To be honest the game is more about collecting, making unique sets and feeling nostalgic about getting right on this game after a long day at school. It’s not your typical mmo rpg.
And feeling bad about not having basically 99% of the game's worthy items which are now rare, and impulse buying the 40k ac pack to get an IODA to fulfill your greed.
I remember the original tutorial...you stand on a cliff, thunder crashes in the distance as you raise your weapon....aaand get struck by lightning, falling off your perch and bouncing down the cliff into the tutorial, where you have to save a dragon from a princess
As player who's been playing this game for almost 12 Years at this point... I really enjoyed this. Although I'll still AFK in /Party-1, and probably will never leave it cos I've gotten way too attached to it, I agree with a lot that you've brought up in this video. This game isn't really meant for new players, and it's mostly kept up by us older players who want the nostalgia, still gripping onto it.
Ikr so fucking addicting but at the same time its kinda dead, the game deserves way more recognition however there are many things they need to improve
@@magneticuniverse9971 The game isn't really anything more than glorified chat room at this point. It's a gem in very rough and thick coating, which needs a lot of ironing and polish if it ever wants to get back on it's feet. I would personally start with the removal of Wheel of Doom, then removing AeXtras and so on and so forth. The "Rewrite" was first announced I believe 5 Years ago at this point, and I do have some insider knowledge that it's been "ready" for a while now, but they are trying to bring in another Kickstarter for it... There's a lot more to work on than what this video shows, it's basic overview from starting new players point of view or from an "outsiders". I doubt I'll ever see this game polished to it's perfection and AQ3D will more than likely remain in AQW's shadow till it's end... And unfortunately when I say end, I mean that.
I still remember when necromancer was the best class The design, can heal, can equip pet and cool animation The grind i did to get rank 10 doomwood was worth it as soon as I grab the class
The necromancer isn’t the best anymore? I learned how to use bots back then just to get necromancer class and being able to solo bosses myself without paying the game money.
Necromancer was insane... you can get your own free pet of skeleton. Without membership, it was unbeliveable at that time non-members cant use a single pet. My favorite was Troll Spellsmith which can solo bosses and high damages.
Necromancer is the first class i got thru reputation and that was back in 2016.I really like it because i can fight drakath solo because of the heal hp and mana regeneration mechanics of the class.
I remember playing this game when I was a kid. Artix Entertainment defined my childhood in a lot of ways, because it was free and it was perfectly "lunch break sized." I was 9 years old when AQW dropped and I was all over it.
I owe my childhood for this game. Back when all my friends were playing World of Warcraft or the early seasons of League of Legends, this game saved me from insanity.
This game was a good outlet for me. No friends, my siblings and parents never talk to me. So many good years of being praised for killing five slimes and saving the town 😥
@@teddybaker9787 Dude, I used to grind a lot to get necromancer from doomwood. It was harsh and I was like 10-13 when I was introduced ot this game by my cousins. I fell in love with it and I grinded hard until suddenly I stopped. Returning now, oh god... I still love this game even after realizing all the shortcomes.
Wish Artix Entertainment would make an in-game botting system. It would really benefit the game in my opinion. I mean, the rare few do enjoy torturing themselves farming to death. But let's be real. You have a life. A life outside of AQW. Some people don't want to farm VHL with their bare hands. Mashing the same 4 buttons for 3 hours straight. You could watch a whole 50 episode anime series in the amount of time it takes to farm VHL. I just like equality, ya know? Either make an in-game botting system, or penalize botters. It isn't very fair is it, that there are those who farmed very hard for VHL with their bare hands, and others who didn't work at all for it and let the bot do all the work. I can suspect that this is why many players have jumped on the bot bandwagon. "If you can't beat em, join em!". Why farm your ass off and subject yourself to so much torture when there are hundreds of botters who didn't have to go through any pain at all. It doesn't mean much to have a super EPIC item or class that you grinded so hard for, when everyone else has it. Bragging rights have lost its meaning. Botting has destroyed that. Everyone has VHL. It lost its novelty. All you have to do is download a botting program and let it do all the work. So much injustice. But then again. There is a quote that goes like, "work smarter, not harder!". And if Artix Entertainment punished botters, then they would lose most of their player base. Since I can bet most of the players bot. It is just a tough situation to find yourself in. It sucks. I still love AQW though.
@@jeanvu Funny story, they actually factor in bots to the farming quests in order to make them spend more time online. AE tried to ban bots from AQW back in like 2015-16 but they had to take it back because it effectively killed the game by removing some 50-60% of the playerbase.
@@aggressivelyamicable5987 You would think that AE would stop being so deeply in denial. 50% - 60% of your playerbase uses botting programs. No one likes mindless grinding. A horrible tactic used to get players to stay online longer. Why not put more time and effort into improving the storyline? Oh, I totally forgot that AE is focusing most of their resources into AQ3D. Welp, I guess AFK players in Yulgar flexing their rares and AFK players grinding for items is a sight that you will have to get used to.
My brothers and i use to play this for hours, we would get frustrated bc we didnt know what the VIP access meant. We just customized our armors to look edgy asf xD RIP Johnny, big bro miss playing games with you
as a veteran i can comepletely say story: 100% interesting system: f*cked up item models: 100% hardness: 100% grinding for class: 100% hard pay to win? yea and no. get bored easily: no, you'll just burn your brain until you get the item.
@@UniversoCrossoverOficial i have 2 account , 1 is f2p and other is p2w . i can say there are not so many difference , beside the only member quest . but it still possible to rush in f2p
@@nzzb0 i've played aqw on pc since I was in highschool, but after entering college I've barely had any time to sit in front of a pc so I play games mostly on my phone.
@@ilikecinema1234 I mean... to be fair if someone randomly walked up to me and said balls on my face I wouldn't really feel tempted to reply XD. if anything id be more inclined to just leave.
I don't get why people dislike this video, the points he made about it are 100% true. New players wouldn't enjoy it because of all its flaws, not to mention how braindead the combat system is. This man clearly loves Artix Entertainment games and wanted them to succeed, and this game could potentially change its flaws and make some coherence in its lore if they put the effort into it, but sadly most of the profit this game makes is just being dumped into the failed project Adventure Quest 3D.
While I didn't leave a dislike I noticed some weirdness with the video. For example Josh talks about being a founder and having experience with the game and everything but...he's level 13? That's nothing in this game if you didn't know.
@@TheArnoldification yep theres that. But still his points are valid. Tbf aqw is an old game, so of course it wouldnt have a lot of QoL improvements most mmos of today have.
@@JohnSmith-dd6xk I know he has valid points. I used to play aqw a long time ago. I joined it in 2008 and have the beta berserker class armor as well as bloodriver (I believe this was a theatre weapon cosmetic that was discontinued very early on, unless it was brought back at some point) My concern is that I want game critics to arrive at their conclusions for the right reasons rather than just being correct by chance. If he only levelled to 13, we would not be able to talk about the game past the very beginning through experience. That's him making inferences that may or may not be true, which I think is a problem as he seems to suggest he has a lot of experience with the game and got farther than he actually did. Keep in mind it's literally his job to do this - he gets payed to be a youtube content creator, so I think it's fair to criticize his methods. Also keep in mind these critic channels have a lot of influence and reach, so he could indirectly hurt otherwise great games with his coverage because he didn't bother to understand fairly straightforward systems and jump the gun to conclusions.
I've been playing this game for about 14 years now and only about a year ago the game has started showing some actual progress as far as mechanics and general cohesivenes go. Things have been improving quite a lot due to hiring an extremely talented programmer Spider (a guy who has created BOTS for AQW) and several insane artists that consistantly put out some of the most exciting item designs the game has ever seen. That being said though, the story still leaves a lot to be desired and yeah you put it quite well yourself Josh- being AFK and/or chatting with other players at Yulgar's is the only thing that makes some sense for an endgame player or a veteran like myself. There was a point in 2013 where I just grew bored of the game and took a break until 2018, after coming back it took me maybe 2 days to finish every last piece of content I missed throughout the 5 years I was gone, which says a lot about what was happening in that time period too. So yeah, there isn't much more to be done past a certain point than just collecting rare items and looking hella badass with your sets, and I think that's Adventure Quest Worlds' ultimate goal after all.
Idk, there is so much in the endgame rn, I just started playin again, and instantly got addicted to chasing higher numbers, end game is a whole other game, I remember playin in elementary school, the story was hilarious, it was fun to play w my friends and brothers, but then in high school during covid I was like, oh, aqw, let's give it a spin, and I grinded for hundreds of hours, got the best classes in the game, grinded from level 21 to 100, finished the main story, got end game weapons and enhancements, there was so much to do, and then when I came back this time, there was even more, more end game classes that all fill different niches, better enhancements, more end game weapons
I go back to this game on rare occasion and literally every single time I have ever made a new character there was a new tutorial to play through. Even now, watching this video, I had no idea what was going on for the first 14 minutes because nothing he did during that time was anything I had seen in the many times I had gone back. I'd started to believe that the tutorial was completely randomized so you'd have a fresh experience every single time. I honestly think more games (or any games, since I doubt it was intentional) should do this.
Yep. This game made me realize grinding is what makes a game sometimes. So similar to Warframe. GRINDING. AHAHAHA still been playing this for almost 11 years now, i still love it.
It's a bit unfair to compare AQW with Warframe. Both are leagues apart, besides what you said "GRINDING," holds true. Warframe actually has cohesion with its' story, albeit they're literally using 3D Models and engines. AQW is a good timekiller, but my gosh as Josh pointed out, it's unorganized as hell.
I pretty much agree with everything in this video. As you addressed, I think the biggest problem with this game is how difficult it is to navigate and how overwhelming it is for new players. It was nice and simple if you played from 2008-2011ish BECAUSE there was a lot less to do, so deciding where to go was easy. They could easily fix this by locking all the main storyline quests/areas so that you have to do them in linear progression (i.e. 1st lord of chaos before 3rd, 3rd before 4th, etc). I can KIND OF understand if they were trying to go for a more "open world" feel but it makes no sense since the story cutscenes themselves progress linearly (e.g. Drakath knows you killed the 1st chaos beast if you're doing the 3rd chaos lord quest lines), also they scale in level so it makes no sense to do them in a random order. It's like they thought they could give the player so much freedom by giving them every ingredient off the bat, when they haven't even taught them how to fry an egg yet... Also /chaosmarsh has absolutely no reason to exist and should've been a deleted area ages ago. If Alteon directed you to the 1st Chaos Lord saga immediately instead like he's suppose to, that'd make the story progression much smoother. Even back in like 2010 when I did it I thought it was pointless and the quests were unnecessarily grindy for a BEGINNER storyline quest that has absolutely no reward. It is COMPLETE garbage. If you're an old player who's been keeping up with every release since you started playing like I have, then yes, the game is enjoyable and simple to play. But that's only because all we have to think about doing is the new weekly release. So either logging in every week to do that or to farm a famous end-game item like NSoD or VHL becomes a simple relaxing ritual of your life. But for a new player, its an entirely different story. Also, just now I found a lvl 15 warrior in /lightguardwar of all places asking me a billion simple questions when he shouldn't have been there in the first place. Of course I helped direct him on the right path, but if the game itself can't even do that then that's just awful. And I'm not saying the entire game has to be COMPLETELY linear, simply that new players just jumping into the game shouldn't be able to access a bunch of stuff meant for people who are SUPPOSE to be further in the story. They need to keep a sense of progression so that the world of lore itself actually feels EXCITING to explore rather than overwhelming. It would also make the areas you're not in feel like they have life when you're not there.
