Ragnarok Online

"The newest craze upon MMORPGers.. and that's not a good thing."

Hello, fellow gamers. I'm sure that you've heard of Ragnarok Online one way or another (seeing as you're reading this), either by Googling "free MMORPG", surfing forums, having a friend recommend a game, etc. So you find Ragnarok Online (from now on abbrieviated 'RO'), a cutesy semi-free (you get 15 days free, last time I checked) game that's free to download. Well, I'm one of the people who played it for 15 days and quit, then gave a review several months later. On to the review! Headings are in order of... "good-ness"... by my opinions, of course.

*NOTE: THE TOTAL SCORE IS NOT AN AVERAGE.*

~Graphics~ 8/10
If you like the anime drawing style, you'll love RO's graphics. All the character sprites, playable and NPCs, are detailed and just adorable. Every class has a distinct "costume", meaning no palette swaps like the ones you see in some RPGs. Backgrounds are colorful, and mostly every area is distinguishable from another. The only drawbacks are some of the monster designs. Porings, the little Slime-like blobs are a tad uninspired, and some monsters DO have palette swaps, for example Porings and ChonChons.

~Controls~ 7/10
I found the controls quite simple once you've gotten used to them. Attacking, shopping, talking to NPCs, etc. only required left-clicks, and you can set shortcuts for items and spells and such. The only annoyance I had was trying to fight and type at the same time. See my Annoyances section near the bottom of this review.

~Creativity/Originality~ 7/10
This game has its quirks that distinguishes itself from other games. The graphics and controls don't seem to copy any other games, except for maybe Diablo II, but I haven't played that in forever. The variety of classes is huge compared to games like Fairyland or R.O.S.E. Online, seeing as you have everything from alchemists (I always wanted to be one just to say I was an alchemist, since I'm an FMA fan) to merchants (Man, I hate those, see the Annoyances section), to acolytes, to hunters, to mages, to assassins. There are many, many more.

~Camera~ 6/10
I'm all for the rotating camera, but it's just best not to mess with it. However, there will be the occasional tree, building, or gigantic pile of Merchants (*cough* Prontera *cough*).

~Gameplay~ 4/10
Leveling will suck the soul out of you faster than you can say "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game". Did that take you a while? That's my point. It'll be cool for a while, quickly gaining a few levels on Porings for a couple hours. But then you realize you'll have to be level 10 and upgrade to another class JUST TO GET PEOPLE TO PLAY WITH YOU. I'll get to the superiority complexes in the Annoyances section. Long explanation short (too late, eh?), leveling will take forever later. Another thing: Money is pretty hard to come by. As soon as an experienced player realizes you've been selling your Apples and Bottles and Feathers, you are in deep trouble. I suggest selling your Feathers and stuff to the people who need them for those dumb, long-winded sidequests. They'll possibly pay more. Check with merchants and other players to see if you'll get a better deal with different items. Also, just try and find your own armor/weapons. They cost a great deal of money in this game. And everything you do will probably require a long hike across the world, so memorize where you're going. Lastly, try and figure out where you're going before you get killed and have to respawn a looong ways away from where you were before.

~Community/Your Fellow Players~ 2/10
People are jerks sometimes. I'll split this up into 3 parts: The Jerks, the 1337's, and the Nice People. I'll share one of my experiences with each type.
Let's start with the Jerks. The Jerks are the kill-stealers who don't care if you're just fine attacking a monster. For example: I usually use an Acolyte, since they get a lot of attention and I don't mind constant "heal plz"'s every now and then. I try to level up by attacking Rockers using the "Dodge and Smack" strategy. Basically you smack'em, move, smack'em, heal, repeat. It takes quite a long time. I was THIS close to killing it, when this Assassin comes up out of nowhere, kills it with like 800 damage, and runs away. Seriously, don't give me the "sharing experience" thing. If you can do that much damage in one hit, you don't need to waste your time on random beginner monsters other people are trying to gain experience from. Anyways, the Jerks category also include the perverts, 9-year olds who like to randomly insult you, and the people who pick up what you earned from monsters.
Next up: the 1337's. These are the pro's that think they're too good to be seen in the presence of a "n00b", and make sure that there aren't any around by using any means necessary. This means insulting, bothering, and otherwise harassing you until you go away. Most people who are like this end up with the Jerks because they can't stop at superiority. In my experience, I had a group of these people follow me around and kill all the monsters nearby. No leveling up for me...
Lastly, the Nice People. These are the people who are actually willing to be nice to you. They'll join your parties, ask you to join theirs, heal you, warp you, and just be kind. When I played, I had a bunch of friends, and they were all so nice.. *sniffle* These people pushed up the score to a 2. Thank you, Nice People!

~Annoyances~
Oh, boy. Get ready. Okay, first up, the problem with typing and fighting at the same time. You can't do this because it messes up the whole "process". Basically, it's either one of the other. So you have to choose between fighting it out and hoping a teammate gets the idea that you need help or healing, or risk death to tell them. You can't run away, because monsters follow you. Another thing: If you go to Prontera, which you probably will, you'll see the biggest hoard of merchants you'll ever see in the game. You can't see yourself, you just have to trust your judgement and the camera. The kill-stealing is a huge problem too. I don't see why people can't kill their own monsters for more experience instead of killing others' for less. Leveling up is a major pain. Once you're about level 12, you'll need a lot of help, possibly a "Tank" (a higher-leveled person to take damage for you while you attack) or a large party (share experience and have everyone do their own thing). Everything costs too much. *Serious* lag due to the population and those dang merchants. Finding out that you need to be level 3 to sit. The fact that the administrators put super-high level monsters outside of Prontera and cause a gigantic massacre (I like being there to heal people~).

~The Little Things~
There are a lot of nice extras in this game. When you cast spells, there's a little message that shows what you're doing, so it appears you're shouting it like in a normal video game. Characters are EXTREMELY customizeable. There are many accessories to add on. I personally had those cat ears, a hairband, a flu mask, and a bunch of masks. There are a lot of other things too, like several caps, bunny ears, hats, etc. You can have pets, too. But they cost a LOT altogether. With the help of my friend, I had a Lunatic (the "bunny" monster, or white ball of fur) with a bow. You can have other monsters too, like Porings, Rockers, and Isis's. There are a lot of emoticons to convey emotions, that are rather cute and fun to play with. There's even a rock/paper/scizzors one, but I've yet to see that work correctly. All character sprites have unique sitting positions, and the fact that you can sit at all makes it neat. Instead of standing around talking, you can sit in a neat little circle or something. There are abundant events in the game, as well, although I never bothered with it. The different Chat icons are useful to; you can talk to Everyone, your Party, or a specific person.

~Conclusion~ 3/10
Ragnarok Online is only fun if you play with others. If you don't know your way around, good luck with that. Remember that this game is NOT free, it has a monthly fee. You can play the game for free for 15 days by downloading and registering at the official website. If you can find a good crowd, I recommend this as a "temporary distraction". There just isn't enough to keep you playing enough to pay for it. Unless you want to stay in touch with your friends, like I should have made sure of.
Well, this was a LONG review. Thank you for anyone patient enough to read through all of this.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/05