Like a couple of weeks ago when I turned to vBulletin and looked at how they’re doing right now, I figured I’d write a post about it. Welcome to another small trip down memory lane, looking at old shit that used to be cool.
This is an attempt at making this a series about nostalgia and good memories. We’ll see what the future holds.
Ready? Slayers Online is a free French RPG game. It’s got (I think) a solid player base in France, but not much outside of it, as far as I know. I don’t think it’s available in other languages either, so I’m pretty sure it has zero player base in English-speaking countries.
But it’s no big deal because just looking at the graphics will remind you of a couple of similar RPG games you played back in the early 2000s. 100% pure old crappy 2D games. It’s all about nostalgia!
Honestly, I think it was already old-school when it came out in 2003 and it’s pretty obvious it’s one of its number one appeals from the start. As you can see in the screenshots above, it looks a lot like an old Game-Maker (Or was it RPG-Maker?) kind of game. Topview, colorful 2D sprites, and a little bit of animation.
Remember that in 2003, we already had a massive roster of awesome 3D games available, like GTA 3, or just a year later, in 2004, World of Warcraft. So why play Slayers Online instead? Old school nostalgia! WoW blows this game out of the water, but in 2003-2004, it didn’t provide you with a nostalgia-driven experience. It didn’t yet. (I know, WoW is now considered old-school and people are nostalgic about it in 2022. And it’s old enough to drink in Canada, so...)
What happens when you start a game? Name your character, get a couple of items, train, then head out for your first adventure. Let the grind begin!
Your first couple of hours of gameplay is all about gaining XP. Killing blue blobs until you reach lvl10 or something. Hundreds of them. You must be a genocidal deity to them. If you skip that part, you’re going to be way too weak to do anything at all. You’re going to get one shot by squirrels.
The local fauna in the early games is mainly made of blue blobs, squirrels, purple dogs, wolves, and bees. And they’ll beat the ever-living crap out of you, believe me. That kind of stuff makes no sense at all, but still, you’ll find it in so many games. A guy in armor, getting killed by a squirrel? Or by a small dog? Let alone in one hit? Sure!
I won't go through all the game’s features, because it’s a regular MMORPG. It’s nothing new. But one of the novel things was that your character could marry another player’s character. I remember that it felt odd at first when I found out about it because I didn’t know any games that offered such a wild, crazy, far-out-there gameplay possibility. It didn’t do anything by the way. Just one more line in your character’s stats. Something like “Kordell99 is married to Z4phira”. Good old times.
There’s something I witnessed in that game that I never saw in any of the other online RPGs I played back in the day. Actual role-playing. When you’d write and send something in the chat, it would always appear in a bubble over your character. Here’s an example:
So, when I say actual role-playing, I mean people chatting and telling others what their character is doing, between asterisks.
Num7: To be continued...
Remember that in 2003, we already had a massive roster of awesome 3D games available, like GTA 3, or just a year later, in 2004, World of Warcraft. So why play Slayers Online instead? Old school nostalgia! WoW blows this game out of the water, but in 2003-2004, it didn’t provide you with a nostalgia-driven experience. It didn’t yet. (I know, WoW is now considered old-school and people are nostalgic about it in 2022. And it’s old enough to drink in Canada, so...)
What happens when you start a game? Name your character, get a couple of items, train, then head out for your first adventure. Let the grind begin!
Your first couple of hours of gameplay is all about gaining XP. Killing blue blobs until you reach lvl10 or something. Hundreds of them. You must be a genocidal deity to them. If you skip that part, you’re going to be way too weak to do anything at all. You’re going to get one shot by squirrels.
The local fauna in the early games is mainly made of blue blobs, squirrels, purple dogs, wolves, and bees. And they’ll beat the ever-living crap out of you, believe me. That kind of stuff makes no sense at all, but still, you’ll find it in so many games. A guy in armor, getting killed by a squirrel? Or by a small dog? Let alone in one hit? Sure!
