As a long time fan of Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and other classic Square Enix games, UOSSMUD is probably the most wonderfully nostalgic online game - MUD or otherwise - that I have ever played.

You use a job system straight out of the game with the best job system ever made: Final Fantasy Tactics. Except, not entirely. Where the skills from FFT don't translate well to a MUD, or where it would simply be interesting or beneficial to do so, they add in classic Final Fantasy skills from other games, such as some of Final Fantasy 9's Knight and Dragoon skills, some of Sabin's skills from FF6 in the Monk job, a large number of FF5 skills, and even some entire jobs that weren't in Final Fantasy Tactics, such as Red Mage, Blue Mage, Marksman, Magitek Knight, SOLDIER, and Trainer.

Similarly, the worlds in this MUD are all straight out of old Squaresoft games. You can explore all of Final Fantasy 5, 6, and 7, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana. And they are AMAZINGLY accurate to the original Super Nintendo and Playstation games. Uncannily so. If you have played the original games, you will never get lost.

With that in mind, they didn't really have to put a lot of work into making the game *good*. It was enough for me that it was so much like the games I loved. But they did it anyway. The wizards at this MUD have actually put a huge amount of work into the game to make it fun and entertaining. Not all of their decisions are popular, but overall they've managed to combine systems from many different Squaresoft games to create something that somehow manages to feel unique and fun. One of the best examples of this is the fur shop. An ability from Final Fantasy Tactics that lets players skin monsters as they're slain was added last year, and works in conjunction with the license system from Final Fantasy 12 and the synthesis system from Kingdom Hearts to let the player create powerful equipment if they're willing to put in the work. That sounds convoluted, and is a little complicated, but it works together better than I thought it would. There are a lot of examples of this type of thing, though some of them work better than others. There are a few miserable failures, like the Deep Dungeon and certain quests, but I just ignore those parts of the game. (And, hey, maybe someone likes the impossible quests...)

If there's one problem with this MUD, it's the animosity between the immortals and some of the older players. It gets ridiculous sometimes, as they're both apparently convinced the other is trying to destroy the MUD and/or murder a litter of orphaned kittens, and they will scream at each-other for a while before I get sick of listening and turn the channel off. If they could shut up once in a while I might stay online for longer. But as long as no one is arguing incoherently about tedious BS, it's a high quality MUD with a fantastic sense of nostalgia.