If you're familiar with the MMORPG genre, then you must have at least know about Ragnarok Online, like pretty much half of MMORPG players do. It was a very big hit back in its time, and it also proved that once again, Korean MMO games rule the world.
But the game came out here in Indonesia during the time when I was still in High School, and I was an overly secluded kid back then, so I couldn't play it anyway. The main reason that I didn't want to play it was because it's a pay to play game, and when I thought about it and adding the money I would need to spend to play in cyber cafes, I wouldn't be able to hide it from my parents at all.
If I wasn't allowed to play games for more than 4 hours in a whole week, them finding out that I play MMO games outside of our house would have been like them finding out that I'm doing drugs. If you think that I was exaggerating things, let me tell you that they were so angry when they found out that I was playing Counter-Strike every Saturday. Now imagine how many heads will roll if I got caught playing games that I also need to pay to play each month.
It became free to play after a while, however. But something else still stop me from playing it; the way my friends became completely addicted to it. Some of them started to become... disconnected from the rest of their friends, few started skipping school just to play it. I knew I would end up worse bceause of my lack of self-control when it comes to playing games (I'm a lot better now, but sometimes I would still lose it), and the only thing I can imagine that would happen to me if I became like that was that I would be kicked out of the house after I got circumsized for the second time.
Long before their ridiculous, yet catchy, songs do
But the game came out here in Indonesia during the time when I was still in High School, and I was an overly secluded kid back then, so I couldn't play it anyway. The main reason that I didn't want to play it was because it's a pay to play game, and when I thought about it and adding the money I would need to spend to play in cyber cafes, I wouldn't be able to hide it from my parents at all.
If I wasn't allowed to play games for more than 4 hours in a whole week, them finding out that I play MMO games outside of our house would have been like them finding out that I'm doing drugs. If you think that I was exaggerating things, let me tell you that they were so angry when they found out that I was playing Counter-Strike every Saturday. Now imagine how many heads will roll if I got caught playing games that I also need to pay to play each month.
The amount might be even more than Sean Bean's deaths on-screen
It became free to play after a while, however. But something else still stop me from playing it; the way my friends became completely addicted to it. Some of them started to become... disconnected from the rest of their friends, few started skipping school just to play it. I knew I would end up worse bceause of my lack of self-control when it comes to playing games (I'm a lot better now, but sometimes I would still lose it), and the only thing I can imagine that would happen to me if I became like that was that I would be kicked out of the house after I got circumsized for the second time.
A few years after I graduated, Ragnarok Online 2 was released. And since I never got to experience the first one, I joined up in the game during the stress test period. And I found the game.... severely lacking, especially when I compared it to the ones I played before. So I ditched it right away, just in time, because my country got kicked out from the service despite the "South East Asian server" title. The server itself has already ceased operation for quite a while, serves them right.
The original Ragnarok Online is still around, in case you're wondering, but now there are even more reasons for me to stay away from that game. Today a lot of the players there are only bots, and the publisher doesn't give a shit about it because it's still making money for them. So I became the rare case of a veteran MMORPG player in my country who have never played any Ragnarok Online in his life.
But then rumors started sprouting around the net about a game that was made by people who were in charge of the original Ragnarok Online production, the guys who didn't want to be responsible for the shitty sequel of the game that they loved.
Proof that you can't underestimate the power and the danger of hundreds of dissapointed people
The original Ragnarok Online is still around, in case you're wondering, but now there are even more reasons for me to stay away from that game. Today a lot of the players there are only bots, and the publisher doesn't give a shit about it because it's still making money for them. So I became the rare case of a veteran MMORPG player in my country who have never played any Ragnarok Online in his life.
But then rumors started sprouting around the net about a game that was made by people who were in charge of the original Ragnarok Online production, the guys who didn't want to be responsible for the shitty sequel of the game that they loved.
Tree of Savior, a new upcoming 2.5D MMORPG which was initially known as 'Project R1', to symbolize the game as the spiritual sequel of the original Ragnarok Online. Not much is known about the game yet, because it's still on the making. The only information comes from the development blog, fan base sites and the trailers. Even the game was discontinued for some time before.
There seemed to be a limited party formation with a four player limit (I'm not entirely sure about this), along with a lot of classes that Ragnarok Online players would feel familiar with. And in the trailer, there were no other players outside of the party within the dungeons, so it looks like that it uses instance dungeon system.
I guess it's because the bosses wouldn't look menacing anymore when there are 24 people around
There is an open world, according to the Q&A seesion with the devs, although the maps are zoned so each new areas must be loaded. And despite what the game looks like, it's not using a point & click gameplay method; It uses more of keyboard button mashing instead. So it would probably be more similar to Elsword in terms of gameplay.
The game graphics looks so classical that it actually became more beautifully artistic compared to the more advanced MMORPG games we have today like Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and TERA Online. And due to the large number of available classes and subclasses, the range of skillsets that you can get in-game would be potentially large as well, so get ready for some headaches in building your character later. But it's business as usual, isn't it?
"If I want to get this 'Dickapitation' skill, I need to save up 10 skill points... that means not getting any
skills for 5 levels... but then I wouldn't be able to get the 'Razor Penis' later on..."
The players can choose their avatar freely, and would be able to customize them during the character creation and later in-game by non-gender specific costumes and accessories. It probably won't be as sophisticated as the character creation system in Phantasy Star Online 2, but I'm pretty sure they would provide option for the important ones such as hairstyles and face.
Oh, and speaking of gender, the classes are not genderlocked, so you can play as female warriors or male clerics. This is one of the better news for me, because I like to play as a female character in games, especially RPGs. Hey, I'd rather constantly see a cute girl on-screen than some dude flashing his butt when using skills. This is, after all, an "MMORPG" (Many Men Online Role Playing as Girls) game.
Dressing them up is a lot more fun too
Overall, the game looks very promising. Looking forward to try this one out in the future, I'll probably going to jump into the fray in the Closed Beta phase as soon as it's available.
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