It’s been more than two years since we last uploaded a video, and I know that many of you are wondering what had happened to the channel. Are we just taking a break or did we abandon YouTube altogether? The lack of updates must have been confusing and frustrating for our loyal viewers, and we sincerely apologize for this. We didn’t want to keep you in the dark, but real life was too busy, chaotic, and unpredictable to make any concrete plans and to post updates.
Long Absence
At the end of 2021, we had only wanted to take a break during the holiday season for a while, and to resume making videos sometime in early 2022. Unfortunately, we had to deal with a lot of personal challenges including my getting injured, moving countries a couple of times, and Rose having to work hard to finish school and finally earn a degree.
In short, we decided to take a break–both in updating the channel and in playing Ragnarok Origin in 2022–so that we could focus on our real lives. While we were gone, several interesting things happened in the world of Ragnarok Origin.
Ragnarok Origin News
Ragnarok Origin Global, the official server for Southeast Asia, launched on April 6th 2023, which explains why we experienced an exponential increase in viewership and engagement despite not having uploaded in years. We’re very happy to see the popularity of the game in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, garnering a whopping 4.6 stars on the Apple App Store and 4.4 stars on the Google Play Store as of December 2023, when we had originally planned our channel comeback.
Unfortunately, as of the second week of March 2024, the reviews have gone down to 2.8 on the Google Play Store due to app instability and bugs, including an extremely frustrating character reset bug that some players have reportedly experienced. Interestingly, ROO Global is still in pretty good standing on the Apple App Store.
In October of 2023, Ragnarok Origin NA team announced a server merge which culminated on the 26th of October, effectively merging all the servers into one, which might have been due to a decline in the number of players, possibly caused by the majority of the Southeast Asian player base having moved to Global.
Just a few days after this server merge, the ROO NA team made an important announcement about launching, and to quote: “Ragnarok Origin as a new and expanded service including not only North America, but also Latin America,” end quote. What followed was the removal of Ragnarok Origin NA from the app stores by December. And, right now, you can only download the game as an APK from the official website, leaving Apple users unable to download or re-download the game.
This announcement of, essentially, a re-launch of the game to accommodate new players from Latin America has led to a general sense of disappointment among the avid player base of ROO NA, as there is no option to move their progress to the new service. However, the ROO NA team has explicitly stated that this doesn’t mean the end for the North American server and that quote: “With the usual bug fixes and adjustments, weekly events will continue to cycle throughout the next year. We will continuously strive to provide users with ongoing optimizations for the best ROO NA service” end quote.
Personally, I think it’s good that the ROO NA team will continue to update the server for those who wish to stay, but I have my doubts as to how much effort would actually be put into maintaining an old server with limited accessibility and in supporting its players, versus the new service that will welcome a larger player base and would technically require more time and energy for the team to support.
So, what’s going on with the new service in question, a.k.a. the re-launch of Ragnarok Origin, which is called Ragnarok Origin: ROO? Well, it started its Closed Beta Test on January 22nd. This was followed by an Open Beta, which Ragnarok Origin: ROO is currently in, access to which began on February 28th. We have been playing the relaunched game via PC for a few days now and are working on a video about our first impressions, as well as the significant differences between the old ROO NA and the new service. Hint: Not much has changed.
Future Plans for the Channel
What else can you expect on bunnhop? We’re very much looking forward to continuing our ROO Lore series, which will probably be easier to make with the helpful addition of voiced dialogues, so you don’t have to listen to my poor voice acting. 😆
You can also anticipate the launch of our new Chill Play series, consisting of relaxing playthrough videos of beloved games that evoke that feeling of nostalgia and a sense of serenity as we explore everything the game has to offer, at our own pace. We’re not rushing to finish the main quest or to become the richest and the most powerful in all of *insert game universe here*. Instead, we’ll slowly ease into it, giving special attention to the beauty of the game’s world, the story of its individual characters and how they tie into the world at large, and the fun little activities we can partake in as we live our character’s life one day at a time.
Additionally, we might make the occasional Top Ten listicles, news, game reviews, and tips-and-tricks videos, although our channel will primarily focus on lore and exploration.
Regardless, bunnhop is here to stay and we’d love to have you around. Thank you for all the support you’ve given us so far, and we hope to continue exploring games with you, one hop at a time!