[review] Aika Online

Hello, and welcome to my review of my most recent gaming experience, Aika Online. I`m not sure if you know this, but I`ve been an on-and-off gamer for several years now. After having tired of Persona Online, I decided to look for better things, and settled on Aika. Since then, I haven`t been with any other; below are a few reasons why.

On to the game itself. Aika Online has the basics of every adequate MMORPG: customization, varying classes, quests, and in-game interaction. However, the main draw of this game is their Pran system, which allows the user to raise and maintain a humanoid little girl. If you`re looking for cute costume customization, this part is the part for you~. As you level, so does she, and new costumes and accessories are unlocked as she grows. She even dance, buffs, and cheers you on as you fight! Unfortunately, there are a limited amount of costumes for each stage of the pran, and once your pran levels up to the next stage, you cannot reused the costumes. They also have a mount system, but there is no customization for it, sadly.

Next, I'll talk about the basic classes. Each class' avatar is in one gender; you cannot change the gender of your class' character, which is a pity. The healer classes are the Cleric and the Warlock; the gunners are the Dual Gunner and Rifleman; and the sword-wielding classes are the Paladin and the Warrior. I myself am a Cleric, which turns out to be the class slowest at leveling up, as well as the one that always gets PKed first in PVP battles.

Speaking of PVP modes, Aika is very attuned to this aspect of their game. There are various ways you can level up and gain special weapons by killing other players. One method is to join in Relic Wars, where you, as a citizen of your country, raid your way into other nations and take their relics. Relics are special buffs, such as 30% more drop rate, etc. Other methods include Castle siege, honour farming, and, quite commonly enough, bot killing. Like every other game, Aika also has its own series of bots, who constantly kill-steal and spam chat channels with symbol-ridden calls for gold. However, killing bots in your own country will give you Infamy points, which will make your Pran hate you, so its not advised to pk them. Hopefully Aika will do something to rid them from the system.

If killing others to gain special Honour weapon isn't your kind of thing, then there's only one aspect left in the game to satisfy you: monster hunting. This is, of course, the central focus of the game, and the only way you can level up. Almost all of the quests involve this. However, as you travel through the different places that Aika offers, you'll soon realize two things: one, all the monsters are about the same, and two, WHY ARE THESE QUESTS SO RIDICULOUS!!??! You will encounter some rather annoying ones, especially if you fail to chain the quests properly and end up having to kill an absurdly large amount of the same creature. I can only wish you good luck... And if you have two million for the mount, pay it.

This review is starting to sound like an essay or guide to Aika, so I'll just end with a few opinions of mine. Aika is an interesting game, with beautiful graphics, intriguing story lines, and great gameplay. It also has its flaws, like copious bots, repetitive quests, and the threat of being pkd when you're in a highly dangerous area far away from your save point and you're one monster away from completing a quest. But hey, it's fun, and if you make a new character, maybe you'll get to pk and gloat over someone else someday (if only it were easier to lvl up secondary and tertiary characters). So I hope reading this will convince you to drop in and join me in a dungeon grind or two in the future. See ya!