The odyssey begins, a Ragnarok Odyssey unboxing!

It's so secret I've been looking forward to this title. My incessant blabbering is probably bordering on unprofessional considering I'm reviewing the game, but welp, I don't care. I did pick up my personal copy of this game yesterday, the swanky Mercenary Edition no less.

Ooooh shiny! Let's have a look see at what's inside shall we?

First off here is the actual game. Less shiny but hey, it'll look good in my current collection of Vita games.

Next we have the game's soundtrack. There is 32 songs on it, all composed by Kumi Tanioka. I mentioned before she also composed many songs for Final Fantasy XI, which I played for nearly 9 years. I still do occasionally, but that's beside the point.

Now we have the mercenary guide. This this is actually pretty beefy at 96 pages. You could really consider it an "essentials" strategy guide. It has the 6 character classes with their combos detailed, a boss bestiary, a card catalog, area maps, and a great section on the combat and various elements to gameplay. It's nice and filled with a lot of pretty pictures as well so yay :)

And last but certainly not we have the cards! I would be lying through crooked teeth if I said the fact this game came with cards didn't influence my decision to buy this. There are 56 in total, each a replica of the cards you get in game to customize your equipment. There is even some info on the monster and what they drop on the back. You get 10 random ones in the Merc. Edition and I really have no idea on how to get more, but I sure as hell want to!

Well here is one last look at the whole shebang, hope you enjoyed!

Fenris Howls! Ragnarok Odyssey First Impressions

Giants and giants and giants, oh my!

So I've had the luck to be able to get a review copy of XSEED's Ragnarok Odyssey. You may remember me talking about this before, and even though I've already preordered the Mercenary Edition in full, I jumped at the chance to get my greedy hands on an advance copy of this game. First off I just want to say I'm actually really happy I did get my Mercenary Edition now, if nothing else for the soundtrack it will come it. The soundtrack is great and it reminds me so much of a lot of the music in Final Fantasy XI. That is probably because the composer actually did compose about 1/3 of the music for Final Fantasy XI. Yup, the game comes with a meaty soundtrack composed by Kumi Tanioka. That's such a win for me.

So anyways, there's no embargo date on this which is fancy lingo for I can talk about this all I want without getting in trouble, hurray! Because of that, you all get to read my first impressions. This game is an action adventure game, with a strange sense of RPG elements. You never "Level up" but your stats do increase whenever you've finished all of the missions in a chapter. Aside from that, any and all stat customizations are done by equipping weapons and cards. Fans of previous Ragnarok games will be familiar with the concept of cards, but for those of you that aren't its not difficult to explain. Cards literally represent the physical remnants of the soul of a monster you kill. When you attach this card to your armor it will lend attributes to you based on the monster. There are several cards that can drop for a particular monster species, some better than others. Basically, they're all essential to customizing the best character you possibly can.

Once you're satisfied with your weapon and equip you head to the quest counter and pick up a mission. This is where the game feels very much like Monster Hunter. Combat however, feels way more like .hack//G.U. (for the record I LOVE .hack). The attack animations are very over the top and indicative of the Japanese anime style that the graphics are based on as well. You can launch foes and preform combos on them in the air, without the risk of falling until you are done. You have several combos you can use made up of the two attack buttons and powered-up charge attacks as well. The game is very action packed and the combat looks and feels great. Considering there are only two attack buttons you will be totally surprised at all the various combos you can actually pull off both on the ground and in the air. There is further variety to combat as well depending on what class you choose. I wont get into too much detail, but there are six different classes to play: Sword Warrior, Hammersmith, Mage, Cleric, Assassin, and Hunter. So far I've tried Hammersmith, Assassin, and Hunter; Hunter being my favorite so far.

