"Gorgeous" is the only word to describe Dofus, a feast of sight and sound in the form of an up-and-coming Flash-based MMORPG created by the folks at Ankama Games. The art and music of Dofus follow in the finest traditions of anime, making the game something of a cross between WoW and Pokémon (with a dash of tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in for good measure). Players can support up to five characters on their account, form communities with other players, fight a host of outlandish baddies, and go on quests to search out the hidden mysteries of the fantastic land of Amanka. The ultimate quest: to find and solve the mystery of six magical dragon eggs, the legendary dofus.
The designers call Dofus a mixture between a video game and an interactive cartoon. It features a two-dimensional world, employing a top-down isometric presentation. And the first 'M' in MMORPG is certainly apt when describing Dofus. Players create characters from any of eleven classes and can train them up in twenty different professions. And there are literally thousands of spells, items, monsters, and map screens to discover.
Dofus features a tactical turn-based combat engine, similar to that of TAO. During a fight, other players on the same map screen can choose to jump in to form a team, and players have just so many seconds to use up their 'movement' and 'action points' to move, attack, casts spells, and heal their enemies and allies.
Dofus' designers claim the game is accessible to both casual and hardcore gamers. A basic account requires free registration, which only gives access to interact with the starting village of Amanka and its surroundings, but at least allows players to freely roam the world and enjoy its scenery. Full registration costs about $7 per month and gives full interactive access to the entire game and all its quests (which are constantly being updated, added to, and expand upon). The game's designers boast that, since all account files are stored online and it 'only' (in comparison to e.g. WoW) requires an initial download of about 42 MB, Dofus strikes a balance between content and functionality.
Analysis: Dofus truly is beautiful in its execution and presentation, and its interface is relatively intuitive and easy to pick up on (though there is a learning curve to its keyboard commands). There are few strategic online RPGs out there today, but even if the field were crowded Dofus would likely stand a head above the rest.
However, like any other MMORPGs such as WoW, Kingdom of Loathing, or Urban Dead, Dofus can be as involved an experience at you have time for. Leveling-up occurs at a decent pace, but the quests (such as collect and return 100 of four different types of items) can be maddeningly tedious. However, the hardcore gamers among us will find them worthwhile, since they will often be rewarded with quite good item(s) and/or permanent stat increases. Casual gamers, on the other hand, will still enjoy wandering about and exploiting the interactive cartoon aspect of Dofus.
But the time investment and monthly subscription fee will likely result in two quite distinct camps in the Dofus community, with a substantial gap in character levels (which might be frustrating when trying to put together a party for adventuring). Another minor complaint might be that, because Dofus is a Flash game and features a screen-based world map, other players are frequently zipping around and on or off the screen, sometime making it difficult to interact.
A more serious drawback is certain aspects of the combat system. Since the game is two-dimensional, the terrain, while beautiful, has no impact on combat. In fact, taller scenery may tend to get in the way, and character can e.g. get lost behind buildings. Also, the game's only party system for other players to join your in-progress fight. Most seriously, however, is that the brisk pace of combat makes strategy almost nonexistent. Often, there simply isn't enough time to assemble a plan between turns, and it can also be difficult to click fast enough to execute a strategy during a turn.
But dedicated players will undoubtedly be able to adjust to Dofus' idiosyncrasies for an extremely rewarding gaming experience. And the rest of us will just enjoy dropping in to revel in the beauty of the game's expansive and immersive fantasy world. Either way, Dofus is a treat to be sampled by all. Click.
Also, be on the lookout for the upcoming Dofus Arena, due for its kickoff sometime next month.
Dofus is now a finalist in the Flashforward Film Festival coming up at the end of February in Seattle.
I've played Dofus for a while and I must say I was quite impressed.
The things that make it better than other MMORPGS to me is the fact that you don't have to download a +300MB client at a whopping speed of15kb/s :-/.
(Yes...I'm looking at you,Ragnarok Oline)
Updating the game is pure joy as well thanks to the auto updater that comes with it.
Also playing a game like this in full screen is a plus,which you don't have with other games alike (again I'm looking at you,Ragnarok Online).
All in all...Nice characters,interesting storyline and great gameplay.
I found registration a bit annoying. The game will not accept spaces or numbers in your username or Dofus nickname.
I used to play this game too, on the French server.
I must admit it has been one of the best MMORPG experiences I've had in my life.
