Fantasy Online 2 looks like the sort of game I could have easily lost hours to years ago.
Bright pixel graphics, a simple fantasy soundtrack, little characters pottering around an online world, quests to complete, gear to collect and other players wandering past doing their own thing. There is a nostalgic charm to it that does a lot of the heavy lifting early on.
And there is definitely something relaxing about the whole experience.
Movement could hardly be simpler. Point where you want to go, click, and off your little hero trots. Double-click an enemy, and you start attacking. Hover over equipment, and you can quickly check the important stats before deciding whether the latest bit of tat you have picked up is actually better than the tat you are currently wearing.
It is easy to understand.
Maybe a little too easy.
The tutorial seems to clock off before you do
The opening does a reasonable job of introducing you to the basics.
You follow tracks around the map, bouncing from one objective to another while the game starts introducing its systems. Then, fairly suddenly, those tracks disappear, and Fantasy Online 2 seems to wave goodbye and leave you to work the rest out yourself.
Now, I actually like games that encourage exploration. I do not need a giant glowing arrow permanently hovering over my head telling me where to go next.
But there is a difference between encouraging discovery and forgetting to explain that the training wheels have just been removed.
A simple message letting you know the introductory section is over and that you are now expected to explore would go a long way. The same goes for some of Fantasy Online 2’s other mechanics. Spells, for example, could definitely be explained more thoroughly.
At one point I randomly turned into a spider.
No explanation. Just suddenly spider.
It turns out somebody who had invited me into a party had apparently used a spell on me. I only discovered this after actually asking the developer what the hell had happened.
Funny? Absolutely.
Ideal onboarding? Probably not.
It looks charming, but the world sounds a little empty
Visually, I really like what Fantasy Online 2 is doing.
The pixel art is clean, colourful and easy on the eye. The map layouts are pleasant enough to wander around, and there is that familiar old-school RPG feeling to seeing a little fantasy world stretching out ahead of you.
The soundtrack fits too.
At first.
It is a simple fantasy tune that suits the setting nicely, but after enough time it starts looping around in your brain. I found myself wishing a few more tracks were being rotated in to give the different areas a little more personality. Having checked Fantasy Online 2’s Patreon, I know there are others up ahead as I progress, but it’d be nice to introduce some a little earlier.
The bigger issue is the lack of sound elsewhere.
Combat feels especially strange because there is so little accompanying it. No satisfying sword clang. No meaty hit. No little enemy squeal. Not much at all beyond the music continuing cheerfully in the background while numbers pop above everybody’s heads.
For a game built around exploring and fighting, that absence makes the world feel flatter than the graphics deserve.
Combat could desperately use some life
This was probably my biggest issue with Fantasy Online 2.
Attacking an enemy basically amounts to double-clicking them and watching your character stand there while damage numbers appear.
That is it.
There is no sword swing. No little stab. No satisfying whack. Your character and the enemy just stand around looking at each other while maths happens above their heads.
The strange thing is that spells do have visual effects, so there is clearly room to make the combat more animated. Even the most basic attack animation would make a huge difference. Give me a tiny sword swing. Anything. Make it look like we are actually fighting rather than aggressively comparing spreadsheets.
The enemies themselves do not help matters either.
From what I experienced, creatures simply leave you alone until you decide to attack them. That means you can wander happily through groups of enemies without worrying about being jumped.
Finish a fight on low health? No problem.
Just stand there.
Your HP and AP regenerate while all the nearby enemies politely respect your personal space and wait for you to decide which one dies next.
Very considerate of them, admittedly.
Not especially threatening, though.
Being stronger does not feel especially important
Even enemies above my level rarely caused much trouble.
That may change deeper into Fantasy Online 2, and I was still relatively early into things, but based on my experience, there was very little sense of danger. If something had a higher number next to its name, I never really got that moment of wondering whether attacking it might be a terrible idea.
And RPGs need those moments.
There should be that slightly stupid temptation where you see something stronger wandering around and think, “I reckon I can take that”.
Sometimes you should be right.
Sometimes it should absolutely cave your head in.
Fantasy Online 2 currently feels too polite for that. When the monsters only fight on your terms and recovering afterwards is as simple as standing still among their mates, the world loses some of the danger that makes progression rewarding in the first place.
There are some good RPG foundations underneath it all
The frustrating thing is that there are systems in Fantasy Online 2 that I quite like.
Equipment is straightforward to manage, and being able to hover over items and immediately see their stats keeps inventory management painless. I would love a proper comparison option though, letting you quickly see exactly what you gain and lose by swapping items without having to mentally juggle numbers yourself.
There is also plenty of room for character building through different stats, skills, equipment and the wider MMO systems.
And then there is the multiplayer side.
Seeing other people wandering around immediately makes the world feel a little more alive. You can group together, tackle enemies as a party and use the in-game text chat, and those social elements suit the relaxed nature of the game really well.
Fantasy Online 2 feels like the sort of thing where you could happily potter around chatting to somebody while ticking off objectives, rather than needing to be permanently locked in and sweating over every encounter.
For the right player, that could be exactly what they want.
I just need a reason to care about what is happening
Fantasy Online 2’s story is where things currently feel particularly thin.
You arrive on an island. An evil army is causing problems. You start going backwards and forwards, killing different creatures, talking to people and collecting rewards.
And that is… mostly it, so far anyway.
There was never much sense that anything was actually at stake.
Part of that comes back to the combat. It is difficult to convince me the land is facing some terrible danger when I can stand surrounded by supposed enemies while quietly regenerating my health and none of them seems bothered enough to attack.
But the early narrative does not give the threat much weight either.
A stronger tutorial and more direction through those opening hours would probably help Fantasy Online 2 enormously. Give me a character to care about. Give me a reason this army matters. Show me why I should be bothered about pushing further into the world rather than simply wandering around because there happens to be another quest nearby.
The foundations for a larger adventure seem to be there. I just never felt particularly invested in it.
Final thoughts on Fantasy Online 2
Fantasy Online 2 is not a terrible game.
Far from it.
There is a nice, chilled-out MMORPG underneath the rougher parts. The pixel visuals are charming, character management is straightforward, the multiplayer elements give it some social appeal, and exploring without enemies constantly trying to chew your face off will probably be a positive for players who want something relaxed.
But for me, it needs more life.
Combat desperately needs animation and stronger audio feedback. Enemies could stand to feel more dangerous. The tutorial needs to explain more before leaving players to fend for themselves. And the story needs a bit more weight if it wants me to care about what happens next.
Right now, it feels like a pleasant fantasy world where I can wander around, level up and chat to people, but not one that has really given me a reason to become invested in it.
There is potential here, particularly while development is still ongoing, and fans of relaxed old-school MMOs may well find far more to love than I did.
For me, though, Fantasy Online 2 is a bit rough with the lights on.
Fantasy Online 2 is an MMORPG developed and published by Pixel Games LLC. It’s currently available in Early Access on Steam, on Android via the Google Play Store, and in your web browser. It’s only free for 7 days in the web browser; after that, you have to sign up for the game’s Patreon. Want to check out more of our game reviews? Click right here.
