Ragnarok Battle Offline (RBO) is a scrolling brawler for Microsoft Windows created by dojin soft developer French-Bread. It is a homage to/spoof of the MMORPG Ragnarok Online, created by Korean developer Gravity Corporation.
Though primarily a brawling game, RBO also contains some RPG elements. You create a character from one of 6 basic classes (plus one unlockable class), allocate points to their stats, give them some skills, and then enter one of the 8 stages (plus one bonus stage). Up to 3 people can play at once, using the keyboard or joysticks/gamepads.
The classes are as follows:
- Acolyte - Acolytes clearly have a lack in firepower, but they make up for it with the heal skill, allowing them to stay alive longer. They do not have powerful skills, and are very slow (although not as slow as merchants.) Acolytes are not very fit for time attacks; however, they are extremely useful in party situations because their support skills affect all nearby party members.
- Archer - Archers use powerful ranged attacks. Many of their attacks consume arrows, and archers are not strong in close-range combat. They are very strong against medium-sized ground enemies, but weak against small and flying enemies, which are difficult to hit.
- Magician - Magicians use magic attacks to damage enemies. Their physical attacks are not strong, they do not move quickly, and they do not have a lot of HP. Their magic, however, is strong enough to compensate. Some spells are very hard to aim, but magicians are very strong characters once leveled sufficiently.
- Merchant - Merchants have unique skills: their skills can steal money from monsters and the money can be used for other skills. They are slow, but they have high firepower, which means merchants ram through enemies a lot, relying on the strong attacks to get them by.
- Swordman - Swordsmen are very balanced characters. They have a decent reach and are also agile. They are easy to use even to someone not used to the game, but are also very potent in time attacks.
- Thief - Thieves rely on speed and evasion. They are not as strong as other characters in attack strength, but they are capable of combos. They also have ranged attacks and low moves which are useful against small enemies. Other skills they have can induce status changes in enemies. Their agility makes them easy to use for new players, yet their speed is also useful in time attacks.
- Novice - The Novice class can be obtained by beating the game with each of the other 6 classes. They are the slowest of all characters and extremely weak. They have powerful moves, however, many of these consume HP to use.
Each class has a male and female version which have slightly different attacks. Male characters tend to be stronger as a result of the intentional bias by the game's designers. (e.g female merchants wield an axe, and do less damage than male merchants who wield a hammer)Character Stats
Character stats play an important role in the game and each stat plays a little differently then the MMO version but for experienced Ragnarok players most of them will know what they do.
- Strength (STR) - The strength stat affects the physical damage your character can dish out with their basic physical attacks and combos (with the exception of the Archer, see Dexterity). Putting points into STR increases your MAX damage that you can dish out. STR plays a predominant role in the Swordsman, Thief, and Merchant classes.
- Agility (AGI) - As you put more points into the Agility stat, your characters walking speed, attack speed (for physical attacks), evasion rate, and casting time all improve. Agility also affects how fast your character performs their special skills (Bash, Steal, Heal, and all magic). An incredably important stat for Thieves, Archers, and Magicians, but all characters should have some points put into AGI, especially Merchants as they are the slowest class in the game.
- Vitality (VIT) - Vitality is the stat that helps define your characters Hit Points (HP) and overall defense. Each point put into VIT not only increases your maximum HP and defense, but it also increases your tolerance to all forms of status effects (poison, paralyzation, confusion, etc). Swordsman, Merchants, and Acolytes are the main classes who use VIT to help them out, but many classes such as the Magician cannot afford to put any points in, due to them being needed elsewhere. A few points never hurt anyone though.
- Intelligence (INT) - Intelligence is a stat primarily for the Magician and Acolyte class. Every point spent in INT raises your damage dealth with any spells, as well as increases your damage resistance from any spell cast on you. Every point spent in it also increases your maximum SP by a fixed amount as well. Magicians should focus many of their points into this stat.
- Dexterity (DEX) - This stat is probably the biggest difference from the online version of Ragnarok. Dexterity increases your MINIMUM damage dealt to your enemies, with the exception of the Archer class. Both the Archer's MIN and MAX physical damage are determined by how many points he has in DEX. Overall, points spent in DEX will allow you to hit those higher damaging swings with your weapon a lot more easily. For every 10 points of DEX in your character, you can chain another B (heavy) attack in a combo. Important stat for Thieves and Archers.
- Luck (LUK) - Luck is kind of a bonus/lottery stat. You can get through the game without it, but some people love to take chances . Basically in Ragnarok Online, putting points into LUK would raise your chance of landing a critical hit. And while that applies to this game as well, it is a random increase in percentage depending on how many points you spend. Right now, it seems to be every 5 points spent gives a 1-3% increase in critical hit chance. No class really needs to specialize in it, but Thieves who want to critical hit hard and fast might want to try out a build with this stat high.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Ragnarok Battle Offline ]
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