La Tale takes place in a chibi-like anime kingdom populated with various monsters, adventurers, and townsfolk all looking to make a way in the world. This boils down to your standard side-scrolling RPG, much like the aforementioned Maple Story. You can get quests, kill monsters, and explore new areas, all in 2D. The graphics for La Tale are nice if you are a Japanese animation fan or enjoy detailed pixel artwork, but may put off some people thanks to the saccharine sweetness of the monsters and characters. The sound is much the same way, with cheerful music and average, not overbearing, sounds all throughout the game. The game is obviously marketed towards kids or those looking for some nostalgia, but the gameplay design is definitely mature. Not in the blood and guts way, but in the well-realized and well-designed way.

The basics of La Tale are much the same as they are like any 2D side-scrolling action game such as Maple Story or Castlevania. You progress from screen to screen, jumping on platforms and attacking enemies. Depending on your armaments and the class you have chosen, you can kill enemies in different ways and gain experience and items. All the trappings of the gameplay standard, but done quite well. Jumping is not too flighty or too weighty, combat is satisfying, and the different areas are varied enough to keep you moving forward through the game world. In fact, combat is perhaps the strongest point that La Tale has over other competitors, as enemies telegraph their attacks far better, maneuverability is high, and in general the controls for fighting are much more responsive than you would expect of a simple free-to-play MMO.

The different classes of La Tale are much like they are in a game like Aion. You have your warriors, mages, archers, and healers. You can also specialize into another job after reaching a certain level, allowing you to use skills better suited to your play style. Knights, for example, can specialize into a tank-oriented class that has much greater hit points and defense than other melee counterparts. There's also one class, the Engineer, that is an interesting change. This class functions much like the masterminds of City of Heroes or hunters of World of Warcraft in that it can place pets and turrets which then unleash upon an enemy. It's always cool to see such a class in any MMO, and La Tale is no exception to this, especially given that it is 2D.

Skills in La Tale are unlocked through an interesting method. Rather than buying them from a trainer when you reach a certain level or using skill points to unlock them, you use both. Whenever you want a skill, you spend your money to unlock it if you are the proper level. After unlocking a skill, you may then spend skill points in order to upgrade it to whatever level you want. Skill are broken up into passive and active, and every weapon and class has a set of unique skills to it, making character customization unusually broad for a free-to-play game. Along with your class and weapons skills come emoticons, gathering skills, and crafting, which have to be learned from books or the appropriate trainer.

La Tale also incorporates a crafting system into itself. It's not very well done, however. In most crafting systems, you expect to gather the materials, find a place to work on them (if you need one), and craft it because you have a skill or recipe. La Tale forces you to buy crafting capsules which are used whenever you craft something, on top of gathering the materials. Every time you do crafting, it uses up one of these capsules as well. It's extremely irritating and count-intuitive, and is perhaps the worst part about the entire experience. Thankfully, you can play through most of the game without having to do any crafting at all.

The general shortcomings of La Tale have more to do with the environment, audience, and limitations of presentation than the gameplay itself. For example, it's very easy to get multiple enemies on you carelessly, as enemies will constantly wander around and run into your attacks. The maps can sometimes get confusing, and the warping system is a little wonky. Players will often sit in the middle of town and forge things, which constantly adds the forging sound to anything you do in town. Random trade requests, team requests, or begging are not uncommon. Finally, while this isn't a detriment to the game itself, it's rather humorous that one load screen says "don't spend real money on items." To keep this in perspective, La Tale uses microtransactions.

La Tale may look like a Maple Story clone, but it definitely strikes away from that image once you begin to play it. The story is campy, the player base is baffling, and a few of the systems are not fully thought out, but on a whole, it's a relaxing and rewarding experience for anyone that wants to try it. If you are looking for a change of pace, here is where you will find what you want.