Aion

Spiritmaster Class Information and Video

Kody — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:00:28 GMT

Before the holidays we released a few class videos for NCsofts upcoming fantasy MMO, Aion: Tower of Eternity. Aion uses the CryEngine, previously found in CryTek's hit game FarCry, to deliver breathtaking visuals. Today NCsoft has released a bit more information on one of the advanced classes in the game -- the Spiritmaster. With that in mind, we also have the video available that shows off the Spiritmaster in action, so read on for the word direct from NCsoft, and then enjoy the video!

Of all the character classes available to play as in Aion: The Tower of Eternity, NCsoft’s amazing new online RPG, the mysterious Spiritmaster is one of the most intriguing. Using powerful magics derived from the forces of nature, Spiritmasters will find themselves an integral part of any adventuring party due to their ability to summon and control fierce creatures based on the four cardinal elements of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water.

The Spiritmaster’s chief responsibility is to summon and control elemental spirits, powerful forms of nature incarnate. This is done through a series of specific commands, such as attack and defend, that can be given via a simple onscreen control system. Other, more specialised and yet to be revealed commands exist beyond these basic controls, with each form of elemental spirit having its own unique skills and abilities.

The challenge for the Spiritmaster comes from recognising which element to call on at any given time. Earth spirits are strong in defence abilities, Fire spirits specialise in ranged attacks, Water spirits concentrate on healing powers while Wind spirits are best utilised in melee attacks. While it’s not possible to control different types of elemental spirits at the same time – Spiritmaster’s cannot control both an Earth and Water spirit simultaneously, for instance – by summoning the correct spirit for the situation in hand, Spiritmasters have the power to turn even the most desperate battles into a complete rout of the enemy. A situation that could prove immensely useful when adventurers come up against some of the more powerful rogue elemental spirits that wander Aion’s immense and incredibly detailed game world.

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is set to begin closed Beta-testing early 2008 and will release later in the year.

Spirit Master Class Preview

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Ranger Preview Video

Kody — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:37:51 GMT

This is the third in our series of class preview video releases. Today's video features the Ranger class in Aion. You can check out the other videos released by clicking on the links below.

Ranger Class Preview

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Assassin Preview Video
Gladiator Preview Video

Gladiator Preview Video

Kody — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:08:19 GMT

Going along with yesterday's Assassin preview, we have the second in our series of class preview videos for Aion: Tower of Eternity for you today. This one is of the Gladiator -- an advanced class obtained by selecting the Warrior at character creation. The Gladiator is the branch of the class focused on dealing damage.

Gladiator Class Preview

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Assassin Preview Video

Kody — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:31:09 GMT

As promised in this news article, we have for you the first in a series of videos that show off the advanced classes from Aion: Tower of Eternity, NCsoft's next major MMORPG.

This clip is of the Assassin class, a branch of the Scout class that relies on stealthy attacks that do deadly damage.

Assassin Class Preview

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Keep an eye out over the next few days as we release the rest of the videos in this series!

Advanced Class System Info

Kody — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:20:00 GMT

This morning NCsoft released information on the advanced character class system in their upcoming fantasy MMO, Aion: Tower of Eternity.

Players will begin their lives in Aion by choosing one of four base professions at character creation. Higher-level players will then be able to choose advanced classes, based on the profession chosen at the start of the game. Two advanced classes will be available to each of the base professions, bringing the number of possible advanced classes in the game to eight.

The base profession choices follow the typical trend with fantasy MMOs, presenting the player with four choices -- Warrior, Scout, Mage or Priest -- when players start their journey through Atreia.

Later on in the game, the Warrior class can branch out into two possible classes -- the Gladiator for those who enjoy dishing out devastating damage, and the Templar for players to prefer a more defensive, party-protecting role.

Scouts, on the other hand, are all about damage. The two advanced choices are either Ranger -- for those who want to stay back and launch volleys of ranged attacks -- or the Assassin, a class which hides in the shadows, striking at opportune times.

Mages at their core are masters of the four elements in the game, and their advanced class choice will determine just how they put that mastery to use. The Spiritmaster, for example, will be able to channel their power into summoning elemental spirits, while the Sorcerer focuses their knowledge on unleashing magical bolts and missiles of elemental energy.

The Priest is typical with other games; the class is the game's healer, though they are also "spiritual warriors," according to NCsoft -- meaning the class can also get in toe-to-toe with creatures and pack a punch in melee combat. Their advanced choices are very similar to the Warrior -- the choice can drastically change the player's experience. For those looking to fill a support role, the Cleric is the perfect choice -- a specialist in healing and protection magic. The second choice is for those who wish to continue in their melee ways of the Priest; the Chanter is a pious warrior capable of healing, as well as using ability-boosting powers.

