As a fan and someone who spent years playing Ragnarok Online and built friendships from the game, being invited to attend and cover Ragnarok Festa 2025 Presented by OneOne was thrilling for me.
Ragnarok Festa 2025 – A Festival of an Iconic Ragnarok
My Early Beginnings
Admittedly, I was pretty late to join the Ragnarok Online hype train in the early 2000s, and even then, it took a while for me to truly enjoy the game. I recall playing solo in the Fenrir server before quitting and then joining again when my brother joined a guild named Justice in Thor.
The social aspect of the game truly became a driving force for me to play more and ultimately learn more about the game. The guild was very active in the War of Emperium on a pretty small server at the time, and even competing in 7v7 tournaments.
At the same time, we attended the annual in-real-life Ragnarok Online events to hang out and just enjoy.
It’s precisely because of this that attending and seeing Ragnarok Festa 2025 felt so nostalgic. It’s been a while since an event was held in the Philippines to celebrate Ragnarok, especially since there have been so many Ragnarok games since I first played.
Ragnarok Festa 2025 – Nostalgia and So Much More
Ragnarok Festa 2025 had everything that a seasoned veteran could see. Upon clearing security check and all that, you’re greeted by a castle front akin to those of the War of Emperium or of Prontera with a Kafra in the center.
This already felt like something familiar and yet so new, which at this point, is the best description of the Ragnarok franchise as a whole.
From here until the doors of the halls, you can see a variety of Ragnarok classes scattered around the and even a larger-than-in-game Poring.
The one-day event opened with a performance of some of the iconic soundtracks of the game by an ensemble that included some Thai instruments, which was a unique experience and set the tone for the event.
This was followed by an inspiring speech from Mr. Yoshinori Kitamura, Gravity Chairman of the Board and COO. He was also joined by representatives from the four upcoming titles coming in 2026.
After this, the main stage was officially divided into four stages of what would become the battlefield for the 22 teams that hailed from a variety of countries to play across four titles.
It was only then that I explored the halls to see the different booths for the 18 Ragnarok titles, including the upcoming Ragnarok The New World, Ragnarok Abyss, Ragnarok Midgard Senki, and Ragnarok Online 3. We covered these titles in our article here.
I didn’t get into playing a majority of the titles, but it put a smile on my face to see that it has expanded to so many titles now, and each had its own little space at Ragnarok Festa 2025. It was extra special for me even to see Ragnarok Online, yes, the original one, get its own corner.
As much as I wanted to try Ragnarok Online 3 for myself, I didn’t quite want to line up, and I figured the game might’ve been in Thai. Although watching people enjoy it was enough to scratch my itch on what is said to be the successor to Ragnarok Online, a game that will forever be dear to me.
In addition to these booths, the floor of the festival was scattered with cosplayers of Ragnarok classes, monsters, and NPCs. I’ve seen so much cosplay, having attended so many conventions and events in recent years, but there was something so heartwarming about seeing Ragnarok characters being cosplayed again.
On one end of the floor was a merchandise booth for a variety of goods like shirts and plushies, while on the opposite side, they also featured fan art, which was across a message board for fans to write messages for the community.
Before the tournaments came to a close, fans and attendees were treated to a concert from Thai pop girl group PiXXie. I didn’t quite do my research before this and basically had 0 expectations, but I loved their music, even if the majority of it was in Thai.
Moreover, when I say concert, they actually performed about an album’s worth or maybe a bit more. It caught me off guard because I’ve only really been to conventions and gaming events where the band would play at most 5 songs, and that includes maybe an encore song.
Ragnarok Festa 2025 concluded with the crowning of the champions of the four tournaments. We gave a quick run through of these here.
Conclusion
Ragnarok Festa 2025 had a bit of everything – booths, activities, merch, exciting esports tournaments, cosplayers, and everything in between. All of which felt intentional and celebrated Ragnarok.
As a player from the early 2000s, it felt nice to see and feel the Ragnarok community alive and kicking, and be immersed in that again. It felt like visiting an old house that was spruced up but with the space bringing back memories.
I hope I get to experience more Ragnarok Festas in the future. More importantly, I hope it is held in the Philippines in the future, so I can call my friends from good ol’ Justice of Thor and later on Valhalla to attend just like we did in the past.
It was truly an honor to attend an event that felt like a celebration of Ragnarok, an iconic franchise at this point. The event made me realize that the magic of gaming and similar activities that bring together a community is that you don’t even need to understand the language used at an event to enjoy it. In this case, even seeing the community and all the games was enough to bring a sense of community and joy in me.
Thank you, Gravity, for keeping Ragnarok alive and inviting us!
For more information, read the official website.
Ram found his love and appreciation for writing in 2015 having started in the gaming and esports sphere for GG Network. He would then transition to focus more on the world of tech which has also began his journey into learning more about this world. That said though, he still has the mentality of "as long as it works" for his personal gadgets.
