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[Mejilan]

So.
Apparently this game came out a week or two ago, courtesy of XSeed.
I also got two bonus vouchers for extra content for Ragnarok Online on the PC (one came in the game's case, one was a preorder bonus that was never picked up due to a lack of preorders!) Score!

My sum knowledge concerning the Ragnarok Online series is as follows:
1) PC-based Korean MMORPG series of 2 or so games.
2) Grind-heavy.
3) Amazing music.

I initially had no intention of buying this. But a few days ago I saw it sitting on a shelf at a Gamestop, and realized it would be one of the few portable RPGs that I don't buy. It seemed a shame, so here we are.

Having never actually played the original PC games, I didn't really know what to expect. But after putting a few hours into it, I must say that it's not exactly terrible. All I know is that I have 3 people in my party, I walk around forests and caves and shit, and tap on baddies to watch them get stabbed, mauled, and killed. I then enjoy the benefits of increasing my base levels, job levels, and collecting loot.

I only seem to have direct control over the main character (Ales), whereas the companion characters seem to be fully controlled by the AI (complete with 4 somewhat vague AI selections). For Ales, I'm able to change job classes (once certain preconditions are met), learn and enhance skills/spells, and allocation stat points. For all 3, I'm able to customize equipment.

The game seems to be broken up into a large series of main story quests and optional sub-quests. It's got shops and item customization and taverns, and guilds. Towns seem to be totally menu-based. It basically seems like a mostly single player barebones MMO, complete with a real time Action-RPG type battle system. Everything seems to be moving at a pretty rapid clip, and while nothing about the game oozes quality, it seems to be a solid portable time-sink.

*shrugs*

I can't be arsed to do an official thread for this game, but I also suspect that no one will bother at this point, so again, here we are.

 

[darkjedi187]

I will admit, I am playing it. Not too much info on it available. Reminds me of playing the original... not anything exceptional, but addictive in it's own way.

 

[jiien]

I was thinking of picking this up when we first heard wind of it, as I was heavily addicted Wow-style to RO for about a year, a couple of years ago. As time went on, I realized that RO without the MMO is just not that fun, and at this point, I'm in no rush to pick it up. On top of that, given your brief impressions, it doesn't sound like I need it immediately.

I still think I'll pick it up eventually, but with huge RPG releases coming out soon, it unfortunately is far down the list. I've always loved the art and music of RO. You never played the MMO, but would you be able to guess if those two things are relatively unchanged?

 

[RuneFactoryFanboy]

I lost 3 years of my life to Ragnarok Online plus I met my wife through it! I really enjoyed Ragnarok Battle Offline as well.

As much as I'd like to revisit the RO universe again, "not exactly terrible" doesn't sound very inviting

 

[psy18]

Oh man, Ragnarok Online.
My brother regularly plays on private server with 2 accounts at the same time, one on each hand.

Isn't the DS version has some basic multiplayer option?

 

[Cipherr]

Damn I remember beta testing Ragnarok online years and years ago. I remember enjoying it a bit too. Surprised its still around. I used to play a lot of weird little games back then, Graal online was another one.

 

[Mejilan]

I believe that the online component is fairly limited. I haven't tested it yet, so I'm just going off what I recall reading in the manual, and to be honest, I wasn't paying too much attention as I read through it. Seems to be restricted to a randomly generated dungeon called the Mirage Tower, which spans 50 or so levels, and features some kind of rewards for every 5 levels completed. I think up to 3 people can play it simultaneously, either locally or via WFC.

I may not have progressed far enough in the single player story to have access to it yet. I'm fairly sure that at some point in the campaign, you get to create your own guild. I think you need to have a guild before you can access the Mirage Tower, but I might be wrong.

Aesthetically, the game is a mixed bag. Graphics are functional, but the animation isn't so hot. Graphics scale according to which of the 3 camera zoom levels you have it on. The one that's farthest out grants you the best view distance, but the character sprites don't scale well and look pretty gritty as a result. Music's been pretty boring so far.

