Perfect World

Perfect World is a Chinese MMORPG, developed by Perfect World, Inc. If you're looking at this page, chances are you're seeing ads for one of their other two MMORPG.

It has been online for over two years and has already put out four expansions. Its main selling point may be the truly enormous level of customization available: there are five races with two job classes available for each, males and females, completely up-to-the-player stats, and more unique appearance, cosmetic, and fashion choices than most other games on the market. Like most MMORPGs, PW also boasts a huge open world.

As an added perk, all races can fly at level 30 (and one race immediately at level 1).

Website found here.

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 * An Adventurer Is You: Let's count the ways; you got your run-of-the-mill warrior (Blademaster), three Squishy Wizard classes (the aptly named Wizard and Cleric, the latter combined with The Medic, as well as the psychic class), one Glass Cannon (Archers), a Meat Shield (Barbarians), a technical class (Assassins) and a combination squishy wizard/petmaster/mezzer (Venomancers, though all magic classes have some sort of buff/debuff).
 * Lets not forget the the BFS toting warriors (Seekers), and their counterparts the Jack of All Trades, er magical trades that is (the Mystic)
 * Allegedly Free Game: While it does feature a boutique (cash shop) it is perfectly possible to play normally without spending real-life money; and there's a way to trade in-game currency with gold (boutique currency) to boot. Granted, this requires a lot of time and effort.
 * These days, it's more "Allegedly" free than ever. To wit:
 * Try playing beyond level 95 as any melee class without getting a pair of claws or daggers and the ability to punch 5 times per second (nigh-impossible to do without a huge amount of cash-shopping, or purchasing the items from those who do), and see just how valuable you are. This includes the tank class, who cannot hope to hold aggro over 5 APS without claws and 5 APS of their own.
 * Try playing an archer beyond 95 without doing the same thing (yes, that means trading your bow for claws... as an archer). You'll still be outdone by the melees, but you won't be totally useless.
 * If, for some reason, you do play beyond 95 as any of the above without getting 5 APS, try playing beyond 100 without dropping $72 on Rank 8, during the few times the producers decide to put that into the Cash Shop (alternatively, you could spend full months of your life grinding the reputation, and maybe, just maybe get there). And then still be outdone to no end by those who have 5 APS.
 * Good news: Rank 8 is easier to get to now due to the existence of faction bases, and Wraith Officer's Badges can be obtained from any Watcher of the Earth, provided you have Warsong items to trade. Bad news: there is now a rank 9.
 * Try playing any caster class, aside from clerics, beyond 95, period. Venomancers may get by with this, due to having a useful debuff for 5 APS characters to take advantage of, and the casters are sometimes viable in PvP, but still, in PvE, you're far from useful.
 * Negated by the fact of Caster Nirvana having been released a few months ago. There is now a use for almost all of the Non-APS Oriented Classes within Caster Nirvana so the argument that you cannot play at those levels is null and void.
 * Note that despite all this, it is still possible to do all this without paying, and succeeding is viewed as a great accomplishment and a badge of honor among parts of the playerbase.
 * Anticlimax Boss: There's a certain level 100 boss you're expected to fight solo when you're level 30. Don't be afraid: he dies quickly and, in fact, doesn't attack at all. The only danger is his tendency to flee into a crowd of aggressive mobs...
 * To clarify on this, the boss is also completely immune to magic in all forms, which scares ignorant newbie spellcasters. Fortunately, this boss actually dies in a few punches even from the weakest spellcaster. As mentioned above, he DOES live near a dungeon entrance full of elite mobs 50-60 levels higher than the average monster in the area...
 * The Artifact: Originally, the game had a monthly fee. For some reason, when they switched to the cash shop model, NPCs who sold boutique items were left in the game, just without a shop.
 * Berserk Button: Wraiths apparently hate Duke Blacke's constant yelling.
 * Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The Untamed race. Females are Petting Zoo People, and males are lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) who happen to be bipedal and able to wield axes.
 * Breast Plate: pretty much all female armor; and some boutique clothes can turn men into a Walking Shirtless Scene.
 * Calling Your Attacks: SUPER POWERFUL MIGHTY WHIRLING SLASH!
 * To clarify: a late-game boss says this before and while releasing an instant-kill area-of-effect attack. It's pathetically easy to avoid, but hilarious and somewhat memetic among the fandom.
 * Captain Obvious: "Cannot perform this action while dead."
 * Character Customization: As mentioned above; you can customize every aspect of your character's face and a general customization of its body; also adding stat points to anything you wish. (For example: it is possible to create a Cleric who only uses polearms and heavy armor, unadvisable though it may be).