Keep an eye out over the next few days as we'll be releasing videos for each of the advanced classes. For now, check out the cool artwork poster below!

17 New Screenshots Released

Kody — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:00:08 GMT

NCsoft Europe released 17 brand new screenshots of their gorgeous new MMO -- Aion: Tower of Eternity.

The game is set in a high-fantasy world that introduces player flight and possible in-flight combat as general gameplay mechanics. Aion's modified Crytek Engine -- one of the game industries most advanced video game engines -- brings all of Aion's splendor to life in stunning beauty.

Take a look for yourself below, or head over to our Aion image gallery to see all of the game's images released thus far!

New screenshots and videos - direct from Closed Beta

Kody — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 22:42:19 GMT

The closed beta for Aion has been underway for two weeks now. As players in Korea help hammer away at the game's mechanics, NCsoft released nine new screenshots - four of Asmodae and five from the closed beta test - as well as two new videos direct from the beta. You can check all of them out below!

We'll start off with the screenshots of Asmodae-

Now then, on to the shots from the closed beta test in Korea-

Finally, two videos directly from the closed beta test. The quality isn't the best, but you can still see the detail Aion's developers are giving the world and the game's character models.

Aion - Korean Closed Beta

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Aion - Korean Closed Beta

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Evolution Videos of Earth, Fire and Water Elementals

Kody — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:15:49 GMT

Our friends over at NCSoft have sent us three videos this morning. A few months ago the fire elemental was unveiled, showing an attention to detail by NCSoft's team working on Aion to ensure that higher level and more challenging fire elementals don't look generic like the ones you'll come across in your earlier travels.

Now we have videos to show you that very elemental evolving, as well as earth and water elementals. Take a look, and be sure to click through on the link below each video to rate them!

Aion Earth Elemental Evolution

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Aion Fire Elemental Evolution

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Aion Water Elemental Evolution

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Extensive Aion Gameplay Video and Presentation

Nimloth — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:20:43 GMT

During our time at Games Convention in Leipzig, the guys over at NCSoft invited us to take place in one of the first english speaking demonstrations for their upcoming game Aion. The game, which I summed up textually in this article, looks amazing. Words really can't do this game justice for how beautiful it is visually! This video is a must see, and it is embedded below:

GC2007: Aion Presentation and Gameplay

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My thoughts are, what do you all think of airborne combat like that? For PvP it certainly adds a whole new layer of awareness required by the player, as well as more planning in what abilities to use where.

Share your thoughts with us!

12 New Aion Images Added!

Kody — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:15:31 GMT

NCSoft released more images of Aion today on day 3 of the Leipzig Games Convention; 7 Screenshots and 5 pieces of Concept Art are in this collection of images. You can see them below by clicking the thumbnails, or by visiting our Games Convention Images section.

Aion Screenshots

Aion Concept Art

10 New Aion Images Added

Kody — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:35:10 GMT

Games Convention is moving full steam ahead, and with that we've been given 10 new images for NCSoft's upcoming game - Aion - to share with everyone. The images include 5 in-game screenshots which show off some of the environments you'll come across, as well as 5 pieces of concept art that show off crafting tools, areas, and a creature.

You can check them out by visiting our Leipzig Games Convention Images section or by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Screenshots

Concept Art

Some of the pieces of Concept Art also have descriptions that tell what each section of the image is.

Be sure to keep an eye out on our Leipzig Games Convention Portal for more info on Aion and other games being shown off at the convention!

GC2007: In-depth Aion Overview and Impressions

Nimloth — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:25:23 GMT

GC2007 - Aion Demo and Q/A

We were met by the team from NCSoft Europe at their booth, ready to present Aion to us in all its splendor and glory. Paired up with various other press representatives we began the presentation with an in-game walkthrough of the starting zones and aspects of the game.

One of the first things to notice was that the music, created by Ryo Kunihiko, really supplemented the game well and made the ambient feel of an already visually stunning game that much better. The first area we were presented was Azul, the starting region for the Elyos faction. You start out as with a basic class and embark on your journey to become a "Daeva", a being of great divine power.

The starting area does well to fill you in on how combat and movement in the game pans out as you journey through a forest looking for an old man who will help you recover your lost memories.

