Sword of the New World celebrates their second anniversary
by Seraphina Brennan 
Jul 10th 2009 at 8:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Events, in-game, Patches, Sword of the New World, Free-to-play
Free-to-play MMO Sword of the New World, the game best known for letting one player control three characters at the same time, has reached their second anniversary. In true MMO style, the game isn't letting the event slip by unnoticed as they release a major content patch and begin a celebration, all in the name of the anniversary.
Nocturnal Sonata, version 2.9, adds a brand new unique player character to the mix. In Sword of the New World, players can control their own characters, their "family," or add in storyline characters called unique characters once certain conditions are met. This update adds Claire, the small girl who can pack an insane punch. Claire comes with the ability to hold a two handed weapon with one hand, and her specialty is... well... cannons. Adding her to your party, however, requires you to earn the trust of one of the game's NPCs and Claire's adopted brother, Claude.
The update also includes the new raid instance, The Secret Tower (as shown above), as well as a new buyable dungeon, Bahamar Ancient Dungeon. For the full details, check out the patch notes available at the Sword of the New World main site.
Nocturnal Sonata, version 2.9, adds a brand new unique player character to the mix. In Sword of the New World, players can control their own characters, their "family," or add in storyline characters called unique characters once certain conditions are met. This update adds Claire, the small girl who can pack an insane punch. Claire comes with the ability to hold a two handed weapon with one hand, and her specialty is... well... cannons. Adding her to your party, however, requires you to earn the trust of one of the game's NPCs and Claire's adopted brother, Claude.
The update also includes the new raid instance, The Secret Tower (as shown above), as well as a new buyable dungeon, Bahamar Ancient Dungeon. For the full details, check out the patch notes available at the Sword of the New World main site.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jeremy said on 9:56PM 7-10-2009
This is actually the second half of an update which was originally supposed to be released back in November of 08. So basically the game went 8-9 months without any updates, lagging behind all other versions of the game (which are up to 3.5).
Furthermore, there was never any explanation of why we never got the rest of the patch. Any requests for info or explanations were met by silences, lies (coming soon), or insults and banning people from the official boards.
If you want to play this game (Granado Espada), don't play Sword, play another English version that is up to date and actually supported by the company running it.
And unless you can devote a computer to AFK the game 24/7 (your characters fight on their own), forget about reaching the high levels in the game.
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Jon Merriex said on 10:20PM 7-10-2009
As anyone can clearly see from our forums the above statement is laced with untruths. On multiple occasions GamersFirst has clearly communicated issues with the patch. There are several threads you can find with me (G1-Neume) interacting with players and answering myriad questions (particularly "WHERE THE **** IS THE PATCH?!?").
Also no other international version is on 3.5, since that is not a patch IMCGames has created for the international audience. Currently we are 2 patches away from 3.4 (the latest and last international patch for this year), 3.0 which is coming on 9/9/09 and 3.4 which is coming in November. NO other versions will be patching during that time period because the patch after 3.4 won't be ready until 2010.
Also we have patched the game servers several times since November, we just haven't released a content update since them.
Finally, I challenge you to come back and check out the fun. The past 3 days have been a blast in game and I cannot wait for Faction Wars this weekend (which should be insane with the new Claires on the field). Not to mention the new lowbie instances, pvp fights and GM events.
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nhat11 said on 12:35AM 7-11-2009
Thanks for setting facts straight.
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Jon Merriex said on 4:23AM 7-11-2009
It's always my pleasure to communicate my thoughts on the matter. I find that too often companies are too guarded with information and not willing to take constructive criticism. I try to be as open as I can about things and answer the tough questions.
In no way am I diluted or deceived about the state of the game but there are disgruntled (read: banned) players who have made it their life's mission to distort the truth and I have no qualms about going out and making sure both sides are heard.
To be honest new players would find Sword to be a great title with almost 130 levels of content, a revamped tutorial, new items (Ancestral) to help get you leveling and even new low level instances for partying with friend or they can jump into a low level PvP event with their friends.
The game has a LOT to offer and a few bad apples are trying to distort that truth or pimp our rivals without being honest about connection issues, server economies and more.
I'd rather have a fair assessment than one biased for or against me.