That's what the map is for, stupid stranger. And also he was allowed because why not? Each part of the map can stand on its own. And if you find yourself in the wrong place or that the place is locked, then you try to search for the right one or ask help from strangers. That's the beauty of it, you're not alone. Just like when you yourself was helped by others when you were just a lost and confused noob. And also, its fun to not completely know where to go. Its fun to explore and discover the storyline yourself! Its boring when everything is spoon fed to you like you're some dumb individual who can't think for themselves.
@@brightangle4015 I had no problem with helping that guy, and I completely agree with you that communicating with others, exploring and discovering is what makes MMOs so great! But like I said I think that guy shouldn't have been there because he wasn't techincally at that part in the story yet. I'm not saying EVERY area should be locked and for the entire game to become a straight line, I'm saying only those that have continuing storylines that branch off another should. As in, I don't think its right that you can jump straight into the middle of the lightguard war story when you haven't even touched the beginning yet. I know that aqw has gotten better at locking quests and areas for story purposes recently but they're still missing a ton of stuff. Also, just because some areas are locked doesn't mean you can't still explore and get help from strangers.
@@ttbb4646 The way I see it, its great to be able to just skip to the middle or the end of a storyline even though you aren't supposed to be there. Its makes you feel like you ended up in a cool and secret place, even though you aren't supposed to be there. You see new places with new things in it. "What? I can't interact with a lot of things in these new and strange place. I guess I'm still not supposed to be here. Welp, I guess I'll ask that kind stranger over there for help and directions." Doesn't that feel more organic and real? Instead of just following the set path completely, you have the option of exploring way ahead; see things that you could encounter in the future. That's what I enjoyed playing AQ Worlds. I wasn't able to systematically see the story in the order it "should" have been seen in; but whenever I found a place that had an important storyline just by clicking a random point in the map, I would feel so ecstatic and happy. The unexpected finds you will encounter, such as new cool places, secret (for me at least cuz I didn't know anything back then) storylines, and amazing npcs, is what made me enjoy the game so much. In conclusion, seeing a place in the middle or the end of a storyline makes you look forward to the adventure that you will experience when you officially do it and start from the beginning. And that feels real, instead of you, the player, being forced to follow a path.
@@brightangle4015 I respect that. I guess I just don't feel the same way. If the game was able to make you feel excited and happy then it clearly did something right, and I just have different tastes.
You know what I did the first time I entered this game? 1) did the event that I have no idea what it's all about, 2) run around aimlessly and triggering random events, 3) collecting cool stuff because I was a kid, and 3) finally did the story quest, not in order of the actual story.
Yeah lol. Just walking around the maps (because I didn’t know the map button exists) till you find an npc with a quest. Oh is that the last quest? Let me go find the biggest and scariest enemy with a one-of-a-kind unique look.
lmao true. especially in my case that english is not my first language. I didnt know what i'm doing. I'm just playing it coz my friends are playin it. it was like some kind of trend back then.
Healer is actually a decent solo dps class. Its ability to heal, deal damage based on current health, and reduce mana costs make it the best solo class of the four starting classes. I can probably take on most of the early game bosses as long as you are patient and keeping track of your resources.
Well you can get oracle for free from the class shop and it's better than healer, and it doesn't really matter because you can buy the other starting classes as soon as you get out of the tutorial and get some gold for them
This game was my childhood. Got so addicted when I was younger that I stole my parents credit card to pay for a membership so I could use the nulgath larvae pet😂
I quite like the game. Very nostalgic watching my cousin play the game back in 2011-2012. When you first start the game, their is a lot of shit to do. Like main story, side story and going to new places. But when you do everything in the game(Max level, Got best class, finish all the stories, etc) the game becomes very boring until Friday’s release comes out.
the best thing to do once logging in after a long slumber is going to yulgar getting a brew or a joint for whoever may fancy either and relaxing listening to music maybe read and the occasional chat with other veteran players that knew the clan you were in or perhaps the people you did raids with and talking about life, its not about the game anymore its about chatting with old faces imo.
I made many friends off of this game, and I've had some really good memories just because of this game. Sadly in the past 3 years, it became a sad, overpimped cashcow for AQ3D. Most of the team moved over to 3D so the only people working on AQW are the volunteers. It was a good game. It was my childhood. It introduced me to my husband.
Josh would Love to see you do a year later review - the Devs took note to some of what you said in this video. recently they added a new dev to the official team 'Spider' who made a free 3ed party tool for AQWorlds called AQLite. Its a major overhaul of UI with some extra options now available and a better drop menu.
I will never forget that day, 11 years ago in Elementary School, when a friend of mine sat me down and _forced_ me to make a character. It was the start of my transformation from Soccer Kid to Nerd. When Drakath first came on screen, it was mind-blowing. I got so immersed in the story and the side events, it was like living in another world for me, being *someone.* Nowadays, I barely log in. There is always the occasional hidden gem of an event or the next shiny sword to grind, but the game feels like a shell of its former self and while I wanna defend it with everything I've got, I just can't. I really hope it goes back to being the passionate project it used to be someday.
I agree man, We seem to have a similar introduction to this game through Elementary School. Although, I log in a bit frequently than I used to. If they can just update combat and make more immersive actions like more animations, more pivotal dialogue options. Or just, pull a freaking Persona 5 and get us to build relationships with characters that change depending on story or seasonal/other events. What you said at the end "I really hope it goes back to being the passionate project it used to be someday. " Really tugging at my emotions man :')
@@jtowensbyiii6018 still makes a valid point. One of the things that makes AE waste their potential so much is that they barely listen to criticisms from their playerbase.
I like how he mentioned using potions for a significant mention of the game, because I literally didn't know potions existed for the last 5+ years and just assumed that 6th slot was for some secret ability
i remember grinding weeks for undead essence for Artix in Necropolis to get his axe, then proceed to craft shiny yellow weapons with all the rare boss materials, to then grind more for the Champion of Nulgath(back then he was called Miltonius i think) class or something, which was like the most OP class. With that class i went and solo every biggest, hardest boss i could find in the game. IDK what i was doing with my life but i was so damn proud.
It's a 12-year old Adobe Flash browser game. Almost everything about the game had potential and *was* great, but it failed to keep up with the new trends.
Don't worry they Will make the AQW available for mobile, right now the only problem is converting every image of map, items, npc, and animations to be compatible with smaller screen device like mobile
@@brianr.6376 if what u mean using Adobe flash and browser yeah i can do it too in my mobile(android), but since its not fully supported by artix, like you said the fps is very bad and the ads in browser is really annoying. It was better waiting for the official mobile version, And one more flash Will not get any update anymore, so for me the only way for me to play AQW is using artix launcher in PC.
@@imperialkeru6336 oh sorry, what i mean is AQW 2D, i haven't play aq 3d because, i don't want to start over my game again, and the first time i play aq3d there so much lag issue
I enjoyed the community, and the live events. It felt exciting following the Chaos storyline and trying out the new classes as they released. I spent many hours grinding while talking or rping with my online friends
Ah Artix Games. I both love, and hate this company. In a lot of ways, it was my Childhood. Adventure Quest, Dragonfable, and my fave Mechquest (for some reason). The writing was always on point, they are mostly okay seeming people/devs for the most part. And at least back in the day they actively used to have dev logs for every game that were normally in character and felt really fun. I remember going back in like 2011? and reading all of Dragonfables dev notes from start to end. Went back recently and a lot of the logs no longer exist, some are just completely missing entire sections. Seemed to be mixed with the shut down of flash as some of the old logs used flash animation stuff in it. Which is a massive shame. That said, the company isn't without their faults. Happened a few years ago now (5 I think? Adam deleted most of the dev logs from Mechquest that he wrote but his open letter to the company about the issues can still be found), but there was the whole mess with, I think his name was Ash? Where he was effectively volunteering for 48+ hours a week on the game to develop new things, keep it running, etc. But there was a very public falling out over him asking to be paid going forward. In addtion to a lot of stuff involving fan works and junk. There was also, and this soured my opinion of even his in game character, the issues with Cysero during AQW launch. The company promised in a dev blog (which I remember) that Guardian players, Star Captins and Dragonlords would all get their exclusive classes for being long time backers of the game. While this was eventually added (Though the Dragonlord one is a normal drop still and not exclusive), Cysero denied in the forums that sorta thing ever being a promise. He then went and deleted the old dev log when people pointed out where it had been promised, much to the anger of fans. The old posts even indicated going back through them, that he kinda bragged about having deleted the dev log in a smug sorta "Now there is no proof" way. Its been like 12 years or something and that incident still sticks in my head and really changed how I viewed both his dev logs going forward, and how his character came off in game. The whole loveable asshole thing wasn't just a character for lols it seemed at the time. (Things may have changed in the 12 years since of course. 12 years is a long time. Its just something that soured my enjoyment of the company as a whole.)
(DragonFable) Cysero I remember him as the guy with the time booth that he tried to clown car everybody in despite knowing they could just be adjacent to it for time travel. (AdventureQuest) The uBEAR set of armor because the protag said uber while having a cloggy nose from the cold? Favorite part is MechQuest learning to use the lasersword and going up against DARTH TWILLY
I remember this game from my high school years, had a good laugh when you called this game a lunch break sized RPG. How right you are, all my friends and I were sent home/to the office more then once because of being caught playing Adventure Quest. The game was banned within weeks, yet we all still kept playing it.
This game actually was part of my inspiration to learn game design years ago. I love it, I hate a lot of things about it, but I always come back in March to catch up on legion stuff because I love the art and nostalgia. Such a wonderful piece of art yet so much struggle. It’ll always be special but deeply flawed. I would love to see AE start over with the same concept while fixing these issues and see what happens. Still waiting on that element system they were talking about a few years ago, maybe then the combat wouldn’t be as stale.
This games grind is beyond the joke, it's almost crazy how many players such as myself have left AQW not for the poor quality animation, lacking story, poor progress tracking ect but because of the insane grind, you could be fighting the same enemy for hours as one part of one quest that's part of a chain to get one class, only to find out actually you need Reputation in a area/thing and that entails several more hours/days of just repeatedly attacking the same enemies, its torturous. Do the people behind these decisions think we actually enjoy this? of course they want us to buy currency and just buy the class, but honestly I'd be willing to spend money on things like cosmetics, which they already do make all the cool ones locked behind a paywall, but making the actual gameplay, they getting abilities so fucking dull and so boring is such a bad way to try and encourage players to buy. I just ended up getting pissed off at the endless grind for classes which had no advertised requirements in game but would slap you with a "yeah i know you just did a whole damn story of quests but i'm also going to need you to be maxed out in reputation for like 5 different seemingly unrelated areas, sorry i didn't mention it till now, thnx"
Baring in mind this game was originally made for children, but the developers have made updates which are more mature for there older crowd. And I have to respect that.
all MMOs are Dress Em ups. What really matters is how much agency you get within the dress em up to customize your style. in Current WoW, the only character i have wearing an itemset is my hunter, and she has the boots swapped for a world drop from WOD since it actually matches T4 better then the actual T4 boots, while only my blood elf warlock is wearing gear from a single expansion. Everyone else is using their 9 armor slots and 1-2 weapons with a combination of gear from at least 4 different expansions. And you can do this in most MMOs. TERA and AQ are the real exceptions to this, as is DDO
I remember trying to bypass the global chat censor jokingly then some rando used other characters to bypass it and says the word "vagina", a mod suddenly pops up and he got banned for 3 days. When he came back with his alt account he thought I was a mod in an alt account. Funniest shit I've ever seen. Good old days.
