Ragnarok Odyssey Ace Launches on PS3, Vita April 1st

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Ragnarok Odyssey Ace Launches on PS3, Vita April 1st

As I write this, we’re putting the finishing touches on Ragnarok Odyssey ACE, a revised and expanded version of the original Ragnarok Odyssey set to launch on April 1st on PS3 and PS Vita. Now that we’re just about done, we can go into more detail about what’s in the game, and what newcomers and returning Ragnarok Odyssey veterans can expect.

Initially designed for play on the go, Ragnarok Odyssey gets players into the action as fast as possible, either solo or with up to three companions. Players complete a variety of missions in a Norse-themed wildland, collecting treasures, components and ingredients along the way. In between missions, players can roam their home base – a fortress on the edge of the civilized world – and assemble their loot into new upgrades and abilities. The game’s highlights are its battles against enormous bosses, in which players use their gravity-defying powers to fly circles around the giants and take them apart piece by piece.

ACE takes the original Odyssey’s core gameplay and expands on it dramatically. The first chapter alone introduces a buffet of new features, and the game’s former ending is now its midpoint. The first new features are right there in the character creation screen, which now offers even more options for customization (including eight brand-new voices, four each for male and female). For solo players, ACE offers a dozen elite AI mercenaries, any two of whom the player can recruit for a given mission (and one of whom happens to sound a lot like me). For multiplayer, each class has several new job-specific powers, called ACE Skills, which enhance characters’ roles as team players. Clerics, for example, can now generate a persistent, movable healing aura. (Speaking of multiplayer, ACE supports cross-play; PS3 and Vita players can play together at will, with no extra steps required.) ACE also introduces a new special weapon type, known as Halomonas weapons, which grow in power as the characters do.

Ragnarok Odyssey Ace on PS3 and PS Vita

But that’s just the beginning. Once players complete Chapter 9 – which was the endgame of the original Ragnarok Odyssey – a vast new dungeon appears, complete with its own story, all-new bosses, and new kinds of challenges. All told, the new Tower of Yggdrasil has 400 floors (not 100 as previously reported – more on that in a bit), each of which changes its layout with every visit.

(One other correction: In our previous blog entry on ACE, we reported that there was new story content throughout the game. There are new characters and dialogue sequences, and plenty of new content throughout the game, but the bulk of the new story content kicks in once the Tower shows up. Apologies for misleading anyone on that; we were still putting the game together at the time, going by the best info we had, and didn’t fully see how it all fit until later. We’re older and wiser now.)

Ragnarok Odyssey Ace on PS3 and PS VitaRagnarok Odyssey Ace on PS3 and PS Vita

In addition to the major new features above, returning players can enjoy a variety of enhancements that make Ragnarok Odyssey more convenient to play. ACE’s tavern (which, as before, functions as its multiplayer hub) now includes a set of old-timey speaking tubes, through which the player can buy and sell from the fort’s merchants without having to leave and come back. Several new control schemes allow the player to lock on, dash, and maneuver as he or she sees fit. Another new feature is the Billionaire Pot, a magical urn that converts old junky loot into fresh new goods. And, Thor’s name be praised, the benefits of weapon refining are no longer random.

That’s not even getting into the upcoming content patches, two of which have been released in Japan and will both be coming stateside soon. These patches introduce even more new features, including special daily quests, random card draws, login bonuses, leaderboards, additional ACE skills, and (in the second content patch, which may arrive in the States at the same time as the first) a new boss rush mode in a new area called the Prison of the Gods.

Ragnarok Odyssey Ace on PS3 and PS Vita

Of course, all of that leaves one key question: What about players who already have the original Ragnarok Odyssey? Returning players can import their characters from the original game – to either the PS Vita or the PS3 version of ACE, after which the characters can migrate between both – and have the characters’ name, appearance, and cards transfer over. (Be sure to unequip any cards from your outfit before you initiate the transfer, as cards equipped on outfits do not transfer over, nor do the outfits or weapons themselves). Story-wise, new and returning characters alike take it from the top, though returning characters are likely to blaze through the early game quickly, with all the new content to enjoy while they’re at it. And, to answer one of the most popular questions, Trophies earned in the original game stay in the original game. The good news is many of the Trophies are new, and most of the not-new ones are the kind you won’t have to go out of your way for.

With its cross-play, saved game importing, content patching, and other bells and whistles we can’t go into detail about just yet, Ragnarok Odyssey ACE has been an interesting technical challenge for all of us here at XSEED and at its developer, GungHo. We hope you enjoy the results, which will come flying at you April 1st on PS3 and Vita. The PS3 version will retail on PlayStation Store and on brick-and-mortar shelves for $39.99. The Vita version comes in two varieties: A physical limited edition, featuring a soundtrack CD (with 25 total tracks from various artists, including Nobuo Uematsu) for $39.99, and a digital edition, without the soundtrack, for $34.99.

