Okay, that’s a lame title name and Wakfu has nothing to do with Egypt (that I know of). However I have been playing it again recently and I have to say, it’s a much better game than I remember. The first time I didn’t make it further than level 6 or 7, barely out of the tutorial area. I’m not sure what I disliked about it anymore though. It may have been the class I chose or perhaps it was simply that I was still defining MMOs in WoW terms and Wakfu didn’t fit the bill. Whatever the case, this time around it has been a refreshing change in my MMO diet, much like Tree of Savior.
For those who have never played, Wakfu is most notably different from other MMOs in its turn based combat. The world is divided into a grid and when you chose to engage an enemy in combat you will be separated from the rest of the open world and will only have a small playing field in which to maneuver and attack. Each turn both your character and the enemy will have a set number of moves they can make on the grid and a limited number of action points they can spend on spells and other abilities.
Whenever you enter into combat, boundaries are established and the area becomes a grid for strategic, turn based gameplay.
After about an hour or two of playing Wakfu I was already level 12. During that time I went through the tutorial again so that I could remember how to play, chose a new class— Huppermage’s Rune, an elemental caster, and ultimately worked my way through the first set of storyline quests which took me into the sewers underneath the city of Astrub. There I met “Donatellangelo,” who trained me further in the ways of Wakfu. I’ve also completed a couple of solo dungeons as well as a temple.
The squid-faced, Donatellangelo, my sewer dwelling combat trainer.
The temple was perhaps the most interesting content I’ve experienced in Wakfu so far. It’s similar to a dungeon in that it requires defeating a group of mobs to gain access to the next room of mobs and ultimately the final boss. The difference was that in the temple there were also secondary objectives that would net additional rewards as well as simple environmental puzzles that were required to progress through the instance. So as an example of the secondary objectives, during one fight I needed to end a round with an even number of MP (movement points) and AP (action points). A second fight required I kill mobs in a specific order. A few were much more challenging and I was unable to complete them but I liked the idea; it was perfect for the turn based style of play.
So far I’ve felt no pressure to spend any money in the cash shop either, however from browsing Steam it seems like there is a lot of DLC available that I may need to eventually purchase it if I want to continue. One of the only cash shop roadblocks that I have run into involves the new heroes and sidekicks system which allows you to “group up” with either an alt in your stable or one of the many sidekicks you can either earn or purchase in game. Having your alts function as party members like in other turn based RPGs I thought was quite clever, however you have to purchase an unlock to be able to use this feature and it only lasts for a set period of time depending on how much you pay before you have to pony up the cash again.
They have a serious cat infestation problem in Astrub.
That said, while it’s a little disappointing to miss out on the new feature, it’s a fairly recent addition so I’m assuming you can play through most if not all of the game without needing a sidekick and there is of course always the option to group up with actual people, although from what I saw of the community yesterday, I’m not so sure that would be a desirable experience. However if I continue to play and enjoy the game, I’ll probably find some way to invest, most likely by purchasing some of the DLC. If you haven’t ever played Wakfu and are looking for something different, I would highly recommend giving it a try.
And if you’d like a sampling of what it’s like, here are two of the videos that introduced me to the game awhile ago in the first place.
Waiting For Rez 
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