Alright so...I bought the game, even though we have so much other stuff going out this month. Went to preorder RoF, and came away with this game as well They only had one copy left (or, more like they only had one copy ever?)
Anyway, will post more impressions later, being that I played the MMO way back when. I didn't ask Mejilan because he said he had never played the MMO, but I really hope the number crunching in the stats is still there.
Edit: Just from the character creation screen right in the beginning, looks like the number crunching is there! FUCK YEAH. Gotta go hunt down all my formulas, figure out my str breakpoints, agi aspd breakpoints...so freaking awesome.
Some brief impressions; I'm about to take my first real 'quest', having got out of the first 'dungeon'. Just got my third party member
not sure if he's permanent yet or not? I assume so, since he was in the booklet
.
The music is definitely not RO music. It's also therefore definitely not as good as RO music. It's not awful, but having heard hundreds and hundreds of hours of some of the best MMO music (or game music in general, maybe), this is a little disappointing. I wonder why they didn't just use the same music from the MMO.
The story seems a little silly, but coming from the MMO, I didn't expect much in the way of a narrative anyway, so that's fine. It always gives me enough reason to move ahead.
I love the gameplay. It's pretty much exactly what I expect to get from a single-player RO experience on a handheld. With a full three member party, it's like I'm triple clienting but without the hassle (and lag). Pretty cool. Love the AI options, love having party members around to keep me company, and I love the simple click-kill-click-kill process. It's exactly what RO was, except here I don't have to fight for spawns/areas, have my own two personal bodyguards (alt accounts), and can take RO away from the computer screen. Pretty cool.
As I said before, the number crunching is there for people that love that min/maxing stuff (I fell in love with that sort of thing because of RO). As far as I can tell, the formulas for damage, flee/hit, lucky dodge, and aspd are all the same, so refer to this: http://rodatazone.simgaming.net/mechanics/stats.php if you're interested.
With nostalgia backing this game up, I expect to spend a lot of time with it. The interface on the DS works well, you can zoom out enough to make it comfortable but not so much that it's impossible to do things. Normal maps from RO are broken up into square sections here, and the maps are generally long winding maze-like paths, unlike the open fields of the MMO. The maps are changed, as it seems they reworked some things to fit this new style, but graphically, it still looks like RO, so I don't mind.
Two things that bother me a little are the fact that towns are purely menu driven except in individual buildings/shops. As an MMO, towns were where a lot of my memories of the game came from, hanging around chatting to people and the like, so I would have at least liked to walk around and talk to various NPCs dotted here and there. Then again, this isn't the MMO, so it's not a huge loss. Also, the interface for some tasks seems a little drawn out (for example, selling all the knives you get as drops is a pain because you have to "double click" the item, then click again to sell it, and over and over for each drop). This isn't unlike the MMO though, it's just harder to do with the stylus than it would have been with a mouse. Anyway, both of these two things are very minor to the overall experience.
Graphics-wise, if I didn't have prior experience with the MMO...I'm not sure what I would think. I do love sprites, but RO sprites have never truly looked 'clean', and the '3D' graphics were never amazing. Moreover, because maps aren't one cohesive area to run through, and you can only zoom out so much, you can't get a sense of truly discovering a beautiful new area, and marvel at how different it is from the last area of the world you came from.
So far, then, Ragnarok DS seems like a pretty basic 'action adventure' with RPG elements, but the only action involved is clicking on monsters till they die. If you want a handheld game with that MMO feel, then this is definitely the game to go with. I can't say it's easy to recommend, because it is almost the definition of a niche title in my opinion, but I'm certainly having fun with it. I'm definitely looking forward to some Mirage Tower.
I'm really hoping they put most of the dungeons from the MMO in here, somewhere, and I hope the world turns out to be as vast as the world in the MMO.
Anyway, maybe my opinions will change the farther I get in. I'll let you guys know!
I'm happy you're enjoying it!
I just finished farming a few Poporings for their card (the only enemy card I was missing) and, to my surprise, two Main Gauches; one each for Ales and Lucifi. They're stronger and faster than the Falchions I had them with, so I'm pleased!
