Design Notes
January 30, 2014
Happy New Year!
...Yokai New Year, that is!
Not a whole lot happened for the Year of the Snake in 2013, so for this Yokai New Year we decided to give you guys a new NPC, a new set of quests, and even a new expansion to the seasonal Akiba map! 2014 is the year of the horse, and it's also the year of the element wood, and Akiba's ancestral spirit Senlin-Ma embodies both...
Friendlier than he looks.
Senlin-Ma is the guardian spirit of Akiba's Jingshen Forest. If you've never heard of Jingshen Forest, that's because it's usually kept hidden from the eyes of mortals. But now, something has started to taint the various nature spirits that live within it, and Senlin-Ma needs your help to find the source of the corruption and eradicate it.
New High Level Mid-Week Content!
The Yokai New Year release that goes live on Friday will feature medium-level content that should be easy for most players to complete. Most of our releases are like this because we want all of our players, even the new ones, to be able to enjoy our weekly content. But we also know that this can be frustrating for higher-level players who are tired of being able to one-shot all of the new monsters.
Your new vacation destination.
So on Tuesday, we're going to release an expansion to this story. If you are level 50 or higher, you'll be able to unlock some new quests, along with a new part of the map populated with high level monsters! This seemed like the best way to give our high level players more to do while still remaining accessible to the newer ones.
Yokai New Year Gear
We're also releasing a slew of brand new Yokai New Year gear, including the gorgeous Kirin Avatar set shown below (created by Zoshi)! These, along with the old seasonal items, will be available in game from Senlin-Ma and Panlong.
We heard you like horns.
- Kirin Avatar armor, helm, cape & sai
- Yaomo Avatar set
- Year of the Horse parade set
- Chibi Kirin Pet
- 2014 Dragon Dance set
- 2014 Foo Dog pets
- and more!