Ro2 was supposed to have been released in the fall of 2007..its now summer, 2009, and they still don't have an international open beta.

So two questions, are they even still developing this game? And if they are, seeing as its already 2 years late, and we would be lucky if we had an international open beta in early 2010, who gives a damn?

I really looked forward to this game a few years ago, but its becoming the mmo duke nukem forever..even if it came out next year, or in 2011, would anyone even bother anymore?

Well, this was a game I was looking forward too... unfortunately i havent heard any information regarding an international beta... or even a korean release date for that matter.

As far as I know, they have been in their Open Beta stage ever since may 2007 in Korea, but no news have surfaced since then. The 2 new races arent even playable yet.

I was lucky enough to play in a private server to try out the game... and really enjoyed it. I liked the character designs, and most aspects of the game. Hopefully the game will be released... someday :S

I was hoping for it as well after seeing screenshots and such years ago. I even had the soundtracks long ago, composed by Yoko Kanno and the music was awesome. The game.. nowhere to be seen.

All i can say is that im a fan of ragnarok and cant wait to get it on my NDS too, but Ragnarok too look like a peace of shit. Characters dont look fresh like they use to be in the 1st one. Rather then being a diablo in a mmorpg world, its not an other wow clone, but even more shitty then ever. I like ragnarok graphics art, but ragnarok 2 graphics is full of fails.

There is a rumor circulating that they dropped development on Ragnarok Online 2, and are going to redo it from the bottom up. 

Rumor confirmed by Gravity.  Due to low audience appeal, the game switch to Gamebryo engine and has changed many aspects.  Expected to release next year.

I read that the development team working on RO2, Team Mercury, left Gravity to start on a new MMO. Which is somewhat of a shame, if only because I love Yoko Kanno's music so much. :D On the other hand, they've got Yasunori MItsuda working on the music for their new MMO, so that sounds promising as well...

I don't know how they can expect to release RO2 next year if they've had to redo it from the bottom up. When did that rumor start circulating? I only heard about it very recently. Such a short term notice...

From what I understand the changes started happening early 2008.  Its possible for them to recycle many assets by switching to Gamebryo, consolidate programming staff, and even recycle good art assets and BGMs.

Team Mercury in my opinion wasn't that good a development team.  They lacked the sophistication to really push an inspired direction on the game.  I think the real story now is that the original creator of Ragnarok Online is creating his own successor.  That guy is a magnificent developer.

Oh yeah, I heard about that. Very exciting! :D Isn't he working on two new games? One will be in true RO style, with 2d sprites and 3d backgrounds, and the other will be more of a traditional MMO. He's got a lot on his plate. We probably won't hear much about it for quite a while though. :(

Yea, I am very excited.  He is making a martial arts mmo so its probably going to be a good action mmo.  He is also making a 2.5D action-based successor to Ragnarok.

Yeah it was pretty boring when I played in BETA. Weapon system was stupid because you were stuck with 1 weapon, and there are no weapon drops. Back then when I first played RO1 weapon drops and you would be so excited to use item Identifiers to see what weapon you got, but RO2 totally just slaps you in the face and say "hey, we will drop these items that will change the look of the weapon." ....... The class system was stupid too. There was no originality to class system You can be whatever you want, and you can use skills from other class. However, I am excited to see the new version.

They using the same engine used for LIME ODYSSEY ONLINE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28uC8ktUCvo&