Edit - I've also got Ales wearing bunny ears because they're better than his last helmet in every possible sense. But now, quite goofily, I see bunny ears on his sprite when I'm out and about. Hysterical.
I remember playing RO during its beta, and I had a lot of fun and really loved the sprites. I didn't get to experience the game very much, and I get addicted to MMOs easily. This might be a healthy alternative.
Put some more time into this over the weekend.
The level design has proven very... maze-y for now.
This goes both for dungeons, and increasingly for outdoor areas as well.
I'm trying to do all of the optional sub-quests before moving on to the next story quest, but it can get tedious. Having to redundantly crawl through 5 or 6 maze-like screens just to start farming enemies for certain drops and/or scour previously-explored levels for specific NPCs isn't the most fun way to pad a game.
Still enjoying the core experience, though. I have to admit that I've been putting much more time into Lunar SSH rather than this.
Spending money seems to the only way to increase shop loyalty.
There are area effect abilities, but I haven't encountered 'huge' mobs.
I think I've fought up to 5 or 6 enemies at once, and have had new enemies randomly spawn close enough to an existing battle to automatically join in, but I certainly haven't plowed through say... dozens of enemies in one shot...
I can't believe that with this much dialogue there's no easy way to skip it, or even map a button to advancing it. You have to keep tapping the bottom screen incessantly, and when dialogue shifts between characters the camera glides so slowly its maddening. I'm at base 35, job 27 right now and feel like im about to hit a wall. Just finished the culvert mission for the second time around.
I would totally get this but I just know it will tempt me to play the real game again, and I really could even though I quit for good for 2 years already (for the 4th-5th time :lol )
ragnarok online was so amazing. I remember trying to hit the stat bonuses, like I think every 10 str was a bonus, getting just enough agi for the flee and attack speed, all the patches that changed vit and how tanks worked, waiting forever for comodo island or whatever, man iRO used to suck. But what a hell of a game.
Unfortunately, this is not RO. If its not an MMO its really not the same..those who want to hear the music, see if you can download/install Ragnarok Online for PC (free download). The mp3s are in a folder once you download them.
The dungeons and town music were awesome. Payon Cave, Clock Tower, Toy Factory, Bylan islands... I had an awesome battle priest, hunter, double dagger sin, katar sin, FS priest...
glad to see I'm not the only one with fond memories
ragnarok online was so amazing. I remember trying to hit the stat bonuses, like I think every 10 str was a bonus, getting just enough agi for the flee and attack speed, all the patches that changed vit and how tanks worked, waiting forever for comodo island or whatever, man iRO used to suck. But what a hell of a game.
Unfortunately, this is not RO. If its not an MMO its really not the same..those who want to hear the music, see if you can download/install Ragnarok Online for PC (free download). The mp3s are in a folder once you download them.
The dungeons and town music were awesome. Payon Cave, Clock Tower, Toy Factory, Bylan islands... I had an awesome battle priest, hunter, double dagger sin, katar sin, FS priest...
glad to see I'm not the only one with fond memories
I played all private servers but I know what you mean. I played nearly everything. I got fed up with the stupid private server communities but I couldn't get used to iRO rates and I'd rather do something other than grinding at 1x rates nowadays tbh.
I agree that after a while flee got so useless, last I remember they were trying to redo the whole RO system...it didn't sound very promising at all. I'd rather they just make a new game but RO2 kind of failed.
Its really been years since I've played, does job level raise only when you use abilities? Can I use a non-combat ability over and over and increase my job level? I'm a thief right now on the cusp of lv30 and don't want to grind right now :lol
Its really been years since I've played, does job level raise only when you use abilities? Can I use a non-combat ability over and over and increase my job level? I'm a thief right now on the cusp of lv30 and don't want to grind right now :lol
They can be mounted on equipment to provide certain buffs.
Some can only be mounted on weapons, some on armors, some on accessories, etc.
Once mounted, they can't be removed. Additionally, forging a weapon will kill any cards on it.
They only had one copy left (or, more like they only had one copy ever?)