I may have completed the story in this, but that was at around the 27 hour mark. Which, considering I’ve just scurried past 42 hours, was some time ago. As I’ve mentioned before, there are loads of side quests, but I’ve still hardly touched them. Instead, I’ve been changing Life and choosing different careers to master.

After playing the story as a Paladin, which, as I suspected, worked out well in terms of fighting things, I decided on a complete change of pace with Tailor. It’s entirely different. You have to collect wool and flowers, and buy some other materials like buttons and string, and then in a series of simple mini-games create clothes. It wasn’t hard, and I was a Master of that life in just three hours. The hardest part was finding shops that sold the necessary materials! Tailoring was a great way to make money though, as selling what you make nets a substantial profit.

After Tailor, I went with Hunter. Like Paladin it’s combat based, but with a bow. This actually makes defeating some of the harder enemies – like the virtually indestructible dragons – easier to take down as you can do so from a distance. It’s a very slow process though.

With Hunter done, I changed to Blacksmith. Like Tailor, it was all about picking up the raw materials – most of which I had to buy, unfortunately. I realised later that if I’d been a Miner first I’d be able to collect them as part of that career, then use them as a smithy. Still, the mini-game weapon and armour creation process yielded some pretty nice kit (most of which would have been useful as a Paladin, so a bit pointless now) which could be sold for a mountain of Dosh.

Realising how I’d done Blacksmith and Miner backwards, I then decided to do Woodcutter before Carpenter, and quickly mastered that life. Unlike the other lives (since Paladin, anyway), Woodcutter was a good source of XP, perhaps making up for not making a lot of money.

Then it was on to Miner, which was much like Woodcutter only with trees instead of rocks, and also good for levelling up, before my most recent Mastery – Alchemist. I decided to go for that so I’d be able to create the materials I expect will be useful as a Magician. Which is handy, as that’s what I chose next! I’ve only spent a few minutes in this life, though.

Still lots to do. I suspect Mercenary will be the most interesting of the remaining careers, so I’m going to leave that to last. Hopefully I’ll be up to Level 50 by then (I’m 42 at the moment) so should be able to slay pretty much everything. Then I might even make a start on some of the side quests that I’ve ignored. I have completed some, but only because I happened to have the items or killed the beasties as I wandered round everywhere, rather than because I went out of my way to do so.

I may have completed the story in this, but that was at around the 27 hour mark. Which, considering I’ve just scurried past 42 hours, was some time ago. As I’ve mentioned before, there are loads of side quests, but I’ve still hardly touched them. Instead, I’ve been changing Life and choosing different careers to master.

After playing the story as a Paladin, which, as I suspected, worked out well in terms of fighting things, I decided on a complete change of pace with Tailor. It’s entirely different. You have to collect wool and flowers, and buy some other materials like buttons and string, and then in a series of simple mini-games create clothes. It wasn’t hard, and I was a Master of that life in just three hours. The hardest part was finding shops that sold the necessary materials! Tailoring was a great way to make money though, as selling what you make nets a substantial profit.

After Tailor, I went with Hunter. Like Paladin it’s combat based, but with a bow. This actually makes defeating some of the harder enemies – like the virtually indestructible dragons – easier to take down as you can do so from a distance. It’s a very slow process though.

With Hunter done, I changed to Blacksmith. Like Tailor, it was all about picking up the raw materials – most of which I had to buy, unfortunately. I realised later that if I’d been a Miner first I’d be able to collect them as part of that career, then use them as a smithy. Still, the mini-game weapon and armour creation process yielded some pretty nice kit (most of which would have been useful as a Paladin, so a bit pointless now) which could be sold for a mountain of Dosh.

Realising how I’d done Blacksmith and Miner backwards, I then decided to do Woodcutter before Carpenter, and quickly mastered that life. Unlike the other lives (since Paladin, anyway), Woodcutter was a good source of XP, perhaps making up for not making a lot of money.

Then it was on to Miner, which was much like Woodcutter only with trees instead of rocks, and also good for levelling up, before my most recent Mastery – Alchemist. I decided to go for that so I’d be able to create the materials I expect will be useful as a Magician. Which is handy, as that’s what I chose next! I’ve only spent a few minutes in this life, though.

Still lots to do. I suspect Mercenary will be the most interesting of the remaining careers, so I’m going to leave that to last. Hopefully I’ll be up to Level 50 by then (I’m 42 at the moment) so should be able to slay pretty much everything. Then I might even make a start on some of the side quests that I’ve ignored. I have completed some, but only because I happened to have the items or killed the beasties as I wandered round everywhere, rather than because I went out of my way to do so.