Publishers: OutSpark

Type: MMORPG

Themes: fantasy, manga, rpg

Status: Final

Costs: Free to Play

Page: Fiesta Online game

Player's rating:

MMORPG1.com's rating:

MMORPG1.com reviews:

On 24 Feb, 2011

Pros: Good community, easy to understand

Cons: Limited classes, not everyone’s style

Our Rating: (3/5)

Outspark’s free-to-play fantasy MMORPG Fiesta Online has a quirky, cartoonish charm that you’ll either love or hate instantly. With its bright candy-colored world, adorable mounts, and cute characters, Fiesta feels young. If you’re an old-school gamer, you might feel a little like an adult at a boy-band concert–it isn’t bad, but you’re clearly not the target audience.

Character Creation and Classes

If you’re looking for a game that doesn’t clutter up its character creation process with all those pesky choices, Fiesta Online is for you. With only four starting classes and a few distinguishing features to select for your character, you’ll be done with character creation in no time.

Your four initial class choices are the archetypes of fantasy games since their inception: mage, cleric, fighter, and archer. While so few options feels limiting at first, it does make gameplay simple to understand. These four classes are only the training wheels you’ll wear until you reach higher levels and can specialize, so although the early game offers little in the way of class variety, mid-game and end-game specialization options open up more possibilities.

Graphics

Give Outspark credit where it’s due: the colorful anime-inspired artwork throughout Fiesta Online is a bold departure from the usual World of Warcraft clones. Whether the ridiculously cute look of the game is an asset or a nightmare depends completely on your taste in art. If you appreciate cel-shading and mercilessly adorable characters, you’ll like the look of Fiesta. If you prefer a more natural look to your game environment, you might find all the candy colors and slick textures a drawback.

Whether you love it or hate it, the relentlessly cheerful art in Fiesta Online is kind to older computers. From this standpoint, polished but simple graphics are preferable to a naturalistic style that makes your computer hiccup or choke trying to render all those spell effects during a raid. There’s also a certain appeal to bashing the cherubic face of a particularly precious opponent in PVP; thanks to smooth, lagless combat, you’ll be able to watch it happen in real time.

Grindfest Lovers, Rejoice

Another indication that Fiesta’s aiming young is the experience grind. Killing hundreds of the same monster for tiny experience gains becomes less entertaining the farther you get from counting your age in single digits. Your character progresses in halting steps, not in leaps; you get only one skill point per level, so growth happens only in small increments. Compared to other MMORPGs, Fiesta Online has a scanty quest system; most of your experience will come from good old-fashioned monster mashing. It’s possible to speed things up, but that requires a trip to the cash shop.

Young players just trying out their first MMORPG will enjoy the simple, intuitive combat system. How long they’ll enjoy it depends on how easily they grow bored.

Final Verdict

For all its flaws, Fiesta Online is a better than average free-to-play MMORPG. A thriving and friendly community helps, as does the gentle learning curve. If you enjoy anime-style cel-shaded graphics, you’ll enjoy the stylized look of this game. You may not be the target audience for that boy band, but that doesn’t make them bad singers. For being a welcoming game for younger gamers, Fiesta Online gets a 3 out of 5.