Ragnarok Online

"With so many paths to choose from, this game is sure to last you a while."

Ragnarok Online is an MMORPG created by Gravity, a Korean based company. RO is a great game for new or even experienced people to the MMO world. With a simple to use interface that can be complex if you get into the details of it, many players can enjoy this game. Furthermore, If you don't like going out and buying software, you can download it straight off their website and get a 15-day free trial. Of course this presents a problem for Dial up users, as the file size has reached the GB area. You can download the file in increments but there tend to be 15 files now.

Gameplay- 7/10

The Gameplay is pretty simple, you find a monster, keep clicking on it and hope it dies before you do. Fairly simple, but can get tedious as it's really all you do for the rest of your game life. Except for the occasional Quests that you can do that reward you with either EXP, Items, or allow you to enter an area/etc.

The quests in this game are mostly, talk to this guy and then talk to another guy, bring me these items and I'll give you this. Things like that. And there isn't a quest log or anything like that. If you're used to quests like WoW, you'll be in for a surprise. About the only real way to find out how to do a quest is look on a forum somewhere about it. And about Seasonal events... They come around the holidays of the year like Valentines day, or Christmas. They usually involve something of the nature, with the expected killing of monsters. Events that are started by the GM team usually resulting in them spawning monsters in the towns/capital, which is usually what happens when there is an event. Except every time they have some kind of Item that you turn in somewhere to get a hat of some type.

The User Interface is really simple to use. Tons of shortcuts, easy to memorize, and all the information is in your face so you have no need to go looking for it. Open Stats, you get all your stats, simple.

Luckily, there are many classes to choose from. Ranging from the battle-ready Swordsman, to the agile Thief. One of the fascinating things about your character is that you can raise it however you want. For example, The Healer Class can be raised as a Melee fighter, given Strength instead of Intelligence. Some classes can't be specially raised due to their skill set i.e. an Archer must always gain Dexterity as it's forced Characters are raised in a FFT type way, where their Base/Job Level goes up separately. When a character's job is high enough, they can move up a class, provided you take some kinda test/quest to transform.

You'll of course start as a basic class, A Novice in RO terms. Being a novice is like a Pre-class before you get your REAL class. From your 1st class, you can evolve to a second class, which is branched into two classes(I.E. a Mage can become a Wizard or a Sage), and from there you'll beat things down to level 99. If you think the game ends at level 99, you're dead wrong. Gravity threw some kinda twist on this game allowing a level 99 character to revert back to level 1 with some extra stats. Now this isn't just for some slight stat boost for when you reach 99 again, You'll level at a slower pace(about 1/3 or normal exp) but when you reach the point where you turn into a 2nd class character, you'll instead turn into a transcended form of your class with extra skills to learn.

You can further enhance your character by equipping your gear with 'cards'. Cards can grant you anything ranging from Extra stats, Skills you can't normally learn, or even Passive abilities gained only from using a card. The only downside to this is if you're a passive player, you'll probably have to buy a card from another player. The reason for this is that cards have 0.01% drop rate, making extreme farming a must to obtain a card without spending a lot of money.

One of the downsides to the characters is that Bow users have an advantage over a lot of targets. The reason for this is that all of their strength and accuracy can be derived from one stat, as well as the ability to have elemental/status tipped arrows(with every element/status in the game available to them). Plus, They can make their own ammo with a skill. Also, they have the ability to push targets away from them with another skill they learn, if used correctly... makes them untouchable. Where all Close range combatants have to invest in two different stats to gain power/accuracy, as well as spend an outrageous amount of money for a good elemental weapon that can only be one of four elements(Fire, Wind, Ice, Earth). The same can be said about Mages as Intelligence gives them magic attack power as well as more SP to cast spells and can wield the Main four elements.

There's a PvP system which involves fighting over a castle in order to capture it as your guild territory, know as The War of Emperium. Of course, there's normal PvP in a certain room you can be teleported to by paying a small fee. In WoE you traverse a castle to finally reach the Emperium room to destroy it and claim the castle for your guild. Of course, the guild holding the castle with make all it's efforts to keep you from doing that. The downside is that your guild has to get approval and to do so means you have to give up hard earned exp to level the guild up. Yes, guilds have levels, they are used to invest in guild only skills that either, makes your guild official, increases the amount of members you can have, or grants the leader an abundance of skills/auras for when you're inside the castle. PvP isn't a really great thing in this game, as fighting another player, is much like fighting a monster just that they have logic and much more skills now. You just point and click. Again, Bows like to hurt everything here.

Music/Sound- 9/10

The Music in this game is excellent. Practically mood setting, depending on what area you go to. If for any reason you don't like the Music, you can change them manually in the BGM folder(Provided you have basic knowledge of computers ^_~). The sounds themselves are pretty nice, but in the same sense, kinda basic. When you cast a spell, you'll get that Basic *woosh* noise, just like when you're beating down on a enemy you'll get the basic *smack* sound. But the aftermath of the spell has some really great Sound effects(I.E. Gloria, with a choir of girls singing XD). It's always nice to hear a critical hit come through *CRACK*

Graphics- 8/10

The Graphics are really good even without considering that the characters are 2D in a 3D world. The characters are Anime-ish and if you look closely enough, the world actually moves(Trees swaying in the wind, Needles on the clock tower move). The only complaint I have about the Graphics is the Camera system. Most of the time, you're struggling to see something. There's also a limit to how much you can tilt the camera, a very big limit I might add. But the graphics demand isn't very high, proving something can look good without a hefty graphics system(I laugh at all the people who didn't like Valkyrie Profile just cause it was 2D-ish XD).

Customization- 7/10
You can customize your character status wise like the way I listed above(see gameplay) but in addition, you can change your hairstyle! And if that isn't enough, you can also set the color of the hair too! But your body is dependent on your class, so you can't change your clothes to how you like =(. If you get tired of the color or style of your hair... with items and a fee of course, nothing in this world is free. By Rumor, they might implement a clothing dye in the future, which would be a big plus cause sometimes you run into your clone. To further customize your character, you can equip various headgears to make sure you stand out. There are tons of Headgears in this game so good luck finding them all! Characters aren't the only thing you can customize, you can apply skins to your User Interface as well.

Story- 5/10
I give it a decent grade on the story mostly because... It's a great story based off the Manga 'Ragnarok' and also off Norse Mythology. But the problem is, you have to actually LOOK for the story in game. The story is fed to you through NPCs, which due to the way you level up, rarely have to interact with. There's a great story in there, you just have to find it. Granted you start off on an island and you don't know what's going on at first.

Community- 7/10

The community is very vast in RO, you'll find many types of people. Though many of the people you'll meet is based off how well your character is raised(people are less likely to notice a novice). Though the Bot problem isn't as bad as it used to be, there are still some around and it seems like Gravity doesn't do much about it. The economy makes it hard for new people to make it in the world, leaving them hoping an expensive item drops from a monster(most are 0.01% drop rate by the way, horrible.) just so they can buy a worthwhile item or an elemental weapon. An interesting addition is the factor that you can get Married. Yes, married. A male and female character can get married for a fee, and gain the ability to transfer HP/SP to each other as well as the ability to summon each other to their side. This can be done for leveling reasons, or simply out of romance(Lots of relationships have spawned out of RO, as long as their happy, go for it guys ^_^). A married couple can adopt a child too. All of this makes player interaction one of the finer points of the game.

Overall- 8/10

Ragnarok Online is a game that anyone can dive into and enjoy for a while. Even with the economy making it hard to become really powerful, and that bow users have life easier, I'd still suggest this game to anyone looking for something to keep them entertained.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/07