A short overview to accompany our recently created Tree of Savior hub.
Tree of Savior, formerly known as Project "R1," is hailed by many as the "true successor" to Ragnarok Online. And not without reason: the game has many of its spiritual predecessor's features.
Hakkyu Kim, who was responsible for the initial development of Ragnarok and was a former CEO of its developer, Gravity, decided to leave the company after it limited his creativity and opened his own studio, IMC Games. Known as the "father of Korean online games," he was at the forefront of the rise of MMOs and now returns to his roots with his new title.
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That is exactly Hakkyu Kim's idea, and he makes no secret of it: he wants to bring back the "spirit" and feeling lost long ago, but in the form of a new game with reworked mechanics that can stand alongside current titles without losing its essence, relying on heavy graphics, or changing the game's platform.
From progression to skills, attributes, and classes, the systems may seem simple at first, but they are so complex that each player can have a completely unique character, according to the developer. There are more than 80 different classes, some rare or "secret." There is no need to follow guides, since players can build their character however they wish, advancing their chosen class up to 10 times. As a character progresses, points are received to distribute among attack, vitality, spirit, and agility.
The game will focus on item collection and progression, with a confirmed exploration ranking. It is a perfect fit for explorers. Each map will be vast and have its own theme, offering new content and achievements. Initially there will be more than 200 different boss monsters, in regular maps, fields, and dungeons. After being defeated, they will have a respawn cooldown.
Tree of Savior will offer a board system showing every kind of detail: rankings, achievements, adventure details, level, classes, and even how many male and female players are currently playing.
There is also an effort to welcome both beginners and experienced players, offering a help and partnership system in dungeons that lets lower-level characters venture into dangerous places as well.
The party system is also automatic and more fluid: during an adventure, if you walk very close to another player, you are automatically joined into a party; if you move too far away, the party is disbanded. This could strongly encourage teamwork in an MMORPG without making every dungeon feel like a football team entering the field.
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There are also references to improvements over Ragnarok Online: chat will have an option to save conversations, as well as predefined animated actions and emoticons. It will also include a community feedback system.
Tree of Savior still has no release date, but it is already being tested in closed beta, and such tests should soon take place internationally.