I won't go through all the game’s features, because it’s a regular MMORPG. It’s nothing new. But one of the novel things was that your character could marry another player’s character. I remember that it felt odd at first when I found out about it because I didn’t know any games that offered such a wild, crazy, far-out-there gameplay possibility. It didn’t do anything by the way. Just one more line in your character’s stats. Something like “Kordell99 is married to Z4phira”. Good old times.
There’s something I witnessed in that game that I never saw in any of the other online RPGs I played back in the day. Actual role-playing. When you’d write and send something in the chat, it would always appear in a bubble over your character. Here’s an example:
* Eating a toast *
* Cleaning my sword... so much squirrel blood *
* Cooking dinner for Z4phira *
* Jerking off *
Yup, you read it well. Like every single place online, there were trolls. And I was no exception. I even remember getting warned by a moderator at some point because I kept saying stupid shit while training in the noob area. Blue blob and squirrel genocide really take their toll on you after a while. Gotta deal with that PTSD somehow.
Jokes aside, that kind of role-playing (the serious one) was one of Slayers Online’s selling points as far as I remember. People were proud of it. It worked.
Okay, what else can I remember... Oh, skins. Jeez, not squirrel skins! I mean character skins. There were many character skins available that you could play as. Or you could create your own. As shown below, it was all about the sprites! This little dude here has a magic sword emitting stars. Stars taken by force from the dreams of all the squirrels he killed, that is...
I think I played until I reached lvl15 or 20. That must have been in 2006. I did a couple of quests. Their quest system worked well, even though it was nothing fancy. I remember the quests being kind of vague and hard to figure out what you’re supposed to do, or where you’re supposed to go. But it did feel all right in terms of RPG experience. Wandering around and not being sure what to do next is part of the fun, after all.
I remember going down a dungeon (or was it the sewers?) underneath the toad village. I think the boss was a Kraken or something. It was pretty hard, had to take a lot of health potions. My character was probably still way too weak to kill a boss quickly. I did it anyway, and man, those toads were happy when I came back up and told them I killed the beast. They gave me 10 gold and sent me on my way! Rude little bastards.
I found a screenshot of that toad village, here it is. What a mess.
A final detail: Slayers Online still works and is still developed as of today! They’re even working behind the scenes on a reboot of some sort. I’m not sure what it’s about, but I have to assume their current platform must be pretty obsolete, so it’s understandable they want to go that way and relaunch the game using contemporary technology.
Cool game I played until late at night. Will I ever play again? I don’t know. A part of me would like to because even though I made it up to lvl15-something, I never played seriously enough to complete more than a couple of basic quests. Not that I’d play to reach the end game if there’s any. But I’d like to dive in a little more, not just dip the tip of my toe as I did
* Cleaning my sword... so much squirrel blood *
* Cooking dinner for Z4phira *
* Jerking off *
Yup, you read it well. Like every single place online, there were trolls. And I was no exception. I even remember getting warned by a moderator at some point because I kept saying stupid shit while training in the noob area. Blue blob and squirrel genocide really take their toll on you after a while. Gotta deal with that PTSD somehow.
Jokes aside, that kind of role-playing (the serious one) was one of Slayers Online’s selling points as far as I remember. People were proud of it. It worked.
Okay, what else can I remember... Oh, skins. Jeez, not squirrel skins! I mean character skins. There were many character skins available that you could play as. Or you could create your own. As shown below, it was all about the sprites! This little dude here has a magic sword emitting stars. Stars taken by force from the dreams of all the squirrels he killed, that is...
I remember going down a dungeon (or was it the sewers?) underneath the toad village. I think the boss was a Kraken or something. It was pretty hard, had to take a lot of health potions. My character was probably still way too weak to kill a boss quickly. I did it anyway, and man, those toads were happy when I came back up and told them I killed the beast. They gave me 10 gold and sent me on my way! Rude little bastards.
I found a screenshot of that toad village, here it is. What a mess.
Cool game I played until late at night. Will I ever play again? I don’t know. A part of me would like to because even though I made it up to lvl15-something, I never played seriously enough to complete more than a couple of basic quests. Not that I’d play to reach the end game if there’s any. But I’d like to dive in a little more, not just dip the tip of my toe as I did
Num7: To be continued...
Num7: * Clicks the Publish button *
Num7 has left the chat.
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