Have more questions about Ragnarok Odyssey ACE? Let us know in the comments!

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67 Comments

33 Author Replies

  • Tell us about Senran Kagura now.

    Thanks.

  • @Ryan Graff

    Could you please ask the developers to offer button layout customization? I liked the demo, but I didn’t find button customization anywhere in the options. It’s 2014, button customization should be a by now in Japan.

    • The full game is pretty flexible when it comes to button preferences — not quite to the extent that you can map each function to whatever button you’d like, but close. The Vita version of ACE has four different control configurations to choose from, and the PS3 version has six.

  • I missed out on the original RO on Vita, I won’t be missing this one. Looks great! Does this one have voice chat?

  • Looks amazing. This is going to be my first preorder game for my Vita. I’m exited to play this.

  • At last! I thought it theyve forgotten it. More hunting games!

  • No Ragnarok Cards in the limited edition like before? T___T

  • Wait so does this mean that physical will only come as limited edition? Not that I don’t plan on buying it anyway.

    • At first, yes, the Vita physical version will be limited edition only. Once the limited edition runs out, we’ll release a non-limited edition of the physical version, but without the soundtrack CD.

  • @Ryan Graff

    Thanks for replying.

  • i already bought the original, so i’ll probably only rent this new version. Unless there was some way of discounting ACE for people who bought the original digitally on psn.

  • Who already has the original RO, will have some discount?

  • which jp releases will hit us region this year?

  • If we bought the original game, will we be getting this upgraded game at a discounted price?

  • Also, any news on a new Wild Arms or possible HD remaster of Wild Arms 3 and 4 for ps3?

  • @ Malkavilis, juuichi-11, and RenderMonk:

    Sorry to say there’s no monetary discount for returning players, at least not for the main game. Any paid DLC you already have, you’ll be able to get again in the new game for free, just by downloading the ACE version of it. We put the soundtrack together with the Vita version as a “thank you” to players who bought the original game on Vita.

  • @Ryan Graff

    Thanks for replying.

    Anyway, i will try to beat the original RO before purchase ACE.

  • I guess I’ll buy since I put over 100 hours in RO. I’m sure with the new content I can do more. It’s ashame I can’t get this as a add-on and my original is digital cause us canadians don’t get XSEED games day 1. I’ll try get this physical. Please tell me the screen glare is toned down in this version on vita. Kinda made it look bad imo

  • Oh, not directed at anyone in particular, but one other thing I should mention:

    If you’re transferring over a save from the original game, the cards you’ve earned in-game will transfer over (as long as they’re not equipped on your outfit at the time), but cards acquired through “near” don’t carry over into ACE. Just a heads-up.

  • This could have been done as DLC… seems like you’re just milking us for more money. You would have probably made more money if you had gone the DLC route. Most people who wanted Ragnarok Odyssey have probably already bought it, and I doubt many of us will buy it again. The no reply to the discount for veterans questions leads me to believe we wouldn’t even receive a discount after supporting the game early on.

    • Thanks for raising the “Why is this not DLC?” question, since it’s certainly worth discussing. I had to split the answer up into three parts, so see comments #24-26 below, if you’re interested. :)

  • BTW with glare I mean the in game shine, in these photos it doesn’t look present but it was annoying in the original

    • In general, the game’s visual style is about as bright as the original, but the new environments do vary that up a bit. Some locations, particularly inside the Tower, are much darker.

  • Why wasnt this released as a DLC add-on for current players of the game? Im not really willing personally to rebuy the same game at full price for new content – thats now how DLC works :/

    • Same as Guitarded77 up above, thanks for bringing this up, since plenty of other players from the original game are no doubt asking the same question. I had to split the answer up, since it’s a long one, so see comments #24-26, and thanks again.

  • OH WOW, no discount for “day 1” digital buyers of Ragnarok Oddysey?

    I ain’t going to pay $34.99 for an expansion pack

    Dropped

    • Sorry to hear that. We hope you get a chance to try it eventually, and who knows? Maybe the amount of content in the new game, and/or the new polishing done for the original game, will change your mind. :)

  • Well, looks like some of the trophies are the same from the original. Like play 10 solo quests is in both versions. So I’ll have to redo that if I import my file from Ragnarok Odyssey over? Cause it’s already unlocked for me in that one. Same with a few other trophies that are the same like complete chapter 1. Curious. =) Looking forward to going back into the game though.

  • Well this Article already answered my question about the Multiplayer. But I do have 1 more question.

    Will both versions of the game have separate trophy list? Or will the Trophy list be combined?

    • Your trophies from the Vita version of ACE will carry over into the PS3 version of ACE, and vice versa. (Just in case there’s any confusion, that only applies to trophies earned in ACE; trophies from the original Ragnarok Odyssey don’t carry over to either version of ACE.)

