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Rappelz is a free MMORPG published by Gala-Net, the distributors of Flyff and Space Cowboy Online. It is based in a fantasy world dominated by three races of separate alignments: The Deva, guardians of light, the Asura, servants of the dark, and the Gaia, the protectors of nature. The game can be compared to games such as Lineage II.
| Rappelz | |
|---|---|
| File:Rappelzmainlogo.gif | |
| Developer(s) | nFlavor |
| Publisher(s) | Gala-Net |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | November 03, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Like Gala-Net's other MMO titles, Rappelz is free of subscription charges; revenue is generated through the sale of special items via the "Cash Shop". Purchasing Cash Shop items is not compulsory, though the FAQ implies that they may offer the player a distinct advantage in-game.
History
The Open Beta version of Rappelz launched on October 2, 2006[1], with two separate servers available: "Tortus," the normal server, and "Pantera," the more PvP/PK-oriented server. Those who had previously downloaded the Closed Beta version of Rappelz are not required to re-download the Rappelz client to play in Open Beta; however, extensive automatic patching is done by the client before Closed Beta players can enter Open Beta. Closed Beta ended on September 26, 2006.
Closed-beta characters were deleted at the beginning of Open Beta; however, characters created during Open Beta survived the game's release.
Open Beta ended with the official release of the game on November 03, 2006.
There are currently four servers in service namely, "Tortus", "Yeti", "Lydian" and "Pantera(PVP)."
The Story
According to the game's backstory available on gpotato's site, the oldest race is the Gaia, and to assist them, the gods of Creation and Extinction brought two more races into the world. They were the Deva who represented the Light and the Asura who represented the Darkness. With this, there was a period of peace and stability in the world.
As the ages passed by, there was one among the Gaia who called herself "The Witch". Over time, she grew in tremendous power and with a ruthless ambition, rallied the people of Gaia to rebel against the world.
Not all the people of Gaia heeded this call however and the world was thrown into chaos. It was only through the combined efforts of the three races of Deva, Asura and Gaia that "The Witch" was finally captured and burnt alive. It was a victorious outcome of a unity between the three races.
Now at the present time, the three races continue to co-exist with each other in the world of Rappelz but dark rumors have surfaced about the second coming of "The Witch" and the return of her terrible forces...
Races
Each of the three races in Rappelz has three classes: a melée-oriented class, a magic-oriented class, and a "summoner" class whose abilities centre around their pets.[2] In a slight departure from form taken by other games in the genre, the a character's class is not chosen at the beginning of play: instead, characters are of a generic "all-rounder" class until level 10, whereupon the player can choose how to specialise. Players are also free to select their character's gender at creation.
All characters can have at least one pet or ridable creature summoned at a time, but only the Summoner-type classes gain skills that can improve their pets.
Players are free to adventure anywhere in the game world, regardless of their character's race.
Deva
The Deva are a light-based race. They are more defensive-oriented, focusing on the powers of healing and buffing.
- Guide - The Guide is the starting class for the Deva. The skills Smite and Minor Healing are learned by this class.
- Holy Warrior - The Holy Warrior is similar to a Paladin. It is a warrior which benefits from additional healing capabilities and defensive buffs.
- Cleric - The Cleric is the main healer/buffer of Rappelz, sacrificing soloing abilities to aid allies. However, the Kahuna class also has some powerful buffs and a healing spell.
- Can get a spell to bring dead players back to life, others must use a scroll item to do this.
- Breeder - The Breeder is Deva's summoner. It concentrates more on creature defense buffs and raising creatures quickly.
Asura
The Asura are the dark race of Rappelz, concentrating more on fast attacks and evasion.
- Stepper - The Stepper is the starting class for the Asura.
- Strider - The Strider is an assassin-like class that uses high evasion and attack power.
- Gets upgrades for the cross bow and good with fast attack weapons like duel wield daggers, but not as defensive as the fighter or holy warrior.
- Gets cross bow upgrades.
- Dark Magician - The Dark Magician uses spells that drain and weaken the enemy. Has a life drain spell, and gets ability to transfer their hp to others.
- Sorcerer - The Sorcerer is a summoner that uses buffs that increase the attack power of their creatures.
- Strider - The Strider is an assassin-like class that uses high evasion and attack power.
Gaia
The Gaia are a neutral human race who generally have mix of defensive and attack skills.
- Rogue - The Rogue is the starting race for Gaia.
- Fighter - Fighters generally do heavy amounts of damage at slower rates than the Asura Strider, but have better defense. Along with Holy Warrior are the best at withstanding getting hit.
- Charge shield skill allows them to attack over distances without warning.
- They get long bow skill boosts.
- Kahuna - The Kahuna is somewhat of a hybrid between a fighter and a spellcaster. Their attack spells are mediocre when compared to a mage's and must rely on melee for most damage. It is more similar to the Deva Holy Warrior than the Dark Mage in terms of damage dealing. However, several buffs and a powerful healing spell allows them to sometimes replace Deva Clerics in the support role of large groups.
