Aura Kingdom

Aura Kingdom is a Free to Play Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game that I became addicted to when I quit World of Warcraft.  It's very low-budget compared to other MMOs, and if you're not careful, it can make you broke, but it's been a huge source of comfort since leaving WoW.  It has brightly colored, anime style graphics, cute, generic anime player characters, adorable animal monsters, flashy but simple combat, and a simple storyline.

When I say it's low budget, I mean there are a lot of places where the developers cut corners.  They recycle NPCs, monsters, set dressings, icons, dungeon maps, almost everything.  The only things that don't get recycled are costumes and Eidolons.  These are their two moneymakers, so this is what they spend the most time and development on.  Costumes are the appearance of clothes your player character is wearing.  Eidolons are essentially combat pets you collect and level up to increase your power.  Eidolons are inspired by characters from fairytales and mythology, and usually take the form of attractive warriors.

In spite of being low budget and focused on Eidolon sales, I still enjoy this game very much.  The tab-targeting and hotkey combat system is very similar to WoW, which is good for me, because I learned how to play MMOs in WoW.  In addition to leveling up, and collecting Eidolons and costumes, there are a number of professions you can level up in Aura Kingdom, and I enjoy most of them.  Fishing is my favorite, it's a minigame that can be played at selected locations, usually a beach, river, or lake.  There is fishing gear, that you can only obtain by fishing more fishes.  You can display your most impressive fish catches as trophies in your home.  Oh yes!  You have your own customizable home in Aura Kingdom, and I love mine very much.  Furniture crafting is one of the professions you can level up in the game, and the more furniture you craft, the better furniture you unlock.  Other professions available include alchemy, cooking, archaeology, and gathering.  Cooking is a particularly tough minigame.

Would I recommend this game to a friend?  I'm not sure.  It has it's ups and downs for sure.  You can complete most of the story content with only one eidolon, which you get for free every time you create your character, but it is terribly easy to feel the need to purchase them all, and that can get very expensive.  The gameplay itself is rather simple, which I personally enjoy, but others can find very boring after a while.  If you just want to play through a story, I recommend stopping at level 80.  The primary story wraps up there, and the content added after seems... not as relevant to the original story.