5. Guild Wars 2 – It's cool and has a really nice atmosphere. The views are beautiful, and the combat system is complex and fun, your skills change depending on the weapon you use. Exploration feels meaningful and rewarding, and the questing is enjoyable. I didn’t play a lot, but it felt a bit too easy and fast for me. Still I think there’s a lot of fun to be had
6. TES: O - It's good but plays a lot like ffXIV in the sense that it often feels like a singleplayer game. Quests are very good. The combat is pretty simple. I didn't play it much but I want to someday.
7. Mabinogi – I really liked it. It’s probably the closest thing we have to an isekai-style mmo. There are tons of fun life skills, even drawing. The combat is fun, though not super complex. There’s a lot of variety in everything, and it’s rare to find two players with the same build or appearance. I just wish there was a classic version of the game. Right now it suffers from heavy railroading you’re expected to go through a really long (like 20hour) tutorial that gives you a ton of boosts, instantly unlocks skills you originally had to discover, and levels them up super fast. Back in the day you had to put in effort to reach that point. Still, it’s fun to play, and the later parts are challenging and engaging. Unfortunately the ping in Europe is over 300ms
8. Black Desert – this might actually be one of my favorites too. The world is vast and really fun to explore, and it looks nice. The story and quests are pretty simple but still enjoyable. The combat system is great, I never got bored of it and it only gets more complex and fun as you progress. The grind is satisfying even if it’s a bit repetitive, 99% of PvE is basically running in circles killing groups of monsters. Unfortunately there’s very little group content.
Progression is fun but tough. You have to enhance your gear sometimes risking destruction. If you get tired of fighting, lifeskilling is detailed and fun and you can do it without fighting anything at all. It’s a very relaxing game overall, though not very social since there’s little reason to talk to others but you can still find people to chat with. I wish there was more variety in builds, gear and character appearance, because players often look and act exactly the same.
