What’s the common denominator for pirates, assassins, fire mages, space troopers, vikings and comic book heroes? At first glance, not much. But all of these characters have served a significance in their own way. These are all historical figures, heroes so to say, albeit some of them imaginary.

Now, as imaginary fights go, these guys sound like an incredible match. How would your ninja hold out against my magician?

In this gaming pseudo-reality where you can play such fighting games online, you can find out! It’s ridiculously easy to spoil a good idea in the execution phase – history has left us a trail of mediocre games as proof – but OGPlanet has pulled it off.

Lost Saga

The freeware gaming industry hasn’t exactly been kind to us fans of fighting games. Pretty much all we’ve ever seen are sad copies of retail titles, or dull and otherwise repetitive ‘originals’. Thanks to OGPlanet, we’ve finally got a reason to cheer. Lost Saga might well be the best MMO brawling game that we’ve seen so far.

Lost Saga is a solid mix of society’s biggest icons, a fighting ring, and a big ol’ bottle of entropy. The result is a fast-paced multiplayer fighting game; chaos in fluidity. Contrary to most other competitors in the free fighting genre, Lost Saga has enough refreshing elements to keep the adrenaline juices flowing. Like every game, it isn’t perfect, but you can expect to have a great, exciting time.

Multiplayer Brawl Modes

The game offers a number of different game modes, ranging from Team Match to Death Match, and even includes a Boss Raid, where a number of ‘real’ players are teamed up against an enormous computer-controlled monster. The games can be played with up to 16 players, which, considering the small-sized maps, definitely begets some entertaining chaos and entropy.

All of these games center around basic hack ‘n slash and brawling games. The nature of the fight is largely determined by the gear and the classes of the fighters, although the latter ones are largely reserved for micro-transaction play. Intertwined with classic brawl are elements of RPG and classic MMO, like gaining experience and leveling individual characters.

Cacophony Of Heroes & Abilities

As I said, Lost Saga centers around the heroes of human and fictional history. You’ll encounter known characters from the past, like revolution freedom fighters and vikings, and other influential icons. These can range from Star Wars-like space troopers to dark shaman magicians, and even includes Robin Hood. All of them know different abilities, which can be further customized by purchasing additional gear. Even in-game, you have the ability to switch between two classes.

At present, there are 23 different characters available, but OGPlanet plans to eventually increase this to 100 symbolical figures.

Sadly, not all of these characters are just for grabs when you first play this fighting game online. You start out with a single hero, the Shadow Assassin, and gradually unlock additional characters during gameplay. These other characters can be taken for a two hour trial run before they’re reclaimed and available ‘for hire’ via micro-transactions. Mind, Lost Saga only counts the actual fighting time, and ignores time offline or even spent in the lobby.

Luckily, us free gamers still get plenty of diversity in gameplay. Although we can’t exactly take all of those additional characters on a spree, we can still access some of their special abilities. When playing, you’ll sometimes encounter the gear of other characters which, in exchange for a piece of your own gear, can bestow new abilities on you. As such, it isn’t strange to see a Shadow Assassin throwing magic flames, or sniping a rifle. In a way, the micro-transaction system can be considered an a la carte mercenary hiring system, where free players must be content with the menu, and any extras that haphazardly come their way.

Tell us your thoughts on massive multiplayer online fighting games, and Lost Saga in particular, in the comments section below!

Minimum Requirements
CPU: Pentium III (800Mhz or above)
Ram: 256M or above
GPU: GeForce2 MX or above

Recommended Requirements
CPU: Pentium IV (2Ghz or above)
Ram: 512M or above
GPU: GeForce 6600 or above