Divina: First Impressions Review
Divina isn’t an easy game to find and I must admit, when I was told to review it I hadn’t actually heard of it. A quick Google search didn’t do much to help me, the keyword Divina at the time offered up absolutely no helpful information. That’s now changed, with MyDivina, the official website, appearing first on the list and a single preview a few entries underneath. It still doesn’t offer up a huge variety of information, previews, reviews, screenshots and videos as would usually be offered by a search of a game’s name, but it’s much better than it was.
Of course, just because it’s a vague game doesn’t mean that it isn’t popular and it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s not enjoyable. We took a look to find out if Divina was worth your time.
Divina First Look Review - Video
Strangest Club Ever - I love the variety of enemies in Divina. It’s a shame the ones that I’ve seen are all banded together with little to no explanation, but that doesn’t stop the enemies themselves being an interesting addition to the game. In a short space of time I came across executioners – complete with giant axe and mask – yetis, giant walking jugs (the ceramic kind) and faeries. That’s a hell of variety.
Deep colours - Everywhere you look is incredibly colourful, almost sickeningly so. I love MMOs that let you walk through forests complete with a variety of greens and oranges, but Divina offers every colour you can think of, in every area. It’s like everything a fantasy world should be, especially if you visit said fantasy world with the aid of hallucinogenic drugs.
Interesting Ideas - There’s a lot of interesting ideas surrounding the world of Divina, in regards to the guilds and followers. I didn’t get to see them first hand, but another article, an account of the media tour we were invited on, will be published shortly after this review and you’ll be able to take a look at some of the deeper systems in place.
Fighting, Fighting, Fighting - The battle system in Divina is passable but far too generic. If you’ve been enjoying TERA or even something like The Old Republic, the battle system here seems like a step back and you may find yourself becoming increasingly frustrated over repeating the same action time and time again.
Variety of Location –There’s plenty of places to explore in Divina, although sometimes they can be a bit obvious. The locations remind me a bit of Sly Cooper, a kind of exaggerated stereotype of, for instance, snowy areas or forested areas. This would perhaps be in the positives column, if not paired with my first two negatives.
What am I looking at? – The graphics for Divina don’t look especially good, even compared to similar free-to-play games on the market. Yes, the colours are great, but the textures and general landscape look like something released on the PS2, and I’m not talking about something in the league of Final Fantasy X or ICO. There’s something about the visuals that just jar, and it’s off-putting straight from the get go.
Dancing Frame Rate – Sometimes you’ll have just finished battle against multiple opponents and with lots of other characters surrounding you. You’ll go and find a quiet place to sit back and recover HP and that’s when the frame rate will suddenly drop, sometimes more than halving. There’s no rhyme or reason to it and the only thing I can blame is poor optimization. Very frustrating, especially if you’re recording video.
A Long Journey – I can’t talk for the game right at the beginning, although I came in not long after and I was met with a set of quests which involved killing no less than 30-40 enemies. Just think about that for a second. I had three or four quests on and at least one of them had more than set of enemies to fight. That’s an awful big time sync and the experience gained from doing the quests hardly seemed worth it.
Conclusion
Divina is a game that, with some updating and plenty of patches, could be more than playable by somebody really into the anime MMO scene. The world and NPCs are crazy enough that you’ll be surprised at every turn. The problem is, the gameplay is such that you’ll be surprised constantly there as well – and not in a good way. If you’re on the fence, I’d strongly suggest waiting a few months for the developers to fix any issues they can fix and to add onto/alter the quests and the gameplay. If you’re desperate to be there at the very start, you probably won’t be too disappointed, but for somebody with less of a need to get into a new game, the many problems may be too much for you.
Official Website: My Divina
Score: 6.5/10
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