La Tale

La Tale is a free-to-play MMORPG from Korea that's pretty obviously capitalizing on the success of Ghost Online, Wind Slayer, and Maple Story. Like Ghost Online, Wind Slayer, and Maple Story, La Tale has sidescrolling gameplay and 2D sprites on painted backgrounds. Unlike one of its predecessors, however, it did away with god-awful grinding in favor of decent quests that give more XP and are generally easier to do. It also has a generally pleasant community.

The story is mostly cliche filler, with a mysterious girl named Iris who fought a great evil and vanished. Upon entering the world of La Tale, you must seek out the truth of her quest and companions via speaking with NPCs and completing various scenario dungeons.

Almost everyone ignores this unless the scenario dungeon also has a quest.

The American version of the game is hosted by OGPlanet, while the European version was hosted by Aeria Games.

There are five available base job classes, each of which can be upgraded to one of two master job classes.
 * Warrior - halfway between a Glass Cannon and a Lightning Bruiser, Warriors dish out huge amounts of damage, but have only average defense. They learn buffs that increase offense, critical hit chance, and accuracy. Warriors can use spears, two-handed swords, or knuckles. They can become Warlords (spears or 2h swords) or Bladers (dual blades).
 * Explorer - the Fragile Speedster, and also a buffer. Explorers are the only class that has long-ranged attacks, and they have many out-of-battle skills (such as picking locked chests) and buffs that increase evasion. They are generally considered the DPSer of the La Tale classes thanks to the speed of their attacks and combos, although each individual attack does less than a Warrior's. Explorers can use bows, crossbows, or daggers. They can be upgraded to Treasure Hunters (bows, crossbows or daggers) or Gunslingers (dual guns).
 * Knight - Knights are the tanks of the La Tale world. Their defense is by far the highest of any class, but their attacks are slow and weaker than an Explorer's. Knights also learn buffs that increase physical and magical defense. They use one-handed swords, clubs, and knuckles. At level 80, they can change class to Templar (one-handed swords or clubs) or Guardian (knuckles).
 * Wizard - Wizards are the obligatory Squishy Wizard/Healer. Perhaps the most versatile class, they can learn offensive magic, defensive magic, healing magic, or a combination of the three. Wizards can use staves or daggers. Their class upgrades are Sorcerer which uses staves and orbs, and abandons healing magic in favor of improved versions of the same elemental spells they were already using, or Bards which use musical instruments, and give up access to earth, air, and fire spells in exchange for all the Sorcerer's improved water spells, as well as new healing spells, buffs, and special song attacks.
 * Engineer - A new class, they fight entirely with toolboxes, and don't specialize in any one stat, though have skills that boost damage output and max HP. They can only promote to Meisters, who ride mechas, though are also the only class that can function perfectly well unpromoted.

This game provides examples of:

