Goodbye Outside World! Hello Instant Ramen!

“Tower of Babel Online? Is it a full dive VR MMO? What’s so special about it? You sure this is the one I should sink my free time into?” Am I really going to spend my entire summer break on another video game?

“Yeah, man. It’s full dive, and if you want to know what’s so special about it, let me hit you with the highlights.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s hear it. Give me the whole cheesy sales pitch.” Here we go again. I’ve known Iggy for coming up on twenty years now. That means he knows just what to say to get me to throw my free time in the trash. Goodbye, outside world, hello instant ramen.

“One cheesy sales pitch coming right up! Ah-he-he-hem! Highlight number one. You know how you’ve been looking for an MMO with an open progression for the class system? Look no further! Tower of Babel Online starts you out as a lowly adventurer with no skills and lets you learn any you run into along the way. It sticks class titles on you as you go, but your title will evolve or outright change as you use different skills.”

“Really now? So, say I start out and grab some healing abilities because I want to be a team player?” I can already feel the hooks sinking in.

“Bam! You’re a Priest!”

“Alright, then I decide I don’t like how low my defense is, and I want to buff up my HP so I don’t die so quickly when enemies slip past the front lines?” I guess there are worse things to waste a vacation on. What else would I be doing anyway?

“Very do-able, also sounds to me like a Cleric or maybe even a Paladin if you get heavy armor instead of medium.”

“And the game will let me do that? What if I decide I don’t want to cast holy magic anymore, and instead I grab a bunch of elemental spells? Fireballs, ice walls, big tornadoes?! Can I do that?” I don’t know why I keep asking questions. I’m already on the store page.

“Oh, for sure, man. They’d probably change your class to something like Elementalist or Geomancer.”

“That does sound pretty great…” An MMO with an open class system. That's exciting. Am I really this easy to convince?  “What’s the other highlights?” Taking out the credit card, inputting the information aaaaand…

“Well, highlight number two goes hand in hand with number one. Because they want things to be so open and for your class to continue to evolve, they put thousands upon thousands of skills into the game!”

“Thousands?!” Bought. Damn. Iggy the salesman strikes again.

“Ayyy, sounds like I’ve got your attention. Alright, time to go in for the kill. I saved the best for last.”

“It’s already installing onto my headset, Iggy. You’ve won. I’m defeated.” At least I’ll get to spend my vacation with my pals. I’m sure Iggy has already convinced Shoji and Maaya to download it as well.

“Siiiiiick, but I’m still going to hit you with my finishing move because you sound worried you are going to feel like this was a waste of your vacation. So! Open up your ears and listen to this! In Tower of Babel, you start in one of four underground cities that surround this sky scraper of a tower that leads to the overworld. Rumors on the forums say the first player from each town to reach the top gets a special class title. Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

“That title sounds pretty edgy. You know I’m not really into that sort of thing. That is almost a setback more than a highlight. That might be the sort of thing that gets Shoji not m-…” Hang on a second, did he say… “Did you say rumored?”

“Ah-ha. That’s right, man. The game has been out for three months, and most players haven’t even reached the second floor of the tower. The game's difficulty is cranked up crazy high.”

“…” An ultimate achievement? A game so difficult that it has been out for months, and no one knows what happens when you reach the end?!

“Did I lose you? Is my connection wigging out again? Hello?”

“It’s almost done installing. Send me your user name and I’ll add you to my friends list once I’m in.”

“Siiiiick. See you online, Taro.”

-Call Ended-

-Installation complete-

I admit that I get a bit overexcited when it comes to difficult games and unattained achievements. I’m what is known in the gamer community as an achievement hunter, and I wear that title with pride. I could hear about a game that is utter garbage, and I’ll have zero interest in playing it. Then I’m told it has an unattained achievement, and it’s like a beacon of blinding light radiating through the thick fog of trash game play and dumpster fire controls.

I’m not trying to make it sound like I am some kind of god gamer. To be honest, what sets me apart from most is my willingness to be bad at something and grow from it. If you can’t learn from losing, you’ll just get yourself stuck in a loop. That’s what I’ve always believed, and it’s what gets me through most games.