Jeremy said on 11:56PM 7-10-2009
Oh please, updating the anti cheating system (which is pointless, since K2 won't ban botters if they are big spenders in the cash shop) isn't a patch.
And there's a thread about the forum bannings over on MMORPG.com which covers it better than I can here.
And yeah, oops, sGE (the English alternative to K2's) is 3.4, not 3.5. .1 off. But the fact remains the same, the other versions have more content than Sword has now, and than Sword will have for probably another year or two...
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Jon Merriex said on 12:17AM 7-11-2009
Again, shades of grey in these comments. I'm looking at a report of about 1000 botters banned last week alone. One account was created when the game launched and spent over $500 over the past 2 years. So I don't think it is either fair or accurate to say we don't ban players who are caught cheating and/or we're doing nothing about the situation.
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starchild82 said on 12:53AM 7-11-2009
I have to agree with Jeremy this game was actually orrible, lot of censorship also on the boards as you can see they even send people from their stuff around to do damage control!
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Jon Merriex said on 3:48AM 7-11-2009
I find it odd that someone would think stopping players from spamming the forums with similar or bogus post, curse words and worse would be congruent to censorship. Oddly enough all players that lost their privilege to post on the boards did so by breaking our board rules.
There is no way you can justify some of the action players were taking from cussing to threatening to kill staff members. Action like that is tolerated on no forum I know of. Players post their displease a lot on our forums. You can easily see that just by perusing the current forum. We will however draw the line with players being blatantly hostile with us or other players, which is as it should be.
I enjoy seeing several people who were banned from the forums for those very reason post on other sites that we are censoring them, when in fact they stopped playing by the rules, not us.
primetime said on 1:43AM 7-11-2009
"If you want to play this game (Granado Espada), don't play Sword, play another English version that is up to date and actually supported by the company running it."
I don't get it. There are multiple games out there using the same game but with a different title?
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Jeremy said on 2:52AM 7-11-2009
That's actually very common in the "Free to Play" market. There's one original version of the game (generally in Korea), and then several licensed versions, generally for various regions and languages.
In this case, the original game is Granado Espada. The NA license belongs to K2, and those chose to call it "Sword of the New World" for reasons known only to them. There are other versions all over the world, including someone in English, which is generally referred to sGE (it's based on Singapore, servers Oceania and parts of Asia, like the Phillipines)
Due to the lack of updates and poor service by K2, many people (those that didn't quit the game entirely like me) moved to sGE, since it's in English and better run
Jon Merriex said on 4:02AM 7-11-2009
There are more than one version of the game (in English). Sword of the New World is hosted in North America and Europe. Granado Espada (aka sGE) is hosted in South East Asia.
5,520 said on 2:50AM 7-11-2009
While the updates were a nice gesture. K2 still has a lot of events unaccounted for during the 'dark ages'. For example Illier being down for a week, granted they get cryptic messages of how their server will recieve compensation. It is to bad k2 does not observe the same practices of CCP when it comes to 'Clarity and Transparency'. 'Be assured that we will personally guarantee you that a compensation like never before will be given to all the players who plays on Illier' - g1 Raven. Worth noting this event happened in March and the GM Raven has since 'disappeared' from the forums, although Guinn/Raiden has made comments about them here and there since then...
Also there was the double xp compensation we 'recieved' during the month of February for the double maint every week to endure. That was supposed to last from Wed - Sat after a weekly maint on Tue, but was taken away on Thur of that week, never to be spoken of again.
Two of the 'bigger' fiascos I can think of, but to be fair. At least k2 isn't like Codemasters. Codemasters ran RF Online for 1 year plus with no updates and no events. Considering the PvP nature of the game, the forums were (from my POV) a lot more wild then GE's. Then out of the blue it was announced that Codemasters license with CCR will expire and they could not renegotiate a new one. Few months later CCR opened their own international service. Sword of the New World has had some bumps as of late, 8 months of no updates, etc etc. But at least they have the cajones to stick with it. Now the true question is can k2 rebuild the consumer confidence/trust they let sink to record lows.
