Ragnarok Online

## Overview

Ragnarök Online (yes, the right name of the game is Ragnarök Online, not Ragnarok Online) is a 2D+3D MMORPG, Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, based on the manhwa *Ragnarök* created by Lee Myung-jin. It's 2D+3D since the entire environment is made of 3D models but everything else, with a few exceptions, - characters, npcs, gear, etc - is 2D.

It started to be developed/idealized by GRAVITY Co., Ltd. in 1998 through the hands of Kim Hakkyu, although only released years later, in 2002, after the success of Arcturus. That same game and its engine were also used as a base for Ragnarök Online as can still be seen from some leftovers left in some places of the game, although nowadays rare since lots of details were removed with the addition of Episode XII, as can be read here.

Maria, on the left, and Sizz, on the right, from Arcturus, can be found in the Izlude's left building as Weapon and Armor Dealers - `/navi izlude_in 65/127`

After being licensed to other countries, and to prevent confusion, the original server of the game started to be referred as RÖK, Ragnarök Online of Korea, as a reference to the Republic of Korea - ROK, the official name of South Korea, and, at the same time, to be a reference to the RÖK of Ragnarök Online. Nowadays the RÖK name is a thing of the past and the original server is simply called kRO.

## What is Ragnarök Online

What makes it unique is that is hard to classify it.

If you ask 10 different players, you will probably obtain 10 different answers because it's quite unique in what it offers:

* It's old school but in some aspects it doesn't look like it
* It's 2D but it has 3D scenarios
* Lots of players play it because it resembles something that they love from other games

Saying this, let's try to give a small idea of what it's:

* Ragnarok Online is a MMORPG so this means that you will find players to party and lots of RPG elements in it to make your character different from the others.
* It's a 3D game but monsters (some exceptions exist but mostly re-used remnants from the alpha/beta versions of the game), NPCs, and items are still displayed in 2D to appeal players that enjoy the 8 and 16 bit era of RPGs.
* Yes, skills, as much as they don't look like, are 2D sprites.
* It's fast paced. This means that everything is supposed to happen fast being it through Burst Damage or DPS. If you're expecting fights that last up to 60 minutes, you're in the wrong game.
* It's very friendly and social because, while it doesn't have a global chat or channels to let players talk from a place to another as seen in many other games, many players enjoy talking to friends in town where their guild or group of friends save. This means that there are many players with their favorite cute character, due to the numerous amount of costumes that the cash shop provide to players, afk in town or ready to engage with other players.
* It's a limited open-world game. This means that it's an open world but some parts of the game are limited through a few systems:
	+ Level Penalty - Range between monsters should be up to a max of ± 30 levels or you're penalized.
	+ Drop Penalty - Levels also affects the rate of drops. While they've a default value, the drop goes down if you're above or below that value.
	+ Quests - Some fields, dungeons, and instances are only accessible after doing certain quests.
* It doesn't have raids like many other MMORPGs but it has instances with different tiers of difficulty although usually just Hard and Normal mode. And some of them are actually quite difficulty to complete even for a full party of 12 players if they're not proper geared and are aware of how the mechanics work.
* It has Player vs Player and Guild vs Guild but currently in a very poor state of balance since it's mostly a battle of who attacked first since power creep is a thing on RO.

## Objective of the game

So what's the objective of this game? Having fun while you:

* Kill players
* Kill monsters
* Make your 2D character look cute
* Make your 2D character strong enough to the point where he/she can solo almost everything
* Having fun creating different builds to clear the content available in the game
* Complete quests to know more about the lore of the game
* and so on.

By now you already can see that it's a very open game with tons of things to do on your free time.

1. ↑ *In 1998, when Kim Hakkyu took over Gravity, he made efforts to develop the online game "Ragnarok".*