Let’s take a peek through some MMOs you’ve never heard of or have totally forgotten about. The tinier and more obscure, the better, we say!
Astonia
MMO Fallout put Astonia back on our radar, as we hadn’t mentioned it since April of last year. It was originally launched in 1998 and went through several iterations until 2014, when the original developer apparently open-sourced the project. That’s led to multiple restoration attempts, including Astonia: The Return of Yendor and most recently Astonia Resurgence this past May. Both are free-to-play on Steam.
Guardians of Cloudia
Guardians of Cloudia is completely new to us: It’s a Chinese mobile MMO from Neocraft that has now launched on Android and iOS. It’s got everything from marriage and PvP to dungeons and pets. “In Guardians of Cloudia, Skywalkers can become one of five basic classes — Archer, Oracle, Mage, Rogue, or Swordsman — then branch out towards one of two advanced classes, giving players the opportunity to specialize in up to ten different classes like the Sharpshooter, Pyromage, or Destroyer,” Neocraft says. “The game also features a unique runes system that allows Skywalkers to improve their stats beyond their standard gear and a full range of customization options.”
Elethor
We learned about this game thanks to a developer spotlight on the MMORPG Reddit. It’s actually a text-based browser MORPG (not a MUD), with a focus on RPG progression, offline/idle play, and farming. Not that kind of farming. Signups are free on the official site.
Lands of Kehliel
Lands of Kehliel’s latest dev blog has a bit of bad news. “We still haven’t found an investor to backup our game,” the studio wrote at the end of May. “As finding an investor might still take a while, we would like to shift back most of our attention to the development itself instead of the business side so we can deliver the game by 2023.” The team is promising more in-game footage in the meantime. As we noted at the tail end of 2020, Lands of Kehliel was planned as a PvP open world MMORPG focused on competition.
Spot another obscure MMORPG we should take note of? Drop us a tip!