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Jon Merriex said on 4:09AM 7-11-2009
I think this post pretty clearly sums up where I think the game currently is. G1-Raven is no longer with GamersFirst. We're intentionally building a new more... experienced team to operate Sword, hence me coming back as well as G1-Volktreau and several others.
About the Illier compensation, that is going to be live very shortly. Due to some technical limitations, we had to make a decision between the 2nd Anniversary and the Illier compensation, I choose the 2nd Anniversary. I plan to ensure the Illier compensation is live before the end of July.
"Now the true question is can k2 rebuild the consumer confidence/trust they let sink to record lows."
I think this is where I am at right now. A lot of rebuilding needs to be done and will be done in the coming weeks and months. When I first came back to the title many people said I was a liar and wouldn't be able to deliver, yet we were able to release 2.9 a week ahead of schedule. I am not one to take kindly to being called a liar, but I do understand the player's perspective and understand the only way to make something better and/or prove your worth, is to show it.
Talk is cheap. The success of 2.9b is a testament to that and I plan to build on those successes GREATLY in the coming weeks and months. 2.9 is only the beginning and you all will flip when you hear what we have in store for next year.
Rift said on 4:46AM 7-11-2009
For a pretty long time, SotNW seemed to be on a strange hiatus with no one really knowing where it was going (if anywhere). With the original team back (particularly Neume), the community seems to be slowly reviving itself and optimism is spreading at an infectious pace. Of course, that doesn't excuse or change the fact that the title was fairly dead for the last 9 months. The big question is whether K2 can continue to deliver on its promises and catch SotNW up to the other versions, particularly by updating us to 3.0 as soon as possible. As a fairly long time player, I have pretty high hopes. 2.9b was really a quick fix though, and 3.0 will pretty much seal the deal. At the very least, the game has a lot of momentum going for it right now, so it is a fairly exciting time. Granted, it had a lot of momentum 9 months ago before the game suddenly plunged into nowhere as well...
Honestly though, for people just starting out, there aren't very many reasons to choose SotNW at the moment over its Singaporean counterpart sGE. But SotNW is the North American and European version, so if you want to play alongside more native English speakers and people that live in North America and Europe, SotNW would be the version to choose. But in terms of sheer content, sGE right now is a good deal ahead. Granted, the additional content available in sGE is really only for high level players, and it would take a normal player about a month or two to get to the point where they would be ready for it. So if K2 meets their current prospective deadline it really shouldn't even matter - I would argue that SotNW is probably more friendly and accessible to beginners than sGE for various reasons.
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iggyfer said on 4:46AM 7-11-2009
I think few people realised that a video game company can suffer in much the same way as a bank or a supermarket. Sword was essentially dead for a long time (at least, on the outside) and few community members will confess to knowing the reason for the hiatus. But a lot of players are just glad the game is back.
I think the abuse that you've endured, Jon, is just a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived wrong doing - "you took my game away, you've gotta pay." We have a lot of nice people playing the game, as you know. And most of the forum veterans have taken pesimissm about the game as a personal insult.
There's no sugar-coating the fact that public opinion of K2 is pretty low, and the game may have lost a lot of players. But, speaking as one of the guys that was "killed during the Great Downtime of 2009," I'm very happy to return to the game.
I think player issues *must* be given priority at the moment. Compensations, PR stuff ... etc etc.
:D
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5,520 said on 4:46AM 7-11-2009
Those who called you a liar just are not familar with the entire situation between K2 + Hanbitsoft. Considering Hanbitsoft had a change in CEO and the company was also bought by T3 Entertainment around the time of the last update in fall of '08, I believe that was the 'change' you or Raiden hinted @ that resulted in our version being 'dropped' for 8 months? Although curious if K2 can possibly improve our version's support from Hanbitsoft to similar degrees of sGE or jGE's support.
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David C said on 5:15AM 7-11-2009
New players coming to Sword will not notice any of the troubles discussed so far on this thread--except in the whining of some players. (And one of the servers--the one I'm on--has a crazy economy I don't understand.)
The graphics and gameplay are amazing and there is lots to do as you build your family to veteran status and then on to expert. That is certainly not going to happen overnight. I'd bet all of the new content will be out before you'd be ready for it.
