Lunia Chronicles is a free to play MMORPG title from OG Planet.  It is supposed to be a time of peace on the Rodesia Continent after years of war were ended by an agreement between the Gods.  Humans have returned to their farming, the Elves remain in harmony with nature and the Orcs divide their time between hunting and combat training - clearly they do not expect the time of peace to last and with good reason!  Dark forces are at work in Rodesia Continent and, as is so often the case, it’s down to some fearless teens to tackle them.

Lunia Chronicles is currently made up of 6 episodes which tell of the current events in Rodesia Continent.  Each episode is broken into ten stages and whilst some are unlocked in batches and therefore can be skipped or played out of sequence, I’d recommend playing them sequentially in order to get the most out of the story.  The stages begin with a short cinematic outlining the progress of the story and what is to be done next.  You then need to work through the stage completing various tasks such as killing enemies, protecting NPCs and freeing prisoners.  At times there will be NPCs present at the start of a stage who can give you additional quests to complete.  Finally each stage concludes with a boss attack.  You receive a score for each stage based on various factors included time taken and style.  You also receive rewards for completing each stage and get to choose between two chests for your prize, which could be money or an item such as armour.  If you play through a stage that’s intended for a level lower than yours, you’ll receive a penalty and this will also affect the quality of your reward.

Lunia Chronicles also offers a number of other avenues to explore, including daily quests and other diversions such as fishing, betting and raising pets.  Of course, as with any MMORPG there is a social aspect: you can trade with other players, fight other players in the PvP Arena and form guilds to help you and other players along.  Equally, however, you can go it alone and not find your progress too hampered by the lack of a party to support you. 

As stated earlier Lunia Chronicles is a free to play MMORGP.  However, you can buy ‘Astros’, which are then used to pay for in game extras.  £5 gets you 135 Astros, which can then be used to buy various things, including character cards to unlock additional options when you create new characters.  You can also buy pets and also ‘random boxes’ which will (hopefully) hold an interesting and useful item for you.  Items range considerably in price: a ‘wonder box’ with a mystery item will set you back just 10 Astros, whilst a new character card could see you forking out 178 Astros.  These add-ons are entirely optional, however, so – unlike a fee-based MMORPG – you are not committed to paying a certain amount out each month.

In terms of the gameplay Lunia Chronicles does have a fair amount to offer.  The stages see you facing different enemies and challenges in ever changing landscapes and the introductory videos are always enjoyable.  Like many games of its type, it can become a little repetitive after a while but, as I said earlier, there are a multitude of distractions if you want to leave the main story alone for a time.  I found the stages relatively straightforward to complete alone in the beginning, though they do get progressively harder.  It’s possible that some long-time MMORGP fans may find this a little easy at times; however, certainly for beginners, younger players and people with a more casual approach to MMORPGs I think this has a considerable amount to offer.  The landscapes are well designed and the whole game in general has a very charming anime feel.  The range of enemies from tongue-in-cheek vicious snowmen to giant slimes keeps it varied, as do the characters who manage – for the most part – to keep their teenage angst and sarcasm in check whilst going about the business of saving their world.

Lunia Chroncles is not without its (very minor) faults.  Loading times could be long sometimes and occasionally I struggled to connect to a server.  However, these occurrences were few and far between and a small price to pay when you consider everything on offer (and I’ve played plenty of fee-based MMORPGs that suffered similar problems).  All told, Lunia Chronicles provides proof that something doesn’t have to cost you the earth to be enjoyable.  Whilst it may lack the epic feel of some other longstanding fee-based MMORPGs, it instead offers something that is accessible to all, highly enjoyable and – doubtless ! – potentially addictive!

**Review by Donna Haw**