Granado Espada
Encyclopedia
- Granado Espada, also known as Sword of the New World: Granado Espada in North America (renamed Sword 2 as of mid-2010), is a Korean fantasy MMORPGMMORPGMassively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
developed by IMC Games Co.,Ltd., and published in North America by K2 NetworkK2 networkK2 Network, Inc. is a computer game service company in Irvine, California. K2 Network brings games from Asia and services them for North American, South American, and European markets. In addition to providing localized game versions, its other services include community management and customer...
. It was launched in the summer of 2007. Granado Espada won the 2006 Korean Presidential Award for Best Graphics and Game of the Year, with features previously unseen in an MMORPG (such as the ability for players to control multiple characters at the same time). Granado Espada features a unique art style based on the Baroque period of Europe, differing from the standard “sword and sorcery” fantasy themes of the genre.
The first English version of the game began Open Beta Testing on May 17, 2007 by IAHGames, while K2 Network announced in January 2007 that they would be bringing Granado Espada to the North American and European markets in Summer 2007 under the title of Sword of the New World. The game was originally released under a pay-to-play model. On August 21, 2007, Sword of the New World became free-to-play
Free-to-play
Free-to-play refers to any video game that has the option of allowing its players to play without paying. The model was first popularly used in early massively multiplayer online games targeted towards casual gamers, before finding wider adoption among games released by major video game...
.
On 10 August 2007, IAHGames, the company which the game is licensed to in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, announced its business model for Granado Espada. Subsequently they informed players that on August 30, 2007, the game would become commercial. IAHGames gave players a 90-day free trial if they achieved Level 20 by that time. New players have a free five-day trial period and after which, they are required to pay. On December 5, 2007, as with other servers overseas, the game became free-to-play.
After more than three years of operation The9, licensee and operator of the mainland Chinese regional server, has announced that it would terminate Granado Espada's game service, citing the expiration of its contract with IMC Games. It has since stopped accepting new registrants from September 22, 2010, and began to wind down the regional server gradually. On the midnight of November 22, 2010, the servers officially went down. Game service in Mainland China subsequently resumed in March, 2011 under a new licensee.
Setting
The world of Granado Espada takes place on a newly discovered continent based on the Americas during the Age of Exploration. The world is divided into different maps and grouped into themed regions such as forests, tropical jungles, plains, swamps, deserts and ice fields.The continent, currently under the control of the fictional Kingdom of Vespanola as a colony, is in a crisis due to negligence by the home nation due to a War in the Old World. On the continent itself, internal strife has arisen from the feud between the Royalists, and the Republicans campaigning for independence. Therefore, the Vespanolan Queen has ordered a policy of Reconquista for the continent by attracting more people from the Old World to settle there. The player takes the role of a pioneering family from the Old World, eager to explore the continent and eliminate elements that will threaten the survival of its people.
Multiple character control
Areas and quests
Dungeons in Granado Espada are interspersed between towns and generally composed of three to five levels with successively more difficult mobMob (computer gaming)
A mob, mobile or monster is a computer-controlled non-player character in a computer game such as an MMORPG or MUD. Depending on context, all such characters in a game may be considered "mobs", or usage may be limited to hostile NPCs and/or NPCs vulnerable to attack.-Purpose of mobs:Defeating...
s.
Boxes and barrels are a unique feature of dungeons - and part of the anti-AFK features of the game. They randomly spawn throughout the dungeon, and if destroyed they release a group of monsters to
attack the players.
The final levels of the first two dungeons - Al Quelt Moreza and the Tetra Ruins - end with a main quest storyline Mission Room for a single player, or a room in which a boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
mob may be challenged by teams of players. Missions are instances, wherein players get their own "instance" of a specific map just for themselves. Thus there can be several players attempting to kill a boss in a dungeon, each within their own instances.
There are Waypoints or (player chosen) save locations that players may teleport
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
to by using a warp scroll. Five locations may be saved initially. Up to five more waypoint locations may be purchased from the Cash Shop (Bazaar).
Teleporters or Warps also exist to teleport players to fixed areas in the game using an item called the Teleport/Warp scroll. A new player is able to visit the three main towns (Reboldeaux, Port of Coimbra and Auch) from the beginning, and is not required to conduct exploration trips to find them. Both zone maps and a global map is provided to help players navigate through the game.
