The last holiday season was my first introduction to Ragnarok Online, the notoriously addictive (and bug-ridden) from Korea. Gravity Corporation had a nice booth reserved in the West Hall of the LA Convention Center, and several PCs were set up and online with the game's servers, so attendees could try it out. Curious to see whether many of the bugs had been ironed out, I gave it a try.

While having an 80+ level merchant to play with was not the most balanced MMORPG experience I've had, it was alright. The map was packed as usual, and there were no bugs during the 20 minutes I stopped to play the title. Maybe it was a lucky visit on my part (or a good connection on Gravity's behalf), but the only problems I had with the game were aesthetic - some of the status menus opened up in inconvienent places and the translation needed some more work. Nevertheless, it was a great improvement from the beta copies that were circulating last winter.

Contrary to information that RPGamer had recieved earlier, Ragnarok Online does not have a North American release date set as of yet. As said before, there are still a few things can be done with the game - but those are for aesthetic issues. Considering what Gravity had when they first released the beta, this is a good sign.