Wow, what a treat. The original Ragnarok Battle Offline was already a huge bundle of fun, and now there’s even more of this amazing official fangame to play? I guess some wishes really do come true. The first disc adds two new areas as well as the all-new arena mode (more on that later), the second (subtitled Pyramid RBO, in a friendly nod to one of Sorcerian‘s old expansions) adds three, while the final (subtitled Sengoku RBO, which is a cheeky wink in the direction of another classic Sorcerian expansion) adds just one, as a sort of playable final farewell. In total these new scenarios don’t quite double the amount of RBO we have to play (the original game contains eight standard stages and one hidden one), but they do get impressively close.
As with many expansions for older games (especially multi-part ones), there are a few practical hurdles to overcome before we can get to the good stuff, although the good news is in this case they’re virtually invisible at best and easily fixed at worst. Perhaps the most important (and possibly the most obvious) thing to remember is that you must install these discs in order, and you can’t skip any expansions. It’s interesting to note that although each addition grants full access to everything that came before it—an RBO Scenario 3 player has seamless access to absolutely everything—the base game and all three expansions create their own separate directories by default, so you can always play any specific variation your heart desires even though there’s no real need to.
Making general use so much easier is a handy new config.exe bundled with all three expansions, allowing you to easily bind whatever keys (or joypad/stick inputs) you desire for all three players, as well as boot by default into fullscreen, windowed, or… PSP mode. Unfortunately this is nothing more than the remnants of a wonderful idea that never quite saw the light of day, the standard game stretched and squished to fit a handheld screen it was never ported to rather than extending the field of view at the horizontal edges.
Continuing the adventure with preexisting RBO characters is so easy the first two scenarios automatically copied over my old character file for me, my favourite archer immediately ready for battle with all of her stats and skills intact. Transferring her over to the third scenario required a little extra effort for some strange reason, which I’ll spell out here in case it helps someone in the future (oh, one last word of warning: this experience is based on using the original Japanese discs):
You’ll need to find your old character save file first. This should be in ラグナロクバトルオフライン追加シナリオ 2/Data/SaveData and named chr_data01.sv3 (other character files will be named chr_data02.sv3, etc.). Copy this file (or these files) into ラグナロクバトルオフライン追加シナリオ3/Data/SaveData, then change the file extension to .sv4, so you end up with chr_data01.sv4, etc. and that’s it—job done.
However strong (or otherwise) your characters are when you transfer them over the first stage of every expansion is always unlocked and ready to play by default, regardless of how much or little progress you’ve already made. And best of all this freedom isn’t just for show: these new areas haven’t been designed exclusively for level-capped endgame characters with all of their stat points in the right places, or even characters who’ve already cleared the base game, but regular people who just want to play some more of this fab game. The first new stage is classes as only a two star (of five) difficulty quest, which puts it roughly on a par with the fourth level of the base game. The fresh swordswoman I created to test that out seemed to support that assessment, as she survived far longer and did much more damage than I expected, and I don’t know how to play that class at all. The other two expansions continue in this fashion, offering a gradual increase in difficulty rather than opting for an all-or-nothing onslaught out of fear that bored old fans hungry for a challenge won’t have anything to do.
Those bored old fans as well as anyone else looking for a true test of their strength and skill will want to head over to the arena I mentioned earlier instead. This is an entirely separate mode containing 50 unique trials, every one of them an intimidating and otherwise unseen combination of regular enemies, bosses (more often than not two or three at a time), and even the occasional special condition too (such as sticky spider webs raining down as you fight, or endlessly respawning minor enemies). The majority of these stages are unlocked five at a time and can be cleared in any order you like, giving you something specific to focus on and progress through rather than dumping everything all at once and leaving you to get on with it.
As the game keeps track of which classes you’ve cleared one of these fights with as well as how long it took you to do it, there’s always something new to aim for even when you have managed to defeat everything the game can throw at you. Better still, all arena fights grant XP and level ups as normal, and the character you use in this mode is the same one you take through the standard campaign. It’s a simple idea that improves absolutely everything: because of this little feature arena fights have a purpose beyond simply existing for the sake of it, as whenever I was having trouble with a regular stage a quick run through a few arena fights not only felt refreshing but also meant I was returning to the main event measurably stronger than I was before too.
Wherever your old characters end up, there’s always something or someone new and fun for them to see and hit. The pirate ship stage is a favourite of mine, the rocking and tilting motion on the upper deck area not only convincingly selling the idea you’re standing on a boat but also deliberately obscuring the smaller enemies scuttling about on the floor from time to time. A short while later the same stage then dares to replicate Street Fighter II‘s old barrel-bashing minigame with added undead skeleton pirates, just for fun. The whole game’s like this. Some stages have unique traps or fun ministories (including some fun callbacks to earlier events in RBO) playing out as you fight, and they all contain silly and serious bosses that are unlike anything else you’ve ever fought. I’m quite fond of the ghost samurai capable of cutting arrows down mid-flight, and seeing Rudolph smoking a cigarette and wearing sunglasses before transforming into a giant cape-wearing boss definitely was a… was a… a memorable event. Yeah, let’s leave it at that.
“More of the same” is often seen as the bland choice, the safe option, or even hard proof of a lack of imagination or ambition, but when the game’s as good as this it’s honestly the only thing I want to see. Once again this is a great game whether you’re a big Ragnarok Online fan looking for something new set in that world, or in love with the genre and hoping to get your teeth stuck into something a little different—only now we’ve got more of it to enjoy than ever before. Wow, what a treat.
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 