I used the bot thing to level up my card class, and I just got a warning LOL got to max level and everything. Also sooo much gold, in the sand area with the camels. That was like 10 years ago. I now forgot my info
Adventure Quest Worlds will always have that special charm to me, having first played it over a decade ago, just after beta iirc. I remember having a blast with the story, the second birthday event especially stood out to me... I went off it for a few years and have since come back to it every year or two, I'd sunk quite a lot of money into it, as well as many many hours of grinding. The hollowness of the grinding and the many, many hours without payoff for it is usually what drives me away. Genuinely does feel like I'm too invested into it to ever really abandon it fully though. As an artist - ironically AQW was one of my first inspirations to get into art - the lack of graphical inconsistency and lack of general cohesiveness of everything ranging from ui elements to the night and day contrast between the styles of older and newer weapons and armour really pains me sometimes. It sometimes feels like you're playing dress-up in a chatroom that just happens to involve rpg elements. At the end of the day I'm glad I stumbled upon this video because it pretty much sums up my own feelings regarding the game. Will definitely be subscribing, and more than likely will go back and sit down and sink several hours into AQW again. Cheers!
@@JoshStrifeHayes It pains me how AQW has so much potential. It is magical, whimsical, very unique, charming, punny and so much more. There is just nothing like it. But, it just has so many downfalls. The hollowness being a major one. The botting situation. The story being so hard to follow. The many hours without payoff. There is just so many downfalls to point out. But I still love the damn game so much. Your wonderful review was such a joy to watch! I related to everything you said. I have a love-hate relationship to the game. It is a difficult but rewarding relationship. I would like to think that there was a meaning to me being introduced to the game by a childhood friend way back then.
Still playing my old account for 10 whole years and josh pointing out the flaws are 100% true and at the time I was playing it as a kid, it didn't bother me, sure I'll be annoyed when I afk'd for a bit while in a nearly finished quest and get logged out but that's what kept me playing it to this day, I grew into the flaws to the point that it doesn't bother me, but that doesn't change the fact that the flaws aren't big, IT IS BIG, and if they work out the flaws, this game will become mainstream to kids and aqw veterans alike.
I remember doing the sword of awe quest with a friend we were on our last piece with that 0.0004 drop rate. The funny part was the journey back to cash in the quest because of how the loading screen could DC at anytime.
As an old player, I can say, this is accurate. A lot of the stuff in the beginning is for old players but will confuse a lot of new players. Plus I've never seen that beginning before and it looks trash.
Artix Games has always done a great job snagging handfuls of amazing artists for their games lol, even og Adventure Quest had it's fair share of insanely good art.
It infuriates me to no end that I've had such good times with such an unwieldy, unworkable, grind-heavy game. But to this day I rave about some of the stories told in the game, like Wolfwing's tragic backstory, Alteon's struggle against his chaorruption, Kezeroth and Karok, Iadoa, Grimskull, Robina, Sepulchure, Gravelyn and so many more. I agree that when it's cohesive, it's exceptional storytelling, and even tiny plots like the ones in Citadel inspire me to write up my own little scenarios for RPs I've done over Discord with others. I ranted and spat for years about the combat system, the grindiness, the frustration of needing membership, and feeling like I was wasting my life every time a disconnection ruined my rep farming (good lord don't ask). One day, after playing AQ3D I just gave up. I had to go back to WoW because there just wasn't anything else for me at the time aside from maybe SWTOR. I'd had moments where I'd swear off AQW and not even a month later I was back on it, making a new character and having my own little headcanon of where they came from, what they were about, their armor/weapons/magic/etc. I wanted so badly to like stuff from Artix Entertainment, and to be fair I still do, but after finding and knowing better, I can't and won't be drawn in again. _Gravelyn/10, will use stories as inspiration to write my own._
This is one of my main childhood gaming memories cause it made me a lifelong (thus far) friend, I met somebody as a kid and and heard them mention this game, we swiftly became friends with them as we both played AdventureQuest Worlds, after losing touch for a couple years it turned out they were at the same secondary school when I started at age 12, recognised her from those years back and we've been friends ever since (I'm 23 now!). Have not played for over a decade now but still have good memories of it!.
This game was definitely a huge part of childhood. Made many online friends on there (a few I’m still in touch with today), the artists are talented and inspiring with their designs of armor sets and monsters, decent stories with a hint of silliness, and the collabs with musicians like Voltaire, They Might Be Giants and One-Eyes Doll. I used to play it throughout middle school and high school but once I started college and started playing other games I just lost interest. Especially since you would have to devote yourself to the game for months to get those hard-to-get items. I had to sadly give up on grinding for the Void Highlord cuz it was such a grind that I couldn’t find to time to balance it with my classes. Nonetheless once you finish the main stories you’re left with the choices of grinding for XP, reputation, rank, hard-to-get items, or just being AFK in yulgar. Of course when it goes to grinding players with membership or ACs have an unfair advantage getting boosts or unlocking areas/quests where they reward you with more XP or rep. Now it just seems they’re just promoting the hell out of new collectibles and items to buy instead of adding more story events, which was another reason why I left. This game still holds a special place in my heart. I would often log in and see what new things they added or what the new level cap is. I don’t see myself grinding on this game in the future since other games have caught my attention and the PTSD I’ve gotten from the endless grinding in this game alone. And I also had a massive crush on Gravelyn. I turned a evil hero for her
Played this game from 2010-2015 ish, came back to my profile recently and was overwhelmed with everything, and im a pretty experienced player. I can imagine how overwhelming this must be for someone who has never played it.
I started playing when I was like 11 stopped at 15 went back to it at 18 and bruh the amount of shit that added to the game and how much the map changed was hectic
Holy shit yes. I remember them cycling through so many lol, it makes me feel like an OG to see nobody else talking about how many times they tried to reinvent the new player experience. They were always classic, everytime.
I've played this for 8 years and I agree with everything here. Especially the quest issue in chaos marsh, first time I played it felt really lost and was like....2 weeks searching how to advance the story. Then I lost my patience and asked another high lvl player what to do and they kindly guided me, thx to them I didn't drop the game at that point.
Aw man, I loved AQW. I never got very far because I had 0 patience for grinding, but I could never bring myself to quit permanently. It feels nice to see someone talk about those flaws in a sympathetic way, even though I'll always hold the memories of it dear to my heart. It hurts to hear about the state of it now, as well as the state of Artix Games's games in general. :(
I LOVED Adventure Quest. I started playing in 2004, when I was just a young lad of 9 years. I convinced mom into getting Guardian for me since it was only 1x 20$, instead of $5/mo like RuneScape was. I even played MechQuest and Dragonfable. I did not like AQ Worlds very much. I didn't see the point in it being MMO, since I didn't, and still don't have any friends. I did play AQ Worlds quite a bit to give it a good chance.
I used to play this game. Hard. But in the end I forgot to play it completely. I didn't decide to quit it at one point. I just forgot to play it one day and never remembered to play again.
Same here. I played this game when I was younger, back in 2012 or something like that. For some reason I forgot about the game and just remembered its existence today.
@@Lufffloof I guess that’s because most of the players at that point graduated elementary and just became busy with high school. That’s what happened to me.
Omg, I loved this game! I was absolutely awful at it, I died more times than I can count (even from the damn slimes, like come on!) but it was really fun! Although I’m not gonna lie, being new to the game, the other older players never wanted to talk to you or help you with anything 😅 It was kinda understandable though, given how bad I was 😬 Ahh~ the memories✨
Only downside of this game now is the AE team, banning loyal and legit players whilst keeping botters in the game (Nythera is the worst known for doing this, I lost a near day 1 account because of her), and overall being money grabbing goblins.
Once in a long while me and a few of the guys come back to this game just to hang about and do some grinds, just getting nostalgic and talking about the past. I still remember when we used to do each of the chaos lords together as they came out, discussing theories and the story as it was unfolding.
What I find intriguing about most of the boss fights in AQW is that despite their stats suggesting you need multiple players, you can solo it if you know what to do for a class that can heal itself (Healer, Oracle, etc.) , and if you're at a high enough level. The problem with this is it takes SOOOO LONG to win like this. I've found the best strategy to trudging through a win for Healer is 1. Calm Mind when it's available and at the very start (halves mana cost) 2. Healing Word at around half health (self explanatory) 3. spamming Heartbeat immediately after Healing Word (does damage based on how much health you have) 4. Energy Flow when Mana's under half (gives back mana when you take damage)
Was unsure if I had ever gotten around to playing AQ Worlds but after seeing those cutscenes, specifically the toilet kicking and Drakath attacking, the nostalgia then slammed me like a truck. I loved this game and having not played many RPG’s yet I was fully invested in the story.
Also seeing how desolate those low level areas are (which IMO greatly hurts the experience), I thought of a system this game would benefit greatly from: a *time traveling system* where players are rewarded for *replaying old content* . Basically imagine a shop with a ton of *cool rewards* , and they earn them by going back and *redoing the noob zones* at a scaled down level. Maybe you could even *target* wherever *low level players* are currently *questing* , so they'll always have people around to help. Seems like a much better solution than nerfing the shit out of every enemy and boss so newbs can tediously solo lonely areas.
@@ethanwasme4307 That's why you regularly add new rewards to the shop. There a few areas in AQW that have been consistently active over years for this exact reason
Good God I didn't realise until I was about halfway through this video what a downgrade having the enemies instantly respawn would be. I played this back in its first couple of years so I didn't experience that, they respawned after a timer (that I don't remember being unreasonable) like a normal MMO mechanic. Having them immediately pop back into place just feels so meta-influenced and videogamey, and like you haven't even influenced the world at all. Nothing makes the environment feel more dead than, ironically, dead enemies popping right back up again without even a second to spare.
Though all of what you said is true, My heart still aches as you mention em. I hav played AQW for a long time and I have never became a Guardian or a Member, My motto in the game is always "if you can get it for free then farm it." AQW if for Nostalgia purposes if you stop one day you'll comeback trust me
i played for free too and farmed all my classes( blaze binder- pyromancer - glacial berserker -darkblood stormKing ) with no bots because i was scared of getting banned lol but i made the mistake of sending an angry email about how hard it's for free players and my fears came true..i got banned and had to apologize to get my account back because it was banned permanently!
@@sadtaco4534 Lol I stopped farming Blaze Binder and farmed Stone Crusher which was longer for my Level and Class at that time😂 I think I was Level 30 and the class was Chaos Slayer Berserker
@@sadtaco4534 Lol I stopped farming Blaze Binder and farmed Stone Crusher which was longer for my Level and Class at that time😂 I think I was Level 30 and the class was Chaos Slayer Berserker
Dragonfable does so well many of the flaws of aqw, like feeling the travelling between sections. And also the storyline its so so epic. But of course being an offline game makes it more easier...i guess? Its so confusing because back in the day you wouldnt care for many of the flaws you show now, he just played it. And now it feels so odd, and i would say its fine but then there is dragon fable which always condensed those flaws to the minimum. I replayed dragonfable and still feel the challenge fighting. A compelling history line makes all the difference back in the days we really hook up to chaos lord saga i remember some of the 1-6 being enjoyable. But overall the flaws what sucka for old players is that we get that kind of feeling that the game would be great but its not because lazzy fixing.
I played this game for years now. Of course I don't play it every time because by now I would be really bored but I do come back every few weeks. I'm level 90 without spending any cash.
Its still insane to me how many musician crossovers they had. One eyed doll, Voltaire, They Might Be Giants, KoRn, Alice in Chains, and Breaking Benjamin.
The entire thing about quest items not saving if you logout, is only present in the early game. Later on most "endgame" or longer quests have their quest items stored in your bags instead, so you can keep on going where you left off even if you logout. I agree though, it shouldn't be like this.
