2/2/2006

You may be familiar with the Korean MMORPG Ragnarok Online. It has a number of servers around the world, including the English-speaking International and Oceanic portals. It is my favourite game of the moment. But why am I carrying on about an old PC game that isn’t even Japanese?

Well, for starters, it is now. Gravity Corporation, who designed Ragnarok Online, was bought out by Softbank, a major Japanese IT company (who, coincidently, are my internet service providers).

But the main reason I’m posting is because the upcoming sequel, Ragnarok Online 2, will have music by my hero, Japanese composer Yoko Kanno. We’ve mentioned Ms. Kanno at 3yen before. She composed the music for many anime series, such as Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus and Escaflowne. She also composed the music for countless other video games and movies.

Ms. Kanno will produce 90 tracks for the game under her contract. Her music is likely to be a big selling point for the game in the west, where many players are unhappy about having to lose the characters they developed in the original Ragnarok Online game if they changed over to the sequel.

The game is currently in closed beta mode for Japan and Korea after a playable demo was unveiled at the Tokyo Game show in September last year. There is no word yet on when the game will be released.

Squee! Yoko Kanno music on the sequel to my fave game! Chidade is happy!