After much anticipation, Gravity Corp. released Ragnarok Online 2 in North America this year, and it was met with mixed feelings from longtime fans of the original Ragnarok Online. That said, those of you who miss the older game might have something to look forward to in Tree of Savior Online, the spiritual successor to Ragnarok Online.
Tree of Savior Online, previously codenamed Project R1, is an action MMORPG game currently developed by Korean developers IMC Games, founded and led by the “father of Ragnarok Online” Hakkyu Kim, who is known for his involvement in titles such as Ragnarok Online and Granado Espada. The above video is a look at the game’s first trailer that was recently released to the public viewing.
Kim, who was the primary director of Ragnarok Online, left Gravity Corp in 2002, which also left the development of Ragnarok Online 2 in the hands of a different team. For this reason, it adopted various elements from western MMORPGs, which led to it having quite a different style game compared to its predecessor.
IMC Games and Hakkyu Kim’s goal is to make Tree of Savior Online the “spiritual successor of Ragnarok Online,” featuring sprite-based character models in a 3D world (or as they call 2.5D,) similar to the original Ragnarok Online.
According to Korean gaming website, This is Game, Tree of Savior Online boasts 80 different classes to play as and 200 unique bosses to fight, along with a non-targeting battle system, meaning you won’t be locking onto the monsters you fight, giving it a more action RPG feel.
The first stage of testing will be starting sometime in February 2014, according to the trailer, which we can assume will be Korea-only, for the time being.
