• Idle elements and quick progression
• Ragnarok Online-inspired aesthetics
• Bring on the dopamine

Hello and welcome to Ahead of the Game, a series where we tell you all about an upcoming game that, despite not being out yet, is available for you to play at the time of publishing. Through this series, you can grab a chance to play games well ahead of their release date, be that through Soft Launch, Open Beta, Demos, or more.

Who has the time to grind through hundred-hour-long quests to save the world when you can just set your hero on auto-fight and be done with it? That’s likely the universal question that XD Games pinned up on their vision board when they crafted Go Go Muffin into existence, and my life is now all the better for it.

This charming new idle MMO (idle MMO, you say? What sorcery is this?), in my opinion, takes plenty of inspiration from the classic Ragnarok Online experience in that you’ll pick your job class and adventure into a fantasy world that’s literally set in the end-of-the-world Ragnarok. 

Characters and monsters are adorable, the world is lush and vibrant, and there’s a cheeky magical cat named Muffin acting as your guide – he’ll even hum a little tune every so often after you defeat an enemy, and it’s suspiciously similar to RO’s trumpet sounds that play each time you level up.

Honestly, I’ve never played something like this before given how it somehow manages to make MMO-ing an entirely idle experience. Your character battles non-stop across the screen right from the get-go, levelling up endlessly as you hop from monster to monster out in the great big world. 

All you really have to do is equip gear, upgrade skills, and tinker around in the menu while your hero does all the work for you in the background. You can even leave Go Go Muffin running and it’ll automatically switch to a screensaver complete with the date and time – it’s as if you’re not even playing at all.

Now, isn’t playing but not playing contradictory, you might ask? I thought so too, but after giving the CBT a go myself, I can honestly say that this odd combination of MMO-but-not-quite is something I never thought I needed in my life. Wanting to level up without the grind becomes more and more a common phenomenon when adulting, and Go Go Muffin scratches that itch really, really well.

So, how do you play Go Go Muffin?

Thankfully, XD Games is currently running its second and final Closed Beta Test from now until November 21st, so if you’re curious, you can sign up from the official website to give it a go yourself. Let the lazy adventuring begin!