Neo Steam

Neo Steam was a Steampunk MMORPG created by the Korean developers Joy Impact and published in America by Atlus Online.

The story:

In the world of chrysalis there are five races. One of these races are little furry ape-looking guys called poms that are good with technology. And the most skilled were called maestros, and they discovered a way to harness the titular Neo Steam and revolutionize technology and education. Unfortunately for the maestros, some king assumed that they would try to overthrow him so he banished them to a remote island where they considered their studies. But then an earthquake happened, and tore the world apart. Cities and cultures crumbled, and life got darker. Not to mention the earthquake separated the world into three continents. Over time, three nations rose up on these continents: The kingdom of Elerd, the republic of Rogwel, and the Taxn alliance. They tried to rebuild society and move on but then newer generations rediscovered Neo Steam and the other technology invented by those wacky maestros. Then for some reason Elerd and Rogwel started a war, and the Taxns tried to stay out of it, which was really difficult for them, and they too got in on it. Supposedly the war is over control of the Neo Steam but you'd never know it from just playing the game because both Elerd and Rogwel can conveniently buy it from machines located in both nations. In actuality though, it's because the game relies heavily on PvP.

Also Elerd is known for its magic, and Rogwel is known for its technology, but for some reason they both have mages and engineers regardless.


 * Allegedly Free Game: You can play the game without paying a cent if you want, without too much trouble. Granted you have friends in high places that is. Otherwise you'd need gears for kirin incense or ten dollars a month for a gold account. Even then the later levels can be tedious and frustrating. While you can buy the kirin from players with regular in-game gold, it's ridiculously expensive and the easiest way to get the amount required would be to buy gears and sell the premium items you get with them.
 * An Adventurer Is You
 * BFG/BFS: The level 120+ swords and guns being probably the best example.
 * Combat and Support: Some classes like the Shadow Reaver and Evoker are better off in parties as they have revival and the ability to heal all nearby party members respectively.
 * Cute Monster Girl: The male Beast races are huge hulking wolf-men or bear-men, depending on faction. Their female counter-part races are small, slender, curvy catgirls with cute stubby tails.
 * Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: You do lose experience if a monster kills you, but not much and even that can be avoided if you're willing to cough up a little cash. There's no punishment for dying in PvP though, except maybe your dignity.
 * Fantasy Character Classes: Each one has two specializations which can be chosen at a certain level. These vary depending on the nation.
 * Excuse Plot: An excuse for players to kill each other of course.
 * Fighter, Mage, Scout: And Machinist!
 * Five Races: Technically there's seven, but two are just female versions of the tarune/lupine race. And the tarune and lupine races are almost identical in features except they have different ears, and are each available to a different nation. However the humans/Taxn humans are the mundane, the tarune/lyell/lupine are the stout, the poms are the cute, and the elves are the fairies. The tall people is harder to determine but humans are the second best mages, so elves could be considered as such.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: As mentioned above, despite the premise of one nation preferring magic and the other preferring technology, they both have Mystics, which have different specializations that use different magics (To be fair the Rogwel mystic does have a specialization that summons machine monsters, but still...), and machinists which have specializations that create different machinery. Not to mention the best healing magic in the game is possessed by a warrior specialization class. For the nation that specializes in technology. What.
 * One-Gender Race: Averted in the case of the lupine/tarune/lyell where the lyell is the female version for the tarune and most likely the lupine, as well as the humans of which Taxn humans are the females. Played straight by the elves.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Some of the premium items which can be bought with real cash affect the established rules the game has, with effects like reducing or nullifying the penalty for being killed by monsters, warehouse expansion, renaming a character or changing it's race, and resetting skills among other things.
 * Siege Engines: With Names that reference Norse mythology.
 * Steampunk: The entire premise of the game.
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Ironically the poms, the only race in the game that allows you to choose different genders without selecting a different race entirely, look almost the same regardless of the chosen gender. The females just have different hairstyles. In some cases the males even look like they wear makeup.
 * Zeppelins from Another World: Steam balloons, which are basically hot air balloons with propellers (and possibly full of steam...). Unlike other transportation methods the balloons are free to use once you have bought a map.