You can manipulate time itself in this ambitious MMORPG with soulslike combat

Chrono Odyssey appears to be a pretty traditional fantasy MMORPG for the first 30 minutes, but then time stuff happens and the entire look of the world and its monsters change. This is an ambitious MMO all about time-manipulation and I'm curious to see if it can pull it off.

I spent some time in a playtest earlier this week and it showed some promise for what is a fairly ambitious concept for an MMO. After choosing the assassin class, I was dropped into a dreary, black-and-white fantasy world in the middle of a war. Humans and monsters duked it out while I made my way through the chaos. Before I could escape, a lanky corpse-like Dark Souls boss roped me into a battle that was surprisingly tough for this early in the game.

Combat resembles soulslikes with dodge rolls and telegraphed boss attacks, but, likely because of the early state of the demo, there was lag between the animations and when I would actually take damage. Fighting with daggers was too risky, so I swapped to a bow to stay out of the boss' range while a fellow NPC acted as a tank. While the fight itself dragged on after a while, I think with some more polish it could help demonstrate the kind of tough battles Chrono Odyssey will feature heavily in its grouped endgame activities.

After taking him down, I was led to a mysterious device that, when activated, filled the world with color again and changed all the enemies from orc-like monsters to undead soldiers. It's implied that you'll swap between the past and the future regularly as you play through the story, and you'll eventually unlock abilities that can manipulate time too. I didn't get far enough to see this in action, but it left me very curious how all this works when you're with other players. World of Warcraft has some dungeons that play with time travel, but it's all static and out of your control. If Chrono Odyssey lets me play with time in a way that actually feels dynamic, I'll be very impressed.

Like many MMOs, I wasn't far enough to really find a loop of strong abilities to use as my assassin. All I had to work with was a very basic supercharged attack and one that shot out a volley of arrows to hit multiple enemies. It was also hard to gauge the feel of the combat with enemies who wouldn't always react when I shot at them. I couldn't tell if it was issues with their AI or server instability. Chrono Odyssey doesn't currently have a release date and I suspect it still needs some time in the oven before it's ready.

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It's certainly one to keep an eye on if you like the idea of soulslike combat in an MMO. Developer Chrono Studio says it'll have dungeons, raids, and PvP when it eventually releases. There will also be crafting professions to pick up so you can make your own gear and trade with other players.

Chrono Odyssey has a page on Steam, but no release window. You can, however, sign up for a playtest that starts on June 20.