Free Realms Weekend Wrap

Air Guitar EmoteSo yeah, I’ve totally switched sides from dubious to a fan.

The most complex part of Free Realms is reporting your level. I logged off at:

Adventurer Level 2
Blacksmith Level 5
Brawler Level 2
Chef Level 8
Miner Level 6
Pet Trainer Level 8

And level 1 as Card Duelist and both the Cart Racing Careers.

Whew!

And Angela’s were:

Adventurer Level 5
Pet Trainer Level 8

And level 1 as everything else. 🙂

But she has a ton of Treasure Tickets (she’s done a ton of non-job specific quests), and I only have a few. We’re not sure what Treasure Tickets get traded for yet, though.

One of the Wise TikisWe both played all evening, though not partied up. I was working on mining/blacksmithing (lots ‘o mini-games) and she was just exploring. Every few minutes she’d chuckle or laugh outright and share something new she’d found. And my experience was the same when I was running around.

The game is funny and cute in a lot of subtle ways, but you really need to tune into your inner child for a lot (but not all) of it.

I’m hoping they’ll add more mini-games eventually. The Jewel Elimination game is used in Harvesting Cooking Ingredients, Mining Ore and Jewels and Blacksmithing (and who knows, maybe more..I haven’t seen everything yet). Some subtle differences in the goals, but the mechanics are all the same. And cooling and smelting are pretty similar conceptually, too.

I’ve heard people complain that Free Realms is grindy, and if you approach it in a typical MMO fashion it sure can be. I’ve found the way to play it is just to follow your feet. Allow yourself to be distracted. Start harvesting veggies for a recipe and get side-tracked by a monster to fight and then notice someone wanting a Card Duel and spot some shinies and chase those and just… play.

My one worry is about longevity. It looks like job levels top out at 20 (just from looking at when skills become available) so it won’t take very long to max out everything. Whether that’ll be a problem or not, I’m not really sure. I wasn’t really doing anything to chase levels tonight. Just running around having fun. The levels were a side-effect, really.