Neo Steam Questing
So, I sat down to play some more Neo Steam, with the intent to get some more leveling done. One of my goals was to hit level 20 by the end of Open Beta, so that I could be entered into the drawing for a pair of Neo Steam steampunk goggles. I was at level 14 at the start of the evening, however, and didn’t anticipate reaching that goal in a single evening.
(Spoiler Warning: Some events of the Elerd story quests may be revealed in this post, so if you wish to avoid such spoilers, you may wish to not read further.)
As the evening progressed, however. I ended up doing quest after quest. Especially once the story quests started with the delivery of a certain letter I had received a while back. After that, I was hooked, engrossed in the story that was unfolding through the story quests. The primary reason I have played through most JRPGs is for the story, I loved the stories that unfolded as I explored and played through the game. And this was no different.
I found that I was continuing with quest after quest in this story quest chain, wanting to see what was going to happen next. Starting from a case of mistaken identity resulting in requests for help in certain (seemingly) semi-classified matters, things blossomed into full-on recruitment into the Dragon Knights, and further responsibilities in missions of subterfuge.
Soon enough, I had hit my goal of level 20, but I still wanted to play, as there was more story out there for me to discover. I kept playing, and playing until I had hit level 23. Finally at around 6 AM, I had to get to sleep, so my questing stopped for now. ;)
The great thing is, that I never felt like I was “grinding.” Sure I was leveling up quite a bit (9 levels total), but I was having fun and being engaged the entire time. Of course, there were frustrations in trying to track down some of the quest mobs, or getting my face eaten by something much higher level than me when I went the wrong way… but I wasn’t bored!
I do hope that Neo Steam is still able to maintain my interest through this fun engaging content throughout the level curve, but we’ll have to see. Megaten had a couple of annoying places where you had to level at least 5 levels between quests in their storyline content, and said content only lasted into the (level) 30s, IIRC. I’m hoping Neo Steam’s engaging story content will last longer. ^_^
Tags: beta, mmo, Neo Steam, Video Games
