NOTE: I would like to have spent more time on this review, but I didn't have much time for it. I might make changes to it later, but most likely not. I would like to make another review before the end of the year as I have been rather inactive as of late. Several key features are left out unmentioned such as the tutorial system or the hero arena.

9Dragons is an MMORPG designed by Indy21 and published by Acclaim for western audiences in the US and EU. It is infamous for being very grindy and having numerous issues including slow updates because of Indy21 and lack of update information. It has enough to make it stand out from the other eastern style MMOs and have spawned some copies such as Twelve Sky.

Story:

The history and prologue to the game is posted on the website. The story in game follows your character's rise in the world of kung fu by joining a clan and becoming a prominent member of your clan while trying to discover the whereabouts of your clan's dragon and their fate at the duel of the nine dragons. Most of these involve you running circles and running errands.

Graphics:

The graphics is probably the most impressive part of 9Dragons gold. There are limited choices in hair styles, faces, and clothing. Your hair style and color changes according to what equipment you have. Most people will be wearing similar clothes but some people will choose various decorative outfits to try to make them look a bit different. You will see clones. There are many mobs that recycle models. The character models are fairly detailed and the bloom and skill effects match up nicely. The item mall also provides a few different looks but you rent them for 30 days at a time.

Gameplay:

There is no keyboard move function. Get over it. WASD is only good in FPS games and are usually poorly done in non real time action games which is pretty much almost every MMO.

Character creation has a few limited choices. You can choose between about 20 hair styles. In reality, its actually about 7 hair styles with 3 different hair colors. You get to distribute stat points amount the 5 different stats. All of it must be distributed to create your character. Only males can join Shaolin and only females can join Sacred Flower. Your starting location does not really matter since you can just walk over to another clan base and join their clan instead. The clan you join will determine which weapons you can use. Each clan has 4 roles. Warriors, healers, nukers, and hybrids. They all have different names but pretty much play the same.