His name isn't William in case you couldn't Tell

While on missions I have noticed that the enemy AI seems noticeably dumb. I'll have attacked a monster as it's walking on occasion only to see it continue walking to the same path as if didn't just get shanked for a critical 130 points of damage. It doesn't seem limited to any particular enemy type, though I notice it happens with orcs more often then anything else. It's not a deal breaker by any means as it will more often than not help you kill monsters without taking damage, preserving your precious HP for larger battles. It doesn't even really happen that often but when it does you'll notice. Another downside is the occasionally unbalanced difficulty level. Right now the game has fairly difficult moments even in the single player. The dang Orc King boss at the end of the first chapter was finally bested on my fourth try (as Assassin). I haven't attempted the same fight yet with my Hunter or Hammersmith, but I can estimate the strategy I'll have to use will be different. As tough as this fight, and the first extra mission were, they certainly weren't impossible. Perhaps they seem harder only because you can't simply level up before fighting the boss if you fail the first time.

I wasn't able to check out the online co-op due to there being only review copies out at the moment, but I did familiarize myself with the menus, and they seem very easy to use. You can create an online lobby via the tavern and set the game to PSN friends only or anyone and even set a password if you feel so inclined. Any mission you have available to you can be selected. I don't know if you will or will not be able to enter a mission you don't yet have available to you, but I guess we'll see what the deal is there when the full game releases.

All in all I am having such a blast with this game. The graphics are great, the textures especially detailed, and the amount of character customization is another great point of interest. I've already been able to make my Hammersmith look like Freddie Mercury, and my Assassin look similar to Bayonetta (minus the hair monsters, of course). You can even dye or armor or headgear to further customize your character, though only four paint schemes exist for each piece. Not a serious drawback, but I did appreciate the ability to dye my clothing with more than four colors in games like Fable III and Assassin's Creed II. Hopefully this is something that may be included in a sequel, right GungHo?

Prince of the universe... and hammers-drills.

Either way I've been having a blast and I cannot wait for retail to hit to be able to start a new character and play online with friends. the Review is incoming, but I do want to get a good feel for that online before finishing as I feel like it is a huge component to the game. Well kids, that concludes my first impressions. If you feel like picking this up, you may even see me on; my PSN ID is WildCardCorsair!

Ready for the Ragnarok?

Man, oh man, am I excited for Ragnarok Odyssey now. XSEED Games finally gave us an official release date of Oct 30th. I already have the Mercenary Edition on preorder at Gamestop so now I'm really just counting down the days until my Vita will see another quality retail title. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of really stellar PSN titles for it, especially now that PlayStation Mobile launched (more on that later), but I haven't really made a purchase for the system since the MGS HD Collection came out back in June. Some four months later and there is finally something interesting enough to warrant some cash to leave my wallet.

RO is your basic 3D co-op hack 'n slash, similar to Monster Hunter or Phantasy Star Online, but set in the Ragnarok universe. I'm not going to lie, I've never even had the desire to play other Ragnarok games. No particular reason, I was just always playing something else really. Now this one is hitting the Vita, a system seriously starved for a decent release library, and I am not going to miss it.

Of course the Mercenary Edition helped that a bit. Regrettably I missed out on reserving the extremely limited Persona 4: The Golden Solid Gold Edition. That edition runs $80 and gives ya the game, Vita carrying case, protective case, and stickers. There's also a Vita skin and wallpaper set but those come with regular edition preorders. Honestly though, the Ragnarok Odyssey Mercenary Edition seems to be quite the awesome deal. For $50 you get the game, 96-page art book/multiplayer strategy guide, 32-song soundtrack CD, and a random assortment of 10 of the game's 50 monster cards. For $10 more than the cost of the game. Only $10 more.



I mean yeah it's not loads of Vita accesories like P4G's Solid Gold Edition, but you also pay $30 less. Not to mention the CD and art book are far more complete than the usual 20-page art book or 12-song sample CD soundtrack. These are meaty!

So yeah yeah, enough gushing. The game looks great and I'm pretty excited for the online 4-player co-op. I even have a few buds ready to build a party with me so we can go take some giants down a few pegs. I'm totally starting an Archer and naming him Clint Barton. Oh yeah.