Quests are an important part of the game, though the quantity and quality varies at different levels. They provide some rewards such as "Vis" (the game's currency), experience cards, Glaziums (polishers), equipments or recruitable NPC
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s cards. Various NPC
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s throughout the towns and in some dungeon locations may be spoken with to initiate quests, which, like in traditional MMORPG format, usually consist of killing a number of monsters and/or obtaining their drops. With the release of Pioneer quests, players are able to delve into the story revolving around Granado Espada and its colonial power, Vespanola, in addition to the various factions on the continent itself, allowing new players to build on their quests bit-by-bit.
Granado Espada has a main quest line that extends to the highest levels and zones: the Frozen Fields of the north, Errac (Zeia), the mysterious southwestern region of Castilla, as well as the isolated isle of Viron. Access to the high-level end game raids such as the Ice Wizard's Tower, Mufasa of the Occulta Fortress and the Tower of Chaos in Castilla can only be gained by completing the main pioneering quest line and other prerequisite quests.
Shiny crystals are a new addition to the game since V5.0. These crystals are common drops from lower level mobs and can be turned in for pioneer weapons and armors designed to help a pre-veteran character gain levels more easily. In addition, all pioneer equipments at levels 1, 20, 40 and 60 have the base stats of items 20 levels higher, while level 80 pioneer equipments have the same stats as a normal level 96 equipment.
Dueling, Player vs. Player & Baron Mode
Granado Espada has a Dueling System by which a player may issue a challenge to another player's team. Both teams then enter a combat arena separate from the rest of the actual game world to do battle. This feature is available by clicking on the other family's name for a duel and also available at PvP officers in the Major cities (Reboldoeux, Coimbra, Auch) where four types of battles are available.Another method for PvP is through the Baron system. In Player-kill (PK) servers, players are able to forcibly attack another player without their consent, and in the process become a baron as a penalty like dropping their items in inventory from baron level 1 to 4, while at level 5 baron they would start to drop their equipped item. Barons are not able to speak with NPCs and are treated as mobs while on the field. Being in baron mode also allows player access to Los Toldos, a "Baron's Haven" of sorts, and to get the opportunity to complete quests within there. To remove the Baron mode, players must kill mobs that enable them to decrease their Baron points. Once they reach zero, the player will be able to get out of Baron mode.
In the past, players would only be able to PvP with those playing in the same server. With the introduction of the Cross-World PvP system in Version 5.0, players from different servers are able to duel each other, adding another level of challenge. As of August 2011, the Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese & Southeast Asian servers have this function.
Characters
Initially, players are able to create their own family from 5 stock models: Fighter, Musketeer, Wizard, Scout, and Elementalist. As the player progresses through the game, NPCNon-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
characters can be recruited into the player's family. Said characters' fighting abilities can be customized through learning and developing various fighting stances, in addition to equipping them with various armors and accessories with different options. Costumes also play a large role in the customization process, and many have been developed for both the stock characters and RNPCs.
Barracks system
All characters are assumed to be from the same family. They all share the same family surname that is used to identify a player in game. Characters are generated and maintained within a Barracks System. It allows players to see all of their active characters, and use the "Dressing Room" to create new characters if space permits. Each individual barrack may hold up to nine characters. Each country's version of Granado Espada provides a different number of initial starting slots with a new account. Using in-game money or the cash shop, users can expand their slots. Every ninth slot automatically opens a new barrack. Therefore, if the player has 20 slots, barracks one and two are full and the player has two characters in the third.Based on the Korean regional server version, there are currently a maximum of nine barracks (81 characters) per account.
Trading characters
Granado Espada allows the trading of RNPC (Recruitable NPCs) or UPC (Unique Playable Character) cards between different players, allowing combinations of teams with more than one of the same RNPC, as a player may only obtain a particular RNPC card once. The card is used up once the RNPC is created in the Barracks.Some RNPCs may only be purchased by using items from the Cash Shop (Bazaar). Soso (Feng Ling), Baek-Ho (Baihu), Angie, Kurt and Eduardo (Edward) are examples of this class of RNPCs. Their cards are not tradeable. Instead, one must purchase a Mercenary card from the Cash Shop (Bazaar). Using the said Mercenary License card, the RNPC is "Merced" and can then be traded.
