Ragnarok Online is getting a mobile companion in the states, too. Creator Gravity Interactive just announced an oh-so creatively title called Ragnarok Violet. In brief, it’s an offline, iOS-specific version of the MMO that features a lot of the sights, sounds, and monsters that compose the ridiculously popular free-to-play game’s universe. This announcement is coming on the heels of two offline Maple Story releases, which have performed extremely well.
Specifically on the familiarity front, Gravity cites that Porings, Spores, and Marins will compose the base monster cast. It also name-drops Empty Bottles, Honey, colored herbs, and standard knight fare as the loot. As you play, you’ll also pick up monster cards, which can be used to modify your dude and make him stronger.
Violet appears to be a fairly faithful port of feature phone game with the same name, if this is all ringing a bell, that’s why. The best we can tell is that it debuted at some point in 2008 or so. We’ve also seen indications that a US iOS version has been floating around seedier circles for a bit, too.
Anyway, Ragnarok Violet will appear on the App Store this coming Friday, August 5 (which seems wrong to us; most games hit on Thursday). It’ll launch for free, but if you want some hot drops quick and dirty-like, you’ll probably want to pony up the cash in its in-game store. As standard with these stores, it’ll allow you to buy weapons, armor, and items. What? You didn’t see that coming?
Speaking of seeing stuff coming, we’ll probably see many more Ragnarok Online releases on mobile platforms moving forward. As of right now, there are eight out in the wild, and most of them can talk to the proper game in a rudimentary fashion, which is something this one will not even attempt to do. I always wonder how much more successful these F2P games could be if they actually could meaningfully touch base with the community and the proper game.
On a totally different note, it’ll be interesting to see these Korean-centric apps as a whole chart in the future. According to Bloomberg, the Korean government just tossed out the government rating requirement for mobile games, which in return, also potentially means Apple and Google will open up their app stores in the region. Talk about hurdles.
