'' ('''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 Korea n developer Gravity Corporation .
''RBO'' so impressed Gravity that it has been given an official release outside of Japan . Released as '', it has been distributed to date in Indonesia , Taiwan , Thailand and Korea (the latter in a deluxe package that comes with its own gamepad). It is unknown if other language versions are planned (including English ).
Though primarily a brawling game, ''RBO'' also contains some RPG elements. The player creates 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 Joystick s/ Gamepad s.
The classes are as follows:
- - Acolytes are supporting characters. They may not be very powerful, but their heal skill and other support skills are useful in party situations because they affect all nearby party members. While slow at first, their "Increase Agility" skill can speed up the walking and attack speed of themselves and their party. Their only attack skill is "Holy Light", which can be launched with a special move, but they also gain special moves with the right stats.
- - Archers use arrows as their main attack, although they can only carry a certain amount at a time and need to regularly create more. Their skills do not consume arrows, but rather use SP, something that Archers tend to lack. By adding points to DEX (which powers their arrows), they leave themselves weaker in close-range battle, although this is somewhat augmented by the special move "Backstep". Their "Charge Arrow" skill is very powerful against large groups of enemies, as it pierces. Their "Arrow Shower" skill has four forms, depending on the location and gender of the user.
- - Magicians rely on magic attacks to damage enemies. Their normal attacks are slow, and aren't as strong as a Swordman's, but their magic is strong enough to compensate. Some spells are very hard to aim, but in pure damage-per-second they are unmatched. Their low HP is offset by the two purely defensive skills "Energy Coat" and "Safety Wall", and "Fire Wall" also helps in keeping enemies away while they charge for a big spell.
- - Merchants have unique skills: their normal abilities allow them to mug monsters or create money out of an enemy's strike and the money can be used for their best 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. Their most powerful skill is "Mammonite", but is limited in usage by its slow speed and high coin cost.
- - Swordmen are close and mid-ranged fighters with skills that help them survive (such as "Endure" and "Moving HP Recovery") and hit hard (mainly "Bash" and "Magnum Break"). They have high HP and low SP, so these skills can't be used too much unless they are given some INT.
- - Thieves rely on speed and evasion to win. They are not as strong as other characters in attack strength, but they are capable of fast combos and fast special move chains. They also have weak ranged attacks and low moves which are useful against small enemies. Their skills and special moves concentrate on status effects ("Envenom", "Throw Sand") and evading attacks ("Hiding", "Improve Dodge"), although "Envenom" (for the female) or "Steal" (for the male) can be combined with "Hiding" to increase damage into the thousands.
- - 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). However, the female classes tend to have more useful supporting moves. (e.g. only the female thief has the "ninja rope" evasion/movement air dash technique compared to the male's regular air dash and only the female acolyte has the powerful charge punch with increased strength stats where the male acolyte does not).
Character stats play an important role in the game. Each stat plays a little differently than the MMO version, but most experienced Ragnarok Online players will have a feel for what the stats do.
- - The Strength stat affects the physical damage the character can dish out with their basic physical attacks and combos (with the exception of the Archer, see Dexterity). Putting points into STR increases the MAX damage that the player can dish out. At 30STR, a character does twice the damage they do at 1STR. Strength plays a predominant role in the Swordman and Merchant classes, as well as helping Acolytes who want to use special moves and normal attacks as their main offense and Thieves who simply want more damage per hit.
- - As the player put more points into the Agility stat, the character's walking speed, attack speed (for physical attacks), and evasion rate all improve. Agility also affects how fast the character can perform his or her special skills (Bash, Steal, Heal, and all magic).) Many of the classes require 10-20AGI to gain an A-button combo move. An incredably important stat for Thieves and Magicians, who with their low HP need evasion, but all characters should have some points put into AGI, especially Novices and Merchants as they are the slowest classes in the game.
- - Vitality is the stat that helps define the character's Hit Points (HP) and overall defense. Each point put into VIT not only increases the maximum HP and defense, but it also increases the tolerance to all forms of status effects (poison, paralyzation, confusion, etc). Swordmen, Merchants, and Novices are the main classes who need VIT the most, but it couldn't hurt to save some points for VIT for the other classes as well.
- - Intelligence is a stat primarily for the Magician and Acolyte class. Every point spent in INT raises damage dealt with any spells, as well as damage resistance against any spell casted on the character. Every point spent in it also increases the maximum SP by a fixed amount. Magicians should focus many of their points into this stat, and Archers might want to add some points due to their skills' high SP costs.
- - This stat has probably the biggest difference from the online version of Ragnarok. Dexterity increases MINIMUM damage dealt to your enemies, with the exception of the Archer class's arrow attacks. Both the Archer's MIN and MAX arrow damage are determined by how many points he or she has in DEX. Overall, points spent in DEX will allow the character to hit those higher damaging swings with weapons a lot more easily. For every 10 points of DEX in the character, the player can chain another B (heavy) attack in a combo. Important stat for Swordmen, Thieves and expecially Archers.
- - Luck is kind of a bonus/lottery stat. The player can get through the game without it, but some people love to take chances. Basically in Ragnarok Online , putting points into LUK would raise the chance of landing a critical hit. Some players believe it gives a random 1-3% chance for every 5 points spent, while others believe that it's a simple 1 percentage point for every 3 points. With the exception of the female Merchant, who needs 10LUK to gain an A-button combo, the LUK stat isn't required for any special moves. 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.
Another role that stats play is that each character class has moves (aside from skills) that have stat requirements. These stat requirements must be fulfilled before that character can use that certain move.
In the initial release of the game there are eight levels to play. The player cannot go on to the next level without beating the current one he/she is on with the character he/she is currently using. The eight levels are (note that the levels do not match the MMO areas exactly):
There also is word of a secret ninth level that can be unlocked if all eight levels have been beaten with the Novice character class.
On August 14 , 2005 , the first game expansion, ('''Scenario 1''') was released. The expansion added two new stages, an arena mode, some character balances, and ramped up the difficulty (including doubling boss and mini-boss damage.)
''Scenario 1'' adds the follwing levels:
A second expansion, , was released on December 29 , 2005. '''Scenario 2''' added three new levels, extra arenas, and further tweaked gameplay.
''Scenario 2'' adds the following levels:
Future expansions are expected to with expansions of the official '' Ragnarok Online ''.
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