AS a child I remember distinctively going to library, hotel, or any computer and either playing one of three games: MapleStory, RuneScape, and the tried and true Adventure Quest.
There are also things like the Pyromancer/Cryomancer Daily Quests, which lock a class behind 42(in this case) Days of logging in fighting an enemy and logging out, feels like a chore that isnt really worth it for itself.
I remember doing it. It was a huge grind but i did it because i loved how cool that pyro class looked. Not so long after i got it, i trained it to a decent rank and stopped playing shortly after. Man it has been since around 2017 that ive not touched this game. Coming back to it was a blast
lol you think pyromancer is a chore...try void highlord or legion revenant or Blinding Light of Destiny. I remember when I first did the Juggernaut Items of Nulgath and got the Ungodly Reavers, that was a huge deal. Now with all the shortcuts and "inflation" of diamonds/gems, etc. that quest is so easy as to be completely trivial.
Even tho they're a grind, they're very much worth it. I use cryomancer for soloing bosses, it's very useful for that. Pyromancer on it's own is not that useful to me, but you need at least one class point on it to be able to get blaze binder, which is a very useful farming class to have
I remember playing this game and trying to farm for my first class attainable through rep (necromancer) and never got it till about 7 years later i felt like playing again lmao
Despite this game being really flawed, I really appreciate the devs and I think it is at least to some extent possible that they'll fix it some day like what they've done for AQ and DragonFable over the years.
outside of committing crimes this was my childhood man, like I really wish they revamp it, I truly think a 2d side scrolling mmo could still work if they just put more into it.
legit got confused in the same areas you pointed out in this video back when I played this game. Thankfully, some afk people in Yulgar's taught me the /join command
Oh the nostalgia. I played the screen to screen turn based fights adventure quest many years ago. Still surprised at how much time I very willingly and quite enjoyably sunk into something so seemingly simple. There's something to be said for it. Really cool to get a look at how it's evolved over the years.
as an 11years player .. i agree with everything this video said and still play it just cause and every map is accesable if u know the map name and if its a gravelyn/10 .. it means its a 100/10 .. everybody simping gravelyn
i remembered this game just today after seeing a youtubers video on poptropica, i forgot the name since its been so long and after scrolling down a list of old mmorpgs i found adventure quest worlds. i could still remember the part where you have to fight the first dragon aswell as when my older siblings couldn't beat the final boss. but when i finally downloaded the launcher, and made an account, after the tutorial phase i was to be honest, very very very lost. and shortly after quit the game, deciding to do some research about where im supposed to go and things like that. thats how i found this video and i feel like the things you said about new players being kinda lost in what your supposed to do is so true lmao
At The Throne of Darkness at 26:35 the reason they talk about you being a pain is because of story reasons, the saga is about how you defeat each of them and is the entire reason they are at the meeting in the first place, they are already at the meeting AFTER you had already defeated them but it shows them in their prime before you actually do finish each section to show how they look before and after they are defeated one by one, because they account their side of the story about how you did it, but other than that I think that the points you made are completely fair and just criticisms.
I completely understand why they did it, which is why i disagree with being able to jump straight to that part of the story. If they're going to have a story, at least make the player follow it before getting to a good bit, because showing the ending means you have no chance of failure, you know where the story will end up.
@@JoshStrifeHayes There are some parts of the game where you have to be a certain level to even join a map so I can see how they could have just applied that to this storyline as well.
@@prvimail1422 i mean ive played a lot of games, and, people do HAVE nsod showing it is at least possible. Its rare but its probably not the rarest thing in any game.
@@JoshStrifeHayes not rare but hardest to get, that people who have it probably use cheat cuz a LOT of people hate to farm in aqw. For example if you are non mem and not using cheat you need to play 6 months for 10 hrs to get nosd.
Been playing for almost 11 years now and never have I ever spent any money on it nor botting and still got some of the endgame items in it. And I have to admit, it took me a decade to actually reach level 60 because I tend to feel bored and sleepy in the middle of playing and grinding my character in this game (and also getting the lightcaster class when it was first released using the free ac coins I got). Yep, this game is that boring...
Idc if this game is bad or good but atleast it gives me happiness to it , happy memories with friends , a stranger i meet became my good friend, those Old but gold times are never be forgotten
Beyond farming for cosmetics to flex on people with in Yulgar, the overall gameplay experience leaves much to be desired even today. One thing I will give this game credit for though is the frequent updates for the new player experience. Often older areas will get refreshed both aesthetically & functionally, receiving a fresh coat of paint for the environments and updates to help clean up preexisting questlines.
Still remember this game Not sure how it is now, but back in my day we would just beat the shit out of bosses until we were almost dead, exit the zone, re-enter, heal and repeat until done. Having at least 1 more person in your zone was almost mandatory for most content, it was kind of a tag team system of tanking, enemies were really stupid and it barely involved any sort of strategy besides using cooldowns in the right order. Unrelated topic, but still relevant : Artix Entertainment(AE) is a scumbag company that abandons games unfinished left and right, uses extreme pay to win in most of their games (less so in AQW, but still) and has reported cases of sexual misconduct (see Vesper) and other drama (see Beleen) related to work, I'm not even getting started on the moderators, some are assholes, some were treated unfairly and all of them are unpaid interns that get free game stuff as payment. Artix (CEO of AE, I'm not using his real name but it's really easy to find) is the Bobby Kotick of the indie video game industry and AE is just EA spelled backwards. He hit gold in 2007-2015 with his freemium game systems, but refused to invest back into his games, leaving most an unfinished mess that got abandoned (Mechquest) or outright axed (nearly half their games), fired most artists when they complained about the lack of direction and is basically an acessory for his -PH@T BlTCÇ OF A WlF&- who is responsible for most of the drama (basically she uses her relationship to the CEO get people fired and bans everyone on forums). That said, Artix is a millionaire anyways, not because of his games no, because he comes from wealth and has a fat inheritance to fall back into whenever he wants, don't expect any improvements in game quality, he is only milking nostalgia from the last 20 or so years.
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To be honest the game is more about collecting, making unique sets and feeling nostalgic about getting right on this game after a long day at school. It’s not your typical mmo rpg.
True
bro , thank you for commenting my thoughts , was about to comment like this but lol you did it
And feeling bad about not having basically 99% of the game's worthy items which are now rare, and impulse buying the 40k ac pack to get an IODA to fulfill your greed.
Thats not what the game is supposed to be about tho, sadly.
True
I remember the original tutorial...you stand on a cliff, thunder crashes in the distance as you raise your weapon....aaand get struck by lightning, falling off your perch and bouncing down the cliff into the tutorial, where you have to save a dragon from a princess
original tutorial was goated. the new one is just... bland
Was that where you started beating slime mobs?? 😮😮😮
As player who's been playing this game for almost 12 Years at this point... I really enjoyed this.
Although I'll still AFK in /Party-1, and probably will never leave it cos I've gotten way too attached to it, I agree with a lot that you've brought up in this video. This game isn't really meant for new players, and it's mostly kept up by us older players who want the nostalgia, still gripping onto it.
Miniiiiiii
@@CorruptNeo Sup
thats a fact we should link up in game some time #flexoperations
Ikr so fucking addicting but at the same time its kinda dead, the game deserves way more recognition however there are many things they need to improve
@@magneticuniverse9971 The game isn't really anything more than glorified chat room at this point. It's a gem in very rough and thick coating, which needs a lot of ironing and polish if it ever wants to get back on it's feet. I would personally start with the removal of Wheel of Doom, then removing AeXtras and so on and so forth. The "Rewrite" was first announced I believe 5 Years ago at this point, and I do have some insider knowledge that it's been "ready" for a while now, but they are trying to bring in another Kickstarter for it... There's a lot more to work on than what this video shows, it's basic overview from starting new players point of view or from an "outsiders". I doubt I'll ever see this game polished to it's perfection and AQ3D will more than likely remain in AQW's shadow till it's end... And unfortunately when I say end, I mean that.
I still remember when necromancer was the best class
The design, can heal, can equip pet and cool animation
The grind i did to get rank 10 doomwood was worth it as soon as I grab the class
and you could kill almost all the bosses by yourself
The necromancer isn’t the best anymore? I learned how to use bots back then just to get necromancer class and being able to solo bosses myself without paying the game money.
@@ataberkdedemen9802 Far from the best now. Nowadays classes can 1 shot everything for no reason.
Necromancer was insane... you can get your own free pet of skeleton. Without membership, it was unbeliveable at that time non-members cant use a single pet. My favorite was Troll Spellsmith which can solo bosses and high damages.
Necromancer is the first class i got thru reputation and that was back in 2016.I really like it because i can fight drakath solo because of the heal hp and mana regeneration mechanics of the class.
I remember playing this game when I was a kid. Artix Entertainment defined my childhood in a lot of ways, because it was free and it was perfectly "lunch break sized." I was 9 years old when AQW dropped and I was all over it.
I owe my childhood for this game. Back when all my friends were playing World of Warcraft or the early seasons of League of Legends, this game saved me from insanity.
This game was a good outlet for me. No friends, my siblings and parents never talk to me. So many good years of being praised for killing five slimes and saving the town 😥
fr bro absolute childhood memory my account is still so fire
@@teddybaker9787 Dude, I used to grind a lot to get necromancer from doomwood. It was harsh and I was like 10-13 when I was introduced ot this game by my cousins. I fell in love with it and I grinded hard until suddenly I stopped.
Returning now, oh god...
I still love this game even after realizing all the shortcomes.
Amen
@@imran8880 exact same lore/story for myself too. I was playing with cousins and this game made my days of childhood better
This is game where
Bots are farming harder
and
Real Player are afking in Yulgar
LOL so true
Wish Artix Entertainment would make an in-game botting system. It would really benefit the game in my opinion. I mean, the rare few do enjoy torturing themselves farming to death. But let's be real. You have a life. A life outside of AQW. Some people don't want to farm VHL with their bare hands. Mashing the same 4 buttons for 3 hours straight. You could watch a whole 50 episode anime series in the amount of time it takes to farm VHL.
I just like equality, ya know? Either make an in-game botting system, or penalize botters. It isn't very fair is it, that there are those who farmed very hard for VHL with their bare hands, and others who didn't work at all for it and let the bot do all the work.
I can suspect that this is why many players have jumped on the bot bandwagon. "If you can't beat em, join em!". Why farm your ass off and subject yourself to so much torture when there are hundreds of botters who didn't have to go through any pain at all. It doesn't mean much to have a super EPIC item or class that you grinded so hard for, when everyone else has it. Bragging rights have lost its meaning. Botting has destroyed that. Everyone has VHL. It lost its novelty. All you have to do is download a botting program and let it do all the work.
So much injustice. But then again. There is a quote that goes like, "work smarter, not harder!". And if Artix Entertainment punished botters, then they would lose most of their player base. Since I can bet most of the players bot.
It is just a tough situation to find yourself in. It sucks. I still love AQW though.
@@jeanvu
Love it or Hate it
You spitting hot fire facts rn
@@jeanvu Funny story, they actually factor in bots to the farming quests in order to make them spend more time online. AE tried to ban bots from AQW back in like 2015-16 but they had to take it back because it effectively killed the game by removing some 50-60% of the playerbase.
@@aggressivelyamicable5987 You would think that AE would stop being so deeply in denial. 50% - 60% of your playerbase uses botting programs. No one likes mindless grinding. A horrible tactic used to get players to stay online longer. Why not put more time and effort into improving the storyline? Oh, I totally forgot that AE is focusing most of their resources into AQ3D. Welp, I guess AFK players in Yulgar flexing their rares and AFK players grinding for items is a sight that you will have to get used to.
I unapologetically love this game, it's a guilty pleasure of mine.
