Ragnarok Odyssey ACE Review

The first thing to strike me in Ragnarok Odyssey ACE wasn't the snaking tentacle of some screen-consuming monster, but an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Not because the game's an expanded and enhanced rerelease of a 2012 action role-playing game, itself spawned from a decade-plus old Korean massively multiplayer game. No, the familiarity stemmed from the fact that ACE's opening played out almost identically to one I'd experienced just a few weeks prior in Toukiden: The Age of Demons.
As in that Monster Hunter-wannabe's early moments, ACE begins by placing you in the boots of a fresh-faced recruit who has joined a seasoned band of mercenaries to help protect their village from beasts hell-bent on turning humanity into an all-you-can-eat buffet. As you customize your character, chat up a few village non-player characters, and accept your first creature-carving quest, the unmistakable sense that you've done this all before only strengthens.

How does an ordinary person hold such a large weapon?

But while ACE's story and setup sadly follow an all-too-familiar genre template, many of its other elements--most notably its combat--manage to keep your thumbs engaged for the entirety of the game's lengthy quest. More of a do-over than a director's cut, ACE feels like the game its predecessor should have been. On top of adding oodles of fresh content to the original Ragnarok Odyssey, it tweaks its gameplay in a number of ways that bring both nuance and depth to the already satisfying monster-pummeling proceedings.
Like the original, ACE encourages you to equip a blade that makes Cloud Strife's signature sword look like a butter knife before setting out to loot, level, and lay waste to baddies that would like to break you like peanut brittle. The core "action RPG meets Monster Hunter" formula remains intact, but significant additions--such as new class-specific abilities and the option to hire AI mercenaries--make it a much better game. ACE further separates itself from the beast-battling pack by forgoing strategy-focused fighting in favor of fast, fluid, arcade-flavored combat. Thanks to intuitive mechanics and responsive controls, even unseasoned slayers can easily string together impressive combos, juggle enemies in the air, and generally unleash the sort of battlefield-scarring hell usually reserved for dedicated action game protagonists like Kratos and Dante.