ROSE Evolution

ROSE Evolution was introduced on 24th August, 2006 (Japan ROSE being the first to migrate to Evolution). This massive update brought a complete revamp of the GUI, materials, skills and crafting system.

The update

An interview on RoseOnRadio was made with GM Leonis on July 20th, 2006 to talk about the upcoming Evolution update scheduled for the following month. The interview can be read (as well as listened to) at: Interview with GM Leonis on RoseOnRadio.

Another interview with Leonis was made right before update day on August 23th, 2006. The talk was announced to be "unscripted", as in questions from people wouldn't have first to be selected and prepared: anyone was free to ask anything whenever they would have some air time. For more information see: Second interview with Leonis.

Revamp of the User Interface

The GUI (Graphical User Interface) was completely redesigned.

New features

Major changes included:

• Removal of Birth Island and thus change of starting point.
• Introduction of the 3rd planet Eldeon as well as completely new monsters.
• Skills are tightly coupled to weapon. For example, Cleric can no longer use a staff to perform buffs and Hawker's skills are divided into weapon groups.

Reception

The Evolution update received lots of mixed reviews. A good number of players really disliked it right from the start and that number increased over time when development (still lead by Triggersoft at the time) really started to stagnate. However, many other players actually embraced Evolution and were more than pleased with the changes it brought (i.e. new User Interface, new maps, features, etc...).

Nowadays, most of the current and loyal players have completely accepted Evolution (as in: there's no going back) while nostalgic feelings may resurface from times to times, mainly when comparing the current ROSE to the Pre-Evo one on development issues or problems in general.