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Originally released for the PlayStation Vita back in 2012, Ragnarok Odyssey received very mixed reviews, with most having more negative reactions to the fantasy RPG. Fast-forward to now, Ragnarok Odyssey has been re-worked and re-released as Ragnarok Odyssey ACE, and while many problems found in the original title are fixed, there are still many issues that could have used more time, too.

If you missed the original, Ragnarok Odyssey is very similar to Soul Sacrifice or the ever-popular Monster Hunter series. After accepting quests, you’ll be dropped in set areas with various monsters that need to be slain to complete your mission. What first start out as small, mostly harmless monsters eventually turns into gigantic, deadly monsters that will require all of your skills to defeat.

Ragnarok has a fairly basic and familiar control scheme to other action RPG games. You’ll be able to perform a simple attack, a heavier attack, as well as skills. You can learn new skills from items, and you can add these skills by adding them to your armor.

While most games in this monster slaying genre have player levels to determine your strength, Ragnarok only values your character by their gear and nothing else. This makes replaying levels to get better gear drops a necessity, but it also makes replaying levels over and over incredibly tiring, and can seem like an never-ending endeavor. Monsters found later in the game will absolutely demolish you if you don’t have top tier gear, so those looking for a workaround to the quest replay grinding won’t find one.

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One of the more confusing aspects that wasn’t touched up in this release is the game’s notifications. The game very poorly tells you how to complete a mission, or what specific monsters need to be slain to finish a quest outside of their name that you probably aren’t familiar with.

Multiplayer is a good option for those looking to fight with a friend, and while I wasn’t able to find many players online during my review time period, it important for those interested in the feature to know that during the original game’s release, finding players online was incredibly difficult presumably because of the low player count. However, since Ragnarok Odyssey ACE is available on both PS3 and PS Vita with full cross-play functionality, finding players should be much easier with the much larger player base of the PS3.

If you can find a multiplayer match, it’s definitely the way to go if you want to enjoy your time the most with Ragnarok. With new ACE skills, your teamwork is much more important this time around. Classes and their respective ACE skills with help you attack more powerfully, and some can help with healing and other useful buffs.

The biggest update in ACE is called the Tower of Yggdrasil, a new mode that features randomly generated rooms with huge fights and extremely rare and helpful items. This mode is only available after you’ve completed the main game story, but it adds a considerable amount of content to the game, so those who loved Ragnarok Odyssey will find something worthwhile in this update.

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Ragnarok has a very nice color palette that utilizes the Vita’s big OLED screen to that can be very impressive at times. The varied use of colors in the enemies you face is a treat to the eyes, and the contrast between the monsters and their environments is a fine example of what all games should strive for in visual splendor.

The visuals aren’t all impressive, however, as while the color palette is nice, the actual detail in the game, specifically environments, leaves much to be desired. While the Vita isn’t the most powerful machine around, we’ve seen titles like Uncharted and Killzone on the system, and a visual update would have been a nice addition in this re-release.

Ragnarok Odyssey ACE is a decent tune-up from the original 2012 release, but there are still many issues that weren’t addressed. It’s admirable that time was taken to improve a game to fulfill its potential, but it looks like more time should have been taken to make it even better. The additional content is nice for those who may have enjoyed the game the first time around, but those who didn’t like the game originally won’t be compelled to try it again this time.

This review is based on a review copy of the PlayStation Vita game Ragnarok Odyssey ACE by GameArts

A Decent Tune-Up | Ragnarok Odyssey ACE Review
Positives
  • Loads of new content
  • Some issues fixed...
Negatives
  • ... But Many Still Remain
  • hit and miss visuals
6.5Overall Score
Reader Rating: (0 Votes)
0.0

About The Author

Josh is a Senior Editor for New Gamer Nation. He'd love to chat with you about games on Twitter.