WindSlayer

WindSlayer Review

The controversial hype over the new 2D side-scroller WindSlayer recently has been hard to avoid. To make an excruciatingly long story short WindSlayer, in more ways than one is very similar to the monster MMO Maple Story, and if you’ve played one, you’ve basically played the other.

From beginning to end WindSlayer is a very generic ‘Hack and Slash’ style grind game, focusing mainly on killing a random assortment of cute and fuzzy creatures (mostly different variations of poo) for hours at a time, and completing simple ‘fed ex’ style quests that would have you to do pretty much the same. Every player begins WindSlayer the same, a Novice with a wooden stick. After you familiarise yourself with the game, and spend 8 hours killing poop monsters, you will hopefully have ascended to level 10, and been asked to select your class. Your choices stem from the usual Warrior, Archer, Mage, Rogue, Monk and Priest and require you to complete a quest before you are able to change. This would by far and wide be my biggest gripe with WindSlayer, as it affected me so harshly.

I spent hours staring at my computer screen, killing poo and avoiding giant chickens, only to find that after reaching my goal of level 10, skipping back to town, and selling all of my useless junk (9 different types of poo and some white wings and feathers…those chickens had it coming.) my class change master would like me to collect about 40 of everything I just sold…I lost a part of my soul at that moment…and I don’t think I’ll be getting it back.

So, another 2 hours and 1 level later I was finally able to change class, and experience life as a Rogue. I stopped playing shortly after realizing the grind fest I was about to enter, but even though it had it’s short comings It wasn’t really all that bad. Amongst some minor annoyances there is a fun little game, and lovers of the style will find this game a refreshing change from Maple Story. There are of course features exclusive to WindSlayer that will attract new players too, such as the Arena style PvP system, allowing 8v8 player battles which reward Vicky (A sort of PvP Currency) that can then be used to purchase new gear. There is also Premium Content available for purchase to help make your character stand out from the rest. At later levels players can also perform a second class change, adding more options to the game and more interesting battles.

These features are some of the few that Maple Story doesn’t have, and I think that it is here that WindSlayer will have a chance. For me, it almost felt like a Maple Story 2, same style of game with a new world to explore and some new features to spice things up. In summary, I think that fans of Maple Story that are looking for a change of pace will find a very happy home here, but players that grew tired of the style, or simply never liked it in the first place should probably avoid it. For the players that have never tried either, this is definitely a good place to start. It’s easy to pick up, hard to leave, and if you can stick it out longer than me I think you’ll find a few new surprises around the corner.

- By Cody Hargreaves aka Neramaar

WindSlayer Screenshots

WindSlayer Video

WindSlayer Links

Official Site