I have very conflicted feelings about this game.
It has its share of problems, including a few pay-to-win aspects that have gotten better and worse over the years.
The gameplay itself is extremely fun, exciting and rewarding.
Unfortunately, I think the biggest problem I have with the game is the permadeath. I think permadeath is an interesting and essential part of the game, but the possibility of losing characters I have tens or even hundreds of hours of gameplay on makes me too anxious to want to play through most of the game's more interesting and difficult content.

It's great, but not for everyone.

This game has been a parasite for almost 10 years of my life. Even though I play way less than I used to, I still do my daily logins if I have the time. The game's meta has advanced so far and it's not really beginner friendly anymore, unfortunately. Beating Oryx in like 2012 was an achievement since he didn't get absolutely steamrolled every single time, and to get that atmosphere back of "everybody has to put in the work but it'll be worth it" you'll most likely have to run dungeons with a smaller guild.

It's also important to know that the game as it exists today is WILDLY different than the game I fell in love with during middle school. What started as an insanely fun free MMORPG to play with friends ended up being bought out twice, both resulting in increases in microtransactions and other shitty business models. Most recently, they introduced a battle pass. These four stars are essentially just from my experience from early 2012 to 2014 and not of the game in its current state.

Despite that, there's something about this format of bullet hell-MMORPG fusion that I haven't seen done anywhere else. It's just so much more interactive, satisfying and easier to understand than something like FFXIV or any other game with passive attacks and massive skill menus, shit like that. RotMG has you constantly engaged and moving, so I'm always actually playing the game and in charge of my character's movements/attacks. Guilds were also extremely fun, and the sense of community that came with running dungeons with similarly-skilled players and helping each other out are some of the best memories I have with this game. This was my World of Warcraft or Runescape or whatever better MMORPG kids my age were probably playing.

It can feel like a slog near "endgame" since there's no definitive end and all you're doing is essentially grinding for better items and stuff, but they're doing an alright job of creating new endgame dungeons that are fucking insane to keep people busy.

If there are any other MMORPGs that have this style of combat and are better, please let me know. I miss this type of game so much.