TERA : Exploring the Exiled Realm - 4

It was time to leave the Island of Dawn, I’d done everything I possibly could here and, after performing a little bit of a clean-up, I knew it was time to go. There were still many mysteries from my time on the Island: where was Elleon, the commander of the first wave of soldiers on the island? Why were the demons, usually so mercenary in their attitude, so hell-bent on attacking us? This week, at long last, I was finally time to start getting answers. But it wouldn’t be as easy as all that. I’d need to kill Kugai, explore my way into Karascha’s layer and struggle against him until he lay defeated and, finally, hop a life on a Pegasus on my way through to the grand city of Velika. It was going to be a busy, action-packed week, a staunch difference after the grind that was last week.

Finding my way into Karascha’s Layer

After weeks of “maybe this enemy is leading the demons,” we finally got a proper lead. An enemy leader called Kugai was walking up and down the tainted gorge, screaming commands at those around him. At last we had something that might lead us to a definitive answer about some of the mysteries on the island. Naturally, the best thing to do in this situation was kill Kugai, and upon doing so we were rewarded with a lead. Apparently, at a charming place called The Shrine of the Demon God, there’s a teleporter that can take you into the layer of the true leader of the demons on the Island of Dawn. Of course, it’s never going to be that easy, and before fighting I managed to check my skills one last time, upgrading everything that I could afford to upgrade and double checking my equipment to make sure that I had everything working to full capacity.

TERA Gameplay - Video review - Week 4

The Demon God

Karascha, the demon responsible for the odd behaviour in the monsters on the island (one mystery solved), is hidden deep in the heart of the island. Protected by a roomful of bodyguards, it’s down to you and one other soldier to battle your way through and destroy every drop of darkness in the place, and it’s not for the faint of heart. Karascha is the first big boss you’ll come across in TERA and, at level 12 with every major upgrade available to me, I’ll admit that I got my ass handed to me. Every punch, every fireball sent my way resulted in a large chunk of my health – more than 10% in fact – disappearing from my bar. Often he’d knock me down and pounce on me, causing more than 30% of my health to dissipate in one well-timed movement. It was going to take more than crafty dodges and powerful attacks to kill him.

After dying, I made my way back to the Shrine of Demon God and back through the teleporter. I defeated the bodyguards left after my last trip through the cave, already creatures more difficult than those I’d fought on the surface, took a deep breath and ventured once more into the breach. Karascha stood, monstrous in size, and taunted me. I knew this time I was going to kill him. With a little help from the NPC accompanying me and quite a bit of luck (who am I kidding? It was all luck), we managed to kill the Demon King and was left with a deadly threat. Lok, the stuff of nightmares, thought to be dead, is returning and Karacha only needed to distract us long enough for the process of resurrecting Lok to begin. All that chasing around, all those monsters I’d killed, all the times I’d been ran around by misleading clues – it was all a trap, all a plan to distract me from the task at hand. More than that though, Elleon is still alive, the enemy wasn’t able to capture him.
But none of that was my concern. I was being shipped away from the Island of Dawn, I was moving back to Velika, and I couldn’t wait to see a different setting.

Pegasus

The journey into Velika is noteworthy in itself. On the back of a Pegasus, you fly over the Island of Dawn for the last time in a while. Everything you’ve done, everything you’ve seen on the island seems instantly far away and, like that first week, all you can see is the beauty of the world around you. The waterfalls in the distance are stunning, the woodland below is sparse and colourful and the enemies that have caused me so much trouble of the previous hours are nowhere to be seen. I’m going back into another world, a more pedestrian, city-like world, and I take one last look at the stunning Island of Dawn; I won’t be back for quite a while.

Velika

Gone are the rolling waterfalls and breath-taking backdrops of the island, but they’re replaced by something just as jaw-dropping. Velika is massive, a mix of shopkeepers pedalling their wares and ancient narrow stone passageways, of noble government and religious artwork. It’s also far more densely populated than the island was, with more NPCs and mounted players. The first few quests teach you everything you might not have learnt at the island and from there you’re alone, alone in a large, troubled world. The world of TERA has just opened up to me and, as you’ll see from the map in the accompanying video, it’s a massive world to say the least.

Conclusion

The Island Of Dawn started out spectacular and soon became something of a grind. It being the opening portion of the game, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. I’d also say that they dragged things out a little too much, although I suppose with the twist that it was all a distraction, that sort of makes sense.  Still, there was a lot more to see and do in Velika and in the wider world, and I knew that over the coming weeks there’d be an awful lot going on. I wasn’t in the tutorial level any longer and things were about to get difficult.

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