May 2018: Lea Monde
Area of the Month for May 2018 is Lea Monde!
A template format for your review is below; click 'edit' at the top of the page, copy-pasta from the ---- to the next ----, and fill in the gaps!
(Yes, a wiki account is required to edit the page and therefore post your review, but take heart: The wiki is hosted by the Cleft itself, not a third party!
Player: You!(Class/Level)
Review Date(s):
Descriptions: X/10
How does the area's room descriptions(descs) work for you? Do they give you a good idea of the area? Do things that stand out in the desc and NEED explanation GET that, either from flavor text(extra-descs) or NPCs in the room or anything?
What about mobiles(mobs) and their descriptions? Can you get a decent mental image of who or what this NPC/monster is? Do they respond when you talk or interact with them?
Some areas have interact-able objects like fountains. Do they stack up well also?
Balance: X/10 (OR N/A)
(NOTE: combat will be most accurately gauged when your character is in the area's suggested level range.)
If this area has combat, how does it feel? Does anything jump as horribly overpowered and impossible to deal with? What about the flipside, anything far too easy to beat?
Are purchased or rewarded items at the appropriate strength levels? Is the effort required to obtain rewarded items reflected in their usefulness (or uniqueness and fancifulness)
Attractions: X/10
Why would you suggest someone come to this area? Is it just a good place to grind experience(lots of mobs)? Does the area provide a chunk of good gold and loot?
What about the quests? Does this area's quests feel properly done, or is there some part of it that you feel needs work?
For towns, are the shops good? Any other non-combative attraction for the area?
Connections: X/10
How easily and well does this area connect to its nearby areas? Does it make sense thematically to be connected to the areas it is?
Personal
Any comments you'd like to make that you don't feel apply to the other sections can go here!
Player: Kaze(Warlord/32/Came back at 100)
Review Date(s): 5/6/2018, 5/23/2018
Descriptions: 8/10
I found most of the descriptions servicable. Not great, but good enough to evoke the idea that the city was seriously ruined from its former glory.
The hidden descriptions worked for me, at least the ones I noticed. (The small box kept getting buried under the badge box for some reason in selection order, btw.)
The goblin descriptions were clear and amusing. No clue what's going on with them being so different from the other cleft goblins, but the differences are obvious.
The humans were rather dull.
The Windchimes critter was somewhat good. I 'think' I know what it's supposed to look like.
Balance: 8/10
The guards felt a on the easy side. Not very memorable, really.
I don't like the blind purchase thing. It raises the cost of things dramatically higher than they would otherwise require.
That said, even the known purchases at the workshop seem a bit more expensive than their actual worth.
I *am* half tempted to go buy a skyscraper and a personal dimension to stash it in.
Attractions: 2/10
It's neither great for grinding nor full of interesting stuff to do. The primary reason I visited is this review thing of the month and the workshop.
The shop lacks hints to suggest what's available.
It seemed like a decent set-up for something to actually happen, but I never saw any such thing. Talking to people feels like a bad cRPG where they just repeat one or two messages and don't actually react to things. The NPCs simply need to interact more. Minor interactions between NPCs and between players and NPCs would flesh it out and make it feel more engaging. More like things are actually happening. Some things to actually DO would be nice, too.
Connections: 4/10
It connects to a single neighboring area. It would make sense that at least a few other parts of the city were connected by other routes, even if difficult to connect through due to the ruin.
It feels a lot more like a small backwater than it's described as being. That seems off. Some sort of port entry and some other land routes would make sense.
(I have no idea if there's any sort of thematic connection to McNeil's Woods, but I tend to think not.)
Personal
I tend to avoid it because it's boring. I know there are quests present but the only plot feature that actually held my attention was the Goreomemu / Ortena link.