Main

FlyFF is a free to play MMORPG taking place in the world of Madrigal. The game has a very cartoony feeling to it, but not enough so that it diminishes the quality of the game. While the game is supposedly designed for players of ages 13 - 25, there are numerous players who are older (and younger) playing this game.

Character Creation

The options available to your character at the beginning of the game are not the best; you can only change your Gender, Hairstyle, and Face (which is basically your eye color and shape of your mouth). You can later edit your hairstyle, or features for a fee of in game currency (penya) at a shop. There are also several hairstyles and other features that can be bought using real money.

While this will satisfy average players, the players who are more obsessive about customizing their character will not be content.

Gameplay

Leveling in the game is quick compared to others. You will have plenty of characters to party up with and work together to fight monsters. The game keeps most people interested in leveling, as you get skill points and stat points every level, as well as new skills at a nice rate. After hitting your second job (see below), the game starts slowing down, as there is no new class advancement until you reach the maximum level of 120.

 All monsters drop some items when you kill them, as long as you pick those items up, you should be able to afford your basic equipment. As you level up, you may find some rare items that you can sell for good amounts of penya to afford better items. On a side note, FLyFF commonly holds events that affect the drop rate/items dropped from monsters, so keep your eyes open for when these occur.

Economics

I was impressed by the amount of ways money can be made in FlyFF. While money can be difficult to earn in the very beginning of the game, it becomes easier as you level up. Normal monsters will drop an assortment of items, and can occasionally drop a rare item that can be sold to other players for good amounts of money. There are also monsters called "Giants", which are essentially bigger, tougher, and meaner versions of their normal counterparts. These giants are very difficult to kill, but when killed, they tend to drop uncommon items, and there are some items that can only be obtained by killing giants. "Giant Hunting" (as it is called) is dangerous, but can be very rewarding, don't go alone unless you want to die.

While the game is free, I would highly suggest anyone who plans to become a hardcore player should bring their wallet. While you don't need excessive amounts, Golden Potatoes (the currency obtained by spending real money) will extend the possibilities of your character a lot further. These Golden Potatoes (commonly referred to as Potatoes or Gpots) can be used to buy items from the Premium Shop, or sold to other players for very high amounts of penya. A casual gamer will be able to enjoy the game without spending money.

Game Features

FlyFF has many things to do, the most obvious of which would be flying!

FLyFF has an assortment of brooms and boards that can be purchased using penya, and will fill the basic need for most players. Wings, bikes, and other flying machines can be bought using Golden Potatoes, or bought from other players using penya. The flying system works well, and allows you to travel quickly across the land of Madrigal!

When starting the game, all players will begin as the same class, a vagrant. Once you reach level fifteen, you can choose your first class (The choices being Mage, Assist, Mercanary, and Acrobat), and a second more advance class at level 60.

If a player reaches the maximum level of 120, that player may complete a quest than enables them the "Master Status". Master status resets your character back to level sixty, and you will receive 50% EXP while leveling. Wait, why would that be a good thing!? Well, for starters, a master of any level can wield any weapon and wear any armor, regardless of level (a level sixty character could wear level 120 armor, and use level 120 weapons). Also, while leveling as a master, you will receive more stat points per level than normal, making you stronger than a normal character of your class. A large colored M (color depends on your level) will appear beside your character while you are a master.

There are also housing systems, marriage systems, and various other systems that can be enjoyed.

Story

Story is where FlyFF begins lacking. While there is a story to the world of Madrigal, the story is slowly put together via various quests (see below), and never quite fully explained besides on the FlyFF wikipedia. The story also seems a bit serious, not fitting extremely well with the cartoonish graphics. Still, once you know the story, it isn't so bad, finding it is the hard part.

Quests

Another area where FlyFF lacks, Quests. While there are ALOT of them, they are all nearly the same thing: "Bring me XX of so and so and I'll give you XXX EXP!" Most of the items needed for a quest are dropped from monsters, making the quests seem a bit dull. There are several good chain quests that differentiate from this pattern, but they are few and in-between.

One of the things that really bug me with FlyFF's quest is that you are not informed when a new quest is available. Quests (when available) will show by an NPC having a large "!" above his/her head. While the FlyFF wikipedia lists where quests are located and at what level, it does not show this in game.

Community

There is a large community in FlyFF, despite the numerous servers in the game. You can expect to see many players in-game, and many features that will allow you to interact with each other. Parties, Guilds, Messengers, Shouts, and other features exist for this purpose.

While the community - for the most part - is friendly, there are many in the game that are VERY unfriendly. Regardless, you can still make friends quite easily, just be open, and try and initiate a conversation with someone around you as you mercilessly beat the brains out of a monster.

Performance

The servers of FlyFF perform quite well, allowing you to easily work your way through the game. There are only a few cases where the game lags, one of which being when you using a Blinkwing (teleport item), your computer will lag a little while you teleport to the new town. Another being when there is a LARGE population of people in one place.

You have the options to adjust brightness, shadows, and other points, use them well! You can reduce the strain on your computer should you edit these, and enjoy a smoother gaming experience.

Game Support

Direct support from an employee is a bit lacking when it comes to basic game issues. It can take days for a response to come; I once had to wait an entire seven days for a response. When it comes to Billing support, you can get an answer relatively quickly, but it still takes a long time compared to other games.

Side Review - FlyFF Forums

I have to say that the FlyFF forums are absolutely wonderful! There are usually a nice amount of people on it during the day, most of which are more than happy to help you out and talk with you! The forum has dozens of sections to post in, and several moderators to keep the forum in order. The moderators also tend to help those who are asking question via the forums, and also socialize with the players. I highly suggest trying the forums out!

User Friendliness

There is nothing about this that I can complain about, but also nothing being extraordinary. You have your basic hotkey bars (nine of them to be exact), you have a heads up display, showing Health, MP, FP, and EXP. Clicking the heads up display changes the way the amounts are shown (plain numbers, ratios, and nothing besides the colors). The heads up display, and your map can be moved anywhere on the screen.

The chat box is nice, giving you clear options on how to talk normally, shout, party chat, etc. The filter gave me a lot of trouble for quite a while, as it is very confusing to configure. The chat box can be expanded, shrunk, and moved across the screen.

Graphics

The graphics are slightly cartoony for characters, but the world itself was rendered nicely. Glowing and magic effects look fantastic. The scenery tends to be a little bland detail wise, but the world itself is quite nice. You have everything in the world of Madrigal from swamps, plains, deserts, forests, machine cities, mountains, and even volcanoes!

Overall, FlyFF is a very enjoyable game for players of all ages. I suggest any player who is into RPG/Fantasy games give FlyFF a shot. Happy Flying!

Scores