Going To Town In ROSE Online

In a development I'm sure will surprise absolutely nobody, I'm finding ROSE Online to be a lot more enjoyable than I expected. I only started playing the game on a whim, when I happened to read a news report about its unexpected return from mmorpg limbo, thinking to get a single blog post out of the event, if that, but I swiftly found myself drawn in by the simple, uncomplicated gameplay, cute graphics and the general hustle and bustle of what appears to be a very popular and well-attended resurrection.

For the moment, ROSE is the game I find myself keenest to log into each day, closely followed by EverQuest II, where I continue to make good progress in the latest expansion, Renewal of Ro. Third on the list comes Noah's Heart, another game I never expected to stick with but which I've now been playing every day for four-and-a-half months. 

Falling by the wayside for the time being are Lord of the Rings Online, New World and Guild Wars 2, none of which I've given any serious attention for weeks. Of those three, it's LotRO that stands the best chance of an early return, thanks to the recent addition of two new starting zones. As ROSE has reminded me yet again, the aspect of mmorpg gameplay I most enjoy is the early to mid level range, when significant changes to both gameplay and character development come thick and fast.

As I mentioned in passing the other day, just preparing to set out to explore new content in EQII requires a significant investment in time and effort, as you check all your gear and abilities are fit for purpose and take remedial action to correct those that fail the test. It is, in itself, an enjoyable process, but it requires an entirely different degree of concentration, application and administrative attention, something that can become mentally exhausting after a while.

In contrast, the early levels of any mmorpg feel more open, exciting and fresh. There's the intellectual challenge of learning new systems and mechanics, something I find exhillarating and absorbing, but also the relative freedom from the kind of beauraucratic box-ticking that frequently dominates at-cap gameplay. If nothihng else, it's a pure joy to play a character whose inventory is almost empty.

ROSE Online benefits hugely in this respect from being a game from an earlier, simpler era. It feels both mechanically and graphically uncluttered. The game looks and plays clean. I'm aware that behind the straightforward appearance may lurk a much more complicated interior but that's not something I need to worry about just yet.

For now, all I have to do is go where the questgivers send me and do what they ask. If I keep doing that, I get a drip-feed of information on how the game and the world work, plus I get new weapons and armor. It's a really plaeasant, relaxing, involving way to spend a couple of hours. I can see how it caught on.

One of the things I learned yesterday was the name of the world on which ROSE Online is set. It's called Junon, a name that sounds comfortably familiar yet different enough to stand out among the many imaginary entries in my mmorpg address-book.

I was looking at the map yesterday, after I'd been given the introductory quest to the third zone, Canyon City of Zant, eponymous home of the first significantly-sized town I've yet visited, and it occured to me the whole of the world map looked a tad on the small size for a full game. 

I've since learned that ROSE Online takes place on not one but three separate planets, the other two being Luna and Eldeon. There are four other named planets in the ROSE solar system, all of which were intended to be available for play, but as the wiki somewhat enigmatically explains, the others were only available on "Rose Online Brazil, first and only server with all seven planets."

If I go on playing ROSE, something that seems highly likely, at least in the short term, I'll probably find myself digging into the history of the game a little, as often happens in cases like this. I do enjoy investigating the genre's quirkier corners even if I occasionally find myself wishing someone else had already done the research and turned it into a neat summary I could skim through instead. 

The whole concept of mmorpgs offering different content in different territories is something I'd like to learn more about. I've noticed it happening in a number of games I've played, particularly Dragon Nest, which seems to have had half a dozen significantly varying versions over the years, and it often comes up as a point of contention when titles are ported to the Western market, but I can't recall ever seeing any kind of overview or discussion of the underlying principles of the phenomenon.

For now, I'm going with the three world paradigm for ROSE Online. If it turns out there are more, that'll be a bonus. In any case, even given my current enthusiasm for the low-end game, I think it's unlikely I'll make it far enough to complete the Level 70 quest that takes you to Luna, let alone to Eldeon, which doesn't open up until you hit Level 90.

My Hawker is curently Level 19. Progress has been steady, the bulk of experience coming from quests, the handing-in of which can sometimes jump you a whole level or more. The nature of the quests and their rewards makes it plain I'm still in the tutorial phase so how much longer progress will come in such hefty chunks is uncertain. I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.

Meanwhile, I'm appreciating the changes I see all around me as I travel. Yesterday was the first time I'd seen the gameworld at night and it was spectacular enough to prompt me into taking several screenshots of the vibrant night-time sky. I'm something of an afficionado of skyboxes and I have a particular appreciation of looming planets and nebulae, both of which Junon has in abundance.

I also met my first anthropomorphic animal NPC, a vendor and repairer by the name of Rockwell. I think he's a bear but I wouldn't swear to it. At first I thought he was an otter but on closer examination he looks a bit too gormless to be anything so cool. 

One of the things I didn't mention in my First Impressions piece was character creation. Usually it's something I'd give space to but in this case it was so perfunctory I forgot all about it until after I'd finished the post. I was mildly disappointed there were no options to play anything other than a human but it's something I'm resigned to these days. At least if I can't be an animal in game, now I know there are some I can talk to. That's something, at least.

Another in-game staple I ran into for the first time yesterday was the player vendor. Pretty much every mmorpg has some method for players to transfer goods between themselves. Some games have several. There's one basic, fundemental split, though, and that's whether the interface involved is a UI element or a virtual object placed in the gameworld. (Actually, as both EQII and FFXIV would like to tell you, there's a way to bridge that chasm, but I don't want to derail my own post by going into details on how its done.)

ROSE Online appears to stand firmly in the camp that believes in players laying out your their own stalls; literally. Coming into the city of Zant, I ran into several player-vendors on the access ramp, peddling wares that looked interesting enough to make me stop and shop. 

The stalls include a large overhead sign the player can personalise as appropriate. I don't know how or if it's policed but I was impressed by the lack of smut. I saw dozens of the things and they were all reasonably informative, at least after a fashion.

The one that caught my eye was advertising Backpacks for sale. I'm always in the market for more storage. I wasn't immediately able to work out how to buy them, which turned out to be lucky for me, since I later found out the sneaky seller appeared to have purchased some items from an NPC vendor, just a few yards up the ramp in the city itself, giving them a hefty mark-up. 

It's a common practice and well-established in games that allow reselling of vendor-bought gear. I've done it myself on occasion so I don't hold a grudge. Caveat emptor, as they no doubt don't say on Junon.

Zant itself is a very busy place, positively teeming with activity. I found a helpful NPC willing to explain the facilities although I'm still finding the lack of word-wrap challenging. I often have to swivel the camera so the text is visible against some clear background like the sky.

One other thing that struck me, something I rarely mention when giving early impressions of mmorpgs, is the quality of the combat animations. I know it's something some people take very seriously indeed but I can honestly say I rarely even notice what moves my character is making, mostly because I'm too busy looking at the hot-keys. 

In ROSE, at least at these early levels, there's not an awful lot to do in a fight. It's mostly auto-attack plus a special, giving me plenty of time to admire the clean, precise movements my character makes as she stabs and slashes with the bamboo spear she's still using. 

By now I ought to have swapped to a more Hawker-appropriate weapon, like a katar or a bow but I'm so happy with how my character looks using the spear I haven't yet made the change. That's something I have in mind for next time I log in, which will be later today.

And that's how things stand at the moment. I have the basics down but there's still a huge amount to learn and much more to discover. This is the honeymoon phase. As Parker says to Logan in the final episode of Veronica Mars, employing some of the bleakest ironic foreshadowing I've ever heard, "enjoy it while it lasts".