EverQuest: Legacy of Ykesha

Rating:
Summary: better than all the rest
Review: it is the best out of all the expansions and then some.
the biggest thing that i noticed was the frogloks, they are great begining characters and good for veterines like me.(just kidding). i am a seriose ever quest fan so i give this game 5 count'em 5 stars so get this Expasion.

Rating:
Summary: Try most of it, free (March Only)
Review: Legacy of Ykesha introduces Frogloks as a playable race. They have overrun Grobb, former home of trolls, and renamed it Gukta, Outpost of Marr. Troll-refugees have been accepted in a suburb of Neriak Foreign-Quarter.

Notably, this will shift some power on PvP-team servers, planting a Shorty team in the Evil-team's heartland.

Frogloks won't displace any races, statistically, but they do make decent Paladins. The females have not been humanized, as were the Vah Shir. As with the Iksar, it's no great feau paux to pick a female, to get lighter skin colors, and a greater pattern variety.

SOE has reactivated all cancelled accounts, for the month of March. They have [apparently] enabled YoK expansion [temporarily]. They have given you a test-run of the extra bank slots, and will allow you to create a froglok. Charm slots are not enabled unless you've purchased the expansion, however.

With SOE's, Star Wars Galaxies due for release April 15, as well as many other close rivals releasing in that time frame, this marks an excellent time to make such a fine offerring.

The froglok, Guktan Recruit quests are quite fun. The foundation seems similar to the Tax Collector quest, of South Qeynos fame.

However, this is a far greater improvement, sending you to multiple, in-town NPCs, some with very nice rewards (armor, gold, crafting supplies). Some quite lucrative quests have been added, as well. Even the merchant-faction quest has a new twist. You cannot just feed an NPC a backpack full of muffins, anymore.

It puts a fresh face on the game. The changes, beginning last summer, allow many newbie areas to allow you to generate up to 12-platinum per hour (N.Qeynos). This is quite necessary, since the most basic steed [horse or lizard] costs around 10,000-platinum.

Many new quests have been added. Older mobs have had additional levels added, so that the same figure you were killing at level 1 still have some red-con versions at level 10. Combined with the ease-of-travel, with the Plane of Knowledge (Planes of Power expansion), Everquest has become a far more global community.

Rating:
Summary: A good addition, but enough for an expansion?
Review: LoY adds a lot of new features.. Frogloks being a playable race as the biggest.. it also added some zones, items, and the new wear location "Charms".. Oh, and of course, the armor dye feature.

Is it really enough to force people to buy yet another expansion at full price?

A lot of the smaller features could have easily been added in patches.. while the larger things just doesn't feel like enough to satisfy me. It took me a while to buy the expansion, as I have no desire to make a Froglok, nor do I feel $35CDN was worth it for a charm. And armor dye, while cool, again is hardly necessary.

Then comes the part where you're paying the same price as previous expansions.. for a cd case. No fancy box, no updated manual explaining the new features, and worst of all, no updated map showing locations of new zones.

Now that I do own it, I enjoy the new tools and the armor dye is fun. I hate watching Frogloks run around freely, but I can deal with that. Do I feel I got the best deal for my money? Not really, but I've paid more for less in the past. It's not the worst thing you can spend your money on. The features ARE useful, it's just questionable whether they are worthy of an expansion.

Rating:
Summary: A good addition, but enough for an expansion?
Review: LoY adds a lot of new features.. Frogloks being a playable race as the biggest.. it also added some zones, items, and the new wear location "Charms".. Oh, and of course, the armor dye feature.

Is it really enough to force people to buy yet another expansion at full price?

A lot of the smaller features could have easily been added in patches.. while the larger things just doesn't feel like enough to satisfy me. It took me a while to buy the expansion, as I have no desire to make a Froglok, nor do I feel $35CDN was worth it for a charm. And armor dye, while cool, again is hardly necessary.

Then comes the part where you're paying the same price as previous expansions.. for a cd case. No fancy box, no updated manual explaining the new features, and worst of all, no updated map showing locations of new zones.

Now that I do own it, I enjoy the new tools and the armor dye is fun. I hate watching Frogloks run around freely, but I can deal with that. Do I feel I got the best deal for my money? Not really, but I've paid more for less in the past. It's not the worst thing you can spend your money on. The features ARE useful, it's just questionable whether they are worthy of an expansion.

