There are countless MMORPGs on the market and even more online games that have disappeared from the scene and can no longer be played. Some of them were pretty promising. The MMO Ninelives died early in its development, but players are now mourning the dead MMO that you can currently even explore.
What is Ninelives? Ninelives started a closed alpha in October 2015 and was intended to be an open world online RPG from the small developer SmokyMonkeyS, consisting of only 2 developers. It was free, but there were various things you could buy for real money.
The Open Alpha followed at the beginning of 2016. There were several patches, new content and bug fixes throughout 2016. But that didn’t last long. In 2016, SmokyMonkeyS announced on its website that it was pausing development of Ninelives. There weren’t enough resources to further develop the game.
The alpha servers, without multiplayer functions with other players, remained intact for now and are still live today. A video on the topic is currently making some players miss the MMORPG with great potential.
Ninelives – Trailer for the MMORPG that was never properly released
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An actually dead but fascinating world
What makes the game so fascinating? In a new YouTube video from eurothug4000, she introduces the MMORPG, which is dead but can still be downloaded, in an isolated version. She introduces her own journey through the game and why it is so fascinating.
Probably the most interesting thing about Ninelives is that it is isolated in its time and in a unique concept. In an interview with eurothug4000 (via thumblr.com), developer Tota explained that he wanted to create a relaxed, free-roaming adventure for players.
This is also evident in the action gameplay. You don’t directly level your character, which you can choose from 4 races and 3 classes. You level individual skills with which you build your build. Equipment items are also much freer. All drops are random. If you’re lucky, you’ll receive a powerful item early in the game.
In order to move properly through the unfinished open world, there are teleportation points, mounts and a hot air balloon. Otherwise, the existing quests are familiar tropes.
Another interesting aspect of the game is that there are hardly any guides or tutorials. You have to solve puzzles yourself.
A unique look to this day
What are the other interesting points? A major unique selling point of Ninelives is its appearance. There are no bright colors, but rather a dreary choice of colors that still works with light and small highlights. This creates a look that is familiar from Final Fantasy 12, Ico, or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, for example.
The developer explains he wanted an imaginary world [erschaffen]which is a little similar to reality, but slightly different.
Why is this so fascinating? Because the then, unfinished version of Ninelives is playable, the game is like a time capsule. You can explore the world, play the quests and dream about how the game would have developed and what it was like back then. You’re looking at an MMO that never actually existed.
Playful standards that are common today are missing, but this means the game retains its uniqueness.
This still seems to fascinate many players, as a recent post on reddit shows:
It can be assumed that few players still have a consistent interest in the game since it is still playable. Individual updates in 2018 and 2019 also show that players are regularly getting lost in the world of Ninelives.
What else did the developer do? SmokyMonkeyS has released 2 more games. You can play the action RPG Triglav on various mobile platforms. You can find the game Garage: Bad Dream Adventure on Steam. Both games, like Ninelives, have an interesting look. Most dead MMOs can no longer be played these days. You can find some of them here: 19 dead MMORPGs that WoW has already outlived