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Rappelz

Rappelz is a 3D fantasy MMORPG with traditional gameplay elements and a wide variety of playable classes. Chose from one of three races, each with their own class trees, and explore the wide world of Rappelz.

Publisher: Webzen
Playerbase: Low
Type: MMORPG
PvP: Duels / Arena / Death Match
Release Date: November 3, 2006
Pros: +Great pet system. +Large selection of classes. +Dungeon siege feature. +In-depth tutorial zone.
Cons:  -Buggy client. -Limited graphics options. -Dated gameplay mechanics, UI, visuals. -Dwindling playerbase and update frequency.

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Overview

Rappelz Overview

Rappelz is a classic free-to-play MMORPG that enjoyed a fair degree of popularity across many regions during the mid 2000s. The game has a traditional fantasy setting and many basic MMORPG features introduced during the era. Rappelz is perhaps best known for having a highly involved pet system where players can catch and train nearly any monster they encounter. Another unique feature is the Dungeon Siege mode, in which guilds battle for ownership over the various dungeons. The game has seen consistent updates, titled 'Epics,' since its initial release, but Rappelz still suffers from client issues and dated gameplay mechanics.

Players have three race options during character creation, with each race having access to its own three-tiered class tree. New characters start as either Steppers, Guides, or Rogues and make their first job change at Level 10, their second at 50, and third (master) job change at 148.

Rappelz Key Features: 

  • Various Classes – choose to play as one of three different races and over thirty different classes.
  • Great Pet System – one of the first of its kind to offer an evolved pet system, where players can catch nearly any monster they encounter.
  • Dungeon Siege Mode – battle as a guild for ownership over the dungeons of Rapplez.
  • Oldie but Goodie – Rappelz has been around since 2000 and is one of the forerunners of the MMORPG genre. While it is hard for new players to dive in, it is definitely a classic that veterans remember.

 

Rappelz Screenshots

Rappelz Featured Video

Rappelz - Epic 7 Gameplay Trailer

Classes

Asura

  • 1st Jobs – Strider, Dark Magician, Sorcerer
  • 2nd Jobs – Assassin, Shadow Hunter, Chaos Magician, Warlock, Battle Summoner
  • Master – Slayer, Deadeye, Void Mage, Corruptor, Overlord

Deva

  • 1st Jobs – Holy Warrior, Cleric, Breeder
  • 2nd Jobs – Knight, Soldier, Bishop, Priest, Soul Breeder
  • Master – Templar, Mercenary, Cardinal, Oracle, Master Breeder

Gaia

  • 1st Jobs – Fighter, Kahuna, Spell Singer
  • 2nd Jobs – Champion, Archer, Druid, Battle Kahuna, Evoker
  • Master – Berserker, Marksman, Magus, War Kahuna, Beast Master

Full Review

Rappelz Review

By Albert Bassili

Rappelz was developed by the Korean company Gala Lab and opened beta testing on October 2, 2006. After its release in North America and Europe by publisher Webzen, Rappelz was also published by AsiaSoft under the name RappelzSAE for South East Asia in 2008, and interestingly enough, was further released for Arabic speakers by Game Power 7, under the name ‘Hope Of Nations.’ Finally, Rappelz was also released for the Philippines in 2013.

Rappelz is an old school, run of the mill RPG, so it will probably appeal more to the older generation of gamers out there. There are currently only 4 servers to choose from, with one of them serving as the main PvP server.

Rappelling

In a world of Gians, the two ‘god' races, Asura and Deva, were sent down to make sure that humanity didn’t go down the wrong path. Therefore, the first choice a player makes as they login to the world of Rappelz is picking one of the aforementioned races, each one with its own set of specific Jobs and Sub-Jobs, mostly surrounding three basic class types; Warrior, Magician, and Summoner. Following that choice, players must then create their character avatar, which, unfortunately, is very bare bones, and bereft of variety. Players are only given a choice of hair styles, skin tones, and starter clothes.

The graphics aren’t much of a help in this situation, with the sad fact that the resolution only goes up to 1280 x 768. Rappelz isn’t going to wow anybody. That being said though, Rappelz does offer enough of an incentive to keep the game interesting and drive players forward, which mitigates the graphics issue somewhat.

