The Bazaar is an autobattler MMO where combat is a matter of making better builds than what the other side is packing. The game’s focus is building around your hero, making the best use of what various events and stores provide, and trumping up everyone you’ll encounter. Players are also exposed to asynchronous PvP, where you’ll encounter someone else’s build at a given time. Let’s look into the game’s advertised features and find out if this is a worthy entry to the ever-expanding list of online games for guys.

A refreshing take on character creation

The Bazaar takes on a free approach to hero building using its deck-building nature in terms of arming a character and the randomly generated events that give you exercises on quick decision-making. It doesn’t mean that heroes don’t have their unique properties though, but you can capitalize on a hero’s strengths using items you find or buy. Your options are going to be based on what the game decides to give you.

Mastering mechanics yields the most rewards

There are plenty of traits that can boost your character and directly harm an opponent. There are basic mechanics like shields to block incoming damage, poison to chip away at a target’s health gauge, regen to regain lost HP after a turn, and so on. Items also have their own mechanics and tend to synergize with other pieces. There are items that play their best when given optimal placements. Beating enemies or besting other players is a matter of your current approach. It’s a toss-up of disabling the opposing side’s items, going ham and directly damaging the enemy’s health bar, and a combination of both.

Items come in different sizes. A weapons system that can take a massive chunk of enemy health is more likely massive in size, limiting your slots for new equipment. There are other gear that take up a modest volume, but you’ll have to read and fully understand their mechanics to prevent them from overlapping your other more potent pieces.

An adventurous course in time management

The Bazaar uses an adventuring system split into separate segments. Each ‘hour’ generates up to 3 events you can pick one from. You can either stop by a store to look for helpful wares or travel into various places in search of a few forgotten goods. Enemy encounters are done in two monster melees where you get the chance to loot defeated creatures of Items and Skills – and an encounter with another player where defeating the rival gets you Prestige.

A day in The Bazaar can lead to a web of possibilities. How far you can go depends on what you can buy from the stores you’ll find along the way, how much Gold you have in hand, and how well a Hero can take advantage of what you equip the character with. You may come across instances with supplies strewn about, which means the probability of free gear, though the quality tends to fall behind compared to what can be bought with gold. Don’t count them out, since these may come with bonuses that benefit characters than what flat stat boosts can offer. Everything is a matter of choice – and how you have made the best of what those decisions yielded.

The Bazaar is an MMO for players willing to experiment with combinations and get the best out of the game’s randomness. Closed Beta testing is currently underway, with a worldwide launch date of sometime in early 2025. Check out other online games for guys in the meantime.