|
 |
Ragnarok Online: Juno Expansion |
Written by:
HitNRun
Sunday, August 29, 2004 3:18 PM
|
Juno (Ragnarok Online): Our dirty little secret comes out at last.
I, and most of the world staff, do indeed play Ragnarok Online. Personally, I think the game is fun because the production values are so low, but I can describe RO itself later. Let's talk Juno.
I have to give Juno a "B-" because it's against our rules to give it both an "A" and a "D". The new character classes are a blast. Matt's phat monk
has already become his main while my 'sader is almost locked and loaded. The new classes fit perfectly into the currently existing ones, and have so many
inherent weaknesses that the usual balance uproar of MMOGdom is silenced. Of course, this is probably because overseas RO players paid to beta
test these classes for two years before they came to the United States. (Ah, how the tables have turned!) Also, no "uproar" is ever truly "silenced" with Ragnarok fans.
But for mentally coherent players of the game, (which probably includes 6 players and 4 of them work on this site) the classes are a success.
Not so successful are the new areas. "Juno" is a city separated from "mainland" Ragnarok by 3 insane zones filled with Demon Thyroids (Roids for short) and other generally absurd
sources of absurd danger when weighed against the gains. The gains are a shitty new town and an interesting volcano, which is unfortunately patrolled by ridiculously powerful enemies. Also a negative was Juno's effect on the economy. This really isn't Gravity's fault,
this is the fault of the subhuman illiterate RO players who respond to sanity with "XD" and respond to an increase in powerful items for sale with an...increase in prices.
Remember how the Bazaar brought all those formerly valuable items down to 10-20 plat in Everquest? In Ragnarok, the Bazaar would have jacked them up to 15k.
Also discouraging is the amount of time Gravity is taking.
As of late last year, it appeared iRO was slowly catching up with the Korean version. So far this year, however, we've had one significant update (Juno). It took them 2 months to "create" and "test" the implementation of two more character slots on the select screen. The reason may lie in the invalid Korean minds of the developers. More on that later.
|
|
|
