Wakfu’s not a new game, but it certainly is new to Asia. Made and maintained by French company Ankama, Wakfu is a continuation of its strategy MMORPG Dofus, and spans into anime, manga, and even board games. However its focus is, of course, the MMORPG itself, and this is what Ankama Asia has brought to the region.
This tactical turn-based MMORPG is definitely something new for Asian gamers. It’s slower, requires more strategy, and the mechanics make it tougher to grind with. Still, its foreign gameplay was enough to make me want to take it for a spin.
I took my character as far as level 10 before sitting down to give you my verdict (which is positive, by the way). Wakfu is a slightly clunky game with well thought out combat, intricate and impossibly deep gameplay and game systems, and it can probably rival World of Warcraft as a timesink. The Tillers have nothin’ on this game.
The game kicks off with you being able to only select one class out of a total of sixteen. This unspecified class — the Disembodied — is meant to get you through the comprehensive tutorial, and you get to specialize later on, of course.
Since this Disembodied class is basically a soul with no body, the tutorial takes place in the equivalent of heaven for the World of Twelve. You go through a brief combat tutorial before being teleported to the main area.
You’re first taught about harvesting and planting seeds before getting directed to a nearby temple. Here’s where I felt the game stumbled a bit. The minimap is fixed at a too-small size, and the full map is not transparent. There is a marker around your character pointing you in the direction of your next quest, but this is not obvious enough, and for the longest time I thought it was a status buff. In short, I had a bit of trouble finding my way to the next point in the beginner quest line.
Interactive elements in Wakfu are also not highlighted until moused over. It’s very easy to spot mobs – they’re moving, after all – but difficult to figure out whether that really is the door you’re looking for. Of course, the tutorial was more helpful than the main game and provided a bouncing blue arrow. Otherwise, if you’re still lost, a quick look at the main map will fix things, and then you’re off on your next quest line.
The basics of combat and spellcasting are taught to you in Heaven as well. Once you defeat all the panda masters in charge of your basic training, you’re tasked with your first dungeon. This is a dungeon full of wascally wabbits that you must clear, and it awards you with enough Soul Shards to be reborn and delivered into the world down below.
Once you’ve cleared the rabbit-filled stage that passes for heaven in the World of Twelve, you’re thrust into a vibrant world. It was nighttime when I visited the city of Astrub, and I was granted exclusive access to the APAC server, so my first foray into the actual World of Twelve made for a lonely one, but the world still seemed very alive
Nearly everything in the first city you encounter can be interacted with. You can harvest things from animals — it was a bit weird harvesting seeds from a cat — and you can cull or plant weeds and crops. Recipes can be cooked, kama (the game’s currency) can be minted, and seas can be traversed.
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