u/HardHennesy

Hi Guys; over a month ago, I made a post here on reddit defending RO Zero as a game. All the good I saw in it, etc. I'm here to revisit the things I wrote about it and just airing out how I am currently feeling about the game. You can view it HERE.

I'm going to go with the positives first; because I still thing RO:Zero; by design; is a great game.

I have been enjoying the game by a mile. There hasn't really been another game I've felt this much mental investment on for a long time. It's been 2 moths in and I can feel how engaged I am with problem solving my leveling strategy and resources.

Affixes are still what makes this game really fun. The (not perfect; but not too terrible) 2nd Job Balance has been enjoyable; ie: Rogue Vanilla and Rogue ZERO for example. I still don't really believe that "Paying for the game with real money via the Cash Shop items will WIN you the game" - (RMT does not fall under this category). Auto farming which I know many have mixed feelings about; is still a feature in the game I consider necessary/part of the game; otherwise; we'd need to be manually grinding to farm and level (which not everyone really has the time for.)

With the (somewhat) good points raised; here are the things I am legitmimately worried about. I'm not here to bash or hate how terribnle the game is; but just bringing up because I want to know what everyone else thinks.

1. Real-money/Monthly Upkeep. I don't consider the game as "PAY to WIN" - because a lot of what the cash shop provides are "small cheats" and conveniences to someone who can afford them. But for the things that are NECESSARY and GAME CHANGING to be in the cash shop with a maintenance is worry. Not a deal-breaker to me personaally; but how it affects the long-term health and how the game will be able to retain its' players is a different story. I'm talking Kafra Bells, 10%/10% XP and Drop Rate buffs, Zelstar Resets. These are things that require average/moderate spending players the need to maintain. Overall- along with the sub; I would say an average person may *need* to subscribe to 30-40 USD a month to maintain the game healthily. This may not be sustainable for the majority of the population.

2. Factoring in the amount of real-money needed to maintain playing the game with the "bare minimum" convenience will translate to a decline in population. It's relatively normal for games to decline in population; but with the patch from yesterday (level 70 level cap), I can say that I AM worried. The difficulty scaling is significantly higher. 10% EXP loss on death at level 60+ is much different that what it was at level 50+ with Nordfeld. And with leveling/grinding being such a factor in the game to progress; stat resets, skill resets, life insurance start becoming necessities instead of just "premium items for convenience." How much more when we have a level cap of 80, 90, 99, and 110? How many more resets, life insurance, overupped gear do we need to maintain to play the game sustainably? Are we going from 30-40 USD a month to 60-70 USD? This needs to be acknowledged as early as now. At a certain point; the monthly maintenance becomes more and more unsustainable for many.

3. When the population DOES decline; where is this going to lead to? We know that Odin had a population problem with bots and real players. We know we had an issue with bots over-farming and RMT. All of these all results in the lose of population and active players. In time; higher level content which need groups will be difficult to run. WoE will be a competition of 2 to 3 main guilds for the main castles instead of a healthy pool of guilds. Economy will be slow; with only a small pool of players buying and selling supplies within each other.

So to conclude;

I love the game. I am enjoying the game. However; I am worried with how and where the game is going -especially looking at the next 6, 12, and 18 month cycle. How far will the disparity be between 1. Free to Play Players, 2. Mid-spending Players, and 3. Completel Whales who can go for 100-150 USD a month minimum upkeep.

It would be a blessing if we still have many active players before the year ends when the level cap is at 90. I foresee LOKI server becoming more and more barren as time passes and ODIN server still being crowded; but only keeping those who can sustain the 50-70 USD a month upkeep.

I've been playing RO since the mid-2000s. Been through a bunch of private servers over the years, mostly pre-renewal ones — TalonRO and UARO are the ones I've put the most time into. So I've got some perspective on this.

I think Zero is a step in the right direction for modern RO.

The affix system is a genuinely great design choice. Random rolls on gear keeps loot interesting instead of "same item, same stats, forever," and it keeps the market actually alive instead of dying out after a couple months once everyone knows exact prices.

Updating the 1st and 2nd job trees was needed too. Let's be real, a few 2nd jobs in pre-renewal were just never meta relevant. Giving them actual use isn't ruining anything, it's fixing something that's been broken for 20 years.