-Launching Tower of Babel Online-

So! Let’s get ready to lose! Get ready to die! Get ready to learn! Get ready to get strong! I am about to no life this game like no game before it! Prepare to crown your first of the four Horsemen, Babel! I’m coming for you! Here. We. Gooooo!!

-Starting Character Creation-

Alright. Jumped the gun there a bit. Thought there might be some cinematic cut scene or something to introduce me to the game, but it seems they want to throw me right into making a character. That’s cool. That’s fine. Let’s see what we are working with.

-Insert Character Name-

-70 points-

-Strength-

-Dexterity-

-Constitution-

-Intelligence-

-Wisdom-

-Charisma-

-Luck-

Looks like the usual stat block setup. Points seem a little lower than most other games I’ve played, but hey, got to start somewhere. Looks like I can look at the species list and customization options before I place my points. I’ll take a little gander at those while thinking about how to stat things out.

*Incoming Message From: Iggy*

“Hey! Almost forgot to send you my character name. You won’t be able to add me till you get out of the little tutorial and make your choice of starting town. I started in Ermoor myself, I think Shoji went to Telifell, and Maaya started in Fibluff. If you decide to start at Buzaram, then we can all go for the Horsemen titles together. No pressure! Anyway! Rhade of Lans is my character's name. See ya soon!”

Ah! Iggy got back to me. I haven’t even seen an option for starting town yet, but based on what Iggy told me, it comes after the tutorial. If they are all starting in different towns, I’ll probably do the same. Each one of us getting one of the Horsemen titles would be pretty cool. Now! About that character customization.

-Species Choice-

-Human- -High- -Low-

-Elf- -High- -Low- -Half Human-

-Orc- -Half human-

-Ogre- -Half orc- -Bugbear-

-Goblin- -Hob-

-Dwarf- -Mountain- Forest-

-Beast-Folk- -Feline- -Canine- -Avian- -Amphibian- -Insectoid- -Reptile-

-Half demon-

-Half devil-

-Kobold-

-Monstrous- -Minotaur- -Centaur- -Draconoid-

This is way more than usual! Minotaur being Monstrous, but Orc, Ogre, and Hob-Goblin aren’t? Interesting design choice…It looks like the species you choose has absolutely no impact on your starting stats either. I guess that means it's just an aesthetic choice?

There's a ton of sliders here, too. Skin color if you're fleshy. Which changes to feather color or scale color depending on species. Then, some of the more usual ones, like height, limb length, maturity, hair color, eyebrow options, and facial hair options, they hit everything.

I guess they want you to be able to look however you want. Always a nice step up from the pre-mades. Well...if I'm going to do this, I guess I'd better do this right. This could take a while; better let Iggy know.

*Outgoing Message to Iggy*

"Hey, man. Just hit the customization part of the character creation. You didn’t warn me it’d be so in-depth. You'd better get yourself a meal or something, this is going to take me a while to get through. You know how I am. I’ll send you another message when I’m in my starting town."

-Message Sent-

Alright. Let’s do this.

^A little over an hour later^

Okay, I've made and remade my character about five or six times, but here we are. This is it. This is the one. Maybe. Probably. Let's just take one last quick looksy...

Character Name: Kishi W.

Species: Orc, Half-Human

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 10

Constitution: 20

Intelligence: 5

Wisdom: 5

Charisma: 5

Luck: 5

I think this looks alright. I wanted to have at least a couple of points into everything, but the main plan is to go for a strong melee character with a high constitution. I’ll grab some heavy armor as soon as I can and go for a weapon and shield knight build. Maybe a sword or a mace. An axe might be cool too. I know I talked to Iggy about holy spells and all that, but I think I want to try giving tank gameplay a go. Mix things up a little bit.

Alright. Yeah, this is good. If I don’t like it, the game is apparently super flexible, so I’ll just change it as I go. Now then! Let’s do this! For real this time! Here! We! Go!!

-Character Created-

-Loading World-