Dream of Mirror Online

In an effort to expand my experience with MMOs I decided to dive deeper into the ‘free to play’ category with hopes that I could find a diamond in the rough. I wasn’t looking for a serious game that required my full attention nor one that would require multiple hours per day to advance. However, I didn’t want a game that was too shallow and lacking any immersion. I wanted a real game world with attention to detail. I wanted graphics that were tolerable. Gameplay had to be more than point and click and character development needed to feel complex enough to inspire. With these parameters I began my search and found, hopefully, a match.

Dream of Mirror Online, or DOMO for short, caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting to find a game meeting even half those requirements. DOMO meets each and every one of them; albeit not with flying colors, but to some degree. Character creation was simple but gave enough options to feel satisfied. There are hair options, face options, height and width options, and that’s about it. In DOMO you can choose from four races; each looking cute and original. I decided to pick a short stocky little man that I don’t think was Human, but the other race of warrior-esque people.

Like many games I made my start in a tutorial town all to myself. I was given simple quests with simple objectives and provided plenty of tutorial-type hints. The first series of quests asked me to kill little cute pigs called Pupu then Flying Pupu. It was the classic Kill X Mob then return but I was told by the quest NPC that the more bones I bring back the better my reward will be; that’s a first. I spent about 5 minutes killing Pupu before deciding I wanted to advance out of the tutorial and into the real game.

Here’s where DOMO packs the biggest surprising punch. The game places you immediately into a large and populated city that feels alive. in a cell shaded animation anime art style the game can’t help itself – it’s just so darn forgiving. With the art style they didn’t have to focus on tiny details but instead were able to expand upon a grander scale and really envelope the player into this immersive world. The city is really big compared to most starter cities or even any major cities in subscription 3d MMOs. There were shops, quests npcs, and dynamic story arcs everywhere. Just to throw an example, there is an Inn offering quests dealing with the owner’s wife being sick. From there I think it chains off into some eventual cellar dungeon. Another example is the first series of quests I found at the planetarium that asked me to go gather medicine ingredients. Some of these ingredients though came from the sewers/well in the town and to get there I have to complete a series of quests from another NPC to get rope. Basically I felt like I had objectives and purpose. I didn’t feel like I had to grind (surprising for a free eastern inspired MMO).

I’ve experience a lot already having spent a great deal of time killing Pupu’s and other mobs outside the gates of the city and slimes in the Well. I’m level 10 and haven’t even picked my class yet! I’m still unsure as to how this system works but right now I am a level 10 Citizen. From here I think I have to choose a class and do quests for the class trainer. Hopefully a kind soul in-game will direct me towards one of these trainers or one of my readers can offer me a tip.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of DOMO and experiencing a side to massively multiplayer online games that, until now, I thought held little to no depth. I am so far pleasantly surprised.