Granado Espada

Asia MMORPGs try their hardest to Emulate the rich history of Europe and the old Americas, which they find especially alluring, but few manage to create anything more than some eye candy that is all style but no substance. This, however, cannot be said by Granado Espada, a Korean MMORPG set in the Americas during the Age of Exploration that brings new gameplay elements, rarely ever seen in other games.

Despite being a 2006 title, the game looks great even by today's standards, with character models that have a high polygon count, textures that look great in pretty much any situation, and particle effects that can still put some of today's titles to shame. The beautiful environments inspired by the Americas during the Age of Exploration are also accompanied by a beautiful OST that is both elegant and modern, mixing in classical music with electronic. This mix is so good that you may find yourself opening the game just to listen to it.

As mentioned before, the game is not all style and no substance, as Granado Espada is more than just a sorry excuse to bring you some flashy graphics and inspiring music to your PC. The character creation and control process is something that makes the game stand out from other MMOs since it replaces the whole "singular character" trope. 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.​​​​​​​

Given that you control a team of characters, the username you assign yourself is not for one character, but for the entire family under which all of your characters will work. The characters you can have in a party all follow the typical fantasy archetypes you would expect in an MMO: the tanky fighter, the healer, and the various forms of DPS (that use either single or AoE damage). As you quest more and more throughout the world, you eventually gain access to new characters, each with their unique appearance, set of skills and role in your family.

The monsters you can hunt in Granado Espada varies from the sentient killer onion that stings you with tentacles to boss monsters that don't even fit in your screen even when fully zoomed out. Looting and farming are also pretty simple since you can make your family enter a "farming" mode where they roam around a given area, killing anything in their path and gathering all the loot that drops.

No MMO would be complete without a PvP element thrown into the mix, and this is something Granado Espada has outdone itself yet again. ​​​​​​​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. More so, periodic arena matches and tournaments between the various families spice up the online community, keeping the game alive and competitive, with prized varying from rare cosmetic items to the in-game currency you can use in the Cash shop.

If you love action-packed combat that has a certain elegance to it (the way typical Asian MMOs are designed), then Granado Espada is surely a game that will peak your interest.