Do you still play it? Let's team up
@@119winters5 people sleep on aqw
@@bestplace646 *AQW Sleeping Stream: I Sleep in Yulgar's Inn!*
Well, for now, we can't lynch the stupid.
Okay, I was gonna like this but I saw it's at 420 likes so I'm leaving it at that.
My brothers and i use to play this for hours, we would get frustrated bc we didnt know what the VIP access meant. We just customized our armors to look edgy asf xD
RIP Johnny, big bro miss playing games with you
rip Johnny we will miss you I remember when he tried to eat pineapple pizza and I said VOID HIGHLORD!
r.i.p Johnny
as a veteran i can comepletely say
story: 100% interesting
system: f*cked up
item models: 100%
hardness: 100%
grinding for class: 100% hard
pay to win? yea and no.
get bored easily: no, you'll just burn your brain until you get the item.
Fax.
Any similar mmo I could start playing nowadays, which also gives the same itch like playing AQW back then?
Pay to win? a big YES. Even the free content is pay to win, since you can pay to get them faster than a f2p player.
@@UniversoCrossoverOficial i have 2 account , 1 is f2p and other is p2w . i can say there are not so many difference , beside the only member quest . but it still possible to rush in f2p
@@shirdiy1665play path of exile
Josh: "The biggest problem is that you lose ur quest progress after logout"
Me the last 10 years: "Grinding time! no logout for 12 hours!"
Topkek
Right
If you're playing on pc sure, but if you're playing on mobile since you have nothing better to do while being out well that's a different story.
@@chimera7875 if you play aqw like this you've choose the wrong game
@@nzzb0 i've played aqw on pc since I was in highschool, but after entering college I've barely had any time to sit in front of a pc so I play games mostly on my phone.
The game has become so boring
The best memory I had was in Yulgar, where everyone is just reciting the entire Bee Movie Script.
No one even talks anymore I go in yulgar and say balls on my face and everyone just sits there
@@ilikecinema1234 I mean... to be fair if someone randomly walked up to me and said balls on my face I wouldn't really feel tempted to reply XD. if anything id be more inclined to just leave.
@@ilikecinema1234 ur weird grow up
@@ibyuji5529 you're watching a video about an mmo rpg game telling me to grow up and that I'm weird
@@ilikecinema1234 dam nothing gets by you inspector gadget
I don't get why people dislike this video, the points he made about it are 100% true.
New players wouldn't enjoy it because of all its flaws, not to mention how braindead the combat system is.
This man clearly loves Artix Entertainment games and wanted them to succeed, and this game could potentially change its flaws and make some coherence in its lore if they put the effort into it, but sadly most of the profit this game makes is just being dumped into the failed project Adventure Quest 3D.
People hate hearing the truth especially when it's about their childhood game. Also because of AE twitter simps.
Most of the comments hating on the video are either from kids or from people blind from nostalgia.
While I didn't leave a dislike I noticed some weirdness with the video. For example Josh talks about being a founder and having experience with the game and everything but...he's level 13? That's nothing in this game if you didn't know.
@@TheArnoldification yep theres that. But still his points are valid. Tbf aqw is an old game, so of course it wouldnt have a lot of QoL improvements most mmos of today have.
@@JohnSmith-dd6xk I know he has valid points. I used to play aqw a long time ago. I joined it in 2008 and have the beta berserker class armor as well as bloodriver (I believe this was a theatre weapon cosmetic that was discontinued very early on, unless it was brought back at some point)
My concern is that I want game critics to arrive at their conclusions for the right reasons rather than just being correct by chance. If he only levelled to 13, we would not be able to talk about the game past the very beginning through experience. That's him making inferences that may or may not be true, which I think is a problem as he seems to suggest he has a lot of experience with the game and got farther than he actually did.
Keep in mind it's literally his job to do this - he gets payed to be a youtube content creator, so I think it's fair to criticize his methods.
Also keep in mind these critic channels have a lot of influence and reach, so he could indirectly hurt otherwise great games with his coverage because he didn't bother to understand fairly straightforward systems and jump the gun to conclusions.
I've been playing this game for about 14 years now and only about a year ago the game has started showing some actual progress as far as mechanics and general cohesivenes go.
Things have been improving quite a lot due to hiring an extremely talented programmer Spider (a guy who has created BOTS for AQW) and several insane artists that consistantly put out some of the most exciting item designs the game has ever seen.
That being said though, the story still leaves a lot to be desired and yeah you put it quite well yourself Josh- being AFK and/or chatting with other players at Yulgar's is the only thing that makes some sense for an endgame player or a veteran like myself. There was a point in 2013 where I just grew bored of the game and took a break until 2018, after coming back it took me maybe 2 days to finish every last piece of content I missed throughout the 5 years I was gone, which says a lot about what was happening in that time period too.
So yeah, there isn't much more to be done past a certain point than just collecting rare items and looking hella badass with your sets, and I think that's Adventure Quest Worlds' ultimate goal after all.
also, Gravelyn is undeniably cute and badass.
shut up
Huh, maybe I should get back into AQW
I love this haha. And I can only agree that Gravelyn is indeed cute and badass.
Idk, there is so much in the endgame rn, I just started playin again, and instantly got addicted to chasing higher numbers, end game is a whole other game, I remember playin in elementary school, the story was hilarious, it was fun to play w my friends and brothers, but then in high school during covid I was like, oh, aqw, let's give it a spin, and I grinded for hundreds of hours, got the best classes in the game, grinded from level 21 to 100, finished the main story, got end game weapons and enhancements, there was so much to do, and then when I came back this time, there was even more, more end game classes that all fill different niches, better enhancements, more end game weapons
I go back to this game on rare occasion and literally every single time I have ever made a new character there was a new tutorial to play through. Even now, watching this video, I had no idea what was going on for the first 14 minutes because nothing he did during that time was anything I had seen in the many times I had gone back. I'd started to believe that the tutorial was completely randomized so you'd have a fresh experience every single time. I honestly think more games (or any games, since I doubt it was intentional) should do this.
I remember the one where you had to save the dragon from the princess and it was absolutely absurd and I loved it
That’s just not sure, there’s only been 2 tutorials lol
Omg is that one of the viera assasin from final fantasy tactics (gameboy version?)
@@jiusomnia_ Exactly
Anyone renter where you have to fight the slim and get shot on the dragon tutorial?
Yep. This game made me realize grinding is what makes a game sometimes. So similar to Warframe. GRINDING. AHAHAHA still been playing this for almost 11 years now, i still love it.
nice
Been playing aqw for 10 years and warframe for 3
It's a bit unfair to compare AQW with Warframe. Both are leagues apart, besides what you said "GRINDING," holds true. Warframe actually has cohesion with its' story, albeit they're literally using 3D Models and engines. AQW is a good timekiller, but my gosh as Josh pointed out, it's unorganized as hell.
A fellow tenno playing AQW XD
@@jianabellera6179 indeed
I pretty much agree with everything in this video. As you addressed, I think the biggest problem with this game is how difficult it is to navigate and how overwhelming it is for new players. It was nice and simple if you played from 2008-2011ish BECAUSE there was a lot less to do, so deciding where to go was easy. They could easily fix this by locking all the main storyline quests/areas so that you have to do them in linear progression (i.e. 1st lord of chaos before 3rd, 3rd before 4th, etc). I can KIND OF understand if they were trying to go for a more "open world" feel but it makes no sense since the story cutscenes themselves progress linearly (e.g. Drakath knows you killed the 1st chaos beast if you're doing the 3rd chaos lord quest lines), also they scale in level so it makes no sense to do them in a random order. It's like they thought they could give the player so much freedom by giving them every ingredient off the bat, when they haven't even taught them how to fry an egg yet...
Also /chaosmarsh has absolutely no reason to exist and should've been a deleted area ages ago. If Alteon directed you to the 1st Chaos Lord saga immediately instead like he's suppose to, that'd make the story progression much smoother. Even back in like 2010 when I did it I thought it was pointless and the quests were unnecessarily grindy for a BEGINNER storyline quest that has absolutely no reward. It is COMPLETE garbage.
If you're an old player who's been keeping up with every release since you started playing like I have, then yes, the game is enjoyable and simple to play. But that's only because all we have to think about doing is the new weekly release. So either logging in every week to do that or to farm a famous end-game item like NSoD or VHL becomes a simple relaxing ritual of your life. But for a new player, its an entirely different story.
Also, just now I found a lvl 15 warrior in /lightguardwar of all places asking me a billion simple questions when he shouldn't have been there in the first place. Of course I helped direct him on the right path, but if the game itself can't even do that then that's just awful. And I'm not saying the entire game has to be COMPLETELY linear, simply that new players just jumping into the game shouldn't be able to access a bunch of stuff meant for people who are SUPPOSE to be further in the story. They need to keep a sense of progression so that the world of lore itself actually feels EXCITING to explore rather than overwhelming. It would also make the areas you're not in feel like they have life when you're not there.
This one is good
That's what the map is for, stupid stranger. And also he was allowed because why not? Each part of the map can stand on its own. And if you find yourself in the wrong place or that the place is locked, then you try to search for the right one or ask help from strangers.
That's the beauty of it, you're not alone. Just like when you yourself was helped by others when you were just a lost and confused noob.
And also, its fun to not completely know where to go. Its fun to explore and discover the storyline yourself! Its boring when everything is spoon fed to you like you're some dumb individual who can't think for themselves.
@@brightangle4015 I had no problem with helping that guy, and I completely agree with you that communicating with others, exploring and discovering is what makes MMOs so great!
But like I said I think that guy shouldn't have been there because he wasn't techincally at that part in the story yet. I'm not saying EVERY area should be locked and for the entire game to become a straight line, I'm saying only those that have continuing storylines that branch off another should. As in, I don't think its right that you can jump straight into the middle of the lightguard war story when you haven't even touched the beginning yet. I know that aqw has gotten better at locking quests and areas for story purposes recently but they're still missing a ton of stuff.
Also, just because some areas are locked doesn't mean you can't still explore and get help from strangers.
@@ttbb4646 The way I see it, its great to be able to just skip to the middle or the end of a storyline even though you aren't supposed to be there. Its makes you feel like you ended up in a cool and secret place, even though you aren't supposed to be there. You see new places with new things in it.
"What? I can't interact with a lot of things in these new and strange place. I guess I'm still not supposed to be here. Welp, I guess I'll ask that kind stranger over there for help and directions."
Doesn't that feel more organic and real?
Instead of just following the set path completely, you have the option of exploring way ahead; see things that you could encounter in the future.
That's what I enjoyed playing AQ Worlds. I wasn't able to systematically see the story in the order it "should" have been seen in; but whenever I found a place that had an important storyline just by clicking a random point in the map, I would feel so ecstatic and happy. The unexpected finds you will encounter, such as new cool places, secret (for me at least cuz I didn't know anything back then) storylines, and amazing npcs, is what made me enjoy the game so much.
In conclusion, seeing a place in the middle or the end of a storyline makes you look forward to the adventure that you will experience when you officially do it and start from the beginning. And that feels real, instead of you, the player, being forced to follow a path.
@@brightangle4015 I respect that. I guess I just don't feel the same way. If the game was able to make you feel excited and happy then it clearly did something right, and I just have different tastes.
You know what I did the first time I entered this game? 1) did the event that I have no idea what it's all about, 2) run around aimlessly and triggering random events, 3) collecting cool stuff because I was a kid, and 3) finally did the story quest, not in order of the actual story.
I've always done this in every freaking game XD I didn't even know English when I played, but I learned a lot from it.
Yeah lol. Just walking around the maps (because I didn’t know the map button exists) till you find an npc with a quest.
