What’s it with girls and MMORPGs? … Elke needed a break from Final Fantasy XI and wanted to try something new. Nothing offline though, since that’s so 2005. No no, online was the only option.

We decided to get RF Online, even though reviews on it weren’t all that. But until now it’s been a 45 euro well spent.

She has been at it for 2 days now, non-stop. The leveling seems pretty quick and being level 14 she still got about 36 to go. Or so we think, since finding information on the game isn’t very easy. As with most Asian MMORPGs, nobody’s holding your hand, even through the first levels. There is a small tutorial explaining the basic movements and spells, but it ends there. The Internet isn’t any help either, since RF Online lacks big community sites like those of World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI. The game is new in the West though, so maybe we’ll just have to be a little patient.

What we know for sure, is that there’s 3 factions, all fighting for the same planet. You choose one of these factions and will end up fighting the others. We’re not at the point yet where we’ve seen any real PvP action, but as we understand, it should be in the likes of WoW. There are great battles between the 3 factions you can participate in as well, being held every 8 hours. Winning that battle will hold advantages for your faction during that following 8 hours.

As you can see, we’re completely noob here. Elke is still beating up mobs and enjoying it, so that can only mean a good thing.

The soundtrack is amazing though, sounding as if it came straight out of some big-budget Hollywood movie. Character design is wonderfully done as well, Asian-style and a joy to look at. It’s a nice change from the American-cartoon-like style of World of Warcraft, where creating your own character came down to picking the least ugly. The same goes for the armor and weapon design, looking great even at low level.

If you’d ever plan on joining, come to the Wind server. And don’t pick the Cora faction, so Aislinn can come and kick your ass ^^.