Games like Ragnarok Online you can play in your browser

What Ragnarok Online is known for

Ragnarok Online came out in 2002: hand-drawn sprite characters on 3D maps, a Novice who changes job and then changes again, a card for nearly every monster to slot into your gear, huge boss monsters that whole servers hunted, player vending shops lining the towns, and guild sieges for castles. It still runs on official servers in several regions, and it needs a download.

What Averse Lands has in a similar spirit

• Bosses worth a party. Three dungeons for two to five players end in a boss: the Crypt Knight, the Sun Cult's High Champion and the Rime-King of the Ice Caves. Each boss has loot of its own, and each dungeon a two-hour lockout after its boss.
• Leaders in every pack. Camps across the world have pack leaders, bigger and tougher than the rest, with loot of their own; the monster database lists them all with their drops.
• Upgrading your gear. Not cards, but close in spirit: a gem or a bone of the right tier, taken from monsters, is set into a weapon, shield or armour piece at a smith. The materials database lists them.
• A market run by players. Instead of vending stalls, one market for the whole world, the Exchange, used at a broker in town: list at your price, place buy orders, and see recent sales on a price chart.
• A painted portrait for every monster, and a bright, illustrated look rather than a gritty one.

What is different

• No jobs. There are no classes to change into. You pick a starting weapon and grow by using it; every weapon family and school of magic has its own skill, listed in the skills database. A knight and a priest in Averse Lands are just what they carry and cast.
• 3D characters, not sprites, with a camera you zoom.
• No guild sieges. There are no castles to take and no wars between guilds.
• Open PvP outside towns from level 8, with a standing that remembers who you killed. The open PvP guide has the rules.
• It runs in a browser tab, free, with nothing to buy in the beta.

Who should not bother

• If the job tree is what you loved, the classless system here will feel open-ended rather than planned.
• If you want War of Emperium-style sieges, there is nothing like it yet.
• If you want a crowded world. It is a young game in a small beta.

If you miss hunting for one good drop, upgrading your favourite weapon and gathering a party for a boss, it is worth a look. For more classics, see the best old school MMORPGs.