Played this a LOT when I was a kid so I have fond memories of it but somewhere the game lost me and I never came back to it.
Kind of difficult to come back to it since one time I tried and my account had disappeared, but oh well.

Now for the 2023 review:
I suddenly remembered how I loved this game as a kid and how bummed I was when my account was deleted so imagine my surprise when I learned there's now a Steam verison; this will be my review of Elsword from a person who has not touched the game in almost 15 years:

It's so weird to see so many playable characters in 2023 not barred by the Gacha wall.
the gameplay is a mix of fighter and platformer with different skills and it is very fun and fast so dungeons don't take a lot of time.
Can't find people so always fight dungeons solo.
the job system and class change come really fast because it's really easy to level up (I got to level 50 in two days not even playing for 2 hours each day), it kinda feels like they want you to go straight to enjoying the endgame, but I'm still enjoying going back to the older regions because childhood.
the designs are very nice and you can see the evolution in character design and ideas the newer the class and design is.
the models are ok and hold surprisingly well for a game from 2007.
The community is alive, I just can't find italian people to play with...
The voiceover is only for attacks and in the world, the story is easy to follow and actually gets kind of interesting later on (even with the JRPG-ness of it) but is not voiced which is a shame since they dubbed the game in so many languages, even with an italian dub.
Fighting dungeons solo is fun but there is a small level of grind to be had.
The more you go through the story the longer the dungeons are which is not that fun when you are doing it solo like I'm doing.
The story is actually getting interesting the more you go trough, shedding some of the JRPG-ness of the plot in order to show more of the Nasod, the EL Lady and how it all connects to the beginning of your adventure

I'm afraid of the amount of hours I will sink into this...
If you want to play, search for a Rena called BravelyOwl!

Attention: Do not play this game.

It has good-looking characters and a somewhat solid and fun fundamental combat... that is royally f***ed up by everything else on the late game.

I like to think this game has a beginning, middle, and end; That being your journey on exploring what the characters can do, start little, find out some cool things and flashy skills, unlock more slots for skills, achieve the extremely grindy final class and immediately call it a day or try another character, because after that, you better build crit chance and damage, stock yourself with infinite MP and FAST cooldown times because you will just keep using your skills that give you invulnerability ad infinitum... either that, or you die on the first attack you receive.

Chose to build the only effective build for every character, well, good luck you will indeed need because of the ULTIMATE GRINDFEST that is rolling for good drops and stats.

The best part of having thrown 250h on this game, or rather, on the Steam release of this game, because I played on two other servers before that, is that I can properly trash this game. I do still have some attachment to its characters though.

Spent several years on this game, definitely the game I played the most as a teenager. Once I reached the late-game, the game lost all the fun, to the point I only made new characters to play through the entire game just to enjoy the time I was spending playing this. The combat who was the best aspect of the game turns into skill spam and boring infinite grinding. Also, the most ridiculous thing is the unfair RNG Enhancement system, only made to the playerbase spend real money into the game just to be able to play the hardest dungeons. Leaving all these problems aside, Elesis is a cool character.

Elsword é um dos jogos mais viciantes que eu joguei em toda a minha vida e ainda jogo, é um excelente MMORPG, apesar da desenvolvedora não ser das melhores e ser bem fodase para os jogadores, o jogo em si rende horas de jogo e é mais focado no Ending game, a trilha sonóra é muito boa, tem uma variedade extensa de personagens e diferenças classes e linhagens que mudam a jogabilidade, é um dos meus jogos favoritos e nem preciso falar muito sobre ele, confesso que não é um jogo perfeito, muito pelo contrário, ele tem muitos erros, e pode se tornar repetitivo, mas no geral é um bom jogo e eu sempre guardarei em meu coração, conheci essa maravilha quando eu ainda era bem pequeno lá em 2015 e meu primo jogava além de Grand Chase tambem, deixando eu jogar de vez enquando e até criando uma conta pra mim e me ajudando a upar, com o tempo fui pro Grand Chase e me afaste bastante do jogo, fui mais chegado no Grand Chase mas Depois de Enjoar de jogar os Servidores piratas do Grand Chase, Decidi dar uma chance novamente a esse jogo e não me arrependo, ambos os jogos são excelentes ( Grand Chase e Elsword ) é uma pena que ambos tem uma desenvolvedora incopetente.