  • @ guitarded77 and Mando44646:

    We asked the same question when this game first came to light: “Can we make this a DLC package instead of a full retail release?” We’d have been happy to present the game as DLC, for both the players’ convenience and our own; we’re a small company, and a physical release, with everything that goes into its design, manufacturing, shipping and sales negotiations, takes a surprising amount of time and resources, so the DLC route would’ve been simpler for us as publishers.

    That said, players can make requests of publishers, and publishers can make requests of developers, but the developers, being hip-deep in cold, hard code, only have so much leeway in what they can do. The short answer to why ACE isn’t DLC is because it’s much larger, and goes deeper into the game’s code, than just about any DLC pack. To go into more detail, if you’re interested:

    (Continued below…)

  • (Continued from above…)

    – All the new content combined is about equal to the full size of the original game.
    – Aside from all the new content, ACE drastically rewrites large portions of the original game’s code, so as to provide the foundations for the upcoming content patches and other future DLC packs. In short, it’s designed to replace the original game’s code, not mesh with it as regular DLC does.
    – While the original Ragnarok Odyssey was a Vita exclusive, ACE is coming out for both the Vita and PS3, and is designed to be functionally identical (except for a couple of differences in the controls and menus) on both systems, in order to allow cross play and cross save between the two. Since the original game doesn’t exist on the PS3, a DLC version of only ACE’s new content would have nothing to attach to there.

    (Continued below…)

  • (Continued from above…)

    “So why not have a full ‘original + ACE’ version on the PS3, and a ‘just ACE DLC’ version on the Vita?” Several reasons, including those first two reasons above, about being too big and the code not meshing. (Also, it’s the devs’ first cross play title, so trying to match the PS3 version to two half-games instead of one full one would’ve been that much trickier, and could have hurt the stability of online play.)

    If ACE had consisted of only the Tower, or only the new skills, or had only been for the Vita, or maybe even had only laid down the infrastructure for the content patches, it might have been small and simple enough to fit into a DLC package. But since it does all those things and more, the only way to present it was as its own full retail release.

  • Is this online? a monthly fee? i was an ragnarok online player played 5-6 years until I finally quited and it’s nice its coming out for ps3

    • Ah, ACE is set in the same world as Ragnarok Online, but it’s not the same game; it’s a linear multiplayer RPG (for up to four players), not an MMO. No monthly fees. :)

  • @Ryan thanks for all of the replies. Hmm…I see this is releasing on April 1st, not an April Fools day joke I hope :p

    • Hehe, nope, no joke. :p We wanted to release it sooner, but with all the technical details involved in bringing both versions of the game together, April 1st was the earliest date we could pin down.

  • @DJ_Tomato Thats pretty stupid to say. It’s not just an expansion pack, (well I guess you can say that, considering pc expansion packs are massive and expensive now a days) it’s got a whole lot of new content more content than people like you deserve. This is why I couldn’t make games, cause people like you are never happy.

    Anyways excited about this game, never bought the original (had to big of a backlog on my vita) but definitely will buy this game because the demo for the orginal was so fun!

  • @Ryan Graff

    Many thanks for all explanations, really. That kind of compromise with the players / consumers is becoming something rare nowadays. I feel much more comfortable now. I will try to complete the original RO before April, to be an almighty giant slayer when ACE be launched!

  • No worries; DJ_Tomato’s been a fan for a long time, and longer-time fans tend to have stronger opinions. But that’s good; it lets us know who we’re making games for and what they want. :)

    And if you liked the demo for the original, we think you’ll really like this new version. We’re looking into putting together an ACE demo too, sometime down the line.

  • Okay thanks, I apologize. :)
    Sweet! Will the demo be out same day/before launch? If so I may not get a chance to try it cause i will already have the game. ;)

    • All I can say about that for now is that there probably won’t be a demo out right away. Maybe sometime after launch. :)

  • Really looking forward to this. Can’t say for sure if it’ll be day one or not due to my current Vita backlog. But I will be sure to pick it up this time around! (You can blame Ys and the other Jrpgs for eating up my free time)

    Thanks for localizing Ace, the more games brought over the better =)

    How does the tower work? Do you go through floor by floor clearing it out?

    • That’s the basic idea. There are rest stops along the way, bosses every certain number of floors, and bits of story and background information as you go. The main challenge, besides the bosses, is to reach the next checkpoint floor without dying.

  • It is very nice to see so many responses from Ryan Graff here. I really enjoyed the first game, and honestly hope that it sold well. It was a very nice game, and as someone who played Ragnarok Online for several years, it was nice seeing so many references to that world (specially the free DLC that allowed me to use the costumes from the online game! You should include more of these, lot’s of classes were left unrepresented in Odyssey).

