by Ashley Shankle

Created on: April 13, 2009

Dream of Mirror Online (DOMO) is one of Aeria Games' more popular MMORPGs. The game sucks you in with cute graphics and highly customizable class system, but can it hold the interest of more dedicated gamers?

The graphics are cute and bright, which is what draws the more casual and younger crowds to DOMO. For those who have decent graphics cards, Dream of Mirror Online is also cel-shaded, which certainly gives it a unique feel over the other MMORPGs on the market. DOMO is currently the only cel-shaded MMORPG and it looks good, even if half the time it is employed to cover up sloppy textures and bland areas.

The out of town areas aren't highly detailed - who could expect otherwise from a free game? - though the towns are fairly detailed and actually quite large. The entire game has a very distinct Chinese motif, as the game was developed there, and the graphics and overall design go very well with the storyline and its tone. The character models (including NPCs and mobs) are detailed and each character does look unique, and cel-shading does make everything look better. So while Dream of Mirror Online looks a little better than the majority of cutsey MMORPGs out there, it doesn't break any barriers that most online games have set for themselves graphically.

The game offers four races for the player to choose from: Humans, Shura, Sylph, and Sprites. Humans look like you would expect them to, while Shura look beastly, Sylph float and look like strategists, and Sprites are tiny fairy-like creatures. The races are purely cosmetic, as there are no stat differences between the races. The small and meek Sprites can be just as adept at hand-to-hand combat as the tough-looking Shura. The only real difference between any of them is that the Sylph float a little above the ground, making it harder for them to get stuck on the ground. The ups and downs to this is that it encourages players to use whatever race they want and not feel pressured to use a specific race because of stat bonuses, but it also makes the characters virtually identical stat-wise besides the jobs they take.

You begin Dream of Mirror Online to an opening custcene to give you a crash course on the storyline and are set free to do as you will in the world of Kunlun, where you will be having your adventure.

The menus are a little cluttered and it takes some time to get used to the hotkeys - maybe too much time. The quest menu is especially awful because often times the quest descriptions are long and there is

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