Ragnarok Online is a popular Korean MMORPG based on the manhwa Ragnarok: Into the Abyss.
The game was first released in 2002, and Ragnarok Online 2 was released in 2012.
It has many spin-offs, including the anime Ragnarok the Animation.
Ragnarok's storyline is based on Norse mythology, but in actuality it is a huge mish-mash of elements from various cultures and countries: like China, Japan, Thailand, and Russia to name a few. You play as an adventurer, living in a world rife with monsters both aggressive and passive, amid the political differences of NPCs from various countries, and it all boils down to making yourself as powerful as you can, so you can defeat the challenges posed by boss monsters, the intricate PvP system, and of course the never-ending headgear quests!
And of course, you should have fun on this road to greatness. Read on!
Rating:
The art is very old-school. In this age when 3d is the norm, Ragnarok has 2d pixel sprite characters moving in a 3d environment. This makes for some amusing sprite glitches, and due to spriting limitations you can only change your character's clothing colors, hairstyle/color and headgears; however I believe it is this limitation that resulted in the huge treasure trove of Ragnarok fanart- so artists could show people how they imagine themselves to look like!
A look at the concept art for each class reveals a wealth of details as well. It's unfortunate that they don't always translate well into pixel form... and while the 2d sprites may seem primitive to those used to high-quality 3d in other games, evoke a sense of nostalgia. That is why I am rating this an 8. Not technically brilliant, perhaps... but you'd be surprised how attached you can get to those pixel thingers. Another note is that blood is not animated into the game, which I think is a wise design choice. It would be weird to see blood in a game with such chibified characters (not that no one has done that before, though...)
Rating:
The music of Ragnarok is wonderful. SOUNDTEMP drew inspiration from a huge variety of genres, from Technopop (example: Rose of Sharon) to Metal (TeMP It Up), to Asian-inspired Instrumental (Welcome Mr. Hwang) to eerie haunting tracks like Monastery in Disguise, it's fun to listen to whether you're bashing monsters or just lazing around. It's not too complicated that it gets boring to listen to when doing repetitive tasks.
The music usually suits the map it's playing in, with some exceptions like Sleeping Volcano, which plays in a very high-risk map! (Thor Volcano)
Overall, an excellent soundtrack. In my country (PHL) a fan soundtrack was even released, called Rok On: Music Inspired by Philippine Ragnarok Online. There are a lot of good tracks in it as well!
Rating:
The basic structure is like most MMORPGs: hack-and-slash, grind fest, etc. But RO is dear to its players because of the little quirks it has: such as the idea that sticking a card from a monster into your equipment will make it stronger (a concept artists have lampooned many times), the endless HATS! quests that people sink so much time into (because it's the only other way you can customize how your character looks), the PvP system (quite complex; skill and gear are huge factors here and battles can be long and epic depending on the players' abilities) which also leads to the GvG/WoE (War of Emperium; a faction called a Guild versus other Guilds over Castles, which give the owner certain rare items and benefits), an item upgrade system, and Hats. Did I mention that there's a lot of hats? Hats hats hats!
Kidding aside, I suppose the party system is like most other RPGs. But with all its quirks, Ragnarok has stayed my most beloved game of all time.
Rating:
8.1667 (good)
Reviewed by Tsunoh, Apr 11, 2011
Nice review! I think it would be nice to see a little more detail about the story, but I know that can be kinda hard for MMORPGs. I like how you gave examples on the music section, and I agree that sometimes old pixel graphics give a game character. I also feel like now I have some insight into what inspires your RO art. :) Good job!
P.S. Do you like hats much? XD
The sad thing with Ragnarok is I expected the story section to be about that long. Mainly because it didn't leave an impression on me and it was simply about going from point A to point B, while acquiring cool gear along the way. I'm glad you took the short-but-sweet approach to it. Since it's an MMO, it's really easy to go on and on about all the features and I'm glad that you chose to cut it back in a lot of areas. Perhaps a bit more length might not hurt, but short-n-sweet is a great way to go as well.
I'm just shocked because I didn't expect a review so soon! Thanks for sharing, Tsunoh!
I didn't expect a review of an MMO :o
Well , for the storyline , since MMOs , technically speaking , DOESN'T have an actual plotline , you might want to
explain and elaborate the concept of the game further as well as talking about the originality of the concept and your
thoughts of it.
PVP isn't gonna have anything to do with the storyline XD
However , overall , I find this a really impressive review. I haven't made much MMO reviews myself ( None in this
site to be exact , but a bit on the others ) but generally speaking , I can see that you have defined most of the points
of what an MMO is composed of and added some interesting elements to the mix.
For that , I take my hat off to you :3
superb review. I agree to your decision putting it 8.17. Graphic is not a problem for Ragnarok Online, it just makes this game unique :)
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merged: 04-24-2011 ~ 08:36am
I am from China .Your English is good - -
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