The quest system that is guiding you through the forest is designed in a fashion where you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of time reading all the quest text in order to figure out what you need to do. Aion's quest system makes good use of the cut-scene technology to point out what is going on and what you need to do. While the current game only had Korean speech and text for the cut-scenes and quests, the game will have a fully translated English version in place.

Once you get to the old man, he takes you into a "flashback" from before you lost your memory, allowing you to play out the history of what happened before you lost yourself. The way this is done is by teleporting you into an instance of sorts which the designers make good use of in order to elaborate to you that storyline in the game without making you vulnerable to other real-time situations such as PKers and the likes. It is important to note that about 90% of Aion takes place in non instanced mode, though major aspects of the storyline are designed in instances to allow you the freedom to put as much time as you need into delving into the lore and story behind your character.

At the end of your flashback in the "Abyss", the area between the two different "continents" of the World Atreia, you are shown to be taking on a much stronger-than-you "Balaur" boss -- resulting in a blow to your head to the proportions of causing long term memory loss.

This area is all rounded up by the old man appearing in your flash back where you may choose your destiny, so to speak, by picking your class/profession before you may actually engage in the rest of the game.

After picking your class you are then transported into the Sanctum, the grand city of the Elyos where divine and powerful being surround you. The city itself is beautiful, and houses all that you would expect in a larger city in a MMO, ranging from brokers to trade skill vendors to combat training areas. You go to visit the rulers of the place and are officially brought into the ranks of divine immortal beings as you begin expanding on your character's abilities. We were told that in the city you will be able to set up your own trader to sell and buy items and such while also having a centralized auction house setup. How these two variants pan out together remains to be seen.

At level 10 you find out that you really are a special race in the game, and not just a human with enhanced abilities when you gain your wings for the first time. Epically displayed through the cut-scenes combined with Ryo's music, this scene will definitely leave an impression on anyone who embarks on the journey towards level 50, Aion's max level.

Flight in Aion is not something you can do constantly. When you spread your wings and enter your flight for the first time you will notice that there is an energy bar that is slowly depleting. When the energy runs out, you will lose your wings and - if you are still air borne - fall to the ground, possibly inflicting great damage to your character's life based on how high above the ground you are when you fall. The idea behind limiting your flight, as we were explained, is to keep flight and air borne gameplay epic and interesting as well as something that you use tactically in combat.

This brings us to the next point of air-borne gameplay. While in the air, the set of abilities and attacks you may use while flying differs greatly from those that you may use on the ground. We were informed that due to the limited time in the air, some of your attacks are more powerful while flying than your equivalent set of attacks while on the ground, making for great tactical use of air-borne combat -- especially in PvP situations.

The combat system of Aion is fast paced and uses a combination of "Skill-chains" as well as pro-active/re-active abilities. What this means is that attacks are not only directional (behind, from the side, frontal) but a parry or dodge or getting hit with certain abilities will "unlock" the use of your re-active abilities. The idea behind this ensures that you are never just mashing the same buttons over and over again, and allows for flexible and enticing gameplay.

The last aspect I will touch in this overview of the game is the item customization system. How many times have you had an awesome looking level 40 item be replaced by a ridiculously bad looking level 50 item? Well, Aion does away with that in a unique and very interesting way. The game basically allows you to combine items in a manner where you may keep the graphic from one item and the stats from another so that you truly may make your character unique and personal while still benefiting from upgraded item stats.

The bottom line, for now, is that I was severely impressed by the gameplay, its graphics and ambience as well as the concepts for the game mechanics that are being implemented. Later today, I will be posting some Questions and Answers that will further elaborate on some of the very interesting aspects of the game such as visible PvP character ranks and airborne combat.

Until then though, feel free to visit both our Aion Mini-portal as well as the Aion screenshot gallery from Games Convention 2007!

Several New Aion Images Now Available

Kody — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:13:07 GMT

There is a flurry of Aion information going around this morning as Games Convention kicked off with press day. We've received a batch of new images of the game - both screenshots and concept art of a new race and the water spirit. You can check them out below, but be sure to visit our Aion Image section to see all of the images we have on the game.

It's visually impressive and a very unique design style, so be sure to take a look, and of course keep an eye out on our Leipzig Games Convention portal as we'll no doubt have much more information on Aion over the next few days.

Aion Screenshots

Water Spirit Concept Art

Shugo Race Concept Art

The Fire Elemental

Kody — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:29:02 GMT

The official Aion website had some additional lore added today. This lore takes a look at the Fire Elemental, its background, and how it progresses through various tiers, improving in looks and power.