NCSOFT’s Lineage Red Knight (LRK) gives players a new perspective of the renowned Lineage franchise. Whilst fans will be somewhat familiar with certain aspects of the game, newcomers will be able to appreciate the RPG elements of Lineage Red Knights (LRK). Players control 1-out-of-3 main characters (Similar to Guardian Stone), Vashu – your typical Tank/Bruiser, Lara – Archer and finally Ashley – Mage. Alongside the main character, players will be able to choose up to 3 pets to complete their team. These pets are attained via the game’s drawing system which gives players Soulstones, collect enough Soulstones for one pet and you’ll be able to summon it (more details further down). In LRK new players will have to set raising their Account Level as a high priority since the Account Level directly affects the “level cap” of your main characters and your pets.
Graphics & Sounds
The most obvious surprise to LRK is its stunning graphics that makes it incredibly satisfying to watch. For those with the hardware to support it, running on full-spec is definitely a worthwhile experience despite the battery drainage. The smooth transition between auto-attacks and active skills designed with “flashy, but not over-the-top” skill animations brings each battle to life, giving players a recollection of the classic Lineage releases.
All characters are fully voiced with unique personalities that fit their model designs. Rich background music sets the mood for different stages and boss fights, giving players an swelling feeling of anticipation upon each new encounter.
Gameplay
To match their mind-blowing graphics, LRK has an equally enriched gameplay. The main PvE content is the “Story” which features your everyday stages with easy, normal and hard difficulties in which players may need to unlock. different stages holds different drops, which I’ll go in to more depth later. Within each stage player sometimes come across other player’s exploration parties and will be presented with an option between Pillage and Cancel. If you choose to Pillage, you will face off against the exploration party. Of course, winning will grant you additional loot…
but for new players its much better to cancel.
Asides from the main story, there are Time Rifts, your average daily dungeons, Boss Raids and Tower of Insolence. Time Rifts rewards players with different rewards which are all related to the main character transformation.
For Tower of Insolence, players will climb the tower to earn rewards to help them progress in the game. As you ascend higher, the stages will become progressively stronger and the rewards will also increase progressively.
As mentioned earlier, collecting Soulstones allows you to summon different pets to add to your party. However, Soulstones also serve a greater purpose other than just to summon! In LRK, each pet is a potential 6 star and in order to raise the star of your pet, players will have to use more of the pet’s required Soulstone. Obviously, the higher the star the more Soulstones you will need for the next level.
To make your pets stronger, players can also use “Transmute”. Remember how different stages have different drops? These drops are used in Transmute to increase the rarity of your pet. Much like an increase in stars, an increase in rarity raises the stats of your pet, but most importantly unlocks new skills for your pet as well.
The requirements for Transmute varies according to the pet you want to raise, this makes farming in LRK somewhat more motivating and purposeful than in other games. Instead of constantly farming for the same things over and over again, players can look for specific stages to farm for exactly what they need. However, players will only be able to challenge Normal difficulty stages 3 times per day, if there’s something you need from a specific stage but you’ve already used up all your daily tries, you’ll have to wait until the next day, or buy them with diamonds. p.s To save time you can always ‘Sweep’ through stages after you have completed the stage with 3 star rating.
Another method of obtaining materials is through Exploration. After completing the story stages for each zone, players can send exploration parties as an alternative method to collect materials and consumables.
PvP
Currently the game features 2 PvP options, Colosseum and Guild Wars. In Collosseum players will face off other player’s teams with their own team in a fully auto battle, similar to Seven Knight’s Arena. Guild War is a little more complex. First off, in order to participate in Guild Wars players must be in a guild which is Level 3 or above. Participating in Guild War isn’t just winning battles, but more like playing a co-op game of Civilization. Players will have to cooperate closely with your guild mates to capture points in the map. For Beginners, Battle is not a high priority since your account lvl has to reach 22 before you unlock it…
Summoning
Summoning in LRK is split into 2 categories, the Summonstone and the Premium Summon Stone. Whilst the Summonstone uses gold, the Premium Summonstone uses diamonds, the premium currency of LRK. Every day the player is granted 5 free summons from the Summonstone which can reward players with Soulstones, Materials and Consumables. The Premium Summonstone is more specific, giving players only Pets and Soulstones as well as Blessstones which is used to Bless your pets (another raise in stats).
Despite the difficulty in building a strong team with the game’s summoning system, LRK is definitely worth spending time into if you’re looking for something new to play. Just the overwhelming graphics is enough to give this game a try, but LRK is more than just pretty graphics, the sheer amount of things to do in game is enough to keep you busy for a good amount of time. Progressing through the main story alone is enough to build your main party to a decent level making the game quite friendly to casual gamers who just wants something to kill time whilst commuting.
