... in which the fool installed Ragnarok Online at home

After refusing to play Ragnarok Online for several months, I finally gave in and tried out the game at home.

Yuso helped me out a little on character creation -- I wanted to try out a mage -- and maxed out the most important abilities for him. Unfortunately, that meant having to endure 10 levels of hell as a weakling novice who's weaker than a badger, but smart as hell.

Eventually, the mage would be able to deal far, far more damage to enemies than other classes, but for the meantime, I still have to put up with that weakling of a novice...

Still can't decide which elementals I'd like to invest in -- ice, fire, or lightning. I'm reminded of the sorceress in Diablo 2, where I had to concentrate on one or two elementals for maximum efficiency. I'll guess I'll cross the bridge when I get there. My magic is instinctive -- I'll just know what I need to do.

The other classes in Ragnarok Online remind me of the other classes in Diablo. You have the Archer, who obviously uses bows and arrows, similar to the bow-using amazon. Then there's the Assassin, like the hard-hitting martial artist assassin. There's the Knight, which reminds me a lot of the Paladin...

In fact, the game looks to me like a cross between Diablo 2 and Final Fantasy Tactics -- except that you can't mix classes/jobs... yet. The Priest is a lot like the white mage, heavily supportive, and lightly offensive. The Blacksmith, well, its just a bit new... you now have a class who focuses on the market instead of combat.

I'd love for them to add more classes to the game. Hopefully, when they update the game in August, they'd incorporate the newer secondary classes in the game. Unfortunately come August, people would have to pay for their accounts in addition to their internet connections. I'm still trying to budget my finances, especially since I have to prepare for something for my birthday.

I wonder if the game could handle tertiary classes -- more powerful knights/crusaders, wizards/sages, priests/monks, hunters/bards/dancers, blacksmiths/alchemists, assassins/rogues... there's still plenty of space for improvement for this game. I'd just love to see a blackguard or a barbarian in this game, and see how they handle it...

And put some story in the game, dammit! I can't see the purpose of making a character if all you're going to do with it is kill monsters! At least give some motivation to the game -- it is called Ragnarok for a reason, isn't it...?