Ragnarok Online returns to the Philippines

It was the summer of 2003, oh, how I remember that day. I was in the province for summer break, me and my cousin decided to head to the nearest computer shop and play Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. To my dismay, the save file in my diskette was corrupted. We then decided to try this new game that had a poster at the front desk of the computer shop. We signed up, logged in with our username and password, and there and then, I was introduced to a whole new world of MMORPG. Ragnarok Online and Midgard became my second home. The simplicity of its graphics, interface, the music, how can one forget the soundtrack of pRO appealed to every Filipino kid who entered the world of Midgard. Friendships and rivalries were made. Days spent grinding for that treasured drop, grinding for experience and conquering guild wars. It became a huge part of my childhood years. Until that fateful day, 15 years later, Ragnarok Online taught everyone a valuable lesson, all good things come to an end. Ragnarok Online shut down its servers on March 31, 2015.

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Fast forward to today, April 2017, 2 years later, someone used an Yggdrasil Leaf and brought Ragnarok Online from its ashes, and promises to bring it back to its glorious days. Gravity partnered with Electronics as a distributor for the game in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. In line with this, Gravity and Electronics Extreme held the Ragna Festival at the SM North EDSA annex as the first gathering of pRO players in years. The event was filled with cosplay, headgear contest, fan art competitions and music from Imago and Sandwich. The buzz of reviving the game seemed to reach every gamer as the queue reached the first floor. Early birds were at the venue as early as 3AM! Early birds were able to secure an in-game headgear that provides double experience.

As the event draw to a close, the much anticipated announcement of when the server will launch was nowhere to be heard. But stay tuned as we will update you on the developments of this matter. Electronics Extreme and Gravity hinted at it being potentially free-to-play, and the closed beta will soon close to give way to official servers probably by the end of this month or early next month.

Here are a few questions that we’d like answered:

• Will the server be Philippines only?
• What will the microtransactions look like?
• Will they start from Episode 1?

While we have this questions unanswered, tell us how you remember your first time logging to the world of Rune Midgard.

You can check out https://www.facebook.com/RagnarokOnline.com.ph/ and https://ragnarokonline.com.ph/ for more updates.