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Talisman Online has a pretty basic storyline. In an ancient fantasy world, people take adventure seriously, and are constantly working on their skills and magics in order to fight off the many evils that haunt the population. Some omens are brought forth and show evidence that mysterious evils of the past have revived. This means it’s time for you, the adventurer, to take a stand and fight them off.

The actual story has more detail than that, as I could go in to more detail about this great evil known as Master Blood whom was sealed in a thousand year old ice cube and dropped to the bottom of a magical pool in a place called Green Scarp to sit in indefinite solitude. One day, many years later, the ice cube vanishes and ghosts, ghouls, and all sorts of creepy things come pouring out of everywhere and anywhere an unsuspecting villager could imagine.

But before you can enter this world of oriental mystery and mayhem, you must download their free client and set up your account for Talisman Online. This is where I have to admit the experience began to impress me. After a few weeks of installing every kind of client imaginable while researching for this series, I expected Talisman Online to be no different. I was pleasantly surprised to find that creating an account was simple, easy, and very fast. They asked minimal questions and the entire process took less time than it did to find most of the other online games download page. I was further relieved when the download of the actual client went by in minutes rather than hours as most of the other games have.

Once installed, character creation was another area in which Talisman Online exceeds expectations. Character creation was basic and to the point. The character art styles are reminiscent of 90s anime. Options for character classes are somewhat simple as well, featuring five main classes: Wizard, Monk, Assassin, Fairy, and Tamer. The classes are somewhat self-explanatory with the Tamer appearing like a cross between a ranger and a druid from dungeons and dragons.

Talismans, however, are the main focus of your character’s unique abilities and strengths. Each character can equip one weapon talisman and two assistant talismans. The weapon talisman is something of a magical weapon with certain abilities and powers that add to your general attack. The assistant talismans grant your character special skills and boosts. The system itself is pretty basic and easy to understand once you start fiddling with how to configure your particular character.

The look and feel of the game is like a blend between Zelda and Final Fantasy. Some of the graphics are noticeably cheesy, with a few rather breathtaking areas. Camera control only allows you to view the world from certain angles, keeping you from either seeing an unimpressive landscape or what may actually be a rather stunning cartoony world.

Combat is intuitive and borrows from World of Warcraft in several ways. It is an essential part, as with any MMO, of accomplishing your goals as a player. In order to build up your equipment and increase your talisman powers, you need to hunt monsters for points. Talisman points are awarded with victories and can be purchased from Talisman Online directly through their online store. The more points you have, the better your equipment upgrades can be. It’s a simple concept, but one that works very well in this particular world.

Overall I found Talisman Online to function well as a poor-man’s World of Warcraft. It isn’t a visually stunning game, but it does have appeal to fans of the anime genres that are looking for a good solid game to call their own. I had no trouble finding Americans and other English speakers to interact and quest with, and the game quickly grabs you. There is no tutorial, but there really isn’t a need for one here. This goes on the board as another worthwhile download and a recommended game for anyone looking for a free alternative to their pay-to-play MMO.

Link: Talisman Online