Ragnarok was my first foray into the world of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing genre.

I remember getting a CD installer from a computer gaming shop that I used to play Counter Strike and Warcraft.

I am used to playing RPG games like Diablo and Never Winter nights before and so the idea of embarking in a journey with other players online was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Installed and went online my first character was a thief named White Death. Give me a break I was 12 years old and an assassin looked and sounded cool.

It was my first time playing with strangers as most people I would play in LAN games or in houses would be friends or at least acquintances.

The world opened up literally. It was where I learned to socially interact with all sorts of people and even experienced an online love affair and frienship with many people that I never got to meet in real life.

There were some that I met and who until this day are still my friends. So when we learned that a new Ragnarok Online game was being released it was a chance for us to relive our childhood.

Source

So four days ago after the pre registration and ads almost a month ago we were finally able to log in and start creating our characters.

Since my first failed career as an online assassin I have moved on being a long range hunter that rains death from above.

A download of 1.3 GB and is data heavy so this means only playing this when connected on a WIFI.

It is set in the same place and time period as the first game with the same places, majority of monsters and MVP bosses.

Almost the same mechanics on how stats and damage works so when I made my archer I already knew how to fully utilize a fast leveling technique that it involves kiting ( moving just outside of the attack range of the enemy) and make use of my high damage output.

Using a glass cannon type build that pumps everything into Dexterity and using the Double Strafe skill to kill enemies even before it gets near me.

This is one of the advantage of range as opposed to melee characters who will need to balance their damage dealing capability in either Strength and Luck to having to put stats on either Vitality making them tanky or Agility to be able to dodge attacks.

Most of my enemies will be down by 2-3 attacks so I don't need to put defensive stats.

You have your original roster of a Knight, Priest, Hunter, Assassin, Wizard and Blacksmith roles but it also sports the secondary types of Crusader, Monk, Rogue, Sage and Alchemist.

It also shows the third tier jobs of Lord Knight, Archbishop, Sin X, High Wizard and Snipers so this game is robust with different builds you can create.

Difference

It feels more like an RPG now with a story because you have countless of quests you can do unlike before that you can create a character and not delve in the lore and story and just focus on you want role you want to play.

You will have to follow certain scenarios if you want to progress and even unlock buffs and stats that will give you better advantage that those without patience to seek out content and stories.

So I am pretty happy about buffs that completionists like me will have.

Also Ragnarok Mobile does away with the 2D sprite look and updates it into a 3D model with awesome effects for skills and spells.

Even the mini bosses and MVP Bosses look great.

Since this is a mobile device game they also added an auto play feature that you can set skills and attack patterns to do in case you don't have the time to grind.

This is especially great for those that have work or families which are some of my friends have so they can't be expected to devote hours of grinding.

Also the ability to run it on an emulator on a PC makes it easier for my phone to not overheat if I leave it to grind a bit while I do some other stuff like reading or watching a show.

It hits all the nostalgia factor here and with the portability of it as a mobile game makes it better to recapture the popularity it once had.

Did you play Ragnarok before?