Ragnarok Online 2, at the end of the day, is an interesting MMO with some tragic design decisions. The good news is that most of these issues can be fixed, so long as the companies choose to fix them. I imagine the Ragnarok IP of old could be popular again one day, but for the time being, most people will want to let leave this title for the carrion.
It tries to balance between tried and true mechanics of World of Warcraft and the ideas that made the first Ragnarok popular. The outcome is mediocre – boring combat, gameplay based on uninspired quests (‘kill 20 of those’) and small, almost linear world. [CD-Action 07/2013, p.65]
An amazing experience.
Classes are your basic for any MMORPG but do a much better job than other games at handling them
Combos really flow well.
Jobs are amazing. Farming is not hard but not easy. All jobs such as cooking provide you with different benefits, feel free to go what you want. The game has wonderful graphics, amazing for a free to play game.
People may give this 0/10 for not living up as a sequel, but that is not it's job, we are reviewing this game, not how well it did compared to it's predecessor.
Overall, this game has amazing music, basic to moderate story, great graphics, wonderfully polished classes and professions, bosses, player interactions.. it is easily the best f2p mmo out there.
The game is not the most original and neither the most creative game in the past decade.
Thanks to the first title of the series (Ragnarok online) it has a huge fanbase and receives often high scores. The very low scores are mostly, I presume, from miscontent fans.
Although the game itself is far from bad, it isn't spectacular.
But the idea that you don't need to spent a penny and have a complete experience is a great surplus!
What I experienced as bad in this game is the linear path. Wich character you roll, you always start in the same area and take the same path. Guild wars 2 for example made the replayability worth the while, something that ro2 doesn't quite use. It is sad, because the devs from ro2 work with a freemium model in such a good way that a gamer wants to keep playing.
The other "bad" thing are the lady characters. It is on the surface a kid friendly game but when you look deeper (wordplay) you'll notice the naughty anime or soft hentai influences.
Not a bad think maybe, but a very cheap way to attract many male gamers. Wonder how many men are playing a man in ro2?
The many good things in RO2 are the soundtrack, the class development, the unique worldstyle, the variety in quests, the achievement quests besides normal quests (for earning titles, the collectible cards, ...
There is a lot to do in Midgard, although I wonder how long players will hang around without getting bored?
Honestly, I found the game play to be entertaining while playing with friends. The bad voice acting and very similar WoW mechanics make the game somewhat pleasing. I don't think the game deserves a red score, but that's other peoples opinions.
After reading through all of the posts it seems that there are a good number of trolls out there that just want to hate on some game for being cute. And then there are the bots of the world making perfect of near perfect scores for even worst piles of rotten road-kill stinking up the sidewalk. Ragnarok Online 2 is the sequel to a much loved and celebrated MMORPG from the pasts of many gamers out there and unfortunately I have to say that it’s does not do justice to its predecessor. But don’t get me wrong here. That does not mean it’s a bad game by any means.
When comparing the new Ragnarok with the old one, you need to take the metal spike out of your head and just stop. This is a full 3D game with many restrictions that the old sprites didn’t have to worry about. It’s hard to make a 3D game where the characters move at lightning speed while attacking and still make it look good or even be able to keep up with the movements. They had to make sacrifices for the new game. So if you’re a Ragnarok fanboy and you’re going to nitpick over small things and whine that it’s not Ragnarok one then go play Ragnarok one and stop yelling in my ear. But I digress.
The game itself I particularly ordinary; it still has the cutesy look to it, but then again so do so many other MMORPGs out there. It’s honestly become something for independent development companies and not decades old, multinational, online gaming corporation. At this point it just becomes a lazy standard, although sometimes the bosses can me a little creative.
The controls were decent and somewhat easy to learn, but I still had to tweak it a little for my own preferences. The gameplay is similar to just about any other MMORPG, aside from being a little faster than normal. Though with this aside, it’s still it’s just the same grind missions one after the other until a boss at some point. However, the game can be played solo for the most part as it seems to be on a sort easy mode the entire time. This can be fun for those who like to progress quickly through games, but can become boring as there is rarely any challenge put before you. Also, the cut into small arena like areas which gets rid of any thought of it being an open world type game.
There really is no story to speak of throughout the game’s many hours of playtime aside from the small bit you get in the beginning of the game and the smaller, scattered pieces throughout the game all until the end.
Ragnarok Online 2 is one of those games that may fade quickly into the shadows of its predecessor. It’s painfully average on so many levels and I really didn’t even want to write a review on it. However, the game is free. There are micro-transactions that can speed things up, but that’s it. You just download it on Steam or on the website and play. So with all of the above listed items along with the free to play part jammed in I would like to give this one a 6. It’s a Decent and free game that you will either love or hate, but seriously, for all those that have the audacity to call this a 1 or 0. You have never actually played a 1 or a 0 game before have you?
Alpha Protocal=4 (Below average)
Secret Service =2 (Trash)
Mind Jack=1 (Bad for your health)
Sonic Free Riders =0 (Destroy all copies on site)
Play these. You can easily find them in the hundreds in just about any bargain bin.
