The open beta for Lost Ark, the most anticipated MMORPG of the year, has begun on November 7th (KST) in Korea.

4 years after the trailer was first revealed to the public, MMORPG fans finally got to play Lost Ark and was ready to be captivated by the game. However, a lot of them was greeted by disconnections, long waiting line, and character creation restriction due to extreme server lags after the game opened.

The game also sparked controversy for costumes that increase the character’s stats. The costumes were included in an in-game item package which is only available via microtransaction. It was later revealed that the costumes are obtainable in-game as well, but the controversy is still ongoing.

Here are the reactions from Korean gamers before the open beta, on the day of the open beta, and from those who enjoyed the game for a day.

■ Before the Open Beta and right after the Open Beta began

▶Two of my employees called in sick today. I know they both love to play games but… I should believe them, right?
  -  Text them “Tell me your IGN and server and I will forgive you guys.”
  -  I hope they are not sick today, cuz I’m gonna be sick tomorrow.
  -  Noobs lol

▶Saw the message “500 people waiting in line”, re-entered the game, and now there are 1700 people waiting.

▶There are 10400 people in front of me waiting to log in lol. You know what’s more hilarious? Even if it’s my turn to log in, I get disconnected. This has happened a few times before.

▶I’ve waited an hour and twenty minutes to log in only to get disconnected.
  -  There were 9000 people in front of me. I finally logged in, but got disconnected when selecting the server.

▶It was 11:00 in the night, and there were 17000 people in front of me. I was staring at the monitor for about 30 minutes but then my wife came to punch me so I had to give up and go to sleep.

■ Regarding Microtransaction

Before the OBT, Smilegate has assured that it is not right to limit gameplay based on how much money you spend so there will be no excessive P2W. However, the costumes that were released after the OBT began increase the character’s stats. Each piece of costume increases the stats by 1% and there are 4 pieces, so a full costume set will increase a character’s stats by 4%. Also, a mount with exclusive looks will be given to those who spend more than 2 million KRW (about 1,800 USD).

▶I thought Lost Ark would be god of MMORPG but… well, god damn.
  -  Nice one.

▶Maybe I should go back to WoW
  -  If you are still playing WoW you will probably go back to it eventually.
  -  Actually, a lot of people are quitting after Battle of Azeroth. I quitted a month ago as well.
  -  20 to 30 dollars a month for a mount, some consumables, and 10% exp buff would be nice, but this is too much.

▶Smilegate did say there won’t be any excessive P2W, and it’s not going to be different from other P2W games. But as soon as the open beta begins they release cash items that affect gameplay.
  -  Maybe Smilegate has a different meaning of “excessive P2W”.

▶The cash costumes are not much different from the costumes that are craftable in-game.
  -  That’s what it makes the game p2w. If you don’t spend money, you have to spend time and in-game money.
  -  If you don’t want to spend your money then you have to craft them. I’m okay with that but what I don’t like is that they released cash items as soon they opened the game.
  -  Spending money to save time is not p2w to me. If it is, then WoW Tokens should be p2w as well.

▶The costumes that are craftable in-game have the same stats as the cash costumes. So the main purpose of the cash costumes is looks. And it’s not that the mount costs 1,800 dollars. Everytime you make a microtransaction, you get 10% of the money you spent as mileage points. You will get enough mileage points to buy the mount by spending 1,800 dollars, so it’s like a special gift for “the VIPs”.
  -  I know, but they should not have released the cash items right after they opened the game.
  -  They should have gave us enough time to decide whether we want to make microtransactions or the cash items worth the money. They said it’s going to be a revolutionary game but in reality all they care about is selling more cash items.

■ Gameplay

▶What I saw during the first three hours of gameplay:

▶Played for 2 hours. Very similar to when I first played Diablo 3. The story is very similar, and the monsters are very similar too. I don’t know if I’m playing Diablo 4 or Lost Ark.

▶Player for 2 hours. I’m not sure if it’s just me but I don’t see any problems with the game and I really like it. I’ve heard people saying the game looks like it’s 10 years old or it looks like a mobile game, but it doesn’t look like that to me. However, one thing I don’t like about the gameplay is basic attack. Basic attacks are useless compared to skills, so you have to use skills continuously. Overall, the game is fun to play and has a lot of content.

▶Player for 12 hours. I’m playing the Devil Hunter. The gameplay is simple; you just have to know the boss monster’s patterns and when to use skills. Switch Identity when the skills are on cooldown. I haven’t played any RPG games since Diablo 3 but I think I’ll be playing this game for a while. Well-made game, overall.
  -  Agreed. Don’t like, don’t play, so there are no connection lags.
  -  Haters gonna hate.

▶Player for 14 hours. Here's how my reaction changed level by level.
  -  From Level 1 to Level 10: Trashy game. I should just play Blade and Soul mobile instead.
  -  From Level 11 to Level 20: Nice action. The quests seem to be fun.
  -  From Level 21 to Level 30: *playing Wall of Glory* Wow this is just amazing. I can’t wait for end game content!
  -  Overall: Lost Ark is nothing like the games I used to play. This is the best game that exists in the world.
  -  That’s an exaggeration.
  -  The story is so engaging and touching.
  -  The machine dungeon is really awesome. You get to ride robots.
  -  Wall of Glory was simply the best.

▶I’m level 31. At first the game was not fun at all but now I want to delete my comments in Inven saying that the game is sub-par. The game becomes really engaging when you start the Wall of Glory quest and the King’s Tomb quests are out of this world. I can’t wait to play the next dungeon.
  -  You are already level 31?
  -  I didn’t expect to play it this long but it’s actually fun when you keep on playing lol.
  -  Agreed. Wall of Glory was awesome.
  -  The real game starts after Wall of Glory and King’s Tomb.

▶I like how the random party system works for all servers. I was in the same party with someone who is not in my server.

▶For some classes, the action is kind of boring.

▶Overall, a well made game. It has everything that a MMORPG + Hack and Slash game needs. Each class has its own unique trait and the game shows the action of a Hack and Slash game well. The tutorials might be boring but the generally the game has a lot of compelling content.