 * Abandoned Laboratory: the Abyss Ruins and Kimera Labs instance.
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: the underground of Elias
 * Atlantis
 * Atlantis Is Boring
 * Awesome but Impractical: The special weapons have unique enhancements, but are nothing compared to an ordinary weapon with good enchantments.
 * Averted in a handful of cases however. Certain stats, such as critical rate and target defense decrease can't be enchanted on a anything, and tend to be more coveted than even a well enchanted mundane piece of equipment. Or you could get a unique piece of equipment with good enchantments.
 * Bag of Sharing: All items stored in the bank or the astro store are shared between all characters on that account.
 * Batman Can Breathe in Space: Seen in the longest tree, which tops out at around the strastosphere, and Valhalla, which takes place on (not in) an orbiting satellite as well as Xenadia, a giant pyramid...thing which also tops out in space.
 * BFS: Some of the two-handed swords are larger than the characters wielding them.
 * Black Mage: The Sorcerer class abandons all healing for damage.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: Most of the translation is decent, but awkward. There are one or two gems like the soul urn and shield from the Mouth Peach being translated as "Mouse Pitch," as well.
 * There's also a certain npc who greets you with "What is up today!".
 * Boss Rush: Hardcore Coliseum, filled with previous bosses and minibosses that are both at a higher level and have special effects added to their attacks.
 * Bribing Your Way to Victory: For cash, you can get items that increase your XP or ely gain, increase the monster item drop rate, pick up items for you, heal you better and faster than the in-game items, Fashion equipments with stats along with event items to get even rarer items. etc.
 * You can even buy access to a spa which just gives you exp as you sit in it.
 * Clothes Make the Superman: Armor and fashion items can be enchanted to make you a lot more powerful
 * Continuing Is Painful: When you die after level 10, you lose 3% of your XP and ely. This is a lot more painful the higher level you get, naturally.
 * Convection Schmonvection: Not only does the lava not hurt you unless you touch it, but you can sit in it and recover HP faster than you can lose it.
 * Critical Hit
 * Deadly Gas: Poisonous gas reduces your HP in the Lair of the Evil Dragon. Particularly annoying when the minibosses hang out in it.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: Tengu, Rabana, Siam, Pin, and a good chunk of the NPC cast.
 * Eagle Land: There's a city called "Big Apple" that looks like the USA, specifically New York City.
 * The island the city is on looks like the USA, too.
 * Easy Levels Hard Bosses: Fighting a 'level appropriate' boss, especially early on, is a good way to get curb stomped.
 * Enemy Chatter: Some of the enemies talk. They don't have anything interesting to say.
 * Everything Fades
 * Everything Trying to Kill You: Any and every enemy after the new player area IS aggressive, and WILL mob you to death. And let's not forget the variety of enemies that range from malevolent dolls to sentient, ambulatory food.
 * Exclusive Enemy Equipment: Any crafted weapon or armor can only be made from a soul urn from an appropriate enemy. It can also only be upgraded with another soul urn.
 * Fake Balance: the Player Arena, of course
 * Fake Difficulty: It's probably not intentional, but the game has been known to lag. A lot. To the point that players often die while their character is standing in for a pin-cushion.
 * Fake Longevity: Most quests can be completed three times. Each DotNuri stage has to be finished 20 times for its real prize. The Christmas event had to be completed 50 times to get its best title.
 * Fan Nickname: LagNuri for DotNuri. For reasons that should be obvious if one thinks about it.
 * Fantastic Foxes: Several palette-swapped versions.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Aioch (Japan), Elfa (Egypt), Young Gyoung (China), Belos (Russia--at least judging by the fashions offered there), City of Iron/ Big Apple (USA)
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Many of the areas are based on a story, like Jack and the Beanstalk, or Sherlock Holmes. Since they aren't all from the same country, it's pretty much inevitable. You'll also find monsters from nearly every mythology hanging out somewhere, including minotaurs (Greek), gumiho (Korean), mummies (Egyptian, sorta), and western dragons.
 * Fetch Quest
 * First Town: Belos
 * Floating Continent: Cloud Villa and the as of yet unreleased new continent in episode seven.
 * Fragile Speedster: The Explorer class
 * Gang Plank Galleon: The haunted ship
 * Get Back Here Boss / Cowardly Boss: Invoke and his (her?) second form, Invoke EX.
 * Not to mention their ridiculously quick respawn rate.
 * Golden Thigh Ratio: On many of the female armors and fashion items.
 * Groin Attack: Used by the Nutcracker enemies.
 * Haunted Castle: Foe Mansion
 * Improbable Weapon User: Bards use guitars, Sorcerers fight with orbs, Engineers fight with toolboxes, Maestros fight with conductor's batons.
 * Item Crafting: Upgrading items and crafting new items
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests: They spawn, just like monsters.
 * Infinity Minus One Sword: Regular Coliseum weapons, which have the highest base stats out of any weapons besides their advanced counterparts, and can be upgraded up to the level cap.