I Am Trainee

Players take their first steps into Rappelz through the Trainee Island which, quite frankly, is a great place to begin a journey. Players are taught how to play the game through a series of quests which slowly introduce them to several different aspects of the world. While some may see this as excessive hand-holding, the one or two hours spent on Trainee island truly prepares players to enter the world at large, much to the chagrin of those who just want to get out there already.

In a perfect segue from the last line, the main criticism here is that the pacing is slow, with most tutorial quests taking the old and tired format of killing mobs over and over again, before the player can actually progress through the tutorial. Somewhat killing the mood, players might find it a pain having to traverse back and forth on this large island, so beware: there is a lot of ground to cover.

Another thing to be wary of is that unlike newer RPGs, death brings with it a loss of experience points. Fortunately though, the loss isn’t too great, and death can easily be avoided if care is taken. Even more fortunately, items aren’t lost, and re-appear with the player at their resurrection point. While there are a lot of quests to be had on Trainee Island, only a few of them are required to leave and once those quests are completed, players are finally able to venture into the continent, where the actual gameplay begins.

Class & Character

Rappelz has a complex system when it comes to leveling; there are both character levels and Job levels. These two combined dictate the stats and skills that players have at hand. In addition, each one is leveled separately yet concurrently, meaning that players receive both character experience and Job Points when they kill enemies and complete quests, much like Lineage 2 and Eden Eternal. On the bright side though, character stats are upgraded automatically as the player levels, leaving the fun of spending Job Points on skills up to the player themselves. Interestingly enough, Job Points are both used for leveling, and for unlocking/upgrading skills, so strategy has to be adopted on how a player spends their points.

But what is a Job? Well, the jobs in Rappelz represent the class system. Each race has its own set of jobs with their own unique skill trees. Players don’t pick their first jobs, which are instead just placeholders until players reach Job and character Level 10. Once they do, they can pick from one of three general class types: the Warrior, which specializes in melee defense and DPS; the Magician, which feature magical attacks or buffing/healing spells; and finally, there’s the Summoner, which mostly focuses on buffing and healing companions.

Unlike most RPGs, Rappelz offers a unique three-class tier system, with players transferring from the 1st job to the 2nd job, and then one more time to the 3rd job, or as it’s called in-game, the “Master Class.” With over 39 jobs to pick from, divided equally between the 3 races, Rappelz isn’t bereft of variety when it comes to how players want to play the game, whether ranged, up-close, or with a reliance on the player’s pet.

Pet Me

One of the big selling points of Rappelz is its pet system, with almost every mob being able to be tamed and summoned in the game. To do so, players must first have a card that is specific to that mob type, cast the card using a special spell, and then defeat the mob in battle. If successful, the mob is “caught” in the card, and the player can summon them freely.

Pets gain experience as they battle the forces of the world alongside the player. Truly, the power of the companion is second to none, as the experience they gain affords them an increase in level, as well as Job Points that may be spent on skills. Regrettably, these skills only appear on the whims of the companion level, so players are unable to foresee future skills to plan ahead.

This brings us to pet evolution: all pets have three stages of evolution, which dictate both appearance and what skills they have available. Yet, as a quirky addition, and not similar to most RPGs, Rappelz has an “overbreeding” system, which essentially means that a player can choose to not immediately evolve their pet when it qualifies, preferring to keep leveling it. The benefit here is that overbreeding gives 2 Job Points per level once it has evolves and also opens up special skills that are only available to overbred pets. Care should be taken though, since players can’t overbreed their pets indefinitely, since only 10 levels of overbreeding count.

To add to all this mayhem, pets can now also be combined and even enhanced. They can be equipped with armors and weapons and in a final twist, Boss NPCs can also be tamed. As is obvious, there’s a lot of strategy and complexity when it comes to the companion system, and with so many mobs to potentially tame, there’s an almost endless variety.

