ZX Online or Zhu Xian (not megaman ZX which is available for free download on the Nintendo DS roms heheh) , a repackaged version of the popular Perfect World Online has reached the Philippine shores and is now on Close Beta Testing. Zhu Xian is based on the popular online fantasy novel of the same name which was released on 2006. Since it’s concept comes from the novel, expect the storyline to follow with it’s theme.

On the novel, the hero was torn between two lovers: one from good and the other from evil. Then, the woman from the evil side got unconscious and the only thing that could save her was for the man she loves to join her in her world. Forced to make a decision, the man chose to cross the evil side to revive her. This is why aside from the general battle of good and evil, the theme revolves around love, betrayal and heroism.

Game environment is in full 3D and a pathing system is added so players can just click on any point in the map and be automatically navigated to that point.

Pets are also available but unlike other online games in the market, Zhu Xian Online’s pets evolve from infancy to death. They grow, learn new skills and eventually go to the spiritual dimension and leave it’s master with lucky talisman.

The flying mount system, which is also present in Perfect World, is also the highlights of Zhu Xian. This is the sign of a powerful warrior which has been taken from old Chinese martial arts myth.

As of this moment Zhu Xian Online Philippines is still on closed beta test. Application for test accounts is still available on the official website. There is no definite time when it’s gonna be launched commercially or even just for open beta but everyone is expecting it to be up by the first quarter of 2009.

On the CBT server, I noticed that sub-servers or channels are set to manage the server bandwidth to prevent latency anticipating the future game population. Newbie mob drops are set to low or perhaps extremely low since it took me a handful before I got one and, oh, they are cute.

Security wise, no game guard seems to be running on the background when checking device manager so this could mean that it’s not yet secured or perhaps its already hooked to the client file.

I don’t know if this is of any significance to anyone but there is no double jump on Zhu Xian so you just have to utilize the mount feature if you want to reach for high objects.

As with any other games, CBT or close beta test is the opportune time for malicious program testing. I mean cheats, hacks and other exploits to gain advantage over your fellow players and on the game management itself. Luckily, or unluckily for some, existing cheats for Perfect World is not working on Zhu Xian–yet.

Expect hacks, cheats and specially bots to crop up sooner or later. Tasker on the other hand, which worked with the original Perfect World and other online games is not working on Zhu Xian.

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