People losing it over the monetization is mostly just people looking for something to complain about. Look at what's actually in the cash shop before getting mad about it. The most I can say is really worth spending for is the +2000 Weight - but I'd even argue that's a convenience feature.

Same with auto. A lot of the current playerbase is working adults, not people with all day to grind. Auto isn't there to replace playing the game, it's there so people with jobs can still make progress.

And honestly, if small cash shop boosts or an auto function are enough to turn you off the game, it's probably just not made for you, and that's fine. That's not a reason to hate on it.

This is a twist RO needed. There's no reason to attack Zero like it shouldn't have existed, or like it's just a cash grab, when it was a necessary addition to the franchise. If it's not for you, don't play it. But don't act like it's costing you something just because it exists.

I think it's good that mobile Ragnarok games exist too. But with how many titles keep getting pumped out, a lot of them feel experimental, and probably are. I'm hoping Ragnarok 3 doesn't end up being another experimental, heavily and unfairly monetized Ragnarok game. Zero is a completely different thing from that.

Curious what other long-time players think.

Is it me or does it feel like there's a lot of content to buy in GW2 after leaving for a bit over a year?

https://preview.redd.it/lkn03uanak7h1.png?width=1447&format=png&auto=webp&s=87339fc27e30358bb3f574d9ebde6794e1163d08

I just got back from the game after quite a break. I have a few friends coming in as well. Most of them don't have the expansion or only have till End of Dragons.

Does GW2 go on sale often? Again- 25 USD for the amount of content is very much justifiable; but it's facing 6 Purchases for 25-30 USD right Infront of you just feels expensive.

There's so much to spend for. I'm not complaining because there is a lot of content to do; and my friends probably wont use a lot of the content until they get there; but there are some expansion-exclusive features that are not related to the content they are in that makes the games feel kind of expensive.

Expanded Weapon Proficiencies and the Spear weapons, specifically. Im just trying to think if it's just me that feels this way + how it might feel for returning players or new players who might want to get/try the game.

TL;DR:
Has Riftbound affected your local FaB scene? Curious how it played out in the West since it just launched here in SEA. It doesn’t feel like a “FaB killer,” but definitely feels like a huge accelerator because of the League IP, collector appeal, and accessibility.

Hey everyone — wanted to ask about Riftbound’s impact on other local communities.

It just launched here in SEA, and our local FaB scene is around ~20–24 active players. We also had a few newer players slowly building their first CC decks.

A lot of us noticed Riftbound immediately pulled attention because it’s easier to get into casually. League is such a massive IP, and the collector/casual market around the game feels huge. We even had random non-TCG people walk into stores just to crack packs. That basically never happens for FaB outside of Armory nights.

FaB is still the superior game mechanically for me personally, but it also made me realize how niche FaB is as a full TCG ecosystem.

Another thing that affected sentiment locally was how disappointing Compendium (PEN) felt for some of us compared to expectations. Silver Age was great and we had a lot of people try the game out. PEN boxes and Antiquity packs had a lot of misses/questionable hits. Meanwhile, people opening Riftbound products were genuinely excited even from casual pulls/the overnumbered cards.

So I wanted to ask:

• If you’re from SEA, how did Riftbound affect your scene?
• If you’re from the West, was it just a temporary fad?
• Did people play both games?
• Did FaB numbers actually drop?

Not doomposting or anything — just genuinely curious how other communities experienced it. Wanted to discuss and get thoughts.

Thank you!

Hey Guys. Flesh and Blood is my first TCG and after playing armories regularly for over a year, I've slowly started to accumulate a collection.

I have a bunch of Ls and Ms that I want to sell but am paranoid they could end up spiking in price. Without too much research in stock prices; what are your general rules for selling X Cards?

My general assumptions are;

1. When there is a big tournament coming up such as NATS or RTNs and the cards you own is currently a META Hero.

2. When there is a new hero coming out that has some "hype" - so in this case, HALA and Master Pack Warrior announcement spiked up a lot of the warrior cards.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

Any advice is appreciated. 😄 I just don't want to sell Ms and Ls that could potentially spike in 3 to 5x its' price.