monsters to figtht populate each map and multiple players can occupy the same map at the same time, competing for quests and for monster spawns. Combat is skill based and there are nearly twenty different characters that can be selected (although a player may only control one at a time) Players can pick from typical sword wielding warriors, magic wielding mages, gun toting mercenaries or even elfish werewolves. Each character has different skills, weapon set and play style so there's something for everyone, although you may not know if you like a character after you've leveled them up a little bit. Jumping, timing hits and skills and dodging are all part of the combat system and harken back to a classic arcade style game.

Presentation

There is a grand story in Grand Chase that is slowly revealed through missions and progressing the levels. Art direction is anime styled and all the graphics are crisp and fairly concise for an online game where twitch response is more often the difference between victory and defeat and any kind of lag could get your character killed. Skill effects are varied and pretty with lots of colors in the appropriate places.

Pros

• One of the only free to play arcade style MMORPG's in existence making game play fairly unique
• Anime art style will appeal to a broad audience and is suitable for younger players trying out the genre
• Wide selection for characters

Cons

• Advanced content and equipment is only available through actual purchases