Itemizing

In addition to its vast pet system, Rappelz also has enough to satisfy the urges of those who like item variety. While the armors and weapons are essentially similar to most other RPGs, Rappelz also offers Accessories, which act as stat buffs, in addition to the normal armor/weapons the player has. Accessories also have their own slots, so they won’t take up valuable armor and weapons space, which is also why they are considered a fashion item or decorative item, meaning that they significantly change the look of the character in addition to the normal armor and weapons that are being used.

Skill Cards also play a large role in Rappelz. These cards offer an additional way to enhance a player’s character, with the ability to increase buff time, decrease cool downs, and lowering the cost of a specific skill. Easy to obtain, Skill Cards are dropped by mobs and can be traded between players. Like other MMOPRGs, items in Rappelz have a durability, and therefore players must spend time and effort to keep their items fault free. Similarly, players can also spend time on enhancing their items, from their armors and weapons to their Skill Cards. Players can also enhance their items by reforging them, which offers a quick and simple way to upgrade items, for those who can’t wait and need the upgrade to slay monsters.

With such a large land-mass, Rappelz would be remiss in not including a mount. To save players the trouble, certain pets can be taught how to be a mount, although for those who don’t have the patience, mounts can also be rented from certain NPCs available in all cities. From my experience, mounts are a must since the distances are so vast and the landscape is so bland.

Dungeons and Deaths

The guild system in Rappelz is integrated into the dungeon system. Guilds can gain ownership of dungeons, which gives them the ability to place a resource tax on anybody who enters and plays that dungeon. Owned dungeons can also be taken away by other guilds in a weekly guild vs guild event called a Dungeon Siege. Fortunately, and for the sake of balance, each guild can only own one dungeon at a time, so the challenge lies in gaining and keeping the most profitable dungeon.

PvP in Rappelz takes three forms; Death Matches, Duels, and Arenas. Death Match can only be accessed once a player reaches Level 50, but once they do, they can teleport to specific islands which offer both one-on-one, free-for-all, and PvP fights. Duels, on the other hand, can be activated anywhere, allowing any two characters to fight no matter where they are. Finally, and unlike Death Matches, Arenas allow players to enter into team-based PvP. The fun part of Arena matches, other than the team-based brawl, is that players are awarded Arena Points which they can then spend on unique armor sets and cards.

Final Verdict – Fair

While Rappelz has a massive amount of content to offer, the dated graphics and gameplay mechanics make it difficult to recommend the game to new players. With the current state of the game, Rappelz will likely only appeal to existing players and perhaps veterans who want to give the game another chance. There's a reason Rappelz became so popular when it was first released a decade ago, but the genre has moved on since then.

Screenshots

Rappelz Screenshots

Videos

Rappelz Videos

System Requirements

Rappelz System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
CPU: Pentium 4 3.0 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2800+
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT / ATI Radeon X800 GT
RAM: 1 GB
Hard Disk Space: 4 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo 6300 / AMD Athlon XP 2800+ or better
Video Card: GeForce 8600 GT / ATI Radeon X800 GT or better
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 5 GB

Music

Rappelz Music & Soundtrack


Additional Info

Rappelz Additional Information

Developer: Gala Lab Corp / nFlavor

Closed Beta Date: September 26, 2006
Open Beta Date: October 2, 2006 - November 3, 2006

Foreign Publishers:

South Korea: Gala Lab Corp
Japan: Gala Japan Inc
Philippines: EagleGame (July 15, 2010)
South East Asia: AsiaSoft (shut down on September 1, 2009)
Europe: Webzen
Middle East: Game Power 7 (Released March 16, 2009 under the title Hope of Nations)

Development History / Background:

The Korean company, Gala Lab, began beta testing for Rappelz on October 2, 2006. After its release in North America and Europe by publisher Webzen, Rappelz was also published by AsiaSoft under the name RappelzSAE for South East Asia in 2008. The game was also released for Arabic speakers by Game Power 7, under the name ‘Hope Of Nations.’ Finally, Rappelz was also released for the Philippines in 2013. Major updates for Rappelz are called Epics, with the latest being Epic 9, Part 1  Masquerade. Masquerade was released on September 2, 2014.