MapleStory

buff hero

Maplestory is probably one of my favorite games, and one I simply cannot play anymore or recommend to anyone. TL;DR: progression is heavily RNG-based and can become negative, the game is [b]aggressively[/b] monetized, players' voices feel unheard and every patch seems to make the situation worse. [b]Disclaimer - the last time I've actually played is before the New Age update (June 2023)[/b]. I've played on-and-off for more than a decade, mostly through the Nexon Launcher (hence my comically low playtime), and I'm still following the community and the game. HOWEVER, I haven't personally touched the systems I'm talking about in years. Maybe I should've made this review then, but better late than never. Maplestory is a side-scrolling MMORPG with heavy focus on either grinding by killing lots of mobs on the many maps the game has to offer, or defeating bosses to gain stronger gear. There are 50+ classes with (mostly) unique style of gameplay, from combo-heavy classes to support classes to "summon and dodge". The game also rewards and even encourages creating and levelling multiple characters (/alts/mules/whatever), so there's less of a fear of spending too many resources on a class you end up not playing much. There are two servers to pick from - "Regular" servers with everything you can expect from MMOs, or "Reboot" where the P2W items can all be bought with (a lot of) in-game currency but there is no trading at all. I've played Regular, which gave me the option to buy stuff from other people to progress, but the Reboot servers are more active. The grind is designed around either being your second job, or spending money to progress. You can just be F2P and play at your leisure, though progression becomes time-gated past a certain point. I've done so for years, and even though I didn't progress very far I still had fun and had that sense of accomplishment when reaching a new area. Bosses are [i]mostly[/i] fair and require* you to actually learn their mechanics, which can be done through basically unlimited practice mode. (*unless, of course, you grind up and throw so much firepower that they just die before doing any shenanigans. You do you) The MMO aspect is, sadly, barely there. Playing with friends is possible, of course, but the game leans toward incentivizing solo play - money drops from bosses are divided between the players, the "good" loot is shared, lots of items aren't actually tradeable and maps are designed to be held by a single person. There are guilds, and guild content, but I haven't really done much of it so I can't judge that. Progression systems are absolutely atrocious, and will be elaborated upon below. The soundtrack is amazing IMO. There is a huge variety of tracks from almost every genre, and all of them are enjoyable - not just the nostalgia-laced old BGMs [strike](Shattered Time my beloved)[/strike]. The only money I've ever spent on this game was buying the soundtrack on Steam while it was still a thing. The story (which [i]does[/i] exist, don't let anyone fool you) is good, though it ranges from a little cringe to awesome. The main storyline suffers a bit from having to make the player a blank template even though they can be any of 40+ established characters, but the class stories more than make up for it and the Blockbusters are great. My #1 drive for progress was reaching new areas and therefore new parts of the main story. Unfortunately, some of the storylines were removed or altered through the years. I very much love the world of Maplestory and its characters, I still follow the lore and pray we'll get more content outside of the game [strike]I don't count the anime and webtoon[/strike]. The art and designs are also really good in my opinion, both the spritework and the official art. The customization options mostly lean toward "casual" gear, with too few armors in my opinion, but I do like the regular gear design. So why am I so loathe to recommend it? Well, Nexon. Until around last month there was no test server - updates regularly introduced bugs that requires multiple many-hour extended maintenances to fix and a few too many rollbacks. Of course, bugs benefitting the players were immediately squashed while other, less pressing bugs such as [i]nerfed drop rates[/i] were untouched for weeks. Progression is random. Leaving aside random loot drops which are the bane of every MMORPGer, there are around 4 different systems to enhance gear - all of which are completely random and are capable of [b]reverting[/b] your progression if you aren't careful. Imagine months of progression wiped in a single click. [i]That's what we have to work around[/i]. The only pieces of progression (not levels) that aren't RNG-dependent are so timegated that it takes literal years to fully build a character, and conveniently the game [i]encourages you to build multiple[/i]. Now, Nexon knows all this. The playerbase has been complaining for years. So what do they do? Answer: [spoiler]They Monetize, of course[/spoiler] Cubes/flames/scrolls/whatever? Sell 'em. Actually, don't - instead, make a gacha that the best stuff is locked behind at abysmal rates and sell coupons. [i][u]Also, there have been a lawsuit against Nexon for rate manipulation - look up the 2024 rates scandal[/u][/i]. Progression takes years? Sell a 30$ pass that makes it faster (but still more than a year!). Then, when the playerbase is up in arms, "apologize" and raise the weekly cap so that it won't be as egregious. This - the New Age Sol Erda pass - was my breaking point. This was when I swore off Maple. Because seeing this, I could not stop thinking that the cap raise was just a ploy to sneak in the paid pass without complaint. Honestly, I could sit here for hours and type in all the ways Nexon messes with its playerbase - from the "Go West" update that advertised itself with the changes they [i]didn't[/i] make, to the ten paid passes released in the newest (v269) update - some of which contains stuff that other servers got for free - but I want people to actually read the review. A quick look through any of the big Maplestory youtubers' "scandal" videos should give you a sense of what I'm trying to point out. In conclusion, I do not believe Nexon respects its players, their time or their efforts.

Mushroom games are the best

how is this 70 gigs bro

hopefully classic is good

The game requires too much of anyone's time to play. You have to spend like 5,000 hours just to get by in the game. There's very little fun in the game besides the grind it's like 90% grind then 10% fun. It's about 7 Hours a week just for: - bare minimum dailies on main monster park, maple tour etc etc - You def need minimum 6 boss mules I have about 10-12 - Weekly Sol Erda Missions -Party Bossing .. Thats just the BARE MINIMUM your just getting by in the game realisticly you probably need like 20 hours a week (3hrs played each day) for years to actually reach somewhere decent in the game. You have to have no life to play this game.