Honestly, I'm playing it because I'm digging the looting and the character customization.

 

[Galang]

Used to be a Ragnarok player on iRO for a few years, but decided my time was better spent elsewhere despite the temptations to return... especially for the renewal being implemented soon. My friend is still playing after 6 years.:lol

I do love the charm and look of the game, music is awesome as well. Favorite part was the character customization. Plan to pick this up at some point even though some things I've heard kind of put me off. Such as the drop rates being exactly the same as the main game? Not sure if that's true, but if the drop rate is 0.01 for the DS game as well, that would easily be my biggest disappointment.

 

[Mejilan]

Drop rates for what? Uber gear, or all items?
I'm still in the early areas, but monsters have been dropping all kinds of items. The general priority seems to be:
1) Most common - loot that's only good for selling (monster parts, etc.)
2) Somewhat common - consumeables (herbs, potions, etc.)
3) Least common - equipment (weapons, etc.)

The game's been difficult enough that I've been doing some grinding in the first forest and cave areas, and every time I return to town, I'm pretty loaded with a good spread of drops from those three categories. Also, it seems like baddies have a pretty broad range of allowable drops, which is fun.

 

[Deku]

Dabbled in Ragnarok Online when it first came on the scene in the early 2000s. Would love to play the DS version if I can find the time.

Might pick it up.

 

[Jet Grind Radio!]

I was super excited for this, but with your impressions I will wait for the inevitable price drop.

 

[ashism]

Damn I remember beta testing Ragnarok online years and years ago. I remember enjoying it a bit too. Surprised its still around. I used to play a lot of weird little games back then, Graal online was another one.

Holy crap, this was almost 10 years ago! Wow, I don't even want to think about that.

 

[Galang]

Drop rates for what? Uber gear, or all items?
I'm still in the early areas, but monsters have been dropping all kinds of items. The general priority seems to be:
1) Most common - loot that's only good for selling (monster parts, etc.)
2) Somewhat common - consumeables (herbs, potions, etc.)
3) Least common - equipment (weapons, etc.)

The game's been difficult enough that I've been doing some grinding in the first forest and cave areas, and every time I return to town, I'm pretty loaded with a good spread of drops from those three categories. Also, it seems like baddies have a pretty broad range of allowable drops, which is fun.

Sorry, meant weapons and cards. But thanks, that's good to hear then. Early on, weapons tend to be more common if I recall correctly though.

Regardless, the game is rather addictive and I'm pretty convinced to pick it up pretty soon.

 

[faridmon]

i wonder if its out in EU land? anyone knows?

 

[painey]

RO was my first venture into MMO's and I had never heard of the genre before I played it, so I thought it was mind blowing how everyone wandering around was a real human player. I can't imagine wanting to play a DS version of RO though.

 

[Shanoa]

Not a great game but not a horrible one. At least it's close to the original.

 

[Mejilan]

Sorry, meant weapons and cards. But thanks, that's good to hear then. Early on, weapons tend to be more common if I recall correctly though.

Regardless, the game is rather addictive and I'm pretty convinced to pick it up pretty soon.

Woops. I forgot to mention cards. I think I already have 8 Poring cards, for what it's worth. And they tend to drop a lot of knives.

 

[darkjedi187]

I'm currently in the 3rd dungeon. lots of cards and weapons drops. The story is blah, but like i said it does stick to the old Ragnarok feel.

 

[jiien]

I believe that the online component is fairly limited. I haven't tested it yet, so I'm just going off what I recall reading in the manual, and to be honest, I wasn't paying too much attention as I read through it. Seems to be restricted to a randomly generated dungeon called the Mirage Tower, which spans 50 or so levels, and features some kind of rewards for every 5 levels completed. I think up to 3 people can play it simultaneously, either locally or via WFC.

