Review Submitted By: Rabite Slayer
Author Status: Player
Started on The Unofficial Squaresoft MUD: 2007
Submission Date: Feb 25, 2010
TMC Listing: The Unofficial Squaresoft MUD
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Rabite Slayer]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
As a long time fan of Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and other
classic Square Enix games, UOSSMUD is probably the most wonderfully
nostalgic online game - MUD or otherwise - that I have ever played.
You use a job system straight out of the game with the best job
system ever made: Final Fantasy Tactics. Except, not entirely. Where
the skills from FFT don't translate well to a MUD, or where it would
simply be interesting or beneficial to do so, they add in classic
Final Fantasy skills from other games, such as some of Final Fantasy
9's Knight and Dragoon skills, some of Sabin's skills from FF6 in
the Monk job, a large number of FF5 skills, and even some entire jobs
that weren't in Final Fantasy Tactics, such as Red Mage, Blue Mage,
Marksman, Magitek Knight, SOLDIER, and Trainer.
Similarly, the worlds in this MUD are all straight out of old
Squaresoft games. You can explore all of Final Fantasy 5, 6, and 7,
Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana. And they are AMAZINGLY accurate to
the original Super Nintendo and Playstation games. Uncannily so. If
you have played the original games, you will never get lost.
With that in mind, they didn't really have to put a lot of work into
making the game *good*. It was enough for me that it was so much like
the games I loved. But they did it anyway. The wizards at this MUD
have actually put a huge amount of work into the game to make it fun
and entertaining. Not all of their decisions are popular, but overall
they've managed to combine systems from many different Squaresoft
games to create something that somehow manages to feel unique and fun.
One of the best examples of this is the fur shop. An ability from
Final Fantasy Tactics that lets players skin monsters as they're
slain was added last year, and works in conjunction with the license
system from Final Fantasy 12 and the synthesis system from Kingdom
Hearts to let the player create powerful equipment if they're willing
to put in the work. That sounds convoluted, and is a little
complicated, but it works together better than I thought it would.
There are a lot of examples of this type of thing, though some of them
work better than others. There are a few miserable failures, like the
Deep Dungeon and certain quests, but I just ignore those parts of the
game. (And, hey, maybe someone likes the impossible quests...)
If there's one problem with this MUD, it's the animosity between
the immortals and some of the older players. It gets ridiculous
sometimes, as they're both apparently convinced the other is trying
to destroy the MUD and/or murder a litter of orphaned kittens, and
they will scream at each-other for a while before I get sick of
listening and turn the channel off. If they could shut up once in a
while I might stay online for longer. But as long as no one is arguing
incoherently about tedious BS, it's a high quality MUD with a
fantastic sense of nostalgia.
