At last the dawn of a new Ragnarok game available for the global audience! Back in August of this year, South Korean game publisher Gravity, announced the initial pre-registration event on their official site for Ragnarok Origin.
Although this would not be the only Ragnarok Online IP spinoff that we have seen over the years. Nevertheless it is still the latest refresher that Ragnarok fans have been waiting for. Whether or not this is a good thing or bad is another story.
Ragnarok Online was first released by Gravity for the PC in 2002. During the early years of 2000, Ragnarok Online was undeniably one of the major pioneers of the online MMORPG genre. Initially Gravity adopted the subscription model for players, but over the years have since instead moved towards the Free to Play micro-transaction model. In particular, Maplestory itself did not release until the following year. Then after that World of Warcraft in particular released in the year following Maplestory in 2004. In spite of the fact that the gameplay was a 3D top down styled genre, the rich gameplay mechanics still drew many fans.
What is Ragnarok Origin?
Ragnarok Origin, also titled “Beyond Ragnarok”, is the latest reboot of the Ragnarok Online IP to release globally. As the extended title suggests, Ragnarok Origin aspires to be true to the original while still drawing the attention of new players. The game boasts of having high quality cute anime styled graphics as well as a level of customization that players would expect on a recently released MMORPG. Gravity went as far as even teasing the grand prize of a Tesla Model S for their pre-registration event which was available up until global launch.
This release like all of the other Ragnarok PC and mobile titles are all owned by Gravity. Therefore, the cash shop and micro-transactions can be expected to be very similar to the still popular Ragnarok Mobile Eternal Love (ROM) release. As a result some players may find this to be an unfortunate deterrent to pick up this game. By comparison, the core mechanics to this new release does not seem quite different than that of its predecessor.
Features
- Customize their characters looks and genders.
- Start as a novice and choose among available classes at LVL 10 and up.
- Choose their own status and skill builds for unique combinations.
- Join player-vs-player events.
- Employ up to 3 mercenary NPC’s in the party for player assist, similar to the cats in ROM.
- Upgrade/enhance all gears, or really just cry at the RNG failure rates like every game.
- … and more!
What classes are available currently?
Consequently as Ragnarok Origin is a throw back to the original, the issue of content is seen regarding the class availability. You may have played the other Ragnarok games and have a special preference to a specific class such as the popular 1-hit champion class. Well, you are in for disappointment. By all means we would love to see some of the fun classes such as the champions, paladins, or other branch 2 classes. However, those are currently unfortunately unavailable yet as of the writing of this post.
Players basically have the simple options once they reach level 10 in the tutorial to choose one of the six basic classes. Moreover their progression currently is linear with the options only available up to the transcendent class tier.
- Swordsman -> Knight -> Lord Knight
- Magician -> Wizard -> High Wizard
- Merchant -> Blacksmith -> Whitesmith
- Thief -> Assassin -> Assassin Cross
- Archer -> Hunter -> Sniper
- Acolyte -> Priest -> High Priest
Is Ragnarok Origin free or worth playing?
Without a doubt Ragnarok Origin has a lot to offer. The game has a further polished and refined graphical system and mechanics that truly does feel similar to the original. Conversely the game does offer the same level of micro-transactions one would expect from these mobile titles. In a similar fashion, most of the micro-transactions are similar to that of ROM. Enough to be enticing, but at the same time not impossible for Free to Play gamers to enjoy.
There have been many bad Ragnarok releases out such as the questionable Ragnarok 2 re-spin or the many mobile variants. At the very least the polish and potential content there to come for Ragnarok Origin is possibly worth a look. And let’s be real here, we’re all crossing our fingers hoping that it won’t be another flop like Ragnarok X: Next Generation…