Rating:
Summary: Finally EQ is shaping up to what it should have always been!
Review: LoY is really solid expansion to Everquest that updates the interfaces, adds a new playable character race, gives you access to in-game maps, doubles your bank capacity, adds an NPC journal that tracks your conversations, and has a really useful tool for handeling your guild. Some of these additions have been available in unauthorized EQ utilites for some time now, but SOE finally listened to the fans and incorporated them into the game itself. EQ is finally shaping up to be the game it should have been all along, and despite the long wait it continues to be the MMORPG to beat. The new playable Frogloks race is a real hoot to try and all in all I'd have to say it's a darn fine addition to the game. My only complaint is that the price seems a little high for this expansion considering there's only a new few additional zones included. If the expansion was several dollars cheaper I'd have given it five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Greedily Created To Add "Kid Appeal"
Review: More than any other expansion pack to date, "Legacy of Ykesha" demonstrates the clear intention of Sony to target youngsters with disposable incomes. The questionable addition of Frogloks as a playable race (very cute characters... they resemble Kermit the Frog, and do cute little cartoonish backflips when they cast spells), combined with the overall "Sony PlayStation 2~ish" appearance, and overly simplified gameplay reinforce this obvious marketing ploy. Kids will love it, though.

Whilst the addition of a few new bells and whistles into the player interface are handy at times (the Guild Manager tool for example), ultimately those features serve to further clutter up the player's screen with gadgets that are rarely (if ever) used during the course of normal gameplay. Overall, the screen appears to be too "busy" as a result, and some players find this to be more of a distraction than a gameplay enhancement.

Finally, the price of this supposed "expansion pack" is not warranted... especially when one considers that it may very well simply be those sections of the previous "Planes of Power" expansion that were not finished in time for the Christmas sales. "Legacy of Ykesha" was released (suspiciously) far too soon after "Planes of Power" was for me to easily believe it was a completely separate project all along.

My overall assessment would be this: if you are an avid player of EverQuest, then obviously you will need this "expansion pack," but unless you are between the ages of 8 and 14, do not expect to be thrilled by its overall lack of content. The EverQuest series has been suffering ever since the departure of Verant in 2002, and both the "Planes of Power" and "Legacy of Ykesha" expansion packs (both made after Verant had left the franchise) clearly show that Sony is either unable, or unwilling to maintain the same depth of storyline and overall game content that Verant was known for. Like many sensationalistic (but sadly profitable) films made today, Sony has decidedly chosen the path of special effects and cutesy characters over actual depth of storyline and character development. Overall, "Ykesha" is a disappointment, unless you are keen on console-style games.

Final word: how all of this bodes for "EverQuest II" is a serious issue to consider. Based upon the declining quality of the post-Verant expansions to "EverQuest," combined with the *atrocious* lack of customer support and generally deteriorating service overall, I have my doubts as to whether "EverQuest II" will have much appeal to mature (read:expert) gamers. The trend at Sony Online Entertainment seems to favor dollars over dungeons, and cartoons over content. Fortunately, "old timers" and other more serious gamesters should find quite a few more worthy alternatives. A big thumbs down.

Rating:
Summary: EQ: Legacy of Ykesha: Some nice (minor) additions to EQ
Review: Note: This review is ONLY about the "Legacy of Ykesha" add-on to Everquest, and not the game itself.

When this disc was originally announced, Sony took great pains to not call it an expansion, but an extension. At the time, it seemed like they were splitting hairs, but it turns out that they were right.

While "Legacy of Ykesha" (LoY) is done well, it's short on overall content or additions to the game. This extension adds the playable froglok race, double bank space, a little-used addition to inventory (charm slot) and a handful of new zones.

The froglok race is quite nice, but at this point in the game's development, a new race isn't a cause for a lot of excitement, as previous expansions (most especially the Planes of Power) served to level the playing field, and now playing one race is a great deal like playing another, save for those people who actually roleplay in Everquest. (If you're one of these, frogloks are a lot of fun, with plenty of charm, character and lore, as well as having far more quests available to low level frogs than most races.)

The doubled bank space is nice, I suppose, but again, having the (free) ability to share two bank slots and coin between characters takes away a lot of the impact of this, as players can simply have one or more "mule" characters storing the things that would otherwise go into the doubled bank space.

And finally, there's Broken Skull Rock, home of troll pirates and the Cthulu-esque Luggalds. Everyone likes pirates, and for the most part, these zones are well-designed, beautifully appointed (some of the best models in the game, along with a few clunkers) and feature some unique events and treasure. The boss of the whole expansion, in fact, has perhaps the most interesting death animation in the whole of the game. But everything in these zones is significantly tougher of other things of their level in other parts of the game, and EQ players tend to prefer the path of least resistance so as a result, they're lightly populated at best most of the time.

