Lucent Heart - GR Review
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Relationships rarely play out the way they do in video games. In real life, the fun-loving and earnest Rinoas of the world don’t spend 30 hours cracking past the withdrawn, tough-guy emotional barriers that the Squalls put up so that they can live happily ever after. No, those Rinoas are more likely to scoff, call him an asshole, turn around, and find someone else who’ll actually pay attention to them.
The sleeper hit Catherine broke the mold earlier this year, getting more into the complexities of relationships and the ugly problems that often arise within, but even that tumultuous affair could hardly be considered realistic.
The truth is, real relationships require a lot of work, and more often than not they can be rather uneventful. There are occasional romantic moments as well as drama, but there’s also a whole lot of neither in between. To put it in gamer terms, relationships require more grinding than anything else.
From that perspective, Lucent Heart may be the most accurate portrayal of relationships I’ve seen in a video game, and considering the state of the modern MMO, I’m surprised I haven’t seen it sooner. This is a game that knows its niche and doesn’t make an attempt to disguise it. MMORPGs in today’s saturated market, especially the free-to-play ones like LH, live and breathe on anything they can grasp to define their own uniqueness.
The standard MMO staples are there: levels, classes, quests, looting, dungeons, and grinding (lots of it). If those staples were all there was to Lucent Heart, then it wouldn’t be worth a look, because they’re ordinary at best and none of them are implemented in a way that makes them better than other free-to-play games. But wait (as the infomercials like to say), there’s more!
If I had to define Lucent Heart in two words, they’d be dating and dancing. Despite a smaller player base than some other MMOs, this one still feels vibrant and social. That’s due partially to the astonishing fact that I haven’t encountered a single troll or douchebag within the game’s community, but more to the design goal of fostering lasting relationships with the “soul mate” system.
In the main city of Thereall, you can find a cupid NPC that will match you up with people who meet your specified parameters, like personality type, level, and gender. Those matches become soul mates (and yes, you can have more than one). Soul mates can quest together for added perks like extra experience, and also gain access to special “lovers” emotes.
And that’s where it starts to get heavy. At the start of a relationship you only have access to a few minor emotes, like hand-holding and simple kisses. Each of those emotes you perform gives the couple 10 match points, and after you’ve earned a lot of points you eventually unlock more serious lovers emotes like, say, a French kiss.
See where the grinding comes in? The ultimate end goal of a relationship is marriage, which requires a hefty amount of gold and 10,000 match points. If you want to quantify how much affection it takes to score that guy or gal of your dreams, there you go—it takes exactly 1,000 kisses. (Note: Do not use Lucent Heart or this review as a guide for actually getting married. “We’ve kissed 1,000 times, will you marry me?” probably won’t go over so well.)
Then there’s the dancing. If you log in at any time of day and head towards the center of Thereall, you’re bound to find some people getting down. The game has a handful of built-in songs and accompanying dance routines for people to use. The “imitate” option lets you copy the dance that someone else is doing and perform it in tandem, which leads to large circles of characters dancing together at the more populated hours.
Despite how silly that sounds, it’s actually damn fun to watch and participate in. I honestly think more players spend time dancing in town than actually questing. You can also challenge other people to a dance-off with “Dance PK”, which initiates a rhythm mini-game between two-people using the arrow keys to match the steps that appear, sort of like DDR.
But the most fun thing to do by far is create your own dances. A recent patch added the ability for you to design an entire dance routine for songs that you have in mp3 format on your computer. It’s surprisingly robust, giving you over 100 dance steps to choose from. The only downside is you have to spend 2 bucks in the online store for a Dance Memory Card to save your routine, but I think that’s the best value in the store.
Check it out in action: I submit to you my very own dance routine that I made for a very special song, just for you guys. It took me about a half-hour to put the whole thing together:
And if you send the mp3 over to your friends, they can hear the same song play as they imitate your dance. This of course let me lead my own backup dancers to the Power Rangers theme. Awesome.
And that’s Lucent Heart for you. It’s an MMO that values dating and dancing over the same old MMO formula. If you’re in the target audience, which is bigger that it might seem at first glance, it’s a nice way to get your groove on for free. If you want to make your own groove, that costs extra.
Revolution report card + Make your own dances!+ Dance PK battles+/- Grindy relationships (a lot like real life)+/- Community free of trolls- Standard MMO elements are lackluster- If it’s not your demographic, you won’t find much hereMore information about Lucent Heart
Also known as: lucent,heart,lucient,hart, lucent hearts
Lucent heart - preview
The MMORPG. It is a strange beast, unites and separates, excited and indignant. Stories, that the true social implications of MMOs have since the rise of EverQuestthe gamut of lasting friendships and also real marriages to virtual funeral raids and run cases of jealousy and murder.
Range free-to-play- Lucent heart the colorful anime-style plants characters firmly in the former camp, and soft, light tones, the promotion of a community, that firm the swarm-other online games is like a beacon of humility and human decency in the sea of the elitist idiots and trolls. These friendships and marriages are not only in Lucent heartencouraged the game hinges upon them.