Ive noticed there are a ton of 0s and 1s and the like for this game, and I really dont think it is deserving of a 0 or 1 by any means, and those 0s or 1s are likely from people that are expressing their anger instead of actually properly reviewing the game for what it is.
What the game is, is a generic run-of-the-mill F2P Korean-style MMORPG that takes place in the Ragnarok universe.
It is not an outstandingly horrible game like how many scores give it, and if you think that Ragnarok Online 2 is a 0 or 1... then you havent truly played a horrible game.
Dont get me wrong, I am a big fan of the original Ragnarok Online, and I am also disappointed in what this game has become, but really, if you think this game is worse than something like Bad Rats... you have issues.
anyways, on to the actual review.
RO2 has been in the making for years upon years, and it basically dropped off the radar for me for quite a long time until I saw the announcement that it was going to be available on Steam. Given that I was a fan of the original game, I decided to give it a try, not knowing what to expect.
the positives:
Less issues on launch with the servers than most other highly anticipated MMOs
The 2D art for the game is still superb
the negatives:
they ripped out the Ragnarok Online "feel" and replaced everything with a generic 3D F2P Korean-style MMORPG feel
Game engine feels like its more than half a decade old...
Very limited settings (ex: camera sensitivity is in the stratosphere with no option to change it)
LOTS of bugs
LOTS of lag
Poor localization
So in the end, the game got boring extremely fast due to the crazy grindy nature (which Koreans tend to have a fetish with), and what was left of the the charm of the Ragnarok Online universe was easy worn through, with everything looking cheap. There just isnt enough about the game that can set it apart from the massive sea of mediocre MMORPGs out there.
the only thing that makes it stand out in any way was the fact that it was in the Ragnarok universe, the rest of everything is as mediocre beyond anything.
The game is somewhat decent (especially for a free to play MMORPG) on the surface but once you put a little more time into it you soon start to see some issues with it. First of all the combat has a much more grinding quality than I've seen in other MMOs. The combat feels more like a chore than a major part of the game. The camera angles are terrible and give off the feeling that the devs don't want you admiring the view, so to speak. Animations are choppy even on highest graphic settings.
The style of the game was another thing that rubbed me the wrong way. There is very little customization and everyone essentially ends up looking like some pre-teen protagonist in a generic anime. The voice acting in the game is horrendous, many of the voices just DO NOT fit the characters that are speaking them. I played RO1 so I understand the style of the game but it just comes off as cheap and silly in a 3d environment.
The biggest complaint I have is how the game seems to push paying real money. I get that its F2P and they want to still make some money but c'mon... making people pay to respec your skills points? That is just asinine.
I wanted to like this game since I have rather fond memories of RO1. But when you compare it to games like Guild Wars 2 and even the dreaded World of Warcraft you start to see that it really does fall short, even for a F2P game.
MY REVIEW are changed able as long as GRAVITY have the courage to complete revamp things up....
Itemization, unique skill mechanics, unique cards mechanics are always RO 1 strong points.
Gravity completely RIP off every strong points that RO 1 HAVE.
Gravity will lost momentum to keep up if some developer decides to copy RO 1 mechanics to their new game if they disband RO 2......
My Bloody honest Review:
The game is extremely generic. One dimensional and extremely un-imaginative.
Makes you wonder "HOW FLAWED" the core game engine was.
Really, bloody honest here. Please look at the skills each class have.
They are extremely generic, one dimensional, its all about damage.
You don't get interesting skill rogue disarming your weapon, or helm, or armor(like previous RO 1 has).
Acolyte doesnt have teleportation skill.
Really, there is no interesting strange mechanics in this new RO 2...
I even questioned the core mechanics that this game has..
Really, why do they reduced everything to just attack skills and no more strange effects on cards...
I suspect that their core mechanics doesnt support any weird and cool stuff that RO 1 can.
Really, check it for yourself.
Youll notice that RO 2 skills are very generic.
Attack, damage, heal, buff, debuff, resurrect, invisible, they just change the name and how they behave.
Extremely good example of this is Priest skill,
Why the hell they put the same mechanics, doing Damage over time skill OVER and over their skill tree.
They only change the name, increase the damage and increase the duration... This further increase my suspicion on how shallow and flawed the CORE game engine was..
Where is the other. Steal, mug, disarm, pneuma, etc etc.(I thing the RO 2 core engine doesnt support any complex mechanics, simplification of cards proof this..)
To make it worse, they REMOVE of elements, makes the suspicion on flawed core mechanics even higher.....
And THe most strange thing is that they IMPROVE card mechanics in RO 2.
I dont see any improvement.
They just remove everything fun in cards.
Now cards is just stat sticks.
Gravity should really learn from Diablo 3 failure on itemization......
Itemization.
Complete failure....
There is no reason to grind and doing fun raids on lower level.
High level people will be polarized in High level dungeon.
Ragnarok online 1 itemization is GOOD, they just need to make Special item(lvl 4 items that doesnt have card slot) to became stronger so that using them is not a disadvantage...
Other than that RO 1 itemization is bloody good.
There is a reason on WHY RO 1 Still being PLAYED today...
SummaryRagnarok returns to give you more online role-playing action. Ragnarok Online 2 is the sequel to Ragnarok Online, which sported anime-style graphics.