Wakfu - Closed Beta Impressions

After several years filled with delays, Ankama is finally ready to give the rest of the world a little taste of their latest foray into the world of Twelve with Wakfu. Wakfu is a MMO Tactical Roleplaying game that features a beautiful cartoon world that is shaped by the actions of every player. As a sequel to their previous MMO Tactical RPG: Dofus, Both titles have become very popular (especially in France) with tons of apparel, toys and even a full blown animated series (which just started its 2nd season recently)! Although I played the original Dofus way back during its first open beta test and didn't think much of it, I managed to snag up a closed beta key for this one, so I gave the game a quick try.

Play Log - Wakfu 2/27/2011

Played a bit more Wakfu today.I went down to the Gobball farm to learn a bit more about the ecosystem. The farm is run by an old man named Wolfram and his two sons: Wolfgang and Mimi. They teach players on how to be trappers that effect and shape the world.

Whenever the farm had too many or too few gobballs around, Mimi (who supports acts of Wakfu) would come out and plant seeds everywhere to spawn more of them, while Wolfgang (who supports Statis) would walk around and eat every gobball in his sight. Personally, I thought it was more fun watching Wolfgang eat everything with his huge fork and knife, unlike Mimi walking around planting stuff with his huge bug eyes and flower basket.

The more I played Wakfu, the more I fall in love with the game’s buttery smooth animations that resembles the animated series quite nicely, all of which makes me feel like I im a living cartoon.

I'm enjoying myself a lot playing around and I barely left the starting town! I'm also reading into the story a bit more and I'm wondering if I should check out Dofus to learn a bit more of the game's lore.

Play Log - Wakfu - 2/26/2011

I managed to snag a closed beta key for Anakama's Wakfu this week. I usually never play tactical RPGs, but I liked what I was seeing from the overall presentation which tempted me to play. I was having a bit of trouble logging in, but I finally got going.

I decided to go with a male Eniripsa, which is a spell casting support class. Now I usually never play as a healer or a support class with any kind of MMO, but I was so draw to the design of the Eniripsas that I decided to give them a whirl. I also usually don't play tactics RPGs at all, but the pacing of this one has got me hooked. Most tactics RPGs will have players taking their time to plan out every move, but Wakfa awards players for quick decisions and fast actions with stat bonuses.

Although it's currently only in closed beta and the community is bound to get a little rough with open beta hits, everyone playing right now seems pretty chill. I ran into a couple of players and partied around for a bit, just before visiting a training dojo filled with Pandwas (a class/race we can't play as right now, which sucks.)

I only played around for a couple of hours, but I'm liking it so far. I'll try to post more screenshots as a play.