About Grand Piece Online:
Bit of a cash shop where one can pay for advantages. Usually in the form of special gear, character advancement items (skill tree items, job advancements), and restorative things like potions. Realistically, the absolute best gear and all has to be played and worked for, and it’s not so overwhelming a boost that these players automatically are going to beat you, but you will find that throwing some money in here and there can notably give you a leg-up over F2P folks. Not the worst, but certainly something to watch for. A bit of an overall mixed community if you’re coming in. I’ve yet to meet anyone particularly unpleasant, back in the old days or now, but it’s a mixed bag. On top of that, there is a bit of an abundance of bots spamming the chat. To the dev team’s credit, they do regularly tend to this and address malicious nonsense like exploiting or cheating, but be aware, it exists. The game is overall built near the late/end-game to be taken on with other people, otherwise, you’re like to suffer. This does inherently mean that anyone who’s running solo will have a harder time, but in the same vein, as an MMO, that’s just the price you pay. Odd jank exists, particularly in the mid to late game. You’ll swear you’ve avoided something from a boss or enemy, but no, you ate trash and are left scratching your head a fair bit. This coupled with the next issue means you’re bound to run into some frustration. Come the point of the late end of the Ellia to the mid/late portions of Xenia continents, there’s a notable difficulty spike that only grows and is particularly hostile towards solo players. The later end of Alcubra is particularly egregious. Often you will find that you sometimes cannot avoid a hit, made worse when coupled with quests that specifically involve getting a certain rank or avoiding getting hit a number of times to complete them. This is a lesser downside, but you’ll find that there’s some cheese-tier voice acting on some characters. This is mainly isolated to the older cast until about Sieghart onward, and personally, this can be more amusing, but it can also be a bit off-putting and annoying. In the end, I will say the game is enjoyable enough in-spite of its faults, and can be enjoyed relatively casually. For old players and fans, it’s a nice nostalgia trip with some care put into rebalancing. Just be aware of some of the humps and hurdles involved.
