This month for MMO Co-Opportunities we’ll be spotlighting Wild Buster: Heroes of Titan, the MMO/ARPG hybrid from Nuriworks.
Wild Buster is currently in Early Access on Steam with a few different pricing plans. The core game is a buy-to-play (once purchased, you won’t have to pay a subscription fee) for $25. Nuriworks offers a few different options of DLC that you can purchase in bundles with the core game or separately at a later date. These pieces of DLC give your account more character slots, character class unlocks (otherwise unlockable in-game), more inventory space, more bank space, mounts, and pets. I have seen absolutely no microtransactions or microtransaction-like items (e.g. XP buffs) as of yet in the game.
Upon starting up the game, players will pick a character from one of two factions: Guardian or Abandon. Lorewise, these two factions don’t really get along, but sometimes have to work together. Mechanically, this means that characters from different factions can group together for PVE, but they will often have to talk to different NPCs for quest progression and vendoring. Each class has a distinct set of skills and a unique character model (like some of the older ARPGs, the class is tied to a specific model, so you can’t customize gender or facial features). Abandon classes appear to be more focused on a specific role while Guardians seem to be a little more varied.
In Wild Buster, players will pick up quests in a hub area (usually one that resembles a town) that prompt them to enter a dungeon via a portal. They can either try to find a group or enter with their current party (even if their party only consists of one person). The dungeons are generally 5-10 minute affairs that follow a similar structure. Players run through a series of rooms and hallways, killing a bunch of trash mobs until they reach a mini-boss. Upon killing him, a couple of NPCs will show up that give players the opportunity to vendor loot and pay some in-game currency to heal up. There will be another portal behind these NPCs that leads to the dungeon’s boss. Once the boss is killed, players will automatically get a chest that will either contain a piece of gear or a box of tokens. These tokens can later be spent on chests that contain a variety of items (a bit like gambling). You can then leave the dungeon, returning you to the hub, to turn in your quest(s). Upon completing a dungeon and its quests, players will then be prompted to fly to another hub. Rinse and repeat.