Ragnarok Battle Offline
Encyclopedia
Ragnarok Battle Offline, or RBO, is a beat 'em up
game for Microsoft Windows
created by dōjin soft
developer French-Bread. The soundtrack is composed by Raito of Lisa-Rec. It is a homage
and a spoof
of the MMORPG
Ragnarok Online
created by Korea
n developer Gravity Corporation
.
RBO impressed Gravity Corporation so much that it has been given an official release outside of Japan
. Released as Ragnarok Battle, the game has been distributed in Indonesia
, Taiwan
, Thailand
and a deluxe package in Korea which comes with its own gamepad. Level Up! Games also released an English
version of RBO available in the Philippines
. However, this release is based only on the initial version of RBO, which does not include the expansions released by French-Bread. There is also an unofficial, fan-made English translation patch available for the Japanese version.
Though primarily a beat 'em up game, RBO also contains some RPG elements. The player creates a character from one of six basic classes and one unlockable class, allocate points to the character's stats and skills, and then enter one of the stages. Up to 3 people can play at once, using the keyboard, joystick
s or gamepad
s.
The game had three expansion packs, called "Extra Scenarios". French Bread possibly planned to have more (since there are unused map icons, such as Glast Heim and Clock Tower of Al de Baran), but no announcement has been made about another expansion pack for more than two years. (French Bread had already announced that they won't make another expansion because they aren't interest to make it anymore and this game is out of date)
Ragnarok Battle Offline has very little plot, although some background characters in the game "speak" through text, sometimes mimicking actual player interaction in Ragnarok Online.
Each class has a male and female version which has slightly different attacks. Male characters tend to be stronger and have more HP, while the female characters tend to have more useful supporting moves and more SP. For example, only the female Thieves have the "Ninja Rope" air dash technique compared to the males' regular air dash, and only the female version of the Acolytes can earn the powerful "Luna Buster Lariat".
Another role of character stats is that each class has moves with stat requirements. These stat requirements must be fulfilled before the characters gain certain moves.
Beat 'em up
Beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and a large number of underpowered antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes...
game for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
created by dōjin soft
Dojin soft
, also sometimes called , are video games created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups , more for fun than for profit; essentially, the Japanese equivalent of independent video games. Most of them are based on pre-existing material, but some are entirely original creations...
developer French-Bread. The soundtrack is composed by Raito of Lisa-Rec. It is a homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
and a spoof
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
Ragnarok Online
Ragnarok Online
Ragnarok Online , often referred to as RO, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG created by GRAVITY Co., Ltd. based on the manhwa Ragnarok by Lee Myung-jin. It was first released in South Korea on 31 August 2002 for Microsoft Windows and has since been released in many other...
created by Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n developer Gravity Corporation
GRAVITY Co., Ltd.
GRAVITY Co., Ltd. is a South Korean videogame corporation primarily known for the development of the MMORPG Ragnarok Online.-History:...
.
RBO impressed Gravity Corporation so much that it has been given an official release outside of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Released as Ragnarok Battle, the game has been distributed in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and a deluxe package in Korea which comes with its own gamepad. Level Up! Games also released an English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
version of RBO available in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. However, this release is based only on the initial version of RBO, which does not include the expansions released by French-Bread. There is also an unofficial, fan-made English translation patch available for the Japanese version.
Though primarily a beat 'em up game, RBO also contains some RPG elements. The player creates a character from one of six basic classes and one unlockable class, allocate points to the character's stats and skills, and then enter one of the stages. Up to 3 people can play at once, using the keyboard, joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
s or gamepad
Gamepad
A gamepad , is a type of game controller held in two hands, where the digits are used to provide input. Gamepads generally feature a set of action buttons handled with the right thumb and a direction controller handled with the left...
s.
The game had three expansion packs, called "Extra Scenarios". French Bread possibly planned to have more (since there are unused map icons, such as Glast Heim and Clock Tower of Al de Baran), but no announcement has been made about another expansion pack for more than two years. (French Bread had already announced that they won't make another expansion because they aren't interest to make it anymore and this game is out of date)
Ragnarok Battle Offline has very little plot, although some background characters in the game "speak" through text, sometimes mimicking actual player interaction in Ragnarok Online.
Character classes
- Acolyte - Acolytes are supporting characters. They may not be very powerful, but their heal skill and other support skills are useful in party situations. While slow at first, their "Increase Agility" skill can speed up the walking and attack speed of any character. Their only magic attack is "Holy Light", which can be launched with a special move, but they also gain special moves with stats.
