New Addition! School of Ragnarok

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a good Halloween! Some of our staff members had been giving out candy to all the good little boys and girls outside of Round 1's entrance and the kids have never been happier!

Today we bring you a special report! School of Ragnarok, a 1vs.1 fighting game created by Square Enix has entered Round 1!

Title screen for School of Ragnarok.

So what is the big deal about this game? Well, for one, it's an arcade game where you can make custom characters. If NESiCA is enabled, you can create a character, save it, be able to use it in-game against other characters. In School of Ragnarok, there are 8 different weapon disciplines that a player can choose from, and the weapon discipline they choose corresponds to a support character they can use in game. Weapon disciplines range from chainsaws to mechanical fists to traditional swords to staff-wielding. (I apologize for any mistranslations from here on out or any odd assumptions. Feel free to send us an email for any corrections!)

Emma, a robotic girl who weirds mechanical, floating fists.

Lucy, a renegade high schooler who dons a spiked bat and chainsaw.

Smile Heart, the Madoka-looking magic girl with a pink staff.

Valhalla, a sword wielding demon.

Once a discipline and support has been chosen, you have the option of learning the game through Tutorial Mode or fight against a CPU. Either way, you will be having to learn the game very quickly as there are many buttons to this game that a player must be able to strategically use.

Starting from the Bottom Left Button up: Guard, Attack, Skill, Shot, Jump and Lock-On (to target). The Gold button calls your support to use their skill and the silver button has your support move to certain locations on the map that will boost your strength, defense or other stats. 

There is truly much more to this game than the "attack" and "move" buttons. Every character has a unique set of skills that you can use during the game through certain button commands. Also, every character has a ranged "shot" attack that they can use on their opponents from afar. Your supports have skills you can call upon (so long as you have your "support" gauge filled to a degree) that can either obstruct your view on the screen, cause damage, and much more. What this game really comes down to at times is your support character's "special skill" that they will bestow onto your character for a very short period of time. This special skill is like the equivalent to using a "Super" in Street Fighter or Marvel vs. Capcom. These skills usually cause massive amount of damage to your opponent and can sometimes change your game for the better or for the worst. Every character has different "special skills" so its worth it for you as the player to try different characters to see what play style and skills will suit you the best.

You are able to choose a set of skills to use in your battle.

Now why is School of Ragnarok an important and big deal to Round 1? First off, School of Ragnarok is solely an arcade exclusive and this is Square Enix's will be one of two games to be entering into the arcade scene from Enix, the other being Final Fantasy Dissidia Arcade which is to be released late November. This game is Japanese and Round 1 gives any American players the opportunity to give the game a try. The second and larger deal of School of Ragnarok being on American soil is that School of Ragnarok uses NESiCA which is similar to Konami's e-amusement network and Sega's banapass network. Since Round 1 stores have some games that support this online server, it is very possible that Eastridge Round 1 will be getting NESiCA very soon! La Puente Hills Mall Round 1, the Flagship USA Round 1, has received NESiCA support already: in particular for Groove Coaster, a music game produced by Taito. 

What does this mean? NESiCA may soon be hitting other Round 1 USA stores very soon! With more and more games running on the NESiCA system, it would prove beneficial (and somewhat mandatory) for Round 1 to get its network running and its cards distributed to stores. Only time will tell. But for now, give the game a shot!