Oh is that the last quest? Let me go find the biggest and scariest enemy with a one-of-a-kind unique look.
lmao true. especially in my case that english is not my first language. I didnt know what i'm doing. I'm just playing it coz my friends are playin it. it was like some kind of trend back then.
Same bro
Healer is actually a decent solo dps class. Its ability to heal, deal damage based on current health, and reduce mana costs make it the best solo class of the four starting classes. I can probably take on most of the early game bosses as long as you are patient and keeping track of your resources.
Well you can get oracle for free from the class shop and it's better than healer, and it doesn't really matter because you can buy the other starting classes as soon as you get out of the tutorial and get some gold for them
Or you can just buy oracle
Any similar mmo I could start playing nowadays, which also gives the same itch like playing AQW back then?
I agree with other commenters about oracle, it's better. I soloed some of the drakath's forms with it.
But holy shit was it just dull AF. I was just staring at the browser waiting for it to whack stuff and just at the end I exit and went to sleep.
This game was my childhood. Got so addicted when I was younger that I stole my parents credit card to pay for a membership so I could use the nulgath larvae pet😂
lmaaaaaaaao
bruhhh 😂😂
I remember when you stole from ur dad ur mom spanked you :) it was a good memory
LMFAOOO
Based the pets are so rare to find now.
I quite like the game. Very nostalgic watching my cousin play the game back in 2011-2012.
When you first start the game, their is a lot of shit to do. Like main story, side story and going to new places. But when you do everything in the game(Max level, Got best class, finish all the stories, etc) the game becomes very boring until Friday’s release comes out.
except for the fact that the lore is trash and makes no sence.
And half the time even that friday event is trash and you get bored within 10 minutes or complete it in 10 minutes.
@@Addict... equip my blazebinder and piledrive every mob in the screen, event done in 20 mins...
@@findout-YGO lol more like vampire lord
the best thing to do once logging in after a long slumber is going to yulgar getting a brew or a joint for whoever may fancy either and relaxing listening to music maybe read and the occasional chat with other veteran players that knew the clan you were in or perhaps the people you did raids with and talking about life, its not about the game anymore its about chatting with old faces imo.
Poeple still play this game because of the flashy items every event.
EXACTLY
ye i still play and alot more people play for fun just like other games
umm we play it because we are masochists'
@@senpai6167 also correct
ye
I made many friends off of this game, and I've had some really good memories just because of this game. Sadly in the past 3 years, it became a sad, overpimped cashcow for AQ3D. Most of the team moved over to 3D so the only people working on AQW are the volunteers.
It was a good game. It was my childhood. It introduced me to my husband.
no way haha, really introduced you to your husband?
@@teddybaker9787 Friend of mine met his wife in Ragnorok back in the day.
yeah, I feel like they'll continue to work on aq3d until they release the mobile version of aqw comes out.
Thats actually kinda cute 😅
Where you part of the couple that spawned the first AQW wedding event? I remember that from when I was a kid.
Josh would Love to see you do a year later review - the Devs took note to some of what you said in this video. recently they added a new dev to the official team 'Spider' who made a free 3ed party tool for AQWorlds called AQLite. Its a major overhaul of UI with some extra options now available and a better drop menu.
is it worth playing still in 2022?
@@armthesharks6904 id say yes, the game continues to be updated with new content and they recently added more builds for the end game bosses.
@@Destan-jp5zu cool. Is it still just AQW if I wanna play? I saw 3D but not sure I wanna do that
@@armthesharks6904 AQ3D is ok i havent gotten into it as much as AQWorlds though
@@Destan-jp5zu I'll look for aqw then!
With some of the more tedious quests, they give you the permanent drop instead of a temp one - your quest will still drop, but you'll keep the items
I will never forget that day, 11 years ago in Elementary School, when a friend of mine sat me down and _forced_ me to make a character.
It was the start of my transformation from Soccer Kid to Nerd. When Drakath first came on screen, it was mind-blowing. I got so immersed in the story and the side events, it was like living in another world for me, being *someone.*
Nowadays, I barely log in.
There is always the occasional hidden gem of an event or the next shiny sword to grind, but the game feels like a shell of its former self and while I wanna defend it with everything I've got, I just can't.
I really hope it goes back to being the passionate project it used to be someday.
I agree man, We seem to have a similar introduction to this game through Elementary School. Although, I log in a bit frequently than I used to. If they can just update combat and make more immersive actions like more animations, more pivotal dialogue options. Or just, pull a freaking Persona 5 and get us to build relationships with characters that change depending on story or seasonal/other events. What you said at the end "I really hope it goes back to being the passionate project it used to be someday.
" Really tugging at my emotions man :')
This was what Jack T. Chick warned the world about the wicked RPG-ers. We didn't listen, from AD&D to WoW noone has been safe from recruitment.
Game still same but you grew up
@@hakanyldz2937 The game's definitely not the same 😂
Like collabing with Genshin Impact
I remember playing AQW while Watching Anime and just pressing 4 buttons for straight 5 hours a day HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH good times
xD same
I just do auto presser lol
Jokes on u, I ordered my little cousin to press 4,3,2,5 while i was laying down to rest lol
@@akhairanich.2420 not sure if I am suppose to feel bad for ur sis or be happy for u?
@@lianlianmo2261 well i asked him gently "do u want to play my game account? its high level account" he said "woah really? I'll glad to play" :v
I hope that AQW moderators take notes of what Josh says to make the game better than ever before.
Ummmm, how old do you think this is? Lol
@@jtowensbyiii6018 still makes a valid point. One of the things that makes AE waste their potential so much is that they barely listen to criticisms from their playerbase.
Don't hold your breath waiting....
Doubt
They'll never listen lol. Especially that bot Alina
I like how he mentioned using potions for a significant mention of the game, because I literally didn't know potions existed for the last 5+ years and just assumed that 6th slot was for some secret ability
I just recently discovered you actually need those for the new ultra bosses, and i was really confused XD
you can do the whole chaos saga besides a single boss without using potions
i remember grinding weeks for undead essence for Artix in Necropolis to get his axe, then proceed to craft shiny yellow weapons with all the rare boss materials, to then grind more for the Champion of Nulgath(back then he was called Miltonius i think) class or something, which was like the most OP class. With that class i went and solo every biggest, hardest boss i could find in the game. IDK what i was doing with my life but i was so damn proud.
Holy shit, I swear the game was called Battle On. Hit me with some massive nostalgia
You're almost right, battleon.com was the website address :D
Decided to recover my account after watching this and my character was last seen 5991 days ago. This is where real men cry 😂
@@CHICKENNUGGET69360 16 years? idk buddy, it's a 2008 game
@@nzzb0 Not sure why I'm correcting someone who just wants to be sarcastic but they meant AQ not AQW.
It's a 12-year old Adobe Flash browser game. Almost everything about the game had potential and *was* great, but it failed to keep up with the new trends.
Don't worry they Will make the AQW available for mobile, right now the only problem is converting every image of map, items, npc, and animations to be compatible with smaller screen device like mobile
@@raihanalwaritzu9530 you can play it on mobile already, fps is not great but playable
@@brianr.6376 if what u mean using Adobe flash and browser yeah i can do it too in my mobile(android), but since its not fully supported by artix, like you said the fps is very bad and the ads in browser is really annoying. It was better waiting for the official mobile version,
And one more flash Will not get any update anymore, so for me the only way for me to play AQW is using artix launcher in PC.
@@raihanalwaritzu9530 no not in the browser but there is actually an official app on playstore I think its called aqw3d
@@imperialkeru6336 oh sorry, what i mean is AQW 2D, i haven't play aq 3d because, i don't want to start over my game again, and the first time i play aq3d there so much lag issue
who still play this game i still play this game though
I open my account twice a year for only getting ac's
-icerock_22
I finally found my old account farming for VHL now
Currently farming for dragon of time
Im farming blaze binder
The one thing gud in this game is the rare items
I enjoyed the community, and the live events. It felt exciting following the Chaos storyline and trying out the new classes as they released. I spent many hours grinding while talking or rping with my online friends
Ah Artix Games. I both love, and hate this company. In a lot of ways, it was my Childhood. Adventure Quest, Dragonfable, and my fave Mechquest (for some reason). The writing was always on point, they are mostly okay seeming people/devs for the most part. And at least back in the day they actively used to have dev logs for every game that were normally in character and felt really fun.
I remember going back in like 2011? and reading all of Dragonfables dev notes from start to end. Went back recently and a lot of the logs no longer exist, some are just completely missing entire sections. Seemed to be mixed with the shut down of flash as some of the old logs used flash animation stuff in it. Which is a massive shame.
That said, the company isn't without their faults. Happened a few years ago now (5 I think? Adam deleted most of the dev logs from Mechquest that he wrote but his open letter to the company about the issues can still be found), but there was the whole mess with, I think his name was Ash? Where he was effectively volunteering for 48+ hours a week on the game to develop new things, keep it running, etc. But there was a very public falling out over him asking to be paid going forward. In addtion to a lot of stuff involving fan works and junk.
There was also, and this soured my opinion of even his in game character, the issues with Cysero during AQW launch. The company promised in a dev blog (which I remember) that Guardian players, Star Captins and Dragonlords would all get their exclusive classes for being long time backers of the game. While this was eventually added (Though the Dragonlord one is a normal drop still and not exclusive), Cysero denied in the forums that sorta thing ever being a promise. He then went and deleted the old dev log when people pointed out where it had been promised, much to the anger of fans. The old posts even indicated going back through them, that he kinda bragged about having deleted the dev log in a smug sorta "Now there is no proof" way. Its been like 12 years or something and that incident still sticks in my head and really changed how I viewed both his dev logs going forward, and how his character came off in game. The whole loveable asshole thing wasn't just a character for lols it seemed at the time. (Things may have changed in the 12 years since of course. 12 years is a long time. Its just something that soured my enjoyment of the company as a whole.)
(DragonFable) Cysero I remember him as the guy with the time booth that he tried to clown car everybody in despite knowing they could just be adjacent to it for time travel.
(AdventureQuest) The uBEAR set of armor because the protag said uber while having a cloggy nose from the cold?
Favorite part is MechQuest learning to use the lasersword and going up against DARTH TWILLY
I remember this game from my high school years, had a good laugh when you called this game a lunch break sized RPG. How right you are, all my friends and I were sent home/to the office more then once because of being caught playing Adventure Quest. The game was banned within weeks, yet we all still kept playing it.
This game actually was part of my inspiration to learn game design years ago. I love it, I hate a lot of things about it, but I always come back in March to catch up on legion stuff because I love the art and nostalgia. Such a wonderful piece of art yet so much struggle. It’ll always be special but deeply flawed. I would love to see AE start over with the same concept while fixing these issues and see what happens. Still waiting on that element system they were talking about a few years ago, maybe then the combat wouldn’t be as stale.
Sadly, I think it became a bit of a money funnel for future projects.
the next generation of veteran players are coming
This games grind is beyond the joke, it's almost crazy how many players such as myself have left AQW not for the poor quality animation, lacking story, poor progress tracking ect but because of the insane grind, you could be fighting the same enemy for hours as one part of one quest that's part of a chain to get one class, only to find out actually you need Reputation in a area/thing and that entails several more hours/days of just repeatedly attacking the same enemies, its torturous. Do the people behind these decisions think we actually enjoy this? of course they want us to buy currency and just buy the class, but honestly I'd be willing to spend money on things like cosmetics, which they already do make all the cool ones locked behind a paywall, but making the actual gameplay, they getting abilities so fucking dull and so boring is such a bad way to try and encourage players to buy. I just ended up getting pissed off at the endless grind for classes which had no advertised requirements in game but would slap you with a "yeah i know you just did a whole damn story of quests but i'm also going to need you to be maxed out in reputation for like 5 different seemingly unrelated areas, sorry i didn't mention it till now, thnx"
Thats why they make bot haha
Baring in mind this game was originally made for children, but the developers have made updates which are more mature for there older crowd. And I have to respect that.
