Before FFXI, I used to play this little Korean MMO known as Ragnarok Online. I played on iRO’s Loki server as an Katar Assassin and as a Full Support Priestess. It was a cute little game at the time, and I thoroughly enjoyed not only beta testing it but playing it at launch until almost a year or so later. By then I was getting disgruntled because I was irritated with grinding, the economy was crazy, and the GM and customer support kind of makes S-E seem pretty decent in retrospect.

Anyway, I ditched iRO after awhile when FFXI went retail since I was looking forward to FFXI since it came out in Japan and because it seemed much better than going through bullshit with iRO. Strangely enough, after getting burned out on FFXI and a little bit of the questing on WoW, I have returned to RO. Not necessarily iRO since my account has long been hacked and inaccessible since I no longer have access to the email it was registered to but to a private server where I can just do what I need to in order to get this urge to play out of my system.

I have been playing it for about a month now, and strangely enough I find myself really enjoying the out dated yet very cute game that I had ditched so long ago. Also, after playing a few other MMOs since I initially started iRO, I found myself appreciating some aspects of it and also appreciating what the other MMOs have done differently. One GREAT example? On FFXI, you don’t have to wait months to get the latest version. Sure there is that annoying time zone difference between Japan vs. North America and Europe, but imagine having to wait eons just for the same kind of content people in Korea and Japan were getting!

What do I like about RO? Just its strange simplicity and cuteness. Even after all these years, the game is still attractive as it was then with the addition of new equips to make one standout and look pretty. That and I still love the way certain mobs die (Porings! lol) and how people are able to tinker with the build they want and that works without having to follow a necessary cookie cutter mold. One example is with my brother and I playing the Assassin class on RO. We had very varied stats and used abilities differently, but we could still take down MVPs and such pretty well. I am also kind of liking the need for a partner of sorts for particular jobs in order for certain abilities to work. Like a Dancer needing a Bard in order to utilize some of her other abilities to help a party.

This works out for me, because I really like partnering up with my boyfriend and doing things together. Kind of like when we leveled RDM and WHM. Though… I guess he does most of the work and I just really sit there and looked pretty darn cute.