Lost Ark: More Than Just a Diablo Clone

As Google and Apple entered the lucrative world of online games, Amazon wasn’t about to get left behind. However, it faced one major challenge: it didn’t have the same breadth of titles as Stadia or Apple Arcade. 

So what did Amazon do? If you can’t beat them in quantity, beat them with quality.

And so now, we in the West finally have Lost Ark.

“The Diablo Clone You Can’t Play”

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of Lost Ark. In case you haven’t, here’s a quick recap.

The game is a free-to-play MMO that launched in 2019 in South Korea. It is an isometric action RPG set in the same vein as Diablo. Published by South Korean game developer Smilegate, it quickly became one of the country’s top hits, and went to even greater success in Japan and Russia.

Fast forward to 2021. As Apple, Google, and even Netflix get into online games, Amazon brought out its own heavy artillery. As one of its major headliners, why not localize a game that’s already popular in other markets?

And that’s where Lost Ark came in. After teasing a beta in summer last year, it finally launched the full game in North America and Europe last month. Within a week, Lost Ark shot to the top spot in Steam, with over 1 million concurrent players making it the most concurrently played game to date on the Steam platform.

What’s It All About?

Lost Ark takes place in Arkesia, a Diablo-like realm that’s been overrun by Diablo-like demons. Players are tasked with searching for the titular Lost Ark in order to save the world and turn back the demonic hordes where they came from.

There are five character classes to start with, each of which multiply into specialized variants once you’ve leveled up. In contrast to most RPGs, there are no dedicated tanks in the game –  this can be achieved by leveling up specific subclasses to take on the tank role (more on this later). For example, the Warrior class is divided into three subclasses: the offensive Berserker, the bullet-sponge Gunlancer, and the Paladin support unit.

For meticulous players, there are plenty of systems, experience bars, and other progress fillers. One example is a relationship system that keeps track of how close you are with other NPCs, to the point of forming romantic relationships. However, more casual players can choose to ignore these micro bars and focus on the combat and story.

Currencies and Items Galore

While casual players can choose to ignore the dizzying array of status bars, they can’t do the same for the game’s equally overwhelming array of resources. There’s the standard gold and silver, which are earned through playing; pheons, yet another currency; and Royal Crystals, which are used for cosmetic items and which can only be obtained by spending real bucks. And these are different from Crystals, which are earned by going on quests or raids. Then there’s Pirate Coins, yet another currency that comes into play once you reach the naval exploration stage, and which are used for leveling up the ship and crew.

While the game is free-to-play, it doesn’t shy away from a bit of pay-to-win tactics. Crystals are used to buy potions like Phoenix Plumes, which instantly revive characters should they die. So if you’re willing to spend roughly a real-world quarter every time you die, then death becomes largely irrelevant in the story.

And then there’s the plethora of items. Apart from typical loot like weapons and potions, there’s an avalanche of objects in the gameworld that serve no discernable purpose but to litter the environment with useless items. While level completists will have a field day, for most players the clutter can be just as overwhelming as the status bars and currencies.

Clickfest Combat

Like most MMOs, combat is pretty much a clickfest affair. Your character gets a limited number of abilities to start with, which you can chain together to form powerful combo attacks. These are best reserved when facing tight waves of enemies, especially in close combat situations where demons outnumber you a dozen to one.

While combat is pretty straightforward, the interface is not: the point-and-click attack is not always accurate, so that your combos sometimes end up being wasted on empty space instead of felling a pack of demons grouped together (Pro-tip: this is where the controller support shines).

Chaos Dungeons throw waves of enemies at players, and are much more challenging than field battles. But the Raid levels are the more exciting part of the game, where players need to use flares to locate targets and must conserve their limited amount of healing potions throughout the level.

Once you’ve dealt with the underlings, the boss battles themselves are often standard affairs – just huge creatures with multiple health bars you need to whittle down. In the latter levels, some bosses do present more challenging combat that require specific abilities and meticulous timing to defeat. For instance, it took several tries to get past Rekiel of Despair, since he’s protected by a shield that renders attacks useless while making his attacks hit harder at the same time. I finally figured out the mix of abilities needed to drop the shield, so I can hit him with a Stagger attack and bring down that smug demon face for good.

Leveling Up

One area where Lost Ark shines is skill progression. While most RPGs simply provide attack, defense or movement upgrades, Lost Ark takes it a step further by letting players choose the skills they wish to upgrade with their passive abilities. You can allot your abilities into extended attacks, quicker recharging timers, buffs, combos, and modifiers to your heart’s content.

Another innovative aspect is the ability to swap skills and edit passive abilities at any time. This allows you to tailor your character class based on the level and the environment. For instance, a field combat setting may call for a ranged and balanced setup between offensive and defensive abilities, while on a dungeon slog you may want to focus on shield and faster healing.

Since the game lacks a dedicated tank class, it’s up to players to craft their own, or to assign a tank-like role within the group.

Fun on the High Seas

Another area that sets Lost Ark apart from other RPGs is naval combat.

Once you unlock ships after about 10 hours of gameplay, the map dramatically opens up. You can actually explore anywhere you want, but you may want to stay closer to home until you level up to at least 50 since a lot of the map can be pretty challenging.

The sailing mechanics are designed to be simple yet enjoyable, doing away with much of the ship movement details so players can focus on exploration and naval battles. While it’s not as detailed as, say, Pillars of Eternity 2 (another isometric RPG with open-world sailing), you still need to attend to ship basics like maintenance and resupplies.

Instead of just being another bland environment to traverse, the high seas itself is alive in Lost Ark. You can go fishing, discover whales, go on a treasure hunt, encounter ghost ships, and run into environmental hazards like rough seas and sandstorms.

Diverse Environments

While most of the game’s story plays out in scripted events and dungeons, there are plenty of breathtaking environments to journey, explore and do battle. Once you’ve reached the high seas, you can practically go anywhere as long as your character’s level is up to the task.

There’s the remote high-tech continent of Arthetine, and the giant Dune-like worms of Yudia. There’s the siege of the Glorious Wall, where you assault the battlements with NPCs or fellow human players just like in Lord of the Rings, and the memorable battle at the King’s Tomb.

Thanks to its wide scope, even a couple hundred hours of gameplay still isn’t enough to fully explore all of the continents, ensuring longevity and replayability even after the player’s initial character has been maxed out.

Plenty of Hits and a Few Misses

While the game brings plenty to the MMORPG table, it does have a few rough edges.

For one, character classes are locked into genders at the moment. All Berserkers are male, while Mages are female. At least the character’s skin is much more inclusive, using a color wheel rather than limited palettes.

Second is the number of currencies, which can be a royal pain. Keeping track of, and trying to earn, all that gold, silver, crystals, and pirate coins, can be daunting at times.

The same can be said for the game’s UI. There are times when information like status bars, tooltips, and mechanics can be dizzying and overwhelming for players just looking for a little hack and slash fun.

Finally there’s the repetitiveness. All RPGs have grinding by nature, and Lost Ark is no different. Quests can be repetitive, and most boss battles seem particularly uninspired. Expect to do a lot of rehashed quests and dungeon battles, until you finally reach the naval stage and other continents open up.

Final Thoughts

Lost Ark has been derided as a Diablo clone, something to fill up the void while fans wait for that eternally delayed game. But clearly it’s so much more. The sheer scale and diversity of the environments, the naval component, the freedom to mix and match abilities to build your own character class and tailor it for specific quests – all these up to a game that stands up in its own right.

Lost Ark offers plenty of gameplay to keep players coming back for more. The only question is whether it can sustain its popularity in the face of stiff RPG competition, including Amazon’s other RPG, New World.