Having played Ragnarok Online as well as Ragnarok Online 2, I was pretty psyched to be able to put my hands on this game (besides the fact that this game was going to be the first Ps Vita game I actually played). One thing to note though is that this is still an early review, of which I might revisit it at a later stage and write a full review.
Ragnarok Odyssey Ace is a game that is available for both Vita and PS3, the Vita version being priced at RM104.00 on the PS Store. From what I understand, this is the successor of Ragnarok Odyssey, of which I did not play. I started the game, as with both of the other Ragnarok games, as an Assassin, usually known for their high speed.
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| Assassins |
The game proved very much different from both Ragnarok Online as well as Ragnarok Online 2. In essence, I was quite disappointed that character levels were not so much dependent on the battles wherein previously, battles give you experience points, which also allows you to add your own stats, which in turn inadvertently allows your for your customisation of character as each stat increases a different aspect of the character. Therefore, it was possible to have two assassins but one with higher damage than the other but lower health points comparatively. In Odyssey Ace however, you do not have that much of a free reign with the stats. The game uses 'cards', which can be obtained by buying from the counter at the base or at the tavern, or from monster drops. These cards have different effects on your character, with some increasing stats, some giving effects to your attacks (e.g. poison or burn), or giving your character an effect or slightly changing the game (e.g. the 'Scavenger Hunt' allows for better monster drops). Some cards give disadvantages in return for an advantage (e.g. decrease HP for increase Attack).
The initial gameplay was not too bad. Starting as a virtually unknown character, you join a guild during the time when monsters were appearing and had somehow seem like they were going to take over the kingdom, and from that point onwards, you're just killing these buggers. In a nutshell, the gameplay is like this: see monster, kill monster, do it again. The storyline is divided into chapters, with the conclusion of each chapter being a huge boss monster. Don't get your hopes too high up for the storyline. It is kinda boring and predictable, with no dynamics, but I have to admit, it does have its place in the gameplay (note: I am concurrently playing Watch Dogs, so I might have some unknown underlying prejudiced comparison when evaluating the Odyssey Ace. LOL!).
With that being said, the game does get kind of monotonous and repetitive somewhere down the line. Where Ragnarok Online had different maps and dungeons and caves and whatnots, Odyssey Ace seem to bring you back to the same places over and over again. To make things even more monotonous, there is no randomness in the monster's spawning. That means that the same monster will appear at the same place every single time. In fact, at one area, I had to defeat 20 orcs (or something to that effect) to proceed. I had defeated 18 of them, and at the bottom left of the screen, was written the words: "2 monster(s) remaining". Looking at my mini-map, there was only 1 orc left. I literally turned 360 degrees around, and then back again, and still only saw 1 orc. I went to kill the orc and only after killing the orc, did the final orc spawn at the same place that the former orc spawned at. *facepalm*! At one point of time, you are given a special weapon that gets stronger when you complete the missions attached to the weapon - but these missions make you revisit some of the older chapters, even in chapter 1, thereby making you play the same missions again and again and again.... With no free-hand in levelling up the character or the stats, there were some bosses that were particularly difficult with my assassin - I just did not have enough damage. I tried to upgrade my weapon to the maximum I could, (upgrading weapons require not only money, known as Zeny, but also certain specific items, which can only be obtained from specific missions), and upgrade my clothes as much as I could (clothes allow you to equip cards, which was discussed earlier, until the card limit) and I still could not kill the boss. Reluctantly, I had to turn to the online community for help in killing the bosses.
Like I said, this is only but an early review, I am just about halfway through the chapters at this moment and the monotonous gameplay is starting to bore me. I guess when I change classes (the game, unlike Ragnarok Online, allows you to change class as and when you want to outside of missions), I will revisit this and write a complete review once I have finished the game. In conclusion, the only complaint that I have with Odyssey Ace is how monotonous the game becomes after awhile, and also the problem of not allowing you to level up your character or weapon enough that bosses sometimes seem impossible to defeat (even with mercenaries hired - the game allows you to hire up to 2 extra AI mercenaries which aid you in your mission at a small fee that is deducted from the prize money of that mission). If I were to score it now, I will give it a
4/10.
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