Ragnarok Odyssey: The Vita's Monster Hunter-Type Replacement

Make no mistake: Game Arts' latest foray in the game scene, titled Ragnarok Odyssey, reeks of the action role-playing game odor stemming from Capcom's Monster Hunter. After all, you go off on a series of chapters divided into a multitude of quests ranging from the banal "kill a number of creatures" to "collect a bunch of stuff by breaking barrels and killing monsters" equipped with generous time limits. Occasionally, you fight a giant monster or two with weak spots that also perform huge elaborated attacks with few windows of opportunity for your warrior to strike.

This does not mean that Ragnarok Odyssey is devoid of any entertainment; far from it. Ragnarok Odyssey is billed as a multiplayer title. Gamers can partner up with other PlayStation Vita users playing Ragnarok Odyssey via ad hoc or online play. It's here that you can party up with other classes and kill together in hopes of gathering the most loot within sessions.

It will be a while before players go toe-to-toe with this Godzilla-sized villain.

Players get to pick from five classes: the swordmaster, the hammersmith, the hunter, the cleric, the assassin, and the mage. Each has its own style of play: the hammersmith trades speed for a high attack rating, while the assassin's quick strikes deal little damage. To be fair, the assassin class can at least take a few more hits, thanks to its defense rating. The class is quick on its toes too, so players will need to learn to time dodges and evade enemies.

The hunter has the highest attack speed and range among the classes but has horrible damage output and hit points. However, mid-game attacks like the vulcan arrow can deal good amounts of damage, and the arrow shower can soften up a cluster of enemies. Because it's a primarily ranged class, it's best for hunters to stay far away from enemies and snipe them from a distance.

The mage in the game is a bit of an oddity; the class has good attacks and area-of-effect spells, but the combos that throw out fancier and hard-hitting spells come from melee attacks. When you add to the fact that a mage's hit points and defense ratings are atrocious, we couldn't figure out a reason to pursue this class.

While the hammersmith was our personal favorite--any class with a huge hammer-drill hybrid that deals big damage is a winner in our book--new players should stick with the swordmaster. Attacks are reasonably speedy; you can deal high damage if you time your inputs for the end of their combo strings; and it's one of the few classes that can guard.

Speaking of which, each class has different attacks coming out of its combos. For the hammersmith, pressing triangle, triangle, circle, and circle made our female warrior perform a slow-but-damaging upper swing followed by a ground pound multi-hitting drill finisher. Pressing triangle, triangle, triangle, and circle made her pull off a delayed charge that also hit multiple times. These are just a few examples of how each class is different in terms of its repertoire of attacks.

While the scenery is nice from time to time, do remember that quests have time limits.

Players can also tweak classes with the use of cards. Before each mission, you can choose as many cards as you can to equip, depending on how much space they take up on a character's card-equipping slot. Some common cards with a one-star rating take up as much as one, while rare ones can go as far as three or four slots.

Ragnarok Odyssey also makes use of its platform's touch capabilities. Expanding the map only requires you to tap the top right icon, while sending out a quick emoticon is as easy as touching the side icon. After mapping your potions before a mission, you can just drink them by tapping their icons at the bottom right part of the screen instead of pressing the select button and the face button to which they're mapped. Whether you prefer doing things the old-school way or by touching, the game's interface has got you covered.