This game is basicly just a dress em up now, everything else is an extra.
all MMOs are Dress Em ups. What really matters is how much agency you get within the dress em up to customize your style. in Current WoW, the only character i have wearing an itemset is my hunter, and she has the boots swapped for a world drop from WOD since it actually matches T4 better then the actual T4 boots, while only my blood elf warlock is wearing gear from a single expansion. Everyone else is using their 9 armor slots and 1-2 weapons with a combination of gear from at least 4 different expansions.
And you can do this in most MMOs. TERA and AQ are the real exceptions to this, as is DDO
I remember getting perma banned because I tried to change my email in a 'different location' from when I created it lmao.
AE trying to find out how you got to Norway in just 0.02 seconds
in 2016 I was banned for typing "I hax" in a public battleon as a joke :3
I remember trying to bypass the global chat censor jokingly then some rando used other characters to bypass it and says the word "vagina", a mod suddenly pops up and he got banned for 3 days. When he came back with his alt account he thought I was a mod in an alt account. Funniest shit I've ever seen.
Good old days.
I used the bot thing to level up my card class, and I just got a warning LOL got to max level and everything. Also sooo much gold, in the sand area with the camels. That was like 10 years ago. I now forgot my info
Adventure Quest Worlds will always have that special charm to me, having first played it over a decade ago, just after beta iirc. I remember having a blast with the story, the second birthday event especially stood out to me... I went off it for a few years and have since come back to it every year or two, I'd sunk quite a lot of money into it, as well as many many hours of grinding. The hollowness of the grinding and the many, many hours without payoff for it is usually what drives me away. Genuinely does feel like I'm too invested into it to ever really abandon it fully though. As an artist - ironically AQW was one of my first inspirations to get into art - the lack of graphical inconsistency and lack of general cohesiveness of everything ranging from ui elements to the night and day contrast between the styles of older and newer weapons and armour really pains me sometimes. It sometimes feels like you're playing dress-up in a chatroom that just happens to involve rpg elements. At the end of the day I'm glad I stumbled upon this video because it pretty much sums up my own feelings regarding the game. Will definitely be subscribing, and more than likely will go back and sit down and sink several hours into AQW again. Cheers!
Ha, im the same, its a bad game but i enjoy the experience of it.
Thanks for the comment too, glad you enjoyed the vid :)
@@JoshStrifeHayes It pains me how AQW has so much potential. It is magical, whimsical, very unique, charming, punny and so much more. There is just nothing like it. But, it just has so many downfalls. The hollowness being a major one. The botting situation. The story being so hard to follow. The many hours without payoff. There is just so many downfalls to point out. But I still love the damn game so much.
Your wonderful review was such a joy to watch! I related to everything you said. I have a love-hate relationship to the game. It is a difficult but rewarding relationship. I would like to think that there was a meaning to me being introduced to the game by a childhood friend way back then.
Welcome to the club pal, now let's go grind blinding light of destiny and talk about how miltonious shouldn't have quitted the game
@@eggseed6543 based, but Oversoul was POG before it was abandoned.
@@StarboyXL9 couldn't agree more with you
I remember playing Mech Quest along with this game, and i was so happy when i got that Pizza robot, such a good memory
I, too, got the pizza robot.
Still playing my old account for 10 whole years and josh pointing out the flaws are 100% true and at the time I was playing it as a kid, it didn't bother me, sure I'll be annoyed when I afk'd for a bit while in a nearly finished quest and get logged out but that's what kept me playing it to this day, I grew into the flaws to the point that it doesn't bother me, but that doesn't change the fact that the flaws aren't big, IT IS BIG, and if they work out the flaws, this game will become mainstream to kids and aqw veterans alike.
I'm so distracted by everyone having some of their limbs cast in shadow, aka solid black with no details.
I remember doing the sword of awe quest with a friend we were on our last piece with that 0.0004 drop rate. The funny part was the journey back to cash in the quest because of how the loading screen could DC at anytime.
As an old player, I can say, this is accurate. A lot of the stuff in the beginning is for old players but will confuse a lot of new players. Plus I've never seen that beginning before and it looks trash.
Artix Games has always done a great job snagging handfuls of amazing artists for their games lol, even og Adventure Quest had it's fair share of insanely good art.
Gravelyn do be a cutie though. Internet likes cute redheads
Seeing as Gravelyn is an 8 or a 9, I see that you rated this 8 or 9 out of 10.
Honestly hard to say lol, given gravelyn is divided between people who like her a lot and some who don't like her a lot
This game was a grind, yet the community really made the game wonderful. Especially, the music collaborations!
ooh. cant wait for this one. it's good when it is a more popular game that is reviewed.
Ive also got a LOT of experience playing this game
I still think I remember my login info for the original AQ
@@JoshStrifeHayes which one?
@@JoshStrifeHayes also has lvl 13 which you can get in about 20 minutes
@@JoshStrifeHayes also the thing with quests, long quest always require you items to turn in, which go to your normal inventory.
It infuriates me to no end that I've had such good times with such an unwieldy, unworkable, grind-heavy game. But to this day I rave about some of the stories told in the game, like Wolfwing's tragic backstory, Alteon's struggle against his chaorruption, Kezeroth and Karok, Iadoa, Grimskull, Robina, Sepulchure, Gravelyn and so many more. I agree that when it's cohesive, it's exceptional storytelling, and even tiny plots like the ones in Citadel inspire me to write up my own little scenarios for RPs I've done over Discord with others.
I ranted and spat for years about the combat system, the grindiness, the frustration of needing membership, and feeling like I was wasting my life every time a disconnection ruined my rep farming (good lord don't ask). One day, after playing AQ3D I just gave up. I had to go back to WoW because there just wasn't anything else for me at the time aside from maybe SWTOR. I'd had moments where I'd swear off AQW and not even a month later I was back on it, making a new character and having my own little headcanon of where they came from, what they were about, their armor/weapons/magic/etc.
I wanted so badly to like stuff from Artix Entertainment, and to be fair I still do, but after finding and knowing better, I can't and won't be drawn in again.
_Gravelyn/10, will use stories as inspiration to write my own._
This is one of my main childhood gaming memories cause it made me a lifelong (thus far) friend, I met somebody as a kid and and heard them mention this game, we swiftly became friends with them as we both played AdventureQuest Worlds, after losing touch for a couple years it turned out they were at the same secondary school when I started at age 12, recognised her from those years back and we've been friends ever since (I'm 23 now!). Have not played for over a decade now but still have good memories of it!.
There are only two goals in aqw:
1. make your character cool
2. have a strong class
3. waste your life trying to grind items that you want from above
That moment when someone dm you coz they cant solo the boss, cant help but proud of yourself.
I spent 2 weeks for void highlord class and I only got the armour set with a even more grindy road ahead, pure pain
F thats what in doing when i was 7 yrs old.
they should have improve the pvp
4. Main oracle and fuck everything else
I used to play AQ and AQW back in 2007-2010. I started playing runescape after that. Never looked back at AQ.
hi can i have your old aqw account😁
@@NikkyShane I don't have access anymore to that AQ account
@@RunfisherRS Ohhh still thank you❤️😊
attendance for all the players who are still playing this game :3
me
RIP LMAO
Since 2017
Me lol
Here
This game was definitely a huge part of childhood. Made many online friends on there (a few I’m still in touch with today), the artists are talented and inspiring with their designs of armor sets and monsters, decent stories with a hint of silliness, and the collabs with musicians like Voltaire, They Might Be Giants and One-Eyes Doll. I used to play it throughout middle school and high school but once I started college and started playing other games I just lost interest. Especially since you would have to devote yourself to the game for months to get those hard-to-get items. I had to sadly give up on grinding for the Void Highlord cuz it was such a grind that I couldn’t find to time to balance it with my classes. Nonetheless once you finish the main stories you’re left with the choices of grinding for XP, reputation, rank, hard-to-get items, or just being AFK in yulgar. Of course when it goes to grinding players with membership or ACs have an unfair advantage getting boosts or unlocking areas/quests where they reward you with more XP or rep. Now it just seems they’re just promoting the hell out of new collectibles and items to buy instead of adding more story events, which was another reason why I left.
This game still holds a special place in my heart. I would often log in and see what new things they added or what the new level cap is. I don’t see myself grinding on this game in the future since other games have caught my attention and the PTSD I’ve gotten from the endless grinding in this game alone.
And I also had a massive crush on Gravelyn. I turned a evil hero for her
Played this game from 2010-2015 ish, came back to my profile recently and was overwhelmed with everything, and im a pretty experienced player. I can imagine how overwhelming this must be for someone who has never played it.
I started playing when I was like 11 stopped at 15 went back to it at 18 and bruh the amount of shit that added to the game and how much the map changed was hectic
y'know, with how many gripes you had, I really wasn't expecting a top tier score..
Real ones remember all the different tutorials from the past 12 years
And the OG getting hit by lightning intro
Holy shit yes. I remember them cycling through so many lol, it makes me feel like an OG to see nobody else talking about how many times they tried to reinvent the new player experience. They were always classic, everytime.
I've played this for 8 years and I agree with everything here. Especially the quest issue in chaos marsh, first time I played it felt really lost and was like....2 weeks searching how to advance the story. Then I lost my patience and asked another high lvl player what to do and they kindly guided me, thx to them I didn't drop the game at that point.
Aw man, I loved AQW. I never got very far because I had 0 patience for grinding, but I could never bring myself to quit permanently. It feels nice to see someone talk about those flaws in a sympathetic way, even though I'll always hold the memories of it dear to my heart. It hurts to hear about the state of it now, as well as the state of Artix Games's games in general. :(
I LOVED Adventure Quest. I started playing in 2004, when I was just a young lad of 9 years. I convinced mom into getting Guardian for me since it was only 1x 20$, instead of $5/mo like RuneScape was. I even played MechQuest and Dragonfable. I did not like AQ Worlds very much. I didn't see the point in it being MMO, since I didn't, and still don't have any friends. I did play AQ Worlds quite a bit to give it a good chance.
Oh god, I loved MechQuest
I used to play this game. Hard. But in the end I forgot to play it completely. I didn't decide to quit it at one point. I just forgot to play it one day and never remembered to play again.
Same here. I played this game when I was younger, back in 2012 or something like that. For some reason I forgot about the game and just remembered its existence today.
I realised that alot of us stopped playing around 2012-2013 and just forgot about it completely
@@Lufffloof I guess that’s because most of the players at that point graduated elementary and just became busy with high school. That’s what happened to me.
@@HansBotMaker damn, same
Omg, I loved this game! I was absolutely awful at it, I died more times than I can count (even from the damn slimes, like come on!) but it was really fun! Although I’m not gonna lie, being new to the game, the other older players never wanted to talk to you or help you with anything 😅
It was kinda understandable though, given how bad I was 😬
Ahh~ the memories✨
this game is a endless prison
i cant escape
Alt+F4 😂
Same
Is an endless
@@shandrexler1 why u bully me English is not my native language
I can escape this game with forgot my password account and my very bad internet, so i felt bored🤣
Only downside of this game now is the AE team, banning loyal and legit players whilst keeping botters in the game (Nythera is the worst known for doing this, I lost a near day 1 account because of her), and overall being money grabbing goblins.