What I found the most attractive is the very low payment cost. For less than 10$ a month and no need to purchase anything to install the game, I think it is well worth the investment.
Wow, that game looks sweet! I'm going to try it for sure, thanks!
"Also, the game's only party system for other players to join your in-progress fight. Most seriously, however, is that the brisk pace of combat makes strategy almost nonexistent."
You also have groups. In group its much easier to manage all members into same fight. And the player who starts the fight can kick out from the fight other players in case he wants to fight solo or just dont like someone.
I can not agree on the issue of fights being too fast. Specially on earlier levels you dont have too many spells to choose from, plus you really should think about your next move while monsters and other players spend their time. I find most interesting fights between large groups, the games tactical side only comes out well when more players are fighting in team, with summoned creatures there can be like 15 fighters and in such case you get enough time to think about your move and to see what other people are doing.
The review did not mention the trade, its important to remember that almost all items in the game are made by players - weapons, armors, eatable, pots etc - so you need to start profession and sell your goods to earn money which again you spend on buying goods from other players. The professions are created in such way that its almost impossible to be successful on your own, if for example you are gathering items then you need to sell them to someone who can make stuff, if you are crafter then you need to buy resources. Luckily its very easy to set up your own shop and start selling.
The game features PvP fights too which I have less knowledge of, but I understand that you can choose your side (good or evil or something like that) and you are able to challenge other players into fights. Fighting against other human brain is always more rewarding then fighting against computer AI. But I must say the computer AI in Dofus is quite good, it is not too predictable and uses nice variety of available moves and spells so fighting solo monsters of your own level is not easy.
Awesome! I've been looking for another MMORPG to sink my fangs into after FFXI...thanks!
Another free mmorpg is Maple Story, though if you're not using ie, you can't get onto their site. You can get to it at www.mapleglobal.com , sort of kiddieish but fun. Another game I like is gunbound at www.softnyx.net I haven't tried out their new game as I don't really have the specs. Really like the site, and I've fallen in love with crywolf, keep up the good work.
Tonypa--
Thank for your input. I didn't have room in the review to mention everything in Dofus. Another cool feature is that you can leave your character(s) on-screen when you're offline to function as shops, selling items and raw materials in your inventory to online players at your chosen prices. So when you log on, you might have some new cash or items for your character, or to mail to another one of your characters.
The PvP function doesn't affect HP, EXP, or items (I don't think there's a wager feature, yet), and either player can back out in mid-fight without any consequences. So PvP is just for fun.
tonypa and Crickey:
Re: the combat engine and download size: my philosophy is that jayisgames is for mostly casual gaming. So to me, a serious MMORPG like WoW is worth the investment of time, HD space, and money; but a casual game like KoL seems more fitting, since it takes basically no space or money. Dofus is an in-betweener: Great graphics and gameplay for a Flash game, but not in the same commercial category as WoW or Ragnarok Online.
But this isn't to say many people won't find Dofus a lot enjoyable and hassle-free than WoW or Ragnarok!
I tried this game a while back but couldn`t get into it, I felt like I was just repeating myself over and over and over...
Is it true that Dofus has a million dollar budget? There was rumours about that. It's interesting to see what Flash is capable of, Dofus looked good alright.
I agree with tonypa that the pace of the battles aren't too fast. Often times I found myself simply relaxed and waiting for my turn to come up again, in a hurry to level up as fast as possible. Heck even on one-vs-one battles the faster I could finish the monster the better, although probably the best reason I would take my time if any would be to conserve health and maneuver a bunch for the more challenging monsters.
Anyway I got hooked pretty fast in the beta version.
One point that the reviewer mentioned that might throw people off, is what he said about not being able to see your, or other characters on the screen if there is a large item in the screen. This is a half truth which I had to figure out. There is an option which allows all characters to become partialy see through. But it simply means that all the characters can be seen through objects. I don't know why this isn't the standard setting. But it should be.
Wonderous sight Jay! (yes! I could use wonderous!)
After playing this game fairly intensively over the past few days, I have to say that I'm disappointed - it has a great deal of potential to be an excellent MMORPG (or MMOSRPG?), but I feel that the game still needs some major adjustments.
