Few things first. I didn’t play Ragnarok Online from the beta but it was sometime after that. You had all of your basic and second jobs but no advance classes yet.
So I played it for like 5-6 years or so. The last 2 where basically on and off and mainly checking up what they wrecked with the game. Which they did a lot too and the main reason I stopped playing it.
But to claim this is the spiritual sequel to Ragnarok Online? No, it looks like Ragnarok Online but that’s as close as it gets.
Stat system: The changes are so small it only matters if you A LOT of points into it at once. Str and Int barely seems to increase damage at all. You don’t get any bonus for every 10 point like in old RO.
You have no attack speed stat but the flee has been thrown into the Dex stat for some reason.
So no matter what build every character will attack at the same speed unless they have a skill that increase attack speed.
I don’t get why they did this, Ragnarok Online stat system in the start was the most unique stat system in MMORPG history. I have not found ONE MMORPG with a stat system like RO had. Not ONE. It’s ridiculous, why do they not use such a good system?
Well at least you get to put out stats and HP and Mana increase at a decent rate.
Cards: In RO cards where there to power you up with slotted gears. Here? Only bosses drop cards and I have no idea how to use them. I read that like two classes can use them but since I don’t play those classes or won’t I’m not sure if they hold any value for me.
Why would they get rid of such unique system that actually changed your gameplay? It felt satisfying finding a card or even a second one closely after the first one. You felt like Lady Luck herself. Specially if it was a card you where looking for.
Instead the cards are replaced with Gems that you drop on death. Oh great, I’m sure that’ll be a lot of fun later on. Also these gems just adds miniscule bonuses to your weapon unless you rank them up with other games.
I haven’t maxed out a gem but I’m gonna guess it’s not gonna do much difference seeing how everything else is going up at snail pace.
Cards in RO was also a good reason to go back to older areas to farm for them. All though in RO now they have messed up the card system to the point of where it’s of little use. What used to give an Sniper a Double strafe damage of 25k against Ktullunax now only does mere 5k.
Equips: They use the same boring progressive gear like every other MMORPG out there. This also destroys any older areas because they will have nothing of value. You have no reason to go back and it pushes all people to a few Raid dungeons that are supposed to be done over and over again. Just to get the best loot to do them over and over again.
In Ragnarok Online it was far different. The hardest places didn’t always give the best loot and was more for a fun experience to be there and just to prove you could do it.
Skills: You’re far too limited and the skills barely increase in power unless it does more hits.
In RO skills would increase massively and adding in the bonus from high stats they become even more fun to use. When you went from 80 Int to 100 Int in RO you could actually tell the difference.
Here I can barely tell if my damage was increased or not. The passive skills I buy all give mere 1% unless it’s that one fire skill that activates on burning enemies which all shortly die after they are ignited anyway. Because Fireball is a good damage dealing skill early on.
Most of the passive skills are just money wasters and even if you max them out you’ll get like 10% whooping more damage. In RO Storm Gust on Wizard tree went from like 200% to 800% or something in 5 levels. Maybe it was 10 levels. That gives you a reason to max out the skill rather than just putting one point into it.
In this game? Not so much other than, guess I’ll get this damage skill. No joy in maxing any of them out.
Quests: The game rely too heavily on them to level up normally. Like most other MMORPG does these days. RO in the start had none of them. Later on it got some and they where all cryptic stuff that would be nearly impossible to complete without a guide. Most at least.
In this game you just get all the quests in an area and when they are gone so is your reason to stay in it. Unless you do Journal stuff but the rewards from them are so pitiful that it’s not worth it.
Bosses: MVPs where meant to be special to kill. My Pyromage kills a boss with the use of like 3-4 skills. They are barely a threat to me. I solo them too.
So what does it get right? It kinda looks like RO. It at least got a decent amount of classes too. I suppose the elemental weakness is also nice but they forgot the rest of it.
But the rest? Highly disappointed about this game. It’s no where near what RO was about. You’d think that they would make a BETTER version that what current RO is but they fail at that.
Do you know what they have done to RO?
The Stat system has been ruined by making stats not so important anymore.
Enemies are far to based by level now so you can’t kill high level enemies with the right gear and even if you could you don’t get good EXP from it. In fact you get LESS EXP from it. It’s ridiculous. So now you’re forced to areas based on your level and have to stay there. Some areas became too hard because enemies got such high hit ratio that it’s not worth being there. Biolab 2 for example.
Cards got so weak because it now buffed the weapon damage instead of the total damage that you did. So it doesn’t work using a 4 slotted Compositive Bow for an Archer class with good cards in it because it’s just too weak.
Same goes for mages, they wands make very little difference now.
I really could go on about Ragnarok Online which has been my most favorite MMORPG of all time. So when someone dares to say they made a sequel to it and can not deliver on any front of it, it makes me…Make me…sigh
You got some changing to do Developers before this can be classified as a Spiritual sequel to Ragnarok Online.