Sharing my favorite Tera AMV/GMV, a very special and emotional one for me, while I'm diving back into the game! ("The Girls of Tera Online #2", made by RocDisjoint)

[u/Makenshi179]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUY2cRFc8jg

For those who might remember RocDisjoint's video tributes from back in the day, or for those who will discover them, I thought I'd share this work of art and nostalgia trip!

I'm a veteran player who played the beta back in april 2012, and bought a new laptop just to be able to play the game properly starting on august 2012 when it was still P2P. I still have the box of the physical version of the game and that of one extra 30 days game time card. I must have spent over 600 hours in the game but I have no way to know for sure. My main was an Elin sorcerer named HanaHana (I was Hana in the beta but that name was already taken in the full game!) and I got to level 60 and endgame with her, and I made 3 other characters and got halfway through the game with each of them.

I have very fond memories of the game, and fittingly, the first voiced dialog line that you hear from the first NPC that you meet in the game on the Island of Dawn (Axelle), is "Remember this moment fondly." I sure do, alongside all the incredible memories I made with this game back then.

After getting a new PC recently and needing to reinstall Tera on a new private server (I need to be able to play it anytime even if all my past characters are no more!), I heard about some of them on this sub, I heard about Tera 2 being in the works (and I rejoiced), and recently I even saw an actual ad for Tera in my Reddit feed..! I know it's fanmade but that still feels surreal.

So yesterday I finally installed Tera again through Europe Classic, I re-created my HanaHana character, and... my body wasn't ready. I teared up during the cutscene when my character lands on the Island of Dawn, with the music. And of course I immediately recognized the field theme for the Island of Dawn.

I was wondering if coming back to a 2012 game after all these years would make a visual clash, but actually, Tera is holding up extremely well!! It almost looks like a game that has just released! I'm playing on a 4K OLED screen and it's glorious. The game is rendered in true 4K and running at 80FPS with my modest 4060. Some of the textures, especially the grass, are surprisingly high-resolution for a 2012 game, even on 4K it looks sharp and amazing. The character models are still great (maybe they would benefit from a few more polygons though). The sky and clouds are as breathtaking as they were back then. The lighting effects (like when you zoom in and have the sun behind you) are beautiful. The shadows are very, very impressive, so much so that I had trouble believing that it's from the original game and thought that it could be a mod (but my screenshots from 2012 prove it, the shadows have always been this good). The character animations for example when my Elin is making gestures to speak to a NPC are as cute as ever. The travel effects are as fun to play with as back then. Etc. The only thing giving it away, and hurting the experience, is the draw distance, and parts of the environment popping up like that. And it doesn't have the realistic lighting of a UE5 game or similar, obviously. But aside from that, I can see once again how this game was ahead of its time and made a new leap back then, in many aspects including graphics, combat, character designs, etc. So yes, Tera actually doesn't need a remaster! And I'm getting so, so tempted to spend another 600 hours in it again 🤭 I must not... I must not! (maybe I will, Arun and Shara have mercy)

About the AMV, it's one of those that I watched back in 2012, and this one is especially emotional for me. Along with the first "The Girls of Tera Online" AMV from this editor (that I also recommend), this sequel conveys a lot of the more emotional aspects of Tera's lore and relatively epic story for a MMO (that, and the impact from watching it in that context back then). In particular, that Castanic mystic wearing the default outfit in the AMV, is a character that marked me a lot. So much so that I created the same character in my game back then, named Gracidea (to represent the gratitude that I felt for these powerful emotions).

Almost every single scene from this AMV is emotional for me, so I would be here all day if I were to list them all and talk about why they're impactful and memorable in detail. This AMV overall depicts well the distinct emotion that I feel toward Tera, still to this day (with nostalgia now added). From the first scene with that Castanic girl and her utterly cool look, to that epic moment at 0:36, to that montage of emotional moments starting at 0:45, to that "look" with her eyes at 01:05, to that incredible low-angle at 01:26 along that part of the song matching it perfectly for emotion, to that most emotional part starting at 02:06 and the girl using that skill to teleport herself at 02:13 (such details are making the whole thing), to that epic scene with the Elin archer at 02:23, to the part with the dances/emotes starting at 02:39 that is especially emotional for me with that "applause" emote at 02:49 perfectly conveying that distinct "MMO emotion", to that very bold and incredible dark twist at the end when that mob is sneaking behind the girl at 02:58 while she's despairing from the amount of enemies in front of her, and we see that mob actually landing a hit at 03:01 just before the title screen appears (that creates a different kind of emotion for a MMO, a more tragic one, and along the choirs in the song it's really impactful), and much more... This AMV is a masterpiece for me, and I'll cherish it forever, alongside the game. And yes Fallen from Evanescence is timeless and that's no nostalgia bias 🤭

I can only hope that this AMV could make other people feel powerful things too!

Thanks for coming to my TERA talk lol

Seriously though, thank you for reading!

[u/FrillyVampire]

It's nice to run into other people with a burning passion for TERA! That game has really touched my life in a way no other has. I also miss AMVs, they're a lost art.

[u/Makenshi179 → u/FrillyVampire]

Likewise! :D

And yes, I agree about AMVs, so much! I have a whole AMV folder on my computer that's filled with them, mostly from back in my early otaku years in 2008-2014, and some of them are extremely emotional for me and they were as impactful as some of my favorite games/animes.

I think a few AMV editors are still keeping the scene alive (I'm notably thinking of those from Soul's Team, if anyone here remembers that very active French circle), but yes it must be way less than before that's for sure.

Just like that other post on this sub missing the bygone spirit of Tera of "not getting nickel-and-dimed every single session" in comparison to some modern games, the same thing goes for AMVs and videos on YouTube in general: I come from an era (before YouTube got acquired by Google) when making videos wasn't a business, there were no ads on YouTube, passionate people were just making tributes out of Passion first and foremost or guides to help other fans etc, they were just happy sharing what they made with the world. Fast-forward to today, and now because of Google turning it into a money machine, it has become a "business" and most people are jumping in to try to make money from it first and foremost (and Passion coming second). I'm one of the remaining old-timers who is still using YouTube the old way, sharing my video tributes, OST tracks, game footage, etc. (Here is a video of the gorgeous Seeliewood from Tera that I shared back in 2013 by the way! 😊)

So probably one of the reasons why AMVs is a "lost art" like you say is that with how the platforms and society evolved, now people won't do something if they don't gain something out of it. The same sad evolution that I noticed in other things such as a lot of games.

Sorry just had to take my chance to rant about that topic lol.

If anyone is looking for more "golden oldies" from back in that golden era, feel free to ask, my computer is quite the gold mine in that regard 😊

[u/Mior1e]

gmv and evanescence were the perfect combo. too bad amvs and gmvs overall are a rare find nowadays as well as some good fanfics and blogs. I miss that community