Remember DFO? Probably not. In any case, after that first post about starting, I’m now two weeks into this game. How far have I gotten? What cool stuff can I do now? See inside!

So last time, I left off after having made a Male Slayer. Sure, DNF has Female Slayer, Knight, and those two other weirdos, I like Male Slayer for the Soul Bender subclass, the one I had progressed furthest (in terms of gear) with before Nexon America closed down the game.

Despite the apparent confirmation of illegitimacy in above screenshot, I definitely knew what I was doing with my Soul Bender at the time. Of note is the Soul Chaser in the sixth item shortcut and a near 6-piece Tombstone of Oblivion set.

What I don’t have, unfortunately, are all the PVP wins I’ve got. At the end of my run, I was well on my way to hitting Hero 1, although getting to Hero 2 would have been the real identifier. But whatever, that’s enough tooting of my horn. Onto the main subject.

In any case, I start the Soul Bender to-be and begin taking screenshots in terrible-quality JPG format.

The grind was definitely less painful than I remember it being, but that was probably due to the world overhaul that made everything that much less familiar that I remembered the game to be. Still, having remembered much of the basic mechanics of the game helped immensely, and I could clumsily brute force my way through what I didn’t understand.

Some of the maps were somewhat familiar to the old ones I remember, but these new variants also included neat gimmicks that you would usually find in classic arcade beat-’em-ups.

So with new elements in an old game to enjoy, I’ve managed to play mostly every day in an attempt to hit cap (not particularly) as fast as possible.

Aside from missing one or two days of FP bar (curse you, 2.2 and the Atma grind!), I have managed to achieve level 45, unlocking Kalla (one of the reasons why I made a Soul Bender, or whatever the unofficial translation is) and progressing a little over halfway through to level cap.

Really though, I had hit 45 with only enough FP left to run a single dungeon once; still, it was worth that single run seeing as Kalla itself was changed.

The finisher is the same as I remember – you either pop the buff before it runs out to immediately end its effects, or you naturally let it run out without using the finisher – and it’s still as flashy as it was before.

What changed this time was its combo with Possession: with Possession and Kalla both on, your default auto-attack reverts to a three-hit string (versus the four-hit with only Possession on) that generates a large arc in front of it as well as firing Kalla’s fireballs forward.

It’s definitely not what I’m used to, but I like the new change.

The skill menu is terrific though – outlining prerequisites much more clearly and allowing for changes on the fly outside of dungeons.

In any case, 45 onward is apparently supposed to be where the grind really begins. If I can get past that, then it should just be smooth sailing from there to cap and endgame gear grinds.

Having basically no avatars is suffering though.