Once in a long while me and a few of the guys come back to this game just to hang about and do some grinds, just getting nostalgic and talking about the past. I still remember when we used to do each of the chaos lords together as they came out, discussing theories and the story as it was unfolding.
What I find intriguing about most of the boss fights in AQW is that despite their stats suggesting you need multiple players, you can solo it if you know what to do for a class that can heal itself (Healer, Oracle, etc.) , and if you're at a high enough level. The problem with this is it takes SOOOO LONG to win like this.
I've found the best strategy to trudging through a win for Healer is
1. Calm Mind when it's available and at the very start (halves mana cost)
2. Healing Word at around half health (self explanatory)
3. spamming Heartbeat immediately after Healing Word (does damage based on how much health you have)
4. Energy Flow when Mana's under half (gives back mana when you take damage)
Was unsure if I had ever gotten around to playing AQ Worlds but after seeing those cutscenes, specifically the toilet kicking and Drakath attacking, the nostalgia then slammed me like a truck. I loved this game and having not played many RPG’s yet I was fully invested in the story.
Trying to grind for the Dragon of Time class ended my enjoyment of this game.
That was the worst 4 days of my life lol. Just banked it after I ranked it up lol
Also seeing how desolate those low level areas are (which IMO greatly hurts the experience), I thought of a system this game would benefit greatly from: a *time traveling system* where players are rewarded for *replaying old content* . Basically imagine a shop with a ton of *cool rewards* , and they earn them by going back and *redoing the noob zones* at a scaled down level. Maybe you could even *target* wherever *low level players* are currently *questing* , so they'll always have people around to help.
Seems like a much better solution than nerfing the shit out of every enemy and boss so newbs can tediously solo lonely areas.
then after 1 year it's back to the same
@@ethanwasme4307 That's why you regularly add new rewards to the shop. There a few areas in AQW that have been consistently active over years for this exact reason
Good God I didn't realise until I was about halfway through this video what a downgrade having the enemies instantly respawn would be. I played this back in its first couple of years so I didn't experience that, they respawned after a timer (that I don't remember being unreasonable) like a normal MMO mechanic. Having them immediately pop back into place just feels so meta-influenced and videogamey, and like you haven't even influenced the world at all. Nothing makes the environment feel more dead than, ironically, dead enemies popping right back up again without even a second to spare.
Though all of what you said is true, My heart still aches as you mention em.
I hav played AQW for a long time and I have never became a Guardian or a Member, My motto in the game is always "if you can get it for free then farm it."
AQW if for Nostalgia purposes if you stop one day you'll comeback trust me
i played for free too and farmed all my classes( blaze binder- pyromancer - glacial berserker -darkblood stormKing ) with no bots because i was scared of getting banned lol but i made the mistake of sending an angry email about how hard it's for free players and my fears came true..i got banned and had to apologize to get my account back because it was banned permanently!
@@sadtaco4534 Lol I stopped farming Blaze Binder and farmed Stone Crusher which was longer for my Level and Class at that time😂
I think I was Level 30 and the class was Chaos Slayer Berserker
@@sadtaco4534 Lol I stopped farming Blaze Binder and farmed Stone Crusher which was longer for my Level and Class at that time😂
I think I was Level 30 and the class was Chaos Slayer Berserker
Dragonfable does so well many of the flaws of aqw, like feeling the travelling between sections. And also the storyline its so so epic. But of course being an offline game makes it more easier...i guess? Its so confusing because back in the day you wouldnt care for many of the flaws you show now, he just played it. And now it feels so odd, and i would say its fine but then there is dragon fable which always condensed those flaws to the minimum. I replayed dragonfable and still feel the challenge fighting. A compelling history line makes all the difference back in the days we really hook up to chaos lord saga i remember some of the 1-6 being enjoyable. But overall the flaws what sucka for old players is that we get that kind of feeling that the game would be great but its not because lazzy fixing.
I played this game for years now. Of course I don't play it every time because by now I would be really bored but I do come back every few weeks. I'm level 90 without spending any cash.
Its still insane to me how many musician crossovers they had. One eyed doll, Voltaire, They Might Be Giants, KoRn, Alice in Chains, and Breaking Benjamin.
The entire thing about quest items not saving if you logout, is only present in the early game. Later on most "endgame" or longer quests have their quest items stored in your bags instead, so you can keep on going where you left off even if you logout.
I agree though, it shouldn't be like this.
Been playing this game since 2011 and haven’t completed the chaos saga til now lol
Same hahhaja
Haha Fr I made a new account and just completed it a couple months back
Same
Still stuck in the chaos war because fuck the Chaos Gauntlets
My friend technically
AS a child I remember distinctively going to library, hotel, or any computer and either playing one of three games: MapleStory, RuneScape, and the tried and true Adventure Quest.
My biggest nightmare grinding is the Necromancer rank to 10 and its still undone...
I did it 😭😭😭
And it was not even worth that since Necromancer was dead class
There are also things like the Pyromancer/Cryomancer Daily Quests, which lock a class behind 42(in this case) Days of logging in fighting an enemy and logging out, feels like a chore that isnt really worth it for itself.
I remember doing it. It was a huge grind but i did it because i loved how cool that pyro class looked. Not so long after i got it, i trained it to a decent rank and stopped playing shortly after. Man it has been since around 2017 that ive not touched this game. Coming back to it was a blast
lol you think pyromancer is a chore...try void highlord or legion revenant or Blinding Light of Destiny. I remember when I first did the Juggernaut Items of Nulgath and got the Ungodly Reavers, that was a huge deal. Now with all the shortcuts and "inflation" of diamonds/gems, etc. that quest is so easy as to be completely trivial.
Even tho they're a grind, they're very much worth it. I use cryomancer for soloing bosses, it's very useful for that. Pyromancer on it's own is not that useful to me, but you need at least one class point on it to be able to get blaze binder, which is a very useful farming class to have
@@Le_Confuzzlement iirc they made it easier to get around 6 months ago, so now it takes 12 days for pyro which makes it worth it enough 🙂
Not all quests needs “Temporary” Items for Quests.
Some quests auto turn in, so that saves the “relog” and all.
Most quests need temporary items.
I remember playing this game and trying to farm for my first class attainable through rep (necromancer) and never got it till about 7 years later i felt like playing again lmao
The dislikes must be from those yulgar twitter afkers
Despite this game being really flawed, I really appreciate the devs and I think it is at least to some extent possible that they'll fix it some day like what they've done for AQ and DragonFable over the years.
outside of committing crimes this was my childhood man, like I really wish they revamp it, I truly think a 2d side scrolling mmo could still work if they just put more into it.
legit got confused in the same areas you pointed out in this video back when I played this game. Thankfully, some afk people in Yulgar's taught me the /join command
Oh the nostalgia. I played the screen to screen turn based fights adventure quest many years ago. Still surprised at how much time I very willingly and quite enjoyably sunk into something so seemingly simple. There's something to be said for it. Really cool to get a look at how it's evolved over the years.
as an 11years player .. i agree with everything this video said and still play it just cause
and every map is accesable if u know the map name
and if its a gravelyn/10 .. it means its a 100/10 .. everybody simping gravelyn
I’m simping the queen and fk king alteon.
Yeah...I simp for Gravelyn...Might as well switch to evil after this
You can't access maps that are premium, not even knowing its name lol
Gravelyn is past stuff, now everyone simps for the darkon characters
@@eggseed6543 Not me tho,I still simp for Gravelyn
I remember when this game had an april fools event and the internet was blessed with Warlic and Thyton's Derp Song
i remembered this game just today after seeing a youtubers video on poptropica, i forgot the name since its been so long and after scrolling down a list of old mmorpgs i found adventure quest worlds. i could still remember the part where you have to fight the first dragon aswell as when my older siblings couldn't beat the final boss. but when i finally downloaded the launcher, and made an account, after the tutorial phase i was to be honest, very very very lost. and shortly after quit the game, deciding to do some research about where im supposed to go and things like that. thats how i found this video and i feel like the things you said about new players being kinda lost in what your supposed to do is so true lmao
At The Throne of Darkness at 26:35 the reason they talk about you being a pain is because of story reasons, the saga is about how you defeat each of them and is the entire reason they are at the meeting in the first place, they are already at the meeting AFTER you had already defeated them but it shows them in their prime before you actually do finish each section to show how they look before and after they are defeated one by one, because they account their side of the story about how you did it, but other than that I think that the points you made are completely fair and just criticisms.
I completely understand why they did it, which is why i disagree with being able to jump straight to that part of the story.
If they're going to have a story, at least make the player follow it before getting to a good bit, because showing the ending means you have no chance of failure, you know where the story will end up.
@@JoshStrifeHayes There are some parts of the game where you have to be a certain level to even join a map so I can see how they could have just applied that to this storyline as well.
@@JoshStrifeHayes you never try to farm nosd thats probably the hardest item to farm in ANY game you played. Probably
@@prvimail1422 i mean ive played a lot of games, and, people do HAVE nsod showing it is at least possible.
Its rare but its probably not the rarest thing in any game.
@@JoshStrifeHayes not rare but hardest to get, that people who have it probably use cheat cuz a LOT of people hate to farm in aqw.
For example if you are non mem and not using cheat you need to play 6 months for 10 hrs to get nosd.
Been playing for almost 11 years now and never have I ever spent any money on it nor botting and still got some of the endgame items in it. And I have to admit, it took me a decade to actually reach level 60 because I tend to feel bored and sleepy in the middle of playing and grinding my character in this game (and also getting the lightcaster class when it was first released using the free ac coins I got). Yep, this game is that boring...
I buy the occasional membership just so they don't shut the game down. Don't actually play too much
Idc if this game is bad or good but atleast it gives me happiness to it , happy memories with friends , a stranger i meet became my good friend, those Old but gold times are never be forgotten
Beyond farming for cosmetics to flex on people with in Yulgar, the overall gameplay experience leaves much to be desired even today. One thing I will give this game credit for though is the frequent updates for the new player experience. Often older areas will get refreshed both aesthetically & functionally, receiving a fresh coat of paint for the environments and updates to help clean up preexisting questlines.
Still remember this game
Not sure how it is now, but back in my day we would just beat the shit out of bosses until we were almost dead, exit the zone, re-enter, heal and repeat until done.
Having at least 1 more person in your zone was almost mandatory for most content, it was kind of a tag team system of tanking, enemies were really stupid and it barely involved any sort of strategy besides using cooldowns in the right order.
Unrelated topic, but still relevant : Artix Entertainment(AE) is a scumbag company that abandons games unfinished left and right, uses extreme pay to win in most of their games (less so in AQW, but still) and has reported cases of sexual misconduct (see Vesper) and other drama (see Beleen) related to work, I'm not even getting started on the moderators, some are assholes, some were treated unfairly and all of them are unpaid interns that get free game stuff as payment.
Artix (CEO of AE, I'm not using his real name but it's really easy to find) is the Bobby Kotick of the indie video game industry and AE is just EA spelled backwards. He hit gold in 2007-2015 with his freemium game systems, but refused to invest back into his games, leaving most an unfinished mess that got abandoned (Mechquest) or outright axed (nearly half their games), fired most artists when they complained about the lack of direction and is basically an acessory for his -PH@T BlTCÇ OF A WlF&- who is responsible for most of the drama (basically she uses her relationship to the CEO get people fired and bans everyone on forums).
That said, Artix is a millionaire anyways, not because of his games no, because he comes from wealth and has a fat inheritance to fall back into whenever he wants, don't expect any improvements in game quality, he is only milking nostalgia from the last 20 or so years.
When they didn't pursue mass ban botting to maintain minimal active accounts that made me realize that AQW is a cashgrab