Saturday, March 6, 2010

Ragnarok DS First Impressions

I have acquired a copy of Ragnarok a couple weeks ago for the Nintendo DS via Amazon.com. So far, I have invested a few hours into the game and I am enjoying it so far. You play as a moody kid named Ales who has father issues and a dream to start his own guild. In the few hours I have played this game, I have engaged in a series of fetch quests that's supposed to bring Ales closer to starting his guild. There is also another plot intertwined involving a amnestic shaman that joins Ales that I'm guessing will eventually lead him into fighting whoever the main villain of the game is supposed to be.

This game is based on a point-and-click MMORPG of the same name that I have never played. Instead of pointing and clicking with a mouse though, you use the touch screen in its place to move your character around, tap the enemies you want your character to attack, and access the menu. You also have 12 shortcuts that you can set up (which seems generous to me because Phantasy Star Zero forced you to use a limited palette of six spaces) to use an item without going through a menu or to use your character's special attacks and magic spells.

There is a class system utilized in this game. Ales starts out as a novice (a basic sword and shield fighter pretty much) but once his job level reaches 10, he can become either an archer, swordsman, magician, acolyte, thief, taekwon kid, or merchant. Each of those classes have another class you can become when the job level of the class you picked reaches 30. I have decided to go with a swordsman for my first class figuring that a) the class is a more elaborate version of the novice and b) there's a special process I can go through later in the game called rebirth where you can bring your character back to level one if I want to attempt another class later.

The last thing I want to say about this game is the multi player aspect of it. There is supposed to be an area called the Mirage Tower that I'll eventually unlock where I play it with two other people online. I am hoping to reach the tower soon so I can try it out with some of the other Blue Rogues who have this game. I'll be sure to post my friend code when that time comes. Until then, if anyone here haven't already purchased this game, I would recommend doing so.