I may not have progressed far enough in the single player story to have access to it yet. I'm fairly sure that at some point in the campaign, you get to create your own guild. I think you need to have a guild before you can access the Mirage Tower, but I might be wrong.

Please tell me you can do it single player. I've been aching for huge dungeon randomly-generated goodness Lufia-style(ish, but with more action! Woo). Maybe I will end up picking this up sooner rather than later...

 

[Solune]

3) Amazing music.

This reason alone is good enough to play it.
Does anyone if there are transcendant classes available?
I might buy it so I can actually class up legit for once instead of on a private server.

Also excuse to post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6C9sJdvh7w

 

[harSon]

I played the shit out of Ragnarok Online during the early days of the North American Server in Open Beta. Probably the most addicting game I've played outside of Diablo 2.

 

[Pangya]

Ragnarok Online open beta was my first MMO venture too... aahh brings back memories of listening to awesome music while killing porings, fabres, and chon chons in Prontera south field.

 

[Mejilan]

Ragnarok Online open beta was my first MMO venture too... aahh brings back memories of listening to awesome music while killing porings, fabres, and chon chons in Prontera south field.

Prontera East (IIRC) Field is the first outdoor area in this game.

Please tell me you can do it single player. I've been aching for huge dungeon randomly-generated goodness Lufia-style(ish, but with more action! Woo). Maybe I will end up picking this up sooner rather than later...

Good question. I'll check the manual to see if it makes any mention of that. I've not opened up the Mirage Tower yet. I'll let you know.

This reason alone is good enough to play it.
Does anyone if there are transcendant classes available?

I don't think so.
Here's how it works for Ales, the only character you have total customization control over, as far as I know.
He starts off with a base level of 1, and a job level of 1 as a Novice. You have to hit at least Novice level 10 before you can access the first tier of jobs (which include classes such as Swordsman, Mage, Thief, Taekwon Kid, Priest, Monk, etc.) Once you hit at least job level 30 in that first tier, you're able to class up to Knight, Wizard, Assassin, Taekwon Master, Acolyte, etc.

According to the manual, once you grow to a certain strength, you can essentially retire your character's current build and start with a fresh job, receiving stat bonuses according to how powerful he was before you reset him. You can do this multiple times in order to craft an uber-character.

There are, apparently, two jobs unique to the DS game. One is the Shaman, which it seems only Sierra gets. Sierra is Ales' first story companion (joins at the very beginning of the game). She's the stereotypical powerful female type that's lost all her memory.

The other DS class is the Dark Knight, according to the manual. Not sure who gets that one, but it's probably locked to another story character.

Speaking of characters, there will be a variety of story characters that will join your party throughout the single player campaign. Once you start up your own guild, you'll also be able to recruit from a pool of generics. Again, I'm not that far yet, so I'm not too sure on how it all works out.

I don't think you have direct control over the progression of any characters beyond Ales, however. I'm pretty sure that they level, stat up, and skill up on their own. But you can fully customize their equipment and card buffs.

 

[Galang]

Good to hear about the drops, one of my reasons for leaving.

Ragnarok Online open beta was my first MMO venture too... aahh brings back memories of listening to awesome music while killing porings, fabres, and chon chons in Prontera south field.

Yup! That was always the funnest place in the game, although empty now on most servers. Music in the game is awesome, haven't listened to the newest stuff which I'm sure is good as well.

 

[Tempy]

I always felt sad that I had to kill cute porings. Why must the porings die?

 

[Stitch]

because they eat the precious loot!

 

[jiien]

Good question. I'll check the manual to see if it makes any mention of that. I've not opened up the Mirage Tower yet. I'll let you know.

Waiting on that answer, but the more I think about it, the more I want this game. I HATE when I do this to myself. DAMN YOU FOR MAKING A THREAD ABOUT IT.

Nah, I love you.

 

[BurritoBushido]

Oh man Ragnarok had the BEST music.

