I was reminded of something I once used to love about Tree of Savior. Something the game no longer has.
I can’t quite find the exact video that caught my interest in this game, since it was a very, very old video that probably no one saved, but the moment it showed Heal being a skill that placed healing tiles on the ground, I knew at that moment, I had to play it even if it was the last thing I’ll ever do. I just had this gut feeling that it was going to be the next game I’ll call “home”, that it was something I’ll definitely be playing for a very long time. It was this unique take on ARPG gameplay that first drew me into it.
Back then, Tree of Savior had so many unique, interesting, and sometimes very quirky skills. Just like Heal, many other support skills used to create tiles on the ground. I remember Cure would be this small, yellow square that removed a debuff every second when stepped on, but it also doubled as one of the most ridiculously overpowered offensive skill. Heal tiles also dealt damage back then, and it was a pretty close second to Cure in offense if you leveled it to 15.
Very old video of Cleric gameplay back then. Please excuse the horrible FPS. This was back in the second Korean Closed Beta where there was zero optimization combined with me having a very terrible PC back then.
Another fun and interesting skill I remember was Fireball. It used to place…well, a fireball in front of you, and you could hit it with melee attacks to move it around. Because it acted as if it was an enemy, you could also do things like link it with Joint Penalty to actual monsters and bring them all together using Hangman’s Knot for a really strong nuke. Fireball + JP combo was once the meta back then :’)
An early demonstration video of various classes. I didn’t think about it much back then, but I liked the idea that Psychokino specialized in relocating and grouping monsters together. It was the class I planned to try out first the moment I got a chance to play. Little did I know I would be maining this class forever.
A more later example of a unique skill is Featherfoot’s Blood Curse. It was a skill that consumed 80% of your HP to deal damage around you, and that damage was mostly based on the amount of HP consumed and that portion of the damage ignored defense. I used to run this crazy build with Circle 1 Cryo, Circle 1 Linker, Circle 3 Psychokino, and Circle 3 Featherfoot with all stat points into CON. I had nearly zero DPS in PvE, but damn did I terrorize TBL with it :’)
Following the unique skills I saw in trailers and such, I would eventually come to really like the art style and music in ToS.
The UI in the second Korean Closed Beta. Gems also looked pretty different back then. To this day, I still prefer both the old UI and gem designs over the current ones.
I almost forgot this was what NPC dialogue looked like back then. A shame not many people got to experience this very old UI design since it was only available in kCBT2.
This was my first interaction with an IMC Games staff. Well, I say “interaction” but I actually didn’t talk at all since I was an even more nervous and awkward wreck than I am now. I was randomly invited to a party, then a Circle 3 Thaumaturge casted Swell Brain. It was the first time I saw this skill, and it gave me a good laugh back then.
The Market UI back then. I kinda miss being able to see who exactly was selling what.
So, here’s something fun. This was something only available in kCBT3. You could set up a vendor shop, but instead of selling something, you’re buying something instead. I thought it was pretty cool. Sadly, it was just one of the many things that never made it out of the betas.
Okay, this was one thing I don’t miss. Back then, attributes required silver and some waiting time to learn. Plus, you had to go to the right class master to learn attributes for your classes. You were free to do anything else while waiting for the attributes to be learned, but good lord that was awful in a silly way. In a way, it made sense for immersion purposes, I suppose. It felt like the class master was training you.
More things that didn’t make it out of the beta. I don’t quite recall how amulets worked, but I think they were attachable to weapons and sub-weapons, and would grant the unique effect described. This one in particular says that upon a successful block, there’s a 20% chance to reduce the attacker’s Physical and Magic Defense by -50% for 10 seconds. That would be pretty strong now, but back then it wasn’t because defense didn’t had as much impact.
IMC, when can I have this attribute back? :’)
Who remembers when the old Orsha maps were all just one giant theme park?
Anyway, I digressed too much. The point is, Tree of Savior has lost the first thing that attracted me to it in the first place: the unique and quirkiness behind many skills. Looking back, I think it was the May 16, 2017 patch in iToS when this aspect, and my enjoyment of the game overall, started to decline. I’ve never had as much fun as I did since before that particular patch came in. Then, for many people including myself, Re:Build was the patch that put one hell of a nail in the coffin.
There were a lot of happy and sad memories for me over these 7 years. Honestly, I’m surprised I’m still sticking with this game even though I hardly enjoy it now compared to way back then.
Random Ramblings of a Random Guy 