In case you missed it, XD recently announced that it's mobile version of Ragnarok will finally be released in English in SouthEast Asia. But wait, didn't Tencent announced that it will release the game in English, first?
Well you might be confused about what's going on but don't worry I'll explain it to you. It's kind of funny, actually.
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| Xindong's Ragnarok - Eternal Love |
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| Tencent's Ragnarok - Love at First Sight |
Yes, there's going to be 2 different versions of the game being released - one from XD and one from Tencent. XD and Tencent are two different developers and both have developed their own versions of the game. Both will be from Gravity as well, as you know it is the sole owner of the game franchise Ragnarok.
I could only speculate about what is going on in the background and I dont really want to discuss legalities as I have little information about those things, but Ill give my two cents about it at the end of this article.
More about the games being released, we could only expect that they are different - at least graphics-wise. If I am to judge the poster released on XD's preregistration page and compare it to the one from Tencent, it should somehow confirm my assumption that the game that XD will release will be the same game they released exclusively to China called "Ragnarok - Eternal Love" while Tencent's version is called "Ragnarok - Love at First Sight". If you haven't seen Tencent's version, go to Youtube and look it up. If you have played XD's version then I'm sure you'll notice the difference graphically - both UI and fluidity of the animation. Not to be biased but I'm sure you could also say that Tencent's version is better, not to mention all the other features they had put into it (like having your character do a selfie - like as if the character is REALLY holding a phone to capture a selfie). It's easy to say that XD is finally releasing their version in English (after players ranting to have one in English for years) while Tencent's release will be a whole different take on the game.
About the gameplay, we're sure that there shouldn't be any huge difference since they just created a mobile version of an ever so worldwide-popular pc game. You can actually consider it as the father of all MMORPGs.
As for the background story, we're not certain yet but the two different titles give us a hint that they might have different stories (as if most of the players give a crap, anyways). I'm not big with background stories, too, but since Eternal love was in Chinese and the third party translation group I subscribed to have not translated the story yet, back when I still played Eternal love ( yeah, I quit. Life.), I was unable to understand the story very well. It might be possible that the stories might be different. If not, I'm sure it revolves around old Roman Gods with a slightly different story about a protagonist.
So, there you have it. But you have to think, why is XD doing this now that the hype for Tencent's version is at its peak? And to be honest I didn't know this is possible without hitting each other with legalities. I mean come on, isn't it illegal that you are releasing a version of a game that I'm supposed to have sole rights? AND IN THE SAME MARKET, WTH? LOL. (It was rumored before that Gravity signed a contract with XD that the mobile version Eternal love will be released only in China). Funny thing is, both games are official releases! It means Gravity has contracts for the two developers. Whatever is happening on the background I'm sure Gravity had it all sorted out - with deals this big, you're not gonna pick up a stone just to slam it to your own head, right? Well played, Gravity, well played.
So, to end this all up, here are the links to the two versions of the game. Preregistration for XD's release starts at September 19. Dont miss out!
Ragnarok - Eternal love (XD): http://en.ragnaroketernallove.com/
Ragnarok - Love at First Sight (Tencent): http://ro.qq.com