 * Infinity Plus One Sword: Advanced Coliseum weapons, which can be upgraded up to twenty times. Unfortunately, a normal coliseum weapon quickly outpaces it until it reaches about +15, and they are so difficult to upgrade the cumulative success rate for a +20 is best written in scientific notation. Unless of course, you win a Coliseum's Desire Coupon.
 * Killer Rabbit: Too many to count, but especially the Shaggies and Priring palette swaps
 * King Mook: The aptly named Goblin King and the Demon Goblin
 * Ladder Physics: Apparently, you can climb ladders without actually putting your feet on the rungs.
 * Leaked Experience: As long as the party member is no more than 10 levels behind the other party members, he or she will always get XP from a kill even if they don't fight.
 * Lethal Lava Land: The Lair of the Evil Dragon
 * Luck Stat: An amusing example, players already know that luck increases critical rate and ely gain. Exactly how much it increases it, or if there is a cap, is still a subject of debate.
 * Level Ate: Cookie Garden
 * Loading Screen
 * Mascot Mook: The prirings, who were so popular that they were added as a pet.
 * Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest: The most common type of quest, bar none. Annoyingly, quests to kill X Monster A always comes before the Twenty Bear Asses quest for Monster A. That is, after you've sold the Vendor Trash you're supposed to collect.
 * Monster Arena: The Monster Tower in the Big Apple.
 * Nigh Invulnerable: Certain items or skills give you immunity to physical or magical damage. Templar classes in particular get one that gives both.
 * No Export for You: All updates come to Korea first, Japan second, and out in English only many, many months later. Played straight with every Japan only collaboration.
 * Noob Cave: Subverted with the Belos Underground. While its entrance exists inside the First Town, woe betide any new players who DO venture into it...
 * Nostalgia Level: The time attack instances use extra powerful versions of previous monsters, with recolored bosses
 * One Stat to Rule Them All: Besides shoes and gloves, the only thing you'll be putting on your armor is stamina and luck.
 * Our Fairies Are Different
 * Palette Swap: Many enemies are reused with only minor changes
 * Peninsula of Power Leveling: Toad Island, Spooky Village, and Coliseum. Spooky Village in particular has no items or quests besides a rare drop from its boss.
 * Platform Hell: The DotNuri mini-game, which is fashioned aesthetically after the original Super Mario Bros. It does, however, give very good rewards to those who beat it.
 * Player Party: Required to enter some dungeons.
 * Player Versus Player: Only in the fight arena
 * Port Town: Elfa
 * Prehistoria: The area through the Time Gate
 * Prestige Class: Every class has two at level 80.
 * Purely Aesthetic Gender: Both genders can do any class with no stat differences. There are two areas of the game where only males or females can enter, but they have no plot or quest relevant events within.
 * Randomly Drops: The soul urns are the worst offender. So rare you can farm a monster for days and kill thousands and still not get one.
 * Recurring Boss: Hyunmu shows up in the Shangri-La instance, as part of the Boss Rush, three times in Xenadia, and once more as a time attack instance boss. This isn't counting the versions when there's a Hyunmu of Hell.
 * Respawning Enemies
 * Schizo Tech: Guns exist alongside swords and spears. It only gets worse once you see the mechas and space elevator.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Vintor, who has nothing whatsoever to do with the main storyline.
 * Shifting Sand Land: The desert outside of Aioch, complete with pyramid
 * Shout Out: The DotNuri minigame is a shoutout to Super Mario Brothers, and the upcoming "Baker Street" area is one big shoutout to Sherlock Holmes.
 * Space Elevator: The fairly high level Bifrost map. At least it's called a space elevator, though you have to climb it the hard way.
 * Spikes of Doom: Every map that doesn't have a worse trap will have at least one spike trap on it. Who is building spike traps in the middle of forests, anyway?
 * Status Buff
 * Stone Wall: The Knight class
 * Spell My Name With an S: The aforementioned Mouse Pitch/Mouth Peach
 * Also, isn't the Javawalk supposed to be spelled Jabberwock?
 * Super Deformed: The character sprites.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement: You receive Durendal in your fourth scenario quest. The only thing it can actually hurt is the Ocean King, and that's after he's already beaten.
 * To Hell and Back: Episode 5 is called Hell's Door. Hmmm...
 * Tomorrowland: Steel City, Atlantis, and Midgard are all far more advanced than the rest of the world. Atlantis actually sells their technology for food, since it is rather hard to farm on the bottom of the ocean.
 * Played with in concerns to Asgard, which is by far the most advanced area seen so far. The NPCs mention, however that the technology is rather antiquated compared to what they've seen before.
 * Twenty Bear Asses: At least half the quests fall under this. Annoyingly, the quest for the item will often pop up after you just did a quest that involved killing X number of those enemies and already sold the item as Vendor Trash.
 * Unbreakable Weapons: No matter what you do to them they won't break... Except when you try to enchant them. Then they can break and be lost forever. Apparently enchanting a sword is much harder on it than smashing crates or killing armored foes.
 * Underground Level: Too many to list
 * Womb Level: The behemoth
 * World Map