Wild Buster: Heroes of Titan - Early Access Watcher -
1Disclosure: This game copy was offered by the developer via Curator Connect.
Take on the role of either a Guardian or one of the Abandon in the battle against the cybernetic Broken. Featuring 12 classes (24 planned, most locked until you reach max level with other classes), plenty of linear dungeons and 3v3,5v5 PvP (could not test due to lack of players) in decent looking sci-fi settings scattered across Titan. Kill your foes, loot gear and fight in one of 4 raid areas.
The game's visuals are a bit dated, but they are not bad for the most part. Hub towns are particularly barren with just a couple of interact-able people outside the main city that houses the class trainers and priority vendors. Music is ultimately forgettable, which is a shame given the setting. Attack animations, particle effects and the majority of character models all look great. It is just a shame the enemy models tend to be reused for most of the dungeons with a few exceptions.
Combat takes center stage and provides a simple auto-attack with roughly ten or so abilities for each class that can be upgraded every five levels. The standard tank, healer, and dps formula remains the structure for group events, but the use of telegraphed moves make it important to utilize the dodge function to avoid damage. There are also three ability sets so you can switch between more offensive or defensive builds on the fly. It functions properly for the six characters I managed to test, but I will say the telegraphed moves appear too fast and make dodging them almost impossible for most bosses.
Leveling is relatively easy and I was able to get a character to max level in little over an afternoon. The issue comes with the linear format created by the main quest, which forces the player to go through dungeon after dungeon until they complete them all and unlock normal, then expert difficulty. It lacks any form of open areas until you hit 50, which hold harvest-able materials used in crafting. These areas are also hostile in terms of PvP, providing me with an opportunity to see how some of the classes work against each other in terms of balance. There are a few raids as well, but you need to complete expert dungeons to unlock the key for them. The raids are tough though, so don't think about trying them without full 50 gear at unique status or higher.
While the game doesn't include a cash shop, there are added bonuses included with the dlc that are worth mentioning. If you buy the game by itself, you are limited to a small inventory and an even smaller vault that can both be increased by buying these packs. You also see character slot increases and the removal of the requirement to level character to max before unlocking other characters. I have yet to see any way of increasing these components using the base game, which puts normal players at a major disadvantage in storage management and character availability. It is made worse by how much you would need to level before unlocking a healer class, which requires 3 max level characters from one faction to unlock. This makes the group dynamic harder to fill and while all the dungeons are solo-able up to expert, the fatigue from leveling catches up fast enough to potentially turn off players from filling crucial roles.
I had some fun with this one during my first class grind, but I will admit the game lost a lot of its' charm once I got to the third class. The story is the usual two factions fighting a common enemy (and themselves), the crafting feels unrewarding when the more powerful token gear is easier to obtain, and the difficulty boils down to soaking damage until your potion cool-down is down. It also has a small player-base right now, but there are a couple of great guilds up right now that could use players. Bottom-line: hold off for now.