In January, Rose and I spent a couple of weeks in Thailand for our vacation. We’ve been to the country a few times, with Rose having spent some of their formative years there, but we always go back every year or so for the food, culture, and the malls. As with every Thailand trip, and as with every video game we play, we spent a few days fully-exploring Bangkok’s sprawling malls, with centralwOrld being the biggest of them.
As we were exploring every single corner and level of centralwOrld, we came across something unexpected. We were in the elevator of the mall’s department store, probably 4 or 5 hours into our journey, when we saw… this!
Of course, it made us feel so excited that we immediately pressed the button to the top floor, which seems to be a level reserved for conventions.
It was January 14th when we went to the event and, as you can see in this standee, if you came anytime from early January to January 31st, you were considered an Early Bird, so you could only purchase tickets online. But then you’d also get some goodies, including a Booster Pack and some costumes. Unfortunately for us, they were all redeemable only if you’re playing on the official Thai server.
The good news is… the event is still open at the very moment, and will end on April 21st, so if you’re currently in Bangkok or planning to go next week, then you probably should skip to our thoughts at the end of this article so you can experience this small event for yourself. But if you don’t think you can make it, then we hope you’ll enjoy our short walkthrough of Ragnarok Real World Experience 2024.
Okay, so first off, they were playing nostalgic RO BGMs outside the hall, so that already made us feel really giddy about it.
The hall was pretty empty, because it was a weekday evening and the event had just started. There were First Job standees outside the hall, as well as a couple of Porings.
When it was time to enter, there were staff standing beside a monitor where you could, essentially, make your own character. Sadly, we don’t know Thai, but she was nice enough to translate for us. Much like in the Novice Training Grounds, we were asked a few questions about our combat preferences and personalities.
When that was done, we got the Job that suited us most. Rose got Acolyte and I got Swordsman. In-game, though, we usually play the opposite.
We then went through this dark tunnel with a very cool Ragnarok logo at the far end.
This map shows what towns are available: all six base-game Rune-Midgarts towns and their respective dungeons or fields. The first town is Alberta, which… looked very much like the port-city. There is also this small ball pit, which symbolizes the sea… I guess?
Attached to it is the Sunken Ship, complete with Drake himself!
Next is Payon, which also offers a fun archery mini-game, as can be expected from this town.
Inside Payon Cave, we met Moonlight Flower herself! Isn’t she adorable?
I don’t know why but we couldn’t find any footage of Geffen from the event, but next, we have Geffen Dungeon, where we met Dracula.
Footage of Morroc was also missing, for reasons unknown, but we did go through the labyrinthian Pyramid, where we found a cute Amon Ra!
Prontera is, of course, the coolest and most iconic of the towns. But instead of a statue of Odin and his horse, we only have a statue of his horse.
Next up, we met the infamous GTB inside Prontera Culvert. There was also a mini-game where you could stomp on the little thief bugs.
Finally, we have Izlude, complete with ships and stalls selling fish.
Oddly enough, they placed Holgrehenn’s forge in Izlude, instead of Prontera, but we still had fun trying to refine our gears without breaking them.
Our last stop was a cute little version of Poring Island, complete with huge Porings! By the way, did you know that Porings came from Odin’s sweat… when he was still building the realm of Midgard?
And finally… we’ve achieved Level 99 and are ready to transcend!
And, that’s the end of the walkthrough. We walked out of the hall and went straight to the merch shop, where we bought some pins, stickers, and whatnots.
Was it worth 599 Baht or about 16 USD? As a long-time RO fan who’s only been to one other RO event, I’d say it was an… okay price for a short walkthrough with some fun mini-games. But if I were a tRO player, I’d say it was well worth it, since you do get some in-game rewards.
I wish it were a part of a much bigger event, say for example, a Ragnarok Online convention or a game convention, I think we would’ve enjoyed it so much more!
I hope we get to go to more RO or other game events in the future, and we’ll definitely share them with you. We hope you’re having a great weekend. See you all next time!