- Archer - Archers use bows and arrows as their main weapon, but they have a maximum arrow capacity with a skill to create more arrows. Their skills do not consume arrows but SP, which Archers tend to lack. By adding points to DEX to raise the attack power of their arrows, they leave themselves weaker in melee battle. They also receive the special move "Backstep" to get themselves out of melee range. Their "Charge Arrow" skill is useful against large groups of enemies, and their "Arrow Shower" skill has four forms, depending on the gender of the archer as well as whether the character activates it on the ground or in the air. If an Archer is teamed up with a Merchant that has any level of Increase Weight Limit, the maximum arrow capacity is raised from 50 to 80 arrows.
- Magician - Magicians rely on magic attacks to damage enemies. Their normal attacks are slow and weak, but their magic is strong enough to overcompensate. Some spells are very hard to aim, but are unmatched in damage per secondDamage per secondDamage per second is a term used with computer games to describe the average rate of damage inflicted over time. The term is especially common in massively multiplayer online role-playing games and is a key aspect of theorycraft...
. Their low HP is offset by the two defensive skills "Energy Coat" and "Safety Wall", with a third skill "Fire Wall" keeping enemies from passing while doing damage. - Merchant - Merchants have unique skills; their normal abilities allow them to mug monsters or create money out of enemy attacks. The coins can then be used for their other skills. They are slow with high firepower, relying on the strong attacks to get them by. Their most powerful skill, "Mammonite", is limited in use as a result of its slow speed and high coin cost.
- Swordman - Swordmen are close and mid-ranged fighters with skills such as "Endure" and "Moving HP Recovery" that help them survive. Swordsman are balanced in terms of power and speed. They are not that quick but are also capable of doing quick combos although its not that fast compared to thieves. They have strong attack skills such as "Bash" and "Magnum Break". Swordsman's "Magnum Break" is the best mob destroying melee skill in the game.
- Thief - Thieves rely on speed and evasion to fight. They are not as strong as other characters in attack strength, but they are capable of fast combos and fast special move chains. Their skills and special moves concentrate on status effects ("Envenom", "Throw Sand") and evading attacks ("Hiding", "Improve Dodge"). The "Envenom" skill for female characters and the "Steal" skill for the male characters can be combined with "Hiding" to increase damage greatly.
- Novice - Novice is a hidden class obtained by beating the game with each of the other six classes. They are the slowest of all characters and extremely weak. Upon reaching certain stat requirements, they gain powerful attacks, which consume HP as well as SP to execute.
Each class has a male and female version which has slightly different attacks. Male characters tend to be stronger and have more HP, while the female characters tend to have more useful supporting moves and more SP. For example, only the female Thieves have the "Ninja Rope" air dash technique compared to the males' regular air dash, and only the female version of the Acolytes can earn the powerful "Luna Buster Lariat".
Character stats
Character stats play an important role in the game. Each stat is a little different than the MMORPG version.- Strength (STR) - The Strength stat increases the maximum physical damage that characters can deal with basic physical attacks and combos. At 30 STR, a character will do twice as much damage than at 1 STR. Strength plays a predominant role in the Swordsman and Merchant classes. It also helps Acolytes who use special moves and normal attacks as their main offense, as well as allows thieves to do more damage per hits. Arrow damage, however, is not affected by STR.
- Agility (AGI) - The Agility stat increases the character's evasion and speed, including cast speed for Magicians and Acolytes (as opposed to Ragnarok Online, in which DEX determined casting speed). Many of the classes require 10 to 20 AGI to gain an A-button combo move. AGI is an important stat for Magicians due to their low HP, but is not useless even for Novices and Merchants, who are the slowest classes in the game.
- Vitality (VIT) - Vitality increases the character's hit points (HP), defense against physical damage, resistance against status ailments such as Poison, and hit stun. The Swordsman has skills which are augmented by VIT, such as HP Recovery, Endure, and Moving HP Recovery. Any character who receives damage can make use of this stat.
- Intelligence (INT) - Intelligence raises the maximum SP, the damage dealt with spells by Magicians and Acolytes, and spell defense. Also, every 16 points of INT raises the potency of the Acolyte's "Heal" spell. Intelligence also affects the rate at which SP recovers, which is useful for any class who's going to rely on spamming skills as often as possible.
- Dexterity (DEX) - Dexterity increases the minimum damage dealt by the character. For Archers, DEX determines the maximum damage dealt by their arrow attacks as well. For every 10 points of DEX, the character can also chain another heavy attack into a combo.
- Luck (LUK) - Luck increases the critical hit rate by 2% for every 3 LUK. The game manual also says that LUK raises "lucky", which is short for the term "lucky dodge", much like the one on Ragnarok Online. With the exception of the female Merchant who needs 10 LUK to gain an A-button combo move, the LUK stat is not required for any special moves.
Another role of character stats is that each class has moves with stat requirements. These stat requirements must be fulfilled before the characters gain certain moves.