The biggest thing that disturbed me is that there is no moderation (GMs or otherwise) of any kind in the game, nor is there any "/ignore" or "/blacklist" feature. The only option that you're given to deal with a problem player is to set yourself as "away," which effectively prevents all players (including friends and party members) from trading, PvPing, or private messaging you. Unfortunately it doesn't do anything else but that, so you're still prone to spammers, pottymouths, racists, and similar problems in general chat. Also, any player can befriend you at any time, without your consent, and you never receive any notice when this happens. By doing so, they can detect when you're online with any of your characters on the same account, and they can see that character's name on their list...making this an excellent tactic for harrassers.
There is a lot of diversity between the classes because of their unique skillsets, but they are also inherently unbalanced; some classes are distinctly and unarguably more powerful than others at certain levels no matter what equipment you have or what skills you decided to focus on. Furthermore, the game definitely (and blatantly) punishes players who try to make their characters more balanced in terms of spreading out their attribute and skill points, rather than focusing on 1 statistic (or sometimes 1 primary stat and 1 secondary stat) and one skill in particular. As a result, many players feel that there is a specific "correct" way to develop each class...and for the most part, they're right.
I'll try the game again in a few months to see if the situation has improved; if it has, then it will definitely be worth the $8/mo (or however much it is) for all the extra goodies.
ZK has a point there... But I'm a member too and I'm completely hooked! Dofus is incredible.
Jay, do u have a character too? maybe we can do some exchanges, hehehe ;)
thanks anyway 4 this fine piece of game art!
I agree with ZK about the lack of moderation and general ways to avoid bad people. I cant say that I have met many such people, maybe its just my luck or I dont get offended too easily, but its true that language used in-game chat might not be good for children. There seem to be quite a lot of people in free area and the game is pretty empty in paying zones (I only know english server), also there are many non-english players (polish, russian, finnish, brazilian), who dont speak english at all or understand it very badly.
"The biggest thing that disturbed me is that there is no moderation (GMs or otherwise) of any kind in the game, nor is there any "/ignore" or "/blacklist" feature. The only option that you're given to deal with a problem player is to set yourself as "away," which effectively prevents all players (including friends and party members) from trading, PvPing, or private messaging you. Unfortunately it doesn't do anything else but that, so you're still prone to spammers, pottymouths, racists, and similar problems in general chat. Also, any player can befriend you at any time, without your consent, and you never receive any notice when this happens. By doing so, they can detect when you're online with any of your characters on the same account, and they can see that character's name on their list...making this an excellent tactic for harrassers."
well you could always try /invisible command which only allows those in _your_ friends list to pm you but you are correct, there should be some confirmation before someone can add you as a friend and also a blacklist option.
Oh, I didn't know such a command existed in the game, as it isn't in the list of available commands under the Help menu. Thanks for the info, quandry. :)
I'm having problems with the entire thing. When I go to the URL, I'm told that I need to download Flashplayer 7 but when I go to download it, it tells me it already is downloaded. What do I do? Email me or post here, please.
Ivvy, you not only need to download the installer file, but you also need to run it to install Flash Player on your computer. Simply double-click the installer file you downloaded.
It's a fairly automatic process once you kick it off, and you should be up and running in no time. =)
I've been playing this for a few days now. You can just jump in for an hour or so and if you do pay, the cost is still low enough to justify casual gaming. Those who come from a console RPG background should find the battle system fairly familiar.
I would say though that I've found the ingame tutorials/help to be abysmal, so I've ended up hunting around forums for info on even the most basic game mechanics as well as quests.
It could just be the newbie area I'm spending a lot of time in, but I'm also finding a lot of the players rather juevnile and a tad spiteful. Maybe that'll get better the further out I venture though.
Whew...I've been playing this for about a month now, and it's pretty darn good. There was an update (last Wednesday), adding new depth, a new class of character, and adjusted some classes to even out the playing field. ^_^
I'm usually on as "Haruk" (lvl 26 Sacier, Farmer(36) Baker(15)) in case anyone would like to go hunting, or whatever...=D
hey everyone this game is great but if you cant find a way to convince your parents to buy the subsciption then follow these simple guidelines,
1. get a free account with paypal (no credit card required)
2. go to http://www.treasuretrooper.com/63266 this is a website that pay you to take part in surveys etc after you complete a survey you get money for it (ranges from 50p to £80) then you get paid at the end of the month directly to your paypal account using your email (this is legit)
3. then play dofus for the rest of the year (depends how much money you earn from doing surveys)
yes it is that easy so far i have made £42.50
hope this helps.