 

[donkey show]

Ah man, I dunno if I want to get into this... RO ate up so much of my time back in the day. :lol

 

[Yoshichan]

Will this Ragnarok game rewind itself two days each week and give us double experience as a compensation?

Spoiler

God I hated God Poing so much.

 

[Sohter.Nura]

º____________0 RAGNAROK IS SUCKING MY BRAAAAAAIN o _º

Back when this game was announce I was sort of excited for it. I was VERY addicted to Ragnarok (I played too much of it ) and the idea of pocket size RO was hot.

Nowadays I feel like picking this up but then again it's not the same thing as the MMO version, and playing Rag DS might make me fire up an iRO account. Again.

Which I -really- don't want. I'm gonna be a father in August :lol :lol the last thing I need is to...

RAAAAAAAGNAROK º_ o

Oh man Ragnarok had the BEST music.

Man, this could never be quoted enough. It really does have the best soundtrack of all time. =[

 

[radiantdreamer]

Subscribing to this thread until I hear more impressions and such. Backlog is really huge right now, so I don't know if I can tack on another RPG. This is one of the ones I wanted to get, but has fallen to the wayside.

 

[Mejilan]

I always felt sad that I had to kill cute porings. Why must the porings die?

Actually, you don't HAVE to kill the porings in this game. They don't seem to be aggressive unless you attack them. Drops, on the other hand, will seek you out.

Waiting on that answer, but the more I think about it, the more I want this game. I HATE when I do this to myself. DAMN YOU FOR MAKING A THREAD ABOUT IT.

Nah, I love you.

;p

Quickly parsed through the manual, and while I couldn't find an explicit explanation of single player Mirage Tower gaming, I do see a screen shot of it prompting you to select single player or multiplayer (the manual goes on to explain only the multiplayer). So I'm guessing it is available even alone. Not sure if you can bring in a full party of 3, or whether your current character's stats/equipments port over as well. I'll let you know once I open it up.

 

[Mejilan]

Quick update on card drops.
I've been playing for a few hours now.
I've done the first 3 story quests (Yidura Caverns, Dog Tags, White Peach) and the 4 or 5 available tavern quests. My main character has a base level of 21, and a Swordsman level of 17 (after having achieved the 10 levels as a Novice required to accept a real job class).

Below is a listing of the cards I've accrued so far. Note, I've not really had to grind much, though I define grinding as fighting/farming OUTSIDE of what's normal during thorough first-time explorations of new maps AND what's necessary to fulfill quest conditions. In other words, so long as I'm still exploring or working towards solving a quest, I'm not really grinding by my reckoning. Anyway, the cards:
Willow x2
Spore x5
Tarou x2
Thief Bug x3
Drops x5
Familiar x1
Hornet x1
Poring x12
Roda Frog x1

I have no way to compare this to RO's card drop rates, but getting over 30 cards with just a few hours on the clock probably suggests that the card drop rates are well over 0.01%, or whatever.

 

[Salsa]

Ragnarok DS: played for a bit when a friend lend it to me. Didnt liked it at all, and the music was bad, wich was weird as i really liked Ragnarok Online`s music. Another wasted oportunity for what could have been at least a good, solid, co op ds game. Wich may be the only thing the ds is lacking by now...

 

[Automatisch]

Was really excited, rented it, played 15min and decided this game was not for me. I'd rather just run around killing shit without all that story getting in the way...

 

[Metiphis]

When does Maple Story DS come out?

 

[Wyndstryker]

If you can get a Gold Thief Bug card and a Ghostring card easily, then yeah the drop rates are insanely higher than the actually mmo lol.

I remember playing the betas of RO...

The beginning of a career in the mmorpg business...

 

[Mejilan]

I take it those baddies show up much later...

 

[Wyndstryker]

Should be bosses actually. (Thats if they're in the DS version...)

