Enticing its audience with anime girls with monstrous breasts, Pockie Saints is a self-described “Hot ARPG featured with dazzling saints skill and multiple game modes.” I know I shouldn't nitpick a marketing title, but this game has sent me into a fit of hysterical laughter over its overused mechanics, hand-holding, and obnoxious social presence. Pockie Saints is merely an isometric browser-based MMORPG. That’s nothing wrong, but there are so many aspects of the game that fall apart that it becomes something horrendous.
Tutorials: they’re a good thing, right? Yes, yes they are. But imagine, dear reader, a tutorial that lasted the whole game. Now you don’t have to imagine! Pockie Saints allows its players to turn on “Auto-Quest Mode,” which, you guessed it, finds quests and completes them for you. The only thing the player needs to do is occasionally click “Accept” and “Submit.” And the game even throws in a blinking arrow pointing to these buttons when applicable. When I first started playing, I had submitted and accepted enough quests that I had become level 13. I think it took me about 5 minutes. But I still had no idea what was going on. The flashing arrows were too enticing! Who has time to read anything when the arrows bid you to click? In addition to the lovely flashing arrows, several boxes popped up with icons with who-knows-what on them, so I clicked them and more good stuff happened. My favorite part was when the game flashed “TEAM UP WITH FRIENDS FOR EASIER QUESTING!” It’s funny because questing doesn’t even line up on a spectrum of difficulty.
Being fair, the auto-quest feature is actually pretty nice. I don’t have to worry about where to go, or to concern myself with lore, or to keep track of my new equipment, or really anything at all. But it’s also too much. Even MMOs with macros require some tasking. You have to set up a skill and use it to death, but you do actually play the game. Pockie Saints’ allowed me to get past level 30 with doing nothing but following the flashing arrows and shiny boxes. There were several times where I looked and couldn’t find my character, but that was because I had apparently changed his armor and he was now riding a magic carpet.
I remember the first time I played a social browser-based “action” RPG. It was the same day that I realized the hell that awaits for females with post-pubescent anatomies on the Internet. I can only imagine uploading a picture of myself with my new plush Mario doll (with just enough cleavage) on Reddit and getting thousands of personal messages with declarations of love. The second I logged into Pockie Saints this all came flooding back:
[xGLORYx] simon41389 GOT ADVANCED STARS (2) AWESOME!
Congrats! {[(luckee star)]} xXBunniesXx unlocked Nightwatch BONUS! That’s SWEET!
No more that 3 minutes into the game I received a personal message that went as follows:
Other guy: can i join ur guild?
Me: I’m not in a guild.
Other guy: cool im in a guild
Me: Good job.
Other guy: thx
I did not make that up. And I think that that’s exactly what I despise about these games. The social interactions between players are so meaningless and spammed that no actual communication occurs. I understand that it’s a social game, not a therapy group or philosophy forum. Yes, there are channel controls, but the game continues to flash certain events for other players.
Pockie Saints actually has some deeper play available, and this is probably what appeals to a lot of its players. Pets can be leveled, fused, and their skills can be modified. Players can level up character skills, forge items, upgrade zodiac medals, and a host of other things. The system really is neat if you are able to get down and use it.
At the core of it, Pockie Saints plays exactly like any other browser-based, click everywhere, spam ridden RPG. There is some play customization available, but the same formula has been played out so many times. If you like browser-based, isometric, social RPGs, then you might like Pockie Saints. If you’re looking for a game that brings something new to the table and actually rewards you, it might be best to pass on Pockie Saints.
Source: dotMMO