LoY wasn't the flop some said it was -- for what it was, it was well-done, but it simply consists of a lot of things that are nice enough, but nothing that constitutes a "must have."

Mildly recommended for EQ players with mid- to high-level characters (levels 35-60), inveterate pack rats and those who really, really like frogloks.

Rating:
Summary: EQ: Legacy of Ykesha: Some nice (minor) additions to EQ
Review: Note: This review is ONLY about the "Legacy of Ykesha" add-on to Everquest, and not the game itself.

When this disc was originally announced, Sony took great pains to not call it an expansion, but an extension. At the time, it seemed like they were splitting hairs, but it turns out that they were right.

While "Legacy of Ykesha" (LoY) is done well, it's short on overall content or additions to the game. This extension adds the playable froglok race, double bank space, a little-used addition to inventory (charm slot) and a handful of new zones.

The froglok race is quite nice, but at this point in the game's development, a new race isn't a cause for a lot of excitement, as previous expansions (most especially the Planes of Power) served to level the playing field, and now playing one race is a great deal like playing another, save for those people who actually roleplay in Everquest. (If you're one of these, frogloks are a lot of fun, with plenty of charm, character and lore, as well as having far more quests available to low level frogs than most races.)

The doubled bank space is nice, I suppose, but again, having the (free) ability to share two bank slots and coin between characters takes away a lot of the impact of this, as players can simply have one or more "mule" characters storing the things that would otherwise go into the doubled bank space.

And finally, there's Broken Skull Rock, home of troll pirates and the Cthulu-esque Luggalds. Everyone likes pirates, and for the most part, these zones are well-designed, beautifully appointed (some of the best models in the game, along with a few clunkers) and feature some unique events and treasure. The boss of the whole expansion, in fact, has perhaps the most interesting death animation in the whole of the game. But everything in these zones is significantly tougher of other things of their level in other parts of the game, and EQ players tend to prefer the path of least resistance so as a result, they're lightly populated at best most of the time.

LoY wasn't the flop some said it was -- for what it was, it was well-done, but it simply consists of a lot of things that are nice enough, but nothing that constitutes a "must have."

Mildly recommended for EQ players with mid- to high-level characters (levels 35-60), inveterate pack rats and those who really, really like frogloks.

Rating:
Summary: Really useful tools
Review: Pros:
- Maps. Instead of using /loc and sense heading, a player actually knows exactly where they are now.
- Journal. Conversations with NPCs are now recorded automatically in a journal that can be opened at any time to refer to progress on a quest.
- Double the bank space. 8 slots increased to 16.
- New player race: Frogloks
- Armor dye option. For some reason, the better the armor in EQ, the brighter the color. Now, instead of wearing red plate and looking like Santa Claus, or yellow plate and looking like a banana, one can dye it to a more appealing color like black or bronze.
- Guild management window. While PoP (Planes of Power) welcomed the new tiers of multiple chat channels for added efficiency on raids, LoY added a guild management window. Now, there's no excuse for forgetting to meet someone or asking a hundred times who needs what buffs. This window provides the player with the capability to view everyone in guild by class, level, name, etc... Gone are the days of typing command after command for individual look-ups.
- New zones

Cons:
- EQ 2 is due out Oct 2003. No character transfers will be done from this version to that version. Everyone must start from scratch to take advantage of all the new features. While Sony comforted those unwilling to move to the new rev with news that 2 more expansions (for added $$) are in the works for this version, it is clear one day they will pull the plug. It's only a matter of time now.

Overall:
This expansion added some key elements that players could've used for some time. While it's worth the cost for what it has to offer, one must weigh spending more on this version or just waiting for EQ 2.

Amazon ratings scale: 5 stars = Outstanding

Rating:
Summary: You know you want it.
Review: SOE is getting better and better at listening to what we as players want and putting in new features. This is a great add on. The new race, the Frogloks, look really cool and have pretty good starting stats. With this expansion you will also get twice the storage in the bank (16 total slots) a slot for your character to store charms, a mapping utility to help you keep your bearings, a journal utility so you won't have to keep info about your quests on paper or log files. This is a great addition, especially if you are new to EQ and need a little extra help getting around. The starting city for Frogloks has a lot of in game help. And the NPCs seem to be a little more dynamic in their lives than in other places in EQ.