In addition to buying things for yourself, you can also give them as gifts to fellow players. There's also a neat wish list feature, which is useful for keeping track of items you eventually might purchase. You can also preview the items before buying, so you can see how your character will look with the item. It may not seem like much, but it's always a good idea to let someone see how they'd look wearing a rainbow swimsuit, and angry face, and a pair of dragonfly wings.

Traveling the world took a little getting used to. At first the maps were confusing, as they don't show how the cities are connected. The world seems a lot larger than it actually is. There are certainly no shortages of combat areas, but for traveling purposes, they can mostly be avoided. Each town has portals to other town, and you use those to travel around the world.

This only takes a little exploring to figure out, but it's worth mentioning in case anyone else ends up in the middle of the Marble Mountains surrounded by Flying Peaches wondering why there isn't an entrance to the Balderan Mines anywhere nearby.

Combat in “Wind Slayer” is simple, but a bit more involved than a typical MMO. Rather than just click on an enemy to attack, you have to use the keyboard buttons to initiate each strike. You start out with one weak attack; however, you eventually learn a stronger attack, in addition to your class skills. You can attach skills to a shortcut bar that allows you to use skills with a keyboard command. You can even add herbs and other healing items, which is a must to survive longer series of battles.

You can also jump, and eventually double jump. The game sometimes feels like a platformer, but the controls are responsive enough that you never feel frustrated by them. However, that doesn't mean the controls are perfect, as they almost require you to have three hands. The arrow keys move your character, the WASD keys are for attacking and picking up items, and you still need to use the mouse to select certain items on screen. You never have to use them all at once, but the constant switching of control methods gets annoying. You can rearrange the keys, but you can't change the arrow keys and you still need your mouse, so it doesn't really help.

You start the game as a Novice, and after level 10 you can choose from one of the six jobs: Monk, Warrior, Priest, Rogue, Archer, and Mage. At level thirty, you can choose one of two sub-classes. Having a class shakes up combat enough to make the game more interesting. However, 10 levels of mediocre combat is a lot to go through, and the quest to get the class is much more involved than any others. It may deter some players from getting deeper into the game.

The game’s main attraction is the PvP battle system, which is a team-based system. You check into the arena in any town, choose your team, and battle. It's hard to recommend the Arena before level 10 because all novice players have the same attacks, and no special skills. However, once you choose your class, the PvP really shines, and is where most of the fun is found in this game.

“Wind Slayer” has a nice art style and a great PvP system. The early levels get a bit boring and the controls can take some getting used to, but if your multiplayer ambitions involve competing with your fellow Wind Slayers, then this game is worth a look.

Review Arthur Palomo
November 4, 2009