The biggest thing Lucent heart to differentiate from their competitors is the approach to the social elements that are the core of any MMO. LH horoscopes, which in addition to the mandatory property, you used a global chat channel, you with anyone your shields, stat bonuses to, giving parts of day to day change and encourage group with players who have bonuses that complement your own and romantic (or friendly) matchmaking.
Cupid-ish NPC you can in the city for partners that astral search based characters and gender on any number of parameters, such as level - has become, you and your match "Soulmates" in the game. Soulmates, which together party enjoy benefits such as increased experience and access to a variety of buff of bestowing lovers emotes from simple kisses too jealous slaps, something along the lines of "Woohooing" in The Sims. You can many soulmates (a bit cheapened the whole idea, isn't it?), but the only partner time, that easy to to with one at a juicy can result in in-game drama.
But this is not only a few dating SIM - it's a full-fledged MMO with all commands. Choose a class does not actually at first, only later when you have won a few stages. At this point can go with a base class such as a warrior or Mage. Then further down the road class again to modify in a specialized version. And when you are ready, (null) skill points begin with 0, you can completely to something completely different change your class later in the game.
As for dungeons, there are the regular five man matters that the custom of the developers, but are also customer-specific dungeons. Occasionally you will find special Dungeon creation gems when enemies looting, and you use the gems in tandem can a custom Dungeon with a setting, monsters, and difficulty of the draft.
When not exploring, enjoy many Lucent heart cool player in the city and socializing with others. GMs in this game are extremely vocal and active in the community, in contrast to other MMOs, where they lurk in the shadows, only popping from occasionally ban hammer on people or a factory type approved response to a bug report. LH GMs converse in the local chat channels, hang out with the player base and give prices from people at all hours of the day.
You are also dancing, which is quite amusing pastime for many a Lucent heart player. In fact, lined up a forthcoming patch, for the game expand the dance he is far beyond that all MMO emote to a level so far. You can choreographer and save a whole bunch of the own dance moves, you make character imitating the latest lady Gaga or Britney Spears video (or what you crazy kids in these days).
Lucent heart is to the download and play now available. Check it out a happy MMO to play, that really goes out of his way to make a friendly atmosphere, where players can go adventure, relax, and hang out with one of the many colleagues, soul (and get some whoopee on the page).
Lucent heart - PC - Preview
The MMORPG. It is a strange beast, unites and separates, excited and indignant. Stories, that the true social implications of MMOs have since the rise of EverQuestthe gamut of lasting friendships and also real marriages to virtual funeral raids and run cases of jealousy and murder.
Range free-to-play- Lucent heart the colorful anime-style plants characters firmly in the former camp, and soft, light tones, the promotion of a community, that firm the swarm-other online games is like a beacon of humility and human decency in the sea of the elitist idiots and trolls. These friendships and marriages are not only in Lucent heartencouraged the game hinges upon them.
The biggest thing Lucent heart to differentiate from their competitors is the approach to the social elements that are the core of any MMO. LH horoscopes, which in addition to the mandatory property, you used a global chat channel, you with anyone your shields, stat bonuses to, giving parts of day to day change and encourage group with players who have bonuses that complement your own and romantic (or friendly) matchmaking.
Cupid-ish NPC you can in the city for partners that astral search based characters and gender on any number of parameters, such as level - has become, you and your match "Soulmates" in the game. Soulmates, which together party enjoy benefits such as increased experience and access to a variety of buff of bestowing lovers emotes from simple kisses too jealous slaps, something along the lines of "Woohooing" in The Sims. You can many soulmates (a bit cheapened the whole idea, isn't it?), but the only partner time, that easy to to with one at a juicy can result in in-game drama.
But this is not only a few dating SIM - it's a full-fledged MMO with all commands. Choose a class does not actually at first, only later when you have won a few stages. At this point can go with a base class such as a warrior or Mage. Then further down the road class again to modify in a specialized version. And when you are ready, (null) skill points begin with 0, you can completely to something completely different change your class later in the game.
As for dungeons, there are the regular five man matters that the custom of the developers, but are also customer-specific dungeons. Occasionally you will find special Dungeon creation gems when enemies looting, and you use the gems in tandem can a custom Dungeon with a setting, monsters, and difficulty of the draft.
When not exploring, enjoy many Lucent heart cool player in the city and socializing with others. GMs in this game are extremely vocal and active in the community, in contrast to other MMOs, where they lurk in the shadows, only popping from occasionally ban hammer on people or a factory type approved response to a bug report. LH GMs converse in the local chat channels, hang out with the player base and give prices from people at all hours of the day.
You are also dancing, which is quite amusing pastime for many a Lucent heart player. In fact, lined up a forthcoming patch, for the game expand the dance he is far beyond that all MMO emote to a level so far. You can choreographer and save a whole bunch of the own dance moves, you make character imitating the latest lady Gaga or Britney Spears video (or what you crazy kids in these days).
Lucent heart is to the download and play now available. Check it out a happy MMO to play, that really goes out of his way to make a friendly atmosphere, where players can go adventure, relax, and hang out with one of the many colleagues, soul (and get some whoopee on the page).