It's a game that is visually stunning and interesting to play whether you are hard-core dedicated to active play or casually play in between long bouts of afk. You set your pace.
I've never been attracted to MMOs before but this one hooked me easily. The community members are overwhelmingly cool and helpful, though the forums at times seem to have too many of the complainers for my taste. Still, you will get answers quickly to any questions you have--in the forums and in the game itself. The clan structure works great (though strategically a couple of mega clans have earned--and now keep--more influence than is fair to the game overall). At the same time, there is plenty to do if you want to stay independent.
The new content is great. I'm can't access (or at least can't access and survive) some of the new areas yet, but the new character Claire is a cool addition and the new pet is amazing for leveling characters. Neither is hard to get in terms of effort though Claire can take a lot of time. Technically speaking, some kind of glitch hit one of the servers with the new content and it wouldn't all work right. They fixed it super fast. Neume seems to be quite willing to tell it like it is and stick to what he says. (Raiden can be too vague and it upsets players, though he seems to really try and be invested in players.)
I recommend Sword of the New World to friends. I think the criticisms often seen are overly harsh. I am glad to see Neume back and I wish Raiden would be less defensive and sardonic, though I'd hate to be in his position as the main guy for whiners to whack.
My point is, if you're looking for an amazing gaming experience, Sword is a good choice--especially if you're interested in developing a long-term adventure.
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Wolf said on 6:02AM 7-11-2009
Okay, first off here's a little bit of the deal some Sword players actually enjoy. With other versions of GE, many Vis based items where changed to Cash Shop/Feso items. G1 didn't do this to us like IAH and other hosts allowed to happen to their players. Also Sword is the only version that allows players to purchase Feso from the Cash Shop, greatly improving the ability for ALL players to obtain Feso Shop items. The reason this last part was delayed was due to major bugs and incapatibilities with these significant improvements to the patch. Personally I believe that the G1 staff deserves a bit more credit for pushing to make Sword of the New World a truely unique experience in the Granado Espada franchise.
Also, a little note for above...Claire can not use 2 hand weapons 1 handed....she uses greatswords just like everyone else...I know I got her wailing away on some deamons in Tetra FA atm lol.
BTW Thnx Neume, Volk, Raven, Guinn, Raiden, Thor and all other G1 AMs for your never ending drive and support to make Sword the best. Here's to keeping 3.0 & 3.4 on track, until then I'll let my Clare enjoy her leveling.
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JStar said on 6:15AM 7-11-2009
While it's true that the game has suffered due to lack of updates for the last months, the return of old AM's and the rest of the 2.9 update seems to be leading the game in a good way. Apparently more action is being taken against botting and duping recently as well, altough our economy is still suffering from the lack of people and bug exploits in the last few months. Would be nice if K2 did something to against this as well.
Still, as much as this version is behind other servers, I find it to have a pretty good comunity, and it offers the best balance between F2P and P2P players among every other version out there in my oppinion.
For people who haven't played this game, it would definetly be worth to try it if you're into mmorpg's and want something different. Besides, most of the lower level (1-100) content is pretty much the same in all versions of the game now.
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iceingshadow said on 6:51AM 7-11-2009
I must admit that K2 has had hard tiem with updates but thats due to players like jeremy it seems he plays there where botters can be autoreported and only send to a prison and no further punnishment.... I have been playing on sGE with bot just to test it out.... and 1 month no ban... its been a great play tehre everyone has expert catherine summoner / expert jack or angie... what it comes to K2 what did they do about dupers and botters.. ? well half of the players disappeared from orpesia that were acitvely there and collecting drops also in my clan 10 ppl alone were removed in the mass ban and after few xtrap updates all external programs were made to 0... New content was delayed so they could fix existing bugs and fix the duping which caused prices to sink and rise... that is under control and the economy is repairing itself slowly but steady.
So overall the schedule of futher updates is looking good we will get 4.0 before sGE ... hmm wonder why... well also if you begin now you will see 3.0 before you even get to expert your char and those expert stances are what i am waiting for in there.... Bot is not a question in sotnw but sGE it seems to be normal no one reports you for those... Y_Y but well thats just a broken piece which can be fixed by ppl like Jon .... he works with the game and college AMs to take out those who use bots...
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