Premium RNPCs, for example, Emilia the Sage, can be obtained by the code provided in the Granado Espada Limited Signature Edition Box Set. Depending on which regional server the player is on, other RNPCs such as Panfilo the Battlecook, Idge the Battlesmith can be purchased from the Cash Shop while Ralph is only available during promotions. The Japanese server has its own unique RNPCs Mifuyu, which can only be obtained for a limited period through a quest, and Andre de Lou-Oshiba, a recent addition based on the real-life Japanese comedian. Other regional servers starting from the Korean server has since modified Mifuyu and released her as Asoka, with different stats and stances. The Japanese server has since released an alternate Asoka with a dark-colored scheme compared the original Mifuyu, who sports a red/white-color scheme.
Factions/Clans
A Family may join a faction (clan). When a faction feels it is powerful enough, it may challenge and attempt to complete two quests to raise its faction/clan level to 51, then 52. Upon completion of the second quest, a faction may choose to join either the Royalist or Republican Party.Every Saturday evening (North American time) or Sunday evening (Singapore time) these factions compete against each other in a Colony War to control the colonies located in various zones of the world map. Occupying colonies gives all guild members buffs depending on the type of colony the faction controls. The buff grows with the number of colonies the faction controls.
With the V7.0 patch, factions may join either Lealtad (Esmero) or Gleichstellung (Souveran), which are the secret militant arms of the Royalist and Republican parties respectively. These two secret societies will square off in three different zones, namely the three towns of Cite de Reboldeoux, Port of Coimbra and the City of Auch. This full-scale Alliance War is available every Saturday, and lasts for 90 minutes. Opposing parties not only have to defeat enemy players, but also acquire items scattered all over the map or disarm the opposing party's leader and his/her followers to gain points to gain victory.
Stances, Skills & Level Promotion
Each class has several Stances which have varying level and equipment dependencies. It should be noted that each stance's level is independent from a character's level. As the character levels a stance they gain skill points that can be used within that stance in addition to increasing the stance's stat bonuses. A stance may have up to 5 skills which are unlocked as the stance is leveled. Additional generic stances may be purchased at the class Master, from Emilia for constellation expert stances, while some are rewarded in quests.One feature of stances is that stances which have the same equipment requirements can be swapped on the fly using the F5-F8 keys (alternatively, using the number keys 4-7). The musketeer's Standing Shot and Kneeling Shot stances are examples of this, as well as the fighter's Back Guard and High Guard stances.
However, stances are limited in that only particular stances may be used with a certain equipment type, e.g., a fighter wanting to use the Roof Guard stance would have to use a Great Sword, rather than a sword and shield. A musketeer wanting to use the Flintlock stance would have to use a Rifle, rather than a pistol. A stance is usable only when it is learned; unlearned stances are greyed-out and unavailable for use.
When a new player starts out, their character starts out at Level 1, while the RNPCs he or she recruits start out at various levels. When the characters reach level 100, they are able to be promoted with the use of 25 Shiny Crystals to become Veterans, and in the process create a new leveling system. In later updates, players gain the ability to move beyond Veteran level to become Experts (Level 110-120) and Masters (Level 120 and above).
Licensing and Version Updates
HanbitSoft, the publisher of the Granado Espada, manages the Korean and Japanese (under its subsidiary Hanbit Ubiquitous Entertainment) servers by itself while regional servers are licensed to various online game companies based in the respective regions.The latest content theme for the Korean server is "Jurgen, Rise of the Devil", where the player's pioneering family manages to infiltrate into Lucifer Castle's Secret Garden, and faces a powered-up Jurgen Furholden, who is one of Count Montoro's minions, the plot's main antagonist. As of September 2011, all servers have upgraded past the critical V5.0 Renaissance expansion.
Critical reaction
Critical reaction to the North American release has been mixed. IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's GameStats lists an average rating for the game at 7.2, which is also the listed industry average for all games at the site. Game Rankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
has the game listed at a similar figure of 70%. GameSpot gave a rating of 4.0 (out of 10.0) citing "tedious quests and little payoff". IGN expressed similar concerns, noting the familiar grind between many other Korean MMOs. "You know, it's frustrating because as much as you want to like this game, unless Korean is your preferred flavor of MMO, you probably just won't."
X play on G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
gave it a 4 out of 5; Reviewer Adam Sessler was pleased, noting that out of all the free MMORPGs this one was worth playing, saying it was refreshing to have a setting other than a fantasy world, and citing the unique gameplay mechanic of the MCC system. PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
magazine, also gave it a positive review, giving the game a 90% out of 100% rating, saying it "offered a fresh feel through small improvements and one substantial innovation" compared to other Korean MMOs. Onrpg.com also gave the game an 8 out of 10 praising its visuals, sound and MCC system.