It’s another fine week and we’re back with another episode of Let’s Explore Ragnarok Origin! Tutorial. We’re (finally!) close to completing the tutorial and leaving the Adventurers’ Academy for good. It’s so exciting to think about what sorts of adventures we’ll have once we leave the beginners’ area!
Sprakki’s Career Assessment Test
Today, we pick up where we left off in the previous episode. We’ve just received our newbie gifts from Sprakki after formally graduating from the academy. She gives us an option to take a short test–much like in the original Ragnarok Online PC game, but much shorter and simpler–to have an idea of the Job class that suits us the most. It’s like a career aptitude test in real life. We answer three very simple questions and she tells us the Job that we’re most likely going to enjoy based on those answers. I got Acolyte…
…which is the exact same result I’d always get in Ragnarok Online. I probably didn’t expect it because I was a little surprised.
Since this is just a career assessment test, we’re free to choose a totally different Job from the result we got. When we speak with Instructor Brade who’s in charge of handing out letters of recommendation to the different Job Guilds, he reminds us to take this seriously. Unfortunately unlike in real life, we can’t change Jobs. We have to fully commit to the Job we choose… or make a different character and start from scratch?
Previewing Each Job
Before I make my decision, Brade gives us a Job Notebook where we can check the specifics of each class. Aside from the Job descriptions, it also shows the recommended Stats (or status points allocation) and two to three main Skills.
I decided to try all six Job classes to show what combat is like for each of them. It’s good to note that some Jobs have Skills that they weren’t previously available in Ragnarok Online. Two examples of this are the Dancing Dagger for Thieves and the Full Swing for Merchants.
Another noticeable difference is in what some of the Skills actually do. The indispensable Heal for Acolytes does not only recover the HP of a specified target unlike in RO, but also heals your character at the same time. This goes the same for Blessing and Kyrie Eleison which are now both Party Skills.
The previews for each Job may be basic but not boring. I actually enjoyed interacting with each of the instructors and noticing their unique personalities. Orbis Thea is a mighty warrior who cares about his students and the well-being of the entire Midgard continent; Pamela is calm and kind-hearted; Emily is passionate about magic and the elements; the mysterious Quis is quiet and stern; Barbase cares more about wealth than his students; and Cecilius has a keen sense and encourages independence among her apprentices.
They may be stereotypical, but it’s definitely better to have tutorial NPCs that feel alive than sitting through bland Job previews that only let you use Skills against monsters on your own. And there’s also that strange little boy who keeps dropping and touching Dead Branches! Who is that, really?
An Archer Heads Off to Adventure!
In the end, I chose to be an Archer! Actually, my main character the very first time I played RO back in 2008 was an Archer too! However, I decided to switch to Acolyte after a few months since I… sadly kept running out of arrows.
Once we’ve decided on which Job to change into, Brade instructs us to go to our Job Change destination (in my case, Payon) via a very adorable Poring hot-air balloon! We start it up, hop on it, and fly away from the Adventurers’ Academy island onto a brand new world of adventure! In the background, we hear Sprakki wishing us the best and a very nostalgic guitar version of “Wanna Be Free”, which if you remember is the well-loved BGM for War of Emperium (WoE) maps.
This part was quite heartwarming. Bidding your instructors farewell and setting off on your own journey to the tune of a BGM that brings back the memories of all the fun and the drama of playing guild wars with friends… This scene evoked a sense of both nostalgia and hope. Nostalgic of the good and the bad times in the original RO, and hopeful of what’s to come in Ragnarok Origin.
How about you? Which Job did you choose? Did the unexpected “Wanna Be Free” scene also made you feel “the feels”?