Some quick pointers to remember before you relive your Ragnarok Online glory days.

The buzz of the returning hit MMORPG Ragnarok Online has recently made major waves in the Philippine online community with tens of thousands of fans now anticipating its re-release. First made the news back in early April of this year, it’s new SEA handler Electronics Extreme, together with its partner ELITE, and Ragnarok’s creator Gravity, made everything official with a community celebration called the “Ragnarok Online Philippines Festival” held earlier this month at SM North EDSA.

Although Electronics Extreme, ELITE, and Gravity have all given us a brief info regarding the return of one of the most popular MMORPGs in the country, there were a lot of questions still left unanswered which then led us to a press-event held late last week which gave us more info, however still brief, about what to anticipate in the upcoming RO re-release here in the Philippines.

Choose between 2 Servers

To start things off, Electronics Extreme will open 2 servers for Ragnarok Online Philippines, namely Loki and Thor, however, as Thailand, one of the regions in which Electronics Extreme has re-launched Ragnarok Online back in 2016, already employs 5 servers in just over a year after the initial return, it is highly likely that more servers will be added in the future should the demand make it necessary.

No cheats, no bots, no P2W

Cheats and TPPs have long plagued the MMO industry resulting in unsatisfying gameplay and leading to many online games shutting down before even reaching its peak potential, Electronics Extreme however, promises us that the same thing will not happen to Ragnarok Online Philippines by implementing the same security measures that they are using in their Thailand servers. The publishing company has also assured fans that there will absolutely be no “Pay-2-Win”, simply by stating that “all key-items could be dropped in the game”, as to how the drop rates are though, we are yet to learn but we’re pretty sure that there will a lot of gear grinding going on once everyone hits their max levels.

Only 2-1 option in Class Progression?

Hopefully only for its initial run, Extreme Electronic’s Ragnarok Online will only be employing the 2-1 Class when it comes to class or job projection, which means that those who are starting as Swordsmen can only progress to Knights and Mages to Wizards, and Archers to Hunters and so on…This seems to be pretty standard with Electronics Extreme as the same method in content release was also applied to their Thai severs, however it is worth noting that the 2-2 Classes were released at a later date, within 6 months after the servers officially open according to Electronics Extreme’s press presentation so you might wanna hold on to your initial classes first before thinking about picking a second job. Higher Classes, will also be arriving, albeit at a much later date, however it is noted that there is no clear info regarding the Transcendent Class and the Third Class.

Episode Revo-Classic, a larger world map and the return of Morroc

One of the most talked about inquiries about the return of Ragnarok Online Philippines is “which version will be used?” which then led to many speculation with the discussions torn between continuing from the latest version before the initial SEA shutdown to going back to square one, Electronics Extreme however, may have other plans in mind as they announce that they will be implementing what they call as the Episode Revo-Classic which is a mix of classic elements partnered with new mechanics such as monsters returning to their spawn points (easier grinding whoo-hoo) and ignoring level differences between players and monsters presumably removing the EXP penalty, a little confusing though as to how it was tagged as a feature that was part of Ragnarok’s renewal phase if the “No EXP penalty” mechanic is truly the case as according to the Ragnarok Wiki, the EXP Penalty mechanic was implemented during the Renewal phase, although we will soon find out which is which once the server opens in the near future. As the word “classic” is attached to Electronics Extreme’s version of Ragnarok the classic town of Morroc is also restored, which was destroyed during the release of the Episode 12 update, Nightmare of Midgard, Destruction of Morocc.

Competitions, Guild Wars and Localized Events

An MMORPG would not be complete without its massive PvPs and as such Ragnarok Online Philippines will also be sure to bring back the classic Guild Wars and will be implementing it early into the launch period, as it is scheduled to go live in just within 3 weeks after the servers open up. Being the Philippines’ own localized version of Ragnarok Online, Electronics Extreme will also be implementing custom events for Filipino players and as well as heralding the return of the Ragnarok World Championships. The RWC was first conceived back in 2004 during the prime days of RO and featured teams from 10 regional servers around the world and ran for nearly a decade before being cancelled back in 2014. It is also noted that the RWC was held twice here in the Philippines during 2005 and 2008 before touring back to South Korea, and being hosted by Japan and Indonesia.

Closed Beta Phase to start in June

Aaaand here’s the info that you’ve been wanting to know, although it is a bit of a bummer as the initial info that we’ve got during the RO PH Festival was the servers should open by June with the CBT phase to run until the end of May, but with the new information released by Electronics Extreme during their press event, it seems that the Closed Beta Phase will kick-off in the middle of June this year with the soft launch and the full launch to take place once the major bugs and quirks have been worked out. However, you don’t have to wait until June in order to reserve your spot in the CBT servers as a pre-registration phase is already ongoing through the official Ragnarok Online Philippines website, and you better hurry up and head there now if you want to register as the slots are assumed to be limited considering it will only be for Closed Beta.