Ether Saga Online, from Perfect World Entertainment, is one of those odd games that you suddenly find yourself playing one night. Granted, I lurk around several Free-2-Play sites so nothing much gets past me, but I did not think I would find what I did when I looked at this one.

Let's start with the bad stuff, so we can just get it out of the way and go on with the good.
Most MMORPG's now-a-days are based around combat, or at least combat is the primary vehicle to gain levels, XP, or fame. Typically, you go out and kill things. Many things. Sometimes, very many things.

Ether Saga blows away most of that and says, "Go out and kill...more than you could have possibly imagined." If there were blood in this game, my character would be drenched in it. Literally, you will be shooting, stabbing and zapping thousands of monsters throughout your time in Ether Saga. That's not as bad as it sounds, being that mobs not only grouped conveniently together but also have seconds-long respawn timers, so, you can find the mob you need to kill and stand there while the guts pile up.

I would have preferred longer battles with fewer enemies, but hey, it's all killin' huh?

The art-style of the game might throw some people off. It is typical anime wackiness, bright colors and squeaky voices bubbling with cuteness. In addition, there are still some issues with translations. Not many, mind you, but they stick out pretty bad. Moreover, some of the NPC's still speak a foreign language, although I kind of like that.

The UI is, in a word, bloated, packed, even Chocked Full O' Stuff, actually that is more than one word, anyway. There are excessively huge buttons and windows. The first thing I did in game was to attempt to take away some of the clutter, some of which will not go away.

Therefore, yes, Ether Saga is in many ways a typical Asian F2P grind fest complete with click-to-movement and huge, annoyingly cute monsters and avatars.

So I cannot give you an entirely accurate review, being that the last thing I can do in this world is sit down during my precious several hours of gaming per week to kill mobs, over and over and over and over and over. I cannot do it. I will not do it. I have not achieved max level and have not yet seen all the high-level content. It is there, it is waiting, but there is a giant wall of mob guts to get through first. It will take me a while.

However, the game has something more than that. It has an interesting setting, and amazing graphics. Oh, the graphics! To be honest, I am never much of an "achiever" in MMORPGs anyway, being that I do stuff like run around for two entire gaming sessions (about 5 hours total) taking screenshots of my avatar waving in front of beautiful scenery. Ether Saga has loads of beautiful scenery! I would like to meet the artists that made this game and firmly shake their hands, then apologize to for having hands covered in bright pink and blue guts.

There are so many interesting systems, many of which I have not experienced yet:

Crafting is not usually one of my things, but you can get some really good stuff from crafting. By "good stuff," I mean as good as you can get from killing loads of mobs. You get materials from the environment or from mobs, and it is not hard to get yourself some very nice upgrades faster than you would just from murdering cartoon mushrooms all day.

Running adventures is fun, too. Essentially, they are an instanced dungeon that you can join with random people or can run with your friends, as many times as you would like. I tried them several times and had some fun times. I had some aggravating times too but mostly fun.

PvP is a newly added feature, one that I have not experienced yet, but there is an upcoming content patch called "Sky Castle" which promises great risk with some nice rewards. I will jump into this when I am not busy being a Carebear.

Then there is the pet system. The pets in Ether Saga are varied and beautiful and some of the higher-level monsters are truly remarkable looking. They will help you fight and kill many of their brethren and if you happen to come across one that you really like, (instead of wanting to stab) then you can tame it and make it your own.

There is also an interesting "paper/rocks/scissors" style weakness/strength system to combat that, once learned, can help you determine what kind of monsters are weak to what kind of attacks. It is not very obvious at first, and I am still figuring it out, but I have been advised to get very familiar with it.

One of the most fun things to do in game is to transform into monsters that you see in the world using cards that the monsters drop as loot. You can run around fighting as the monster, and it can really be thrilling to run around as some of the fantastic mobs you usually are busy stabbing. The animations are fluid and you might find yourself standing still just to see what the creature might do when going into "idle" mode.

You can also unlock achievements, explore, role-play (yes I said role-play in a F2P game) or spend lots of cash in the cash shop. The cash shop features mostly cosmetic items, but does have many "XP Potion" type items that affect only you and your character. The mounts are the true shining star of the cash shop, though. They are not only amazing looking, but can run or fly you around your adventures. I spend several evenings during beta flying around exploring with wings made of fire.

Another nice thing to see is the accessibility that is built in. Granted, being accessible to disabled players is not something they planned for, but it is a "happy consequence" that disabled players will find the game easier to play.

There is click-to-move, click-on-the-map-to-move, click-on-the-quest-text-to-to-the-area-to-move, and click-on-the-mini-map-to-move. That's a lot of clicking-to move. Standard on-screen keyboards work for communication, and the game runs on lower-end systems for disabled players whose budgets might be more-than-pinched.

To sum up, Ether Saga will not surprise that many of you that have tried several F2P Asian grind houses. Nevertheless, give it a moment or two more. Do not just enjoy the many nuances of customizing your character, from the abilities and weapons to the clothing, but also spend an evening just looking at the details like the water effects, the costume designs, or the mounts. To be honest, the game is one of the most beautiful I have ever played.

Moreover, yes, the combat is typical "kill 10 rats" stuff times 100, but it is intense and I actually enjoy an evening of mindless killing. It helps that most of your victims are so cute that you really would not mind gutting them, either. The magic effects are top-notch, and besides a few rare exceptions, a color-blind player would have no issues seeing most of the colors in Ether's palette, mostly because they are so bright and wacky that colors like this have never been conceived before.

There seems to be something behind the "super cute" Anime thing, too. I mean, is it any different from those silly Goth rabbit "I hate you" t-shirts, or any different from Tim Burtons "cute but creepy" style?

It is really all from the same school of thought, that school that says that something can be so cute that it just has to kill you. Ever see a bundle of kittens and you swear that if you do not look away that your head will explode?

Same concept with Ether Saga.

So go download it, give it a look around. I will more than likely be flying around on a giant fish-mobile while taking screenshots. You can stay down there and grind, if you want, but I prefer to explore this amazing looking game.