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The Ragnarok X: Next Generation Review: A Classic but New RO Experience

Christine Cloma

The most awaited Ragnarok X: Next Generation MMORPG is getting closer. Exactly 14 more days as we write this article, RO fans will finally be able to play the official open beta on their mobile phone on June 18, 2021.

Ragnarok X: Next Generation is the upcoming free-to-play MMORPG mobile game officially licensed by Gravity Co. (South Korea) and published by Nuverse. The game will be launched in 9 countries in the Southeast Asia region, including the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and many more. 

In April, Nuverse carried out its first locally translated closed beta test (CBT) in the region. However, since it was a limited event, only 30,000 players were able to join the CBT. Luckily, we got a chance to see its first look and joined the Closed Beta Testing.

Original RO Story

The return of Ragnarok X: Next Generation aims to recreate the original feel of the classic RO, retaining the original story, characters, gameplay, and environment.

In Ragnarok X: Next Generation. Gods, Normans, and Demons are on the brink of war and the total destruction of Rune-Midgarts is at stake. The three entities entered into a truce to avoid the destruction altogether. After a thousand years, the Normans (people of Midgards) eventually forgot the memory of the past and the balance of peace started to break. Peaceful creatures have turned aggressive, and a violent earthquake ripped the continent apart. The legend of Ymir having protected the peace begins to spread among the adventurers; you are tasked with collecting the fragments of Ymir’s heart to bring peace back to the world of Midgard.

Character Classes

During the Closed Beta, the game maintains its classic experience while bringing a whole new experience filled with contents, mechanics, and impressive cinematic cut-scenes. As you create your character, there are 6 original classes in the game; the Swordsman, Merchant, Acolyte, Archer, Thief, and Mage. 

It contains the original class job tree where players can extend their abilities and skills furthermore up to three advancement phases. For new ones, Swordsman is designed for close combat, Mage for dealing great damage in an area, Archer for long-ranged high damage, Thief for close combat and evasion, Acolyte for healing, and the Merchant is some kind of jack of all trades. Each of these classes uses different types of weaponry and the stats points you assign to them heavily influence the type of character role you want to play (TANK, DPS, Instant Damage, etc..). In choosing your classes, you will get to see the preview of each class including its skills, abilities, and its definition. You will also be able to try it firsthand in a demo arena so you can decide better before picking the final class.

As usual, we picked our favorite swordsman as our main character because we originally loved this class since day one of Ragnarok. Creating your first character feels like you are acquiring a passport for the world of Midgards with the stamp-style registration that checks you into the game. 

Monsters, MVP and Mini

As you join the game, you will be facing classic monsters with aesthetic improvements like the Poring, Fabre, Lunatic, and other familiar faces. You will still be able to find some of them in their original location and some are relocated to different areas. Eliminating the monsters gives decent EXP even stealing other players’ kills. Each monster has its own lootable card where you can use them to enhance your equipment or sell them to the exchange. Most of the MVP and Mini monsters can still be hunted on the map, but some of them can now be freely raided using the Instance dungeon using party.

In the first 30-minute of gameplay, you’ll feel the nostalgic RO experience, the mesmerizing sound of the Poring jumping out loud, and the classic soundtracks. It faithfully recreates the vast world of Ragnarok with great improvements and twists in a mobile game.

Gameplay

Taking quests from NPCs is very lively as all characters are fully animated and crafted with their chibi art style. Playing all of the quests in the main and side story is more fulfilling without dull moments. When you reach the cut scene in every main story, for the first time, you will get to see your RO characters and monsters come to life in a cinematic scene depicting the story behind the quest.

In addition, players will also have access to the pathfinding function where it automatically finds the exact location of the given quest. Some veteran PC players might not agree and have doubts about this kind of feature, but it’s actually useful especially when it comes to daily grinding where you don’t have to manually find a certain NPC for that quest 10 times, think of it – it’s like a built-in add-on.

A new auto-battle system for AFK (Away from keyboard) players, the new AFK settings built-in on Rox will give players the ability to customize their grinding/farming experience. This includes an option to target monsters on their specific distances like nearby, on-screen, or on the entire map. It also has an option to return to the original position after reaching a certain amount of time. Plus, other skill settings make your farming more effective. The whole new auto-battle will also prevent AFK players from targeting the same target all over again, which will eventually form them into nasty centipede formations that usually disadvantage weaker players.

The 5 Classic Cities of Midgards

As you level up, you will get a chance to explore more maps; the great five cities of Midgards, namely; Prontera, Izlude Island, Alberta, Payon, and Geffen. Each of these cities has a specialty that is based on classes or levels of a character. Prontera is the center of the activity, if you’re a veteran player you will surely know where to respawn when you get killed during your first adventure.

The great five cities also have their own common NPC that can help you with your daily chores and equipment upgrades, a tavern where you can play mini-games like Battle of Arms “bunong braso” and an en-route that has hidden caves for stronger monsters.

Teleporting the map using the iconic Kafra or manually reaching the destination by foot or by mount, you’ll get to enjoy it by doing fun activities like gifting the NPC’s, taking pictures of the attractions, or exploring new stronger monsters and mini/MVP monsters.

Mount

PecoPeco mount, not just the Knights who will be able to get this cute mount in the early stage. It is available for everyone to use and will be rewarded to all players in the novice quests. You will be able to ride this cute Big Poring and enable you to customize their color and add some gears to it.

Aside from that, other mount can also be unlocked from quest or directly from the mount manager.

Classic Farming and New Stamina

In Ragnarok X: Next Generation, you can endlessly grind for monsters as much as you want to get EXP and some loot. In fact, during the CBT we managed to get several cards while grinding for monsters 24/7.

However, there is Odin’s blessing that can boost your grinding which can multiply your luck by 5 and the amount of EXP you’ll earn. The catch is, the Odin Blessing is not unlimited as it is a form of a stamina-like system wherein you need to collect it on a daily basis.

For Stamina, it is used for RO life skill which is dependent on the Odin Blessing. Stamina is used to do chores like cooking, fishing, etc. What’s interesting is, you can only earn stamina when you spend Odin Blessing by eliminating monsters in the wild. 

With the new stamina system in RoX, it allows players to play the game even when your account is exhaustive. It will also set a bridge to a gap of players who still do not believe in the stamina system and to players who already embrace it from most MMORPG mobile games.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Ragnarok X: Next Generation surely preserves the core of the original RO game while bringing you the new experiences. Everything feels nostalgic, you still feel the excitement when you hear the sound of getting level up. It brings back great memories from the past for every 90’s kid who can relate. With the added cinematic cut-scene in every main quest, the game effectively delivers the story of Rune-Midgarts making it interesting to play and not thinking of pressing that skip button. The new stamina system that still allows you to farm 24/7 is one of the classic returns, we certainly advise you to try this game. 

Are you ready to experience the brand new Ragnarok X: Next Generation in the coming days? If you haven’t pre-registered yet, this is the right time to register as there are tons of prizes and in-game rewards for you! See you in Midgard mga ka gaming!  

Pre-registration links： 

To scoop some updates, follow Ragnarok X: Next Generation’s Official pages:
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