The first thing to strike me in Ragnarok Odyssey ACE wasn't the snaking tentacle of some screen-consuming monster, but an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Not because the game's an expanded and enhanced rerelease of a 2012 action role-playing game, itself spawned from a decade-plus old Korean massively multiplayer game. No, the familiarity stemmed from the fact that ACE's opening played out almost identically to one I'd experienced just a few weeks prior in

ACE's many enhancements are further complemented by the Tower of Yggdrasil, a 400-floor, randomly generated dungeon that opens up after the main campaign concludes. This massive content update doubles the original game's size, but adds little to the already lacking story. It also outstays its welcome a bit; as satisfying as ACE's combat can be, it's not immune to repetition, and nothing drives that point home like a few hundred dungeon floors filled with familiar baddies. ACE also brings Ragnarok Odyssey's action-fueled brand of monster slaying to the PlayStation 3 for the first time. While the cross-play functionality is a nice bonus, both the bite-size nature of the missions and the built-for-Vita visuals feel more at home on the portable.

Given its cookie-cutter narrative, polarizing leveling system, and late-game repetition, ACE doesn't address all the issues that plagued players the first time around. If it didn't satisfy your monster-fighting fix back in 2012, there's probably not enough here to draw you back to the battlefield. However, if you're a Ragnarok vet ready for more, or a new recruit looking to hunt some big game of the not-of-this-realm variety, then you'll want to start sharpening that oversize sword.