- Spell-Singer - The Spell-Singer is a summoner that is halfway between Breeder and Sorcerer. Has poor damage taking ability and gets bow weapon bonus.
- Fighter - Fighters generally do heavy amounts of damage at slower rates than the Asura Strider, but have better defense. Along with Holy Warrior are the best at withstanding getting hit.
Game features
Action Icons
Generally most MMO's have generic actions built into the mouse clicks, for example attacking and picking up loot. Rappelz however optionally provides the use of icons for those actions; thus allowing them to be assigned to a hotkey. Some actions though are not available any other way and must be used through the use of icons (those available in the control window [3]) such as toggling PVP and mounting a creature. Emotes, traditionally used through the chat window via commands using the syntax /command, are optionally available through hotkey usage.[4]
Chips
Chips are items that players can use to significantly affect a battle by increasing the amount of damage the target takes for a limited amount of time. They come in two types, force and spirit and then ranks which allow different levels of users to use chips while not overpowering them. Force chips increase physical damage (melee and ranged for example) while spirit chips increase the amount of magic damage. They can be traded for using rupees (currency) or laks from NPC's.
Equipment Upgrades
Equipment in the game have their own level and can sometimes level up by means of upgrading. Items that are able to do this display a section at the bottom of their status window showing the upgraded status affects, allowing players to know ahead of time the quality of the equipment. By visiting a blacksmith, players are able to upgrade their currently equipped (and upgradable) equipment for a fee. Thus a weak weapon or armor can be formed into a stronger item without having to sell it and buy a brand new one. The benefit to this process is when you can upgrade your current item to a purchasable item at a weapons trader, thereby saving money lost when selling and buying.
Item Combinations
Rappelz has a system of item combining and reducing that incorperates both items and skills to make it work.
Pet System
One of Rappelz's defining features is its Pet system. Pets are creatures that adventure alongside players, aiding them in battle. They come in many varieties, and can be made to fulfil numerous roles. Additionally, pets have many of the properties of player characters: they gain levels alongside their owners, learn different skills, and can make use of equipment.
Pets can be used by all races and classes: the only requirement being two skills, Summon Creature and Creature Control, which are available at level 5 for a total of 60 job points. The basic classes (Rogue, Guide and Stepper[2]) and fighter classes have little emphasis on creatures through the availability of creature affecting skills while the others, especially summoner classes (Breeder, Spell Singer and Sorceror[2]) can affect creatures more greatly.
The game includes three basic pets, which can be purchased in any town; other pets can be acquired in-game by capturing them inside magical cards. Once captured, pets can be summoned and banished at will by their owners.
Upon reaching a certain level, pets can "evolve" to a different type. A pet evolves twice during its lifetime. Additionally, it is speculated that pets may learn skills in the future that will allow them to be used as equipment, augmenting their owner's power.
Some pets, like the Ornitho, can be mounted by a player to increase movement speed. In the case of Ornithos, they cannot aid the player in battle and players are limited to a few hours of ownership, whereby the pet can be purchased again.
Game Masters (GMs) and Volunteer Game Guides (VGGs)
Game Masters (GM):
Rappelz's Game Masters are responsible for the day-to-day administration of the game, including tasks such as planning and running of events, bug tracking, testing, solving customer service issues, and answering player queries.
GM's are easily recognized by their [GM] name tag and their glowing aura.
Volunteer Game Guides (VGG):
Rappelz also employs unpaid volunteer players who have a vast working knowledge of the game, its environment, characters, races, beastiary, terrain, cities, items and more.
They aid new players with directions, answer questions and escalate account or world problems up to GMs for resolution.
Reviews and Community reaction
The neutrality of this section is disputed. |
There are penalties for shouting too often in the general chat window. A certain percentage of HP and MP is deducted when shouting frequently and the penalty increases if the shouting does not cease for a given period of time. This can get annoying if a player has many questions, or if a more knowledgeable player tries to answer too many questions in a short period of time. The intent was to prevent players from spamming the server with attempts to buy or sell merchandise, as is common in other similar games.
Hack Shield, the game's 3rd party protection software, does not currently support Windows XP 64-bit Edition but it is believed to be supported in the first quarter of 2007. [1]
When the new maintenance and patch schedule was put in place, many found that the patching system would freeze during updates; without the ability to resume the patch, some users took days to update their clients.
The game also has fairly high (as of 2006) minimum system requirements, competetive with games of higher stature such as World of Warcraft (see WoW's requirements for comparison), and some users have reported significant lag, especially in town areas, despite running the client on high-end systems.
Players have also experienced memory leaks within the game, often affected after a prolonged amount of play time, where the only resolution is to restart the game.
External links
Official
- GPotato Game Portal
- Rappelz English Website
- Rappelz Korean Website
- Rappelz Japanese Website
- Rappelz Hong Kong Website
Unofficial
References
- ^ *News archive for gpotato.com, who only keeps current information available on their website.
- ^ a b c *http://www.rappelz.us/Classes/
- ^ * http://rappelz.gpotato.com/gameguide/begin_guide_control.php
- ^ *http://rappelz.gpotato.com/gameguide/player_guide.php