Ragnarok Odyssey

Ragnarok Odyssey is set during a time of conflict between humans and Giants. The human kingdom of Rune Midgard built a giant fortress to protect against invasion from the Giants of the Sundered Land. You have come to the fortress to help with the war effort and protect the kingdom and its people from invasion.

Firstly, you create your character in the robust character builder menu. From top-to-toe you sculpt your own hero/heroine with some satisfyingly colourful costumes, brilliantly outlandish hair and, most importantly, pick their Job (Class). You can pick between Sword Warrior, Hammersmith, Mage, Assassin, Hunter and Cleric but worry not, you are not locked in to one class as you can dip in-and-out once you reach Chapter 2, which won’t take long.

Each class has its own benefits and are varied enough to let you find the one you gel with the most. The archer is good if you want to keep your distance and works best in a team with a “tank”, or characters with better armour/defence. Assassin is a no nonsense melee class which is pretty much ideal for most scenarios but the Sword Master, a massive 2 handed sword-wielding class, should be your first port of call as the range is great and attacks are fast and varied. Once you are prepared it’s off to the fortress to take up the war effort.

The Fortress is your home or hub area where you can prepare for and accept Quests. Upon completion of a quest you will acquire loot a-plenty. Each item you gain is used by a specific shop back at the fortress. Herbs/plants are used at the Potion shop to create health and other replenishing or buffing potions, other items can be used to buy or refine weapons and armour. Other spoils like Dyes are used to change the colour of your outfit but it’s the Cards that have the biggest impact on your game.

When you kill an enemy there’s a low chance they will drop a card. These give you various stat bonuses such as Attack+ or Decrease Stun and each piece of armour you have can be upgraded to hold more cards. This works really well, for each Quest you can switch out the cards you want to use and, by creating Armour Sets, you can switch between weapon/armour/card layouts instantly. Say for example you are farming weak enemies for a specific item, then you might pick a card with Treasure Hunter skill but, if you are taking down a Giant with Poison attacks you might want to look for some cards with high Poison resistance. Any cards you don’t need can be exchanged by the Card lady in the Fortress. This adds a great deal of customisation and the cards you choose really do have an impact so choose wisely.

Due to the premise, Fortress/hub and Quest structure, Ragnarok Odyssey will always draw comparisons to Monster Hunter but under the surface it’s really quite different. I feel it channels Dynasty Warriors more than Monster Hunter which is most evident in the combat. Just like Dynasty Warriors, combat is based around light and heavy 2-button attacks. Depending on how many times you press Light Attack a different move will result when pressing Heavy. So 4 Light attacks and a Heavy will yield much different results than 6 Lights and a Heavy.

This is important because some of the moves along this attack tree have different properties; some spread out the attack, some leave you airborne and some have additional elemental properties. So say you have equipped a card with Burn+1, then chances are you want to use a move with Burn attribute to set the enemy on fire. Just by mashing Light attack you won’t be able to do that move. On the surface the game is simple but there are lots of hidden depths to keep you engaged and let you get the most out of your battles.

The Quest structure follows thus; you move from area to area, the area locks down, you kill all the enemies, the area unlocks and then you move to the next area. This is brilliant because it keeps the melee action going and the Quest times short. Often times you will want to replay quests to do better, get more loot and, well because its fun as hell.

There is a Tavern within the Fortress for when you want to hook up with friends or randoms online. The Quests are the same as normal ones and the difficulty is increased. The benefits to this are mainly the joy and cameraderie of playing with friends and giving the Boss someone else to attack. It’s also fun to have someone else to play with when farming. I highly recommend jumping online to play through your Quests with others; head to the Tavern, Create a room, wait for some folk to join and get going. Load times are minimal and and picking a quest is fast and easy which makes online play brilliantly smooth and hassle free.

Much, if not all, of this game is adapted from Norse Mythology

Much, if not all, of this game is adapted from Norse Mythology and Dainslief Mode is named after a cursed sword wielded by Hild that, once drawn, cannot be sheathed until it has drawn blood. So it follows that Dainslief mode, selectable once your gauge is full, is a vampiric state that causes huge damage but drains your life. You can even use it to restore your HP if you cause enough destruction whilst the mode is activated.

Interestingly it is activated by touch-screen which is implemented incredibly well and is one of the game’s biggest triumphs. A slew of ancillary but effective actions can be used by pressing the touch screen. This makes those online interactions such as saying “Thanks” or “GO!” much easier.

Aerial combat plays a huge part of the game where you can stay in the air, slashing away, for quite some time. Working the camera, lock-on and dash mode isn’t easy at first and can lead to a lot of frustration when fighting airborne foes. This is really the only niggle I have with the game as locking on to a flying enemy can cause the camera to become an issue but there are ways round it.