There used to be a thread way back in the day for this game that faded away and now it's back. Is there anybody who used to play this game or still does?

I used to play the game quite a bit a couple years ago with some vizzed members and then forgot all about the game since those users stopped playing and I just started playing again this week with another member.

I know some people who were cray into this game, putting up thousands of hours, were you one of them?

I played this game quite a bit, not enough to get to the endgame but enough to get quite a lot of enjoyment out of it. I likely sank around 100 hours or so into it. I think what's special about it aside from the anime style it has, is that it was so open ended gameplay wise, there is all kinds of non combat related stuff to do. Even so the combat system and progression system is quite different from the usual one you would see in an mmo and on top of that the story was pretty good which is rare to see in mmos, especially free to play ones. I think what also made this game a lot more enjoyable for me was the playerbase. I don't think I've ever played an mmo like this where people were so willing to help newbs out or in general were so friendly. That might've just been from my experience but it held through my entire time of playing so it seems unlikely.

It does have its problems, since the game is old it shows in the form of some annoying and dated gameplay conventions, which can lead to frustration. The graphics have aged pretty well compared to a lot of other games of its time thanks to the art style but you can still notice it's an old game pretty easily. Also the fact that it's owned by Nexon means that there are of course a ton of microtransactions, even if they're not gamebreaking from what I've seen in this case, mostly being cosmetic and convenience related, but they're annoying. The learning curve can also be a bit steep.

I'd recommend it to people who are very much into both anime and mmorpgs, those who really like to role play/immerse themselves or want something that's a lot different from your standard mmorpg. I've been thinking of trying out the game again myself, my new laptop doesn't seem to want me to though lol.