4 replies to this topic

[Vaxa]

I've been a RO veteran, started playing about 8 years ago for around 3-4 years on and off. Back when Valkyrie didn't exist and iRO was incredibly grindy I was the guild leader of a successful WoE guild on a private server. No other game gave me such nostalgia and memories than RO.

I was following RO2 somewhat during its bumpy development phase and just recently found out about the launch of RO2. Luckily, Canada hasn't been IP blocked by the SEA version and I was able to gather some friends new to the world of Midgard to play alongside them. I am currently lvl 20 and here's what I think so far.

Presentation: The graphics in RO2 are okay. The game is bright and colorful and minimalistic. The textures aren't too detailed but it fits the art-style. Some textures appear more crisp than others but that's not too much of a setback.

Card System: From what I've played and seen so far, I'm fairly dissapointed with the card system. Cards only upgrade stats like STR, VIT, AGI etc. No status ailments like the beloved LOD card, literally only stat upgrades. Cards don't seem to be as rare of a drop and are equipped to your character rather than equipment.

Dungeons: I've completed the Wolf Cave and Prontera Culvert. The Wolf Cave was more complex and less linear than the Culvert. The bosses had several skills up their sleeves which was nice to see (hate tank'n'spanks) such as a puddles of poison that randomly spawn near the boss, minion spawning, headbutts, AoE web snares etc. The Culvert (first dgn) was very linear and easy which I think was intentional considering it's the first; nothing too special. There is a dungeon finder feature and a LF feature but many people still use the chat to recruit.

Combat: The combat seems much slower paced and the engine seems a bit sluggish. Eden Eternal used the same engine and the combat reflects that. You'll be spamming skills and for the majority of the game you don't really "need" to use that many skills. As an acolyte I am able to sustain a tank with just 1 HoT and a spammable 1s cast time generic heal with the rare occasion I must use an AoE heal. I imagine that combat classes will have a better time killing mobs but I still prefer the faster paced combat of RO1.

Professions: I haven't leveled it up too much but not much to say anyways since you've probably played an MMO by now that has crafting/cooking etc in it.

UI: I really do like the look of the UI. The colors blend well, it's easy to navigate, minimalistic and customizable to an extent with preset locations of certain features like the map and targets. I don't feel the need to look up custom player made UI's because it personally does look quite nice. Includes a threat meter for parties.

Classes: There's a fair amount of variety with 5 classes. Each one branches into a second job at lvl 25 increasing the number of classes to 10. The skill tree offers a few different paths to follow.

PvP: Haven't tried this yet. There are duels in the game and I haven't tried any other form of PvP yet. Hopefully there will be some type of WoE at endgame or GvG and I believe there is an open styled Arena.

Overall I'm enjoying the game, Asiasoft hasn't handled it's servers too well and the launcher/patcher is extremely obnoxious so getting in the game is a story of its own. I would have prefered RO2 to include the same card system, revamped WoE and same 2.5D art style with improved graphics but maybe I'll get used to the new 3D aspect. it feels like a pretty generic MMO but I'm giving the game a chance and as of now I will update this the more I play the game and find out new features. It is 6:00am here so there may be some things I missed or errors so bear with me.

[CeruleanGamer]

0/10

[Senkasa]

We already have enough threads on this, can't one of them just be used...?

[Cleffy]

Don't forget that tailor can make adjustments to the textures.
I guess this means no puncholyte of ye old times.

With the server side engine, I can see why they would opt for a slower paced combat. I just hate waiting around after a swing, scaling out an animation to take that full delay time would be a more elegant solution to me. The server side engine is pretty much the same as RO's server side engine. I am sure you have experienced this in RO before. There is an increased exp or drops event and the lag gets really bad. Pretty much the engine is having difficulty dealing with the increased rate. I would imagine slowing down combat would help combat this.

[Magefist]

RO2 sucks