 

[carlo6529]

Damn I remember beta testing Ragnarok online years and years ago. I remember enjoying it a bit too. Surprised its still around. I used to play a lot of weird little games back then, Graal online was another one.

I beta tested RO aswell. I actually started playing it by taking part in the alpha testing. It was such a small game then.

RO was my first MMO, and as such, carries so much nostalgia. I loved it to death, still do but I played it way too much.

Anyway, I plan on picking up the DS version as soon as I find some time.

 

[Nishastra]

I actually started playing it by taking part in the alpha testing. It was such a small game then.

It sure was. Just Prontera and Morroc. And no skills or anything, just whack stuff until it dies

I skipped out on the betas and came back to the live game some years later. I've always been nostalgic about it, and periodically want to go back and play some more.

So perhaps I should pick this up

It's a shame you can't play as a female character, although it seems that it's possible in the multiplayer dungeon thing...

 

[Mejilan]

Yeah, it seems you can re-skin/re-color Ales for the Mirage Tower sequences. A bit strange.

 

[Ashodin]

So is the combat satisfying? In any loot-based RPG I want to know if the combat is enough to keep you going.

 

[Mejilan]

Disable auto mode, and you'll be doing lots of poking.
Enable auto mode, and you'll be doing lots of watching with occasional poking to change targets. I prefer the laid back auto approach, particularly since some enemies are positively tiny in the fully zoomed out camera view I prefer, making landing hits against them consistently while they're moving a bit tricky.

Skills are moderately cool so far. You tap the skill from the shortcut bar (which can hold up to 15 mapped items/skills/spells, IIRC) to initiate it, but then have to follow up with some touch-screen based action to land 'em. Healing skills seem to involve tapping the appropriate skill to start it, and then a target to finish it. Attacking skills involve actions like slashing through the enemy you'd like to use the skill against. It's pretty quick and engaging, and I've had no real recognition issues yet.

In auto mode, your character will continue to attack whomever you poked. Initiating a skill or item will temporarily interrupt their automated attacks, but they'll auto-resume their standard attacks when the item is used or the skill/spell completed.

Nothing amazing, but it gets the job done with some neat touches here and there. Party members are controlled fully by the AI, which can be frustrating since their pathfinding and skill selection are pretty bad. (Pathfinding's bad enough that if they get TOO separated from you, they'll automagically warp to your location in order to catch up).

Edit - It's worth noting that stylus is mandatory for this game. You can move around with the d-pad, but for anything else (from combat to basic menu navigation), the stylus is required.

 

[Noshino]

Man, the original RO was so awesome, specially PvP (I still consider it the game with one of the best PvP systems out there, no other point-n-click is as good at it, period)

First MMO, I must have sunk months on that game. I met some of my now best friends through it, as well as 3 girlfriends :lol

What made the game was not only the exceptional gameplay, but the community, specially Sakray, so many awesome stories (with a hell lot of iROdrama ), yuki's girlfriends, the fall and rise of Vu, the fall of Dragoon Knights, the rivalry between guilds....man, those were the days :lol

I was planning to buy the DS version back when it announced, but some friends that bought this game (jpn) told me that it wasn't that great so I completely forgot about, were there any major changes?

 

[Mejilan]

Changes between the US and JP versions?
Or changes between RO and Ragnarok DS?

Can't answer to the former, as to the latter, there are probably tons, given that the DS game is new and not an MMO.

 

[Noshino]

Changes between the US and JP versions?
Or changes between RO and Ragnarok DS?

Can't answer to the former, as to the latter, there are probably tons, given that the DS game is new and not an MMO.

Well, I was asking more about changes between US/JP, but now that you mention, what are the differences between the MMO and the DS version?

Equipment classification, status ailments, skill trees (or anything else that you notice)?

 

[Mejilan]

Never played RO, sorry!

 

[wrowa]

The game looks far better in motion than on screens. Apart of the lower resolution it's actually really similar-looking to the PC version.