The Wagadu Chronicles

This is as of early December 2023 a mixed bag but so far I give it a thumbs up for early access. The good: It is really authentic I think with lots of plants, tools, building styles etc I had never heard about and seen and like very much. The mobs are strange looking or outright surreal (what are those little running mushroom thingies even called?). The mini "dance for the fish spirit" game is nice and fresh. Personally I like that all the avatars are rather androgynous, most African people have no facial beards and thus the body shape and bust size gives some indication about gender or it just blurs. You won't see people with ... prepubescent names or such as you can only mix and match names from 1st and last ones and these names are not from the Western hemisphere, have translations to them but no gender indication either. I like the graphic style overall. The "meh or odd": It is quite grindy and you need to put points into things like "gather bark faster" to not watch progress bars of your character slowly moving. The bad: The game is buggy. And I mean especially quest bugs, logical bugs in quests where a spirit won't accept something because another spirit with a quest at that one has somehow priority, spirits at different islands with same names confusing people etc. The color scheme is quite red and green and I think that is a problem for people who are red green blind. I'm not but I can't see paths really where I can move between levels on mountains for example, it is all the same redish hue. I actually spent over two hours in the first section of the tutorial (dream) island and got really frustrated why it won't progress until I opened the main map (why would you have to? Immersion and all?) and saw the moving dots of other people and on that map you can see different colors for paths... I'm using now the main map a lot and it is breaking immersion and makes the impression of how much you have to run back and forth and grind just worse. What my main problem is and I hope very much that is an early game issue and not a general design flaw: I don't yet understand what the point is moving from island to island. They might have a bit more resources or different ones and more dangerous spirits. But overall ... Why? Usually I love survival sandbox games but here I'm not really sure what I actually can do FUN wise. I have a lot of possible grind tasks (gathering, leveling up stations of a waka, the pre-set villages). But why would someone want to, nothing is yours, you just fill bars, there is no creativity or freedom or such, I don't want to just fill check marks of someone else because they are there. So far visiting the islands seems more of a rinse and repeat than actual exploration with stories found or new things to do. And ALL OF IT seems indeed aimed to just have more bars to fill. For example if I play ARK Survival or any of those then I decide where to build a base, I have to fortify and creativity and how I design this, make it optimal. Getting out is quite dangerous but very much worth it to collect blueprints, sights, story, new tame-ables and such abilities. Yes, I have to figure out supply chains and gather a lot, but it is a means to an end for improving my base as I see fit. Not the actual content. Here so far it seems just to repeat the same thing with a different name for a different tier on a different island maybe.

It is nice to adventure into a world that we do not see often. I love that every one can be unique, especially the names. I like seeing other people and inquire about what their names mean and what their lineages are. After reading the lore book about this world it makes alot more sense why there doesn't appear to be straightforward male/female. The lore book answers alot of questions as to why the creators implemented the things they did. There are some qol things that can be remedied over time. I have played many games where sometimes the crafting/harvesting take a little longer and little kinks are here and there. But all games start off this way. The people that play will help shape the growth of this game, because they see the possibilities. I am excited to see where this goes. I am also glad it is one of those games I can just relax with - no speeding to get to end game/ no need to feel pressured to get the best of everything. Enjoy it.

The Wagadu Chronicles is an MMORPG with a huge focus on role playing. What makes it especially appealing is that it's set in a fantasy world inspired by myths and legends from the African continent (the name itself is derived from the Wagadou Empire after all). This alone sets it apart from a gazillion other games set in medieval Europe-based settings. As said, the game focusses heavily on role playing and incorporates the DnD 5th Edition rules. Where most other games make you slash dozens of monsters right from the get-go, The Wagadou Chronicle makes you earn it. In fact, the first couple of hours you will be spending honing your crafting skills before you are at a point where you can get hold of a suitable weapon and armor (make sure to check out the market, though, to buy items from other players). And even then, combat isn't easy and very much alike those in a real DnD campaign. So, you're better off chatting up other players and organize a group for extended looting. The art style of the game can only be described as beautiful and the music is really well-composed and suited for the game. Be aware, though, that this game is still in Early Access and still needs some polish. This game offers you plenty of possibilities but, in its current state, does a poor job in explaining them to the player. But I am sure this will be improved with further iterations.

This is a review of the first week of Early Access I have been playing basically all of the first week, and even though it is very much EA, it is still very well done. * The combat and controls feel comfortable and easy to pickup, Plenty of room to polish up of course but i can see it fleshing out nicely down the line. * The art-style and music is lovely. Always wanted to find a game with this aesthetic and they absolutely delivered. its simplistic but not so much so that it feels cheap, its plenty colorful day and night, and the music fits perfectly. I could, and HAVE listened to it for hours without being annoyed I think the only problems i have are all the usual EA problems that I see being solved pretty quickly. --Crafting, while i personally love it, is kind of frustrating. The grind is real, and without flavor text or rushing to craft travel tokens to explore every location, i have no idea where some of these things are found or how to make them. (The lack of flavor text is driving me crazy honestly. I tend to read EVERYTHING to get clues or context and there's almost nothing there TO read LOL) --More customization of character model during creation. (as in colors. I wanted to be able to customize my -wings as a lunarian and i was a little sad i couldnt douse myself in shades of purple) -- being unable to move the map around while viewing it. Id have preferred fog-of-war over areas i hadn't been to on a full sized map than having to inch around constantly opening and reopening the map to make sure i took that turn past that one tree to get where i was heading too, only to find out i over shot it and am way past where i need to be. AGAIN.

First of all, they got 10m $/€ from Riot Games for this game. They have 4 diffrent Options what you can do on a tree, you do everything with the same animation. ON EVERY SINGLE TREE ROCK AND EVERYTHING ELLSE They have crafting, the menu for this is not so bad The Skill system is kinda useless and i never saw such a bad design of a menu and a system Combat System feels so terrible. Its Round Based. Who gives a MMO (Even if it is Sandbox) Round Based Fights. they feel clunky and again the ANIMATIONS are ♥♥♥♥. ARTWORK, yes they have Artwork and yes i gues they spend 9.999.999,99€ from the 10m€ for the Artwork. I swear to god and all video game creators on this Planet. A student could creat a better Game in 1 year. Riot Games waisted 10m on this. Its not worth to buy it. not on sale and no in the next 5 years. I give every Game a chance and i really like crafting and cathering, would do this only in every Game if possible but this feels so bad in this Game. its not hard to make diffrent ANIMATIONS or SOUNDS for this. Take your phone and a axe, go into a forest and start to hit some trees for just a sound. A bad sound is better then no sound. Char editor was just boring, didnt saw the option to change Gender, had the option between small bobs and very small bobs (Symbol was looking like a mans Chest) and some hair or face, women or ugly women. Still no Man in it. Name? can i use my own name? No you cant, you need to chose from some nice 2 first names and then you can chose between a lot of very racist second names. The music is nice for 5 min until you realise its still the same Music in every of the Zones i was. CANT recomend to buy this Game, really its a waist of money and of time. Go and get new World for crafting and Gathering I mean it would be better with a real fighting system or no system. But not this round based system. (Edit) i saw other review and YES they bought them i guess. Just read them and you will laugh

Just my initial impressions but movement is slow in this game which is OK, but gathering is painfully slow. The interface isn't very intuitive and doesn't provide easy access to things you want to know or track.

Not bad for a game in its first week of Early Access. I'm hoping the character creator gets significantly better though as it's abysmal for a game so heavy into RP.