Continent of the Ninth Seal review: preventing an awakening, one combo at a time

Continent of the Ninth Seal (more popularly known as C9) is a free-to-play action MMORPG developed by Korean studio Cloud 9 and published by Webzen. It presents the player not only with a world of unique characters and a variety of classes and skills, but also an impressive combat system coupled with superb graphics.

Keeping up with the combat system

C9 is a fast-paced action MMORPG that requires proper understanding of game mechanics and character control using the mouse and keyboard. Aside from running and walking, your character can also jump, dash, roll, dodge, and block depending on the character class. This provides for a wider range of possibilities and different kinds of play style with each class. Characters can also execute various attack combinations or combos, which can continue for long chains if timed properly. What I like about this kind of system is that strength is not entirely reliant on the skill build and equipment of the character. With proper grasp of mechanics, a highly-skilled player with a lower-level character can defeat an average-skilled player with a higher-level character.

C9 is not an open-world game, meaning players are not able to go into fields, dungeons, and other in-game places freely by just walking across maps. They have to access portals to get into dungeons. One of the things I usually like about dungeon-based games is that I don’t have to deal with a big crowd of other players in the same map. However, in case you’re the kind of person who enjoys such interaction, C9 offers a dungeon intrusion feature.

If you enter a dungeon and leave the intrusion option on, other players can enter the dungeon to fight you or whoever you are with, all as the monsters are trying to kill every character in the area. I believe this is perfect for people who tend to get bored by solely fighting against monsters. It also grants you bragging rights if you end up killing whoever intrudes your dungeon. Alternatively, there’s also an option for friendly players to get into your dungeon to help you out. This is great if none of your friends are online and you need to clear a certain dungeon, which is too difficult for you to finish alone.

The environment also plays a significant role in C9. In certain dungeons and PvP maps, characters may suffer death or defeat by falling off cliffs and ledges or getting hit by random spikes and flames. This gives a certain level of balance when it comes to maneuverability.

Choose your character, choose your path