Dofus Arena Beta has been realeased, and I must say: It is addictive! Very addictive! Anyways, great game.
do u have to sign up for treasure trooper to get the money to your paypal account and if u need to, how do you enter the information?
the restricted icon is annoying me but my parents won't pay for it
i want to visit Pandalwa and Amanka
hey guys.i've been playing this for a month. it's such a great game. i found this site: dofus-pro.com which is awesome. i bought myself a full Fire Kwak set. hope this will enhance your gaming experience too :)
There's nothing "pro" nor fun about buying items.
The reward is the journey, buying your way to level 100 won't bring much satisfaction :P
I don't recommend anyone go to www.dofus-pro.com or anything similar
I used to play DoFus for about 18 months before I gave up on it. I found it to be a buggy, unrewarding endeavor despite Ankama's best efforts. The French servers are okay, but some of the more American dominated servers (like Rushu), are home to alot of very aggressive, uncooperative, perhaps you could say even vindictive players.
It is definitely a game for those already familiar with MMORPG's and otherwise is not for everybody. Player discretion suggested.
AWESOME!!!!!!
nice game, i'll add it to my list of mmorpgs, thx for sharing this
I played Dofus For a good while--In fact i just quit recently--I got bored of it--although i will re-start my account when WAKFU is available
how do i get through the first part!!!! im new
dofus is the best game ever made and will be for ever it's my life. i played it sence it was made.
@crackler
Buying Kamas or sharing accounts isn't legal.
You might get a perma-ban for it.
I've been playing dofus for awhile now, and i know no ones read or posted in like a year but, all those flaws from before are gone.
1. there is a new "enemy" system where u can pretty much make people not see you online.
2. since the game has been out for a while, they decided to make "drops" where you can get items from enemy monsters f your prospecting is high enough(for example, if you are with 8 people you'll have in a group 800+ prospecting so if you fight a gobball you'll probably get a gobball key or a gobball ring) eliminating the problem where everyone had to work for there to be items in sellrooms.
3. monsters drop more kamas(money) than before so you don't have to work as much.
5. the game kiks but ^^
I believe I've been playing Dofus for more or less 2 years now, but everyday I find out that I learn something new about the game. It's quite fun actually.
The flaws that were there in the beginning of the game are gone.
The 2D problem and being "lost" behind a building is fixed with a transparent mode. However, Dofus is quickly changing, adapting and adding new features.
Quite often they will "nerf" a character or two. And with the new major update coming up every class will be a little different from before.
But even though sometimes I believe these changes are not always so great, I continue playing not only because of the game, but because of the way it brings people around the world together.
im trying to play dofus arena and its downloaded and everything but when i push play it goes full screen and says out of area im confused i need help i really want to play dofus arena
can any1 help me please..
i downloaded dofus. And i was playing about 1-2 months then i deleted it then downloaded the new christmas 1. Then played it once,then when i enter my pass it says valid username or pass so it gave me another pass. I tried that and it wont let me and i wo doing that repetedly and nothings happerning..
please help!
Yorkie, you'll probably get more help from the Dofus site itself, either check the forums for help or put in a support call. There also may be a forgotten password feature (I haven't played that game in about a year so I don't remember).
http://community.dofus.com/
I played. And i treid to get on again D: AND my email XD ;P
I was rich like lvl 40 50 odd and has awesome gear.
had subscriptions lol :P
OH WELL D:
I love Dofus. It's my favorite game. Except when I try to login, it says server not found. Please help.
Another often-overlooked point about this game being Flash-based is that it's therefore playable on Linux (or Mac, or presumably any other Flash-supporting platform). I don't want to boot Windows just to play *any* game. This is the only MMORPG I've found that (a) works on Linux, and (b) doesn't totally suck in terms of both graphics and gameplay. It's not that the graphics are great, but I'm amazed and disgusted by what other people are squeezing out as purported alternatives. The Java-based games in particular do a great job of casting doubt on the claim that Java can be as fast as native code or even Flash. I'm not a MMORPG afficionado, so I can't make comparisons regarding gameplay, but so far - only a couple of nights in the free areas - it seems rich and engaging enough to me.
I think Amakna hates Xelors. Have you seen the male 2.0 sprites and the nerfs to their spells?
if they say server not found you say wait and try again until you enter.
Update