    To be very honest, I haven’t finished the first one, mainly because I mostly played it on the go, and some of the more advanced bosses were extremely tough to defeat playing solo. So having the chance now to go with a party of AI companions, it might be easier to get though these stages offline.

    I would really like to see a full fledged sequel to this game, so I hope this makes enough revenue to you to spark the interest in continuing the series.

    What I would love to see in either a patch or a sequel, would be more differentiated skills for classes. In the first one, playing as a warrior, basically the “skill” was to charge the attack and that was mostly it.

  • (cont.)

    Considering the rich heritage from the world of Ragnarok Online, it would be interesting to see more skills associated with classes, giving more advanced moves to use in combat, instead of relying only on combos, movement and charging attack. As there is no level system, maybe these could be learned through story progression or quests (instead of attaching them to cards or equipment)

    Maybe the new ACE skills will provide something like this, but this is something that I think would make combat more engaging.

    Also, it would be nice to see new classes. One that is notably absent is a monk style class, allowing close-quarters hand-to-hand combat. This could even be added to ACE as DLC or patch.

    I will purchase this game as soon as it comes out, but please keep in mind the above suggestions for improving this game and maybe the next.

    • Thanks! Sounds like the ACE skills are just about what you’re looking for; each one of them does something different, and they’re all designed to vary up what each class can do for themselves and for each other as a team. More ACE skills become available to buy as the story goes on, and you buy them by accumulating a certain key item in the field.

  • Omg! I’m looking forward to this!

  • So now let me get this straight this game is the complete version compare to the first game. I’m glad that i did not by the 1st game like i was going to do.

  • I never played the original, but I’m glad I waited. This looks like a way better version. I’ll definitely pick this up. I also wanted to say that I was waiting for ever for a Legend of Heroes TiTS sale, but finally caved and bought it for $20 a couple weeks ago. I Loved it! It’s my favorite rpg in years. Please bring us more LOH games.

  • will discount the first day, as it did with Dragon Ball for PS Vita, it is somewhat expensive considering they bought it already, but want to try this version

  • will the online be stable on both the ps3 and the vita ver. on this game and are you going to localization senran kagura shinovi versus ?

  • LOVE this game!! spent over 700+ hours on the original, pre-ordered ACE long long time ago,

    So, is there combat vibration in PS3 version ?

  • @Ryan Graff as Xseed long time supporter, you know i will ending buying it anyway, it’s just feels so “odd”, i bought both RO and Valhalla Knights day one digital, and both have the same “business tactic” with those “remakes/expansion packs/etc”, it’s just makes me incomfortable.

    Seems is a canon now, as Toukiden is doing the same, i will buy the games anyway, but next time i will a bit more careful about my buyings.

    Obviously, this is not your fault as publisher, that comes from the developer, but try to understand that you’re my only “contact/feedback channel”, so don’t take it as personal. im just trying to express my disagreement.

    Keep up the good work at Xseed!

    And please, PLEASE, don’t spoil SKSV Vita as Ideafactory has done with Monster monpiece.

    Please seriously D:!

    @shadow15972 don’t talk stuff about you don’t know, play the first one, then accuse me.

    • Yeah, we found out about Valhalla Knights 3 Gold at the same time everyone else did. We’re still talking about…well, we’re still talking about it internally, and that’s all I think I can say for now.

      And hey, no worries; my wife works in customer service for a game company, I used to, and I know how it is when fans get frustrated and you’re the only person they can talk to about it. I like these kinds of chats because they can help defuse all that. :)

  • @RyanGraff maybe I should be more specific.

    Will I be able to get 2 Platinum trophies from playing both the PS3 & PSVITA versions. Or will there only be one Platinum trophy available between both games.

    • Ah, you’ll only get one Platinum for completing the game. As long as your trophy list is synched online, your PS3 and Vita will both read from, and write to, the same list, so any trophy you gain will immediately count for both (and count as one in total).

  • @DJ_Tomato How about you don’t take about stuff *you* don’t know! I have seen a full playthrough of the game. I’m just sick of seeing you whine on psblog about stuff.

  • Talk* excuse me, autocorrect sucks. Haha.

  • Also, what does playing the game have to do with this? I would be more than happy to buy an ‘expanded’ version of a game I liked as I did with Monster hunter Tri and Tri ultimate and every other monster hunter.

  • Appears to be very good, for sure buy for the vita.

  • No Voice Chat??? Really, yea I’m getting this for my Vita not the PS3

  • >full playthrough of the game

    TOP LEL

    @Ryan Graff That’s whats difference a good company from a bad one, the customer relationship, thanks for accepting all my feedback and replying it.

    Kind of professionals like you is what we need in the game industry.

    Il be buying ROACE day one =)

  • The game play in this game is awesome.

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