Ragnarok Online Returns, With a Newly Made 2nd Version!

When Gravity created the first Ragnarok Online game in 2002, it was considered to be one of the most popular MMORPGs in Korea and was internationally known as being in the same league as Lineage and EverQuest. Having played Ragnarok Online since South Korea’s first launch date, I am very excited to talk about this newly remade addition to the series.

A couple of years ago, Gravity created Ragnarok Online II: Gate of the World – a sequel based on the first game. However, due to many game bugs and graphic errors, the game was left in open beta. As a result, the Ragnarok Online II project was dropped and the team decided to go back to the original game. In 2007, it was rumored that Ragnarok Online II will be redesigned. It was later confirmed on the series’ official Korean website that it would be using the Gamebryo engine from Unreal Engine 2.5.

The release date for Korean closed beta is August 31, 2010, and it’s expected to be official by the end of this year.

Gamebryo engine based RO II: Legend of the Second

There have been some improvements to the game interaction in this new addition to the series. However, the game overall functions similarly to the first Ragnarok Online, where you choose a class to extend to a higher class.

New in this game is the dual class system, where a player can choose to have a free professional class such as doctor, chef, blacksmith or tailor. Another new element of this system is that your character could change his/her class based on how good or evil your actions are.

Finally, there’s the NPC system. When your character is offline, you can have your customized NPC character use their dual job to craft, vend, or bake for other players. With this new gameplay aspect, you can make profit even when you are offline!

The game's new interface

The game’s interface shows that it’s quite similar to the casual MMORPG such as World of Warcraft, Aion, and Lineage II. However, the game environment has changed a lot.

The music is newly composed by Yoko Kanno, the composer famous for series such as Macross Frontier, Darker than Black, Cowboy Bebop, RahXephon, and Wolf’s Rain.

Lee Myung-Jin, the original creator of Ragnarok, did partial work for Ragnarok Online II‘s new character and environment concept, but the recent artwork’s designer is still not credited.

Prontera's new RO II concept

Below, there are some new screenshots of cities and environments for people to look at so that they can see how much the game has improved from the first Ragnarok Online and the old-Ragnarok Online II. Enjoy, and I hope you will be anticipating an international version, should one be announced!

Keep checking the international Gravity website and hope that Ragnarok Online II: Legend of the Second will be localized!

[Image and info credit: Project Revolution]

Road Ludlow, former Izlude from RO

New RO II's Culvert Design

The old RO II graphics (left) and new RO II graphics (right)