 * Combat Medic: The Cleric, who starts the game with a healing skill and a magical attack, their latter attacks involve Shock and Awe; Wizards also get a healing spell early in the game.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Taken to the logical extreme; not only are players unfazed when standing near lava, they can lie on top of it and not be harmed either
 * Dual-Wielding: Blademasters can dual-wield swords or axes, Barbarians can dual-wield axes and hammers, Assassins dual-wield daggers.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: a pretty large part of the magic damage system, especially for Wizards (who can cast 3 of the 5 elements).
 * Elite Mooks: The mobs in instanced dungeons are quite a bit tougher than their levels imply. For instance, one can take more damage from mobs in the level 59 dungeon than from level 101 mobs on the world map.
 * Flying Seafood Special: The default flying mount for the Untamed is a manta ray.
 * Fridge Logic: When you kill a flying mob, its drops defy gravity. The default elf wings drain mana, but ones you can get later that are obviously made of spirit energy don't. On the subject of flying mounts, why can't you use one of the Human-specific giant flying swords to completely own everything? And how do elves change their wings?
 * Heroic BSOD: Dizzy, after
 * Holiday Mode
 * Humans Are Bastards: Conversations with the Untamed and Elves about their previous encounter with Humans strongly implies this.
 * Item Crafting: Arguably the best way to get good equipment, or you can search at the auction for items 'other' people have crafted.
 * Kamehame Hadoken: While many of the classes have attacks that could arguably be personified by the Kamehame Hadoken Trope it is the Mystic Class that seems to have the most obvious example of this in the form of the Absorb Soul Spell whose animation is almost identical to the Power Up and Firing of the Hadoken or Kamehame attacks.
 * Nature Hero: The Earthguard race, both classes.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: Wraiths. Imagine the story of Noah's Ark, except all the drowned sinners came back. And started possessing corpses. And are currently trying to murder just about everything.
 * PVP-Balanced: oddly handled; there are 5 PVE servers and 2 PVP, though anyone in those 5 servers can enter PK Mode if they want to; and due to the game's system each class can be built to be competitive in PVP or to work better in parties.
 * Reverse Grip: Assassins wield their daggers like this.
 * Say My Name:
 * Sex Sells: Pick an ad. It probably has a Stripperiffic, angelic looking female on it. Perfect World indeed.
 * Stupidity Is the Only Option: One of the tasks required to increase your Spiritual Cultivation (increasing it unlocks new abilities for your class) has you meeting with a ghost spirit, but before you can do so, you have to die. Luckily the website's guide advises to do this portion immediately after leveling up for less EXP loss.
 * You could also dump any experience you have into your Genie to ensure that it goes to a productive purpose.
 * Sword Beam: Several Seeker's skills. Staggering Strike, Battousai, Heartseeker, we could go on.
 * The Blademaster's Drake Ray, as well.
 * Twenty Bear Asses: Tons of quests like these.
 * One good thing is that all the immensely-low-drop-rate one-item quests consist of getting a magic item, an important military document, or something else a Wraith would actually bother stealing.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Venomancers can turn into foxes, and Barbarians can turn into tigers.
 * Certain one-use pills temporarily shapeshift the heads of humans and elves. This doesn't change stats or gameplay, but it can be amusing (though your mileage may vary).
 * The Tideborn classes (Assassins and Psychics) can turn into merfolk.
 * Weapon of Choice: again, oddly handled; since you need certain stats to wield certain weapons you can find mages with giant hammers, or Barbarians with magic wands; however, classes won't be able to use their skills if they're not using weapons made for them.
 * More traditionally handled in the Genesis expansion: Seekers can only use swords (probably to prevent the standard trick of switching to fists and punching everything endgame, regardless of class) and Mystics can only use magic implements (for some reason).
 * Only Archers can use crossbows and slingshots, though. Everyone can use bows, oddly.
 * Everyone except Seekers (And possibly Mystics as well) that is. Seekers can use swords and only swords, probably as an attempt to save the weapon class from disuse.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Type "Perfect World" into Google Image Search and the top line of results will give a screenshot of a character riding on a tiger riding on a giant eagle.
 * Winged Humanoid: The Winged Elves.
 * You All Look Familiar: There aren't very many different NPC models. Plus, the mob models tend to be the same from area to area, save for their levels, names, sizes, and colors.
 * I beg to differ. The sets of enemies do change - names and appearances. For example, there's many different versions of those Skelrelic creatures - Geisha, Ossein, Skeleranc, ect. Geishas have red scarves and carry swords, and have brownish skin. Osseins and Skelerancs can be either archers, swordsmen, or casters and have a more greenish coloring.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Several fashion items, as well as some armor.