Mabinogi Review

and for those who are saying the mobs are weak then you havn’t even been past the bears near Tir cause there are PLENTY of mobs that are not weak (and i’m lvl 300 total) the graphics may not be all that but i acctualy like them in the anime style they’re in. and sure the cash shop gives you alot of advantages but it’s not a nessecity just like in MapleStory (Which i hate btw >.>)

one thing i have to say though is that this game just isn’t very much fun without a friend or two playing it with you. but with all the interactions you get by going on quests and dungeons your sure to make at least one in-game friend =o.(depending on teh server the game is very noob friendly ^^ [i’m in mari btw Ayame550 is my user]

this is a game that takes a lot of patience to get used to but once your used to it it’s the funnest game in the world =D

-Ayame550

After waiting almost 3 hours (I have a 2006 Dell Laptop) I finally was able to run the game. I came upon the main game screen which showed the Title and a lovely setting with flowers and grass to show in the background. I logged in and came upon the Character Creation button.

I was suprised at all the custom features you could use, you can choose between 3 races which have the same old basic s.. Elves, Humans and some Orcish like race. What made me even more excited was that you can choose your own age! Between 12 and 17 and your body becomes either full grown or still developing as you level and gain experience your body can grow. I was further intrigued by all the hair styles, skin colors, eyes, noses and custom clothing.

Once I finished creating my character, aged 17 and ‘pimped’ out I stumbled in a place which reminded me of a Prison. A lady in black told me some things then I was off into the world. When I first arrived the Tutorial spammed my screen and was very long and boring. I killed a Rabbit using a very simple attack and traveled down to a village like the lady told me.

When I arrived I was harrased by a player.. calling me a noob and a few other names. I spoke with Village Chief twice and he actually remembered my name. I was able to get several jobs and there was even a night and day time.

I learned new Combat Moves which weren’t that interesting and it was hard to get used too. I completed a few dungeons, which were boring and didn’t offer me much. I did several other quests but they were kind of boring as well and were hard to get used too.

I think this game had a potential and still does, but it didn’t really interest me that much. If the combat was a little more exciting then I think this would be a fair game to play and a good wait for the Download.

Graphic: Graphic is 3D cartoon like. They have excellent background picture and nice character design. Except that when people first see it, they wont be able to tell if that it’s a good game or not without playing it.

Gameplay: I personally think that the gameplay is nice. There are many things for you to do when you first play, like going around exploring place you never been to, or doing dungeons and at the same time, meeting new people. they also have many skills for the player to raise. When i first watch the trailer, my first expression of this game was that fact that it resemble the game Runescape, because i keep seeing people cooking, fishing, weeding, shaving sheeps, woodcutting, etc. But unlike Runescape, you cant just stay in that same area and spam doing the same things for hours. You will need Ability Point(AP) to raise the skill (with the exception of skill that require hard work like icebolt and windmill). They even include a age system where we can get stronger as we age up. when you reach age 20, you can rebirth. Rebirth is when a character go back and start off as lv 1 again, but we get to keep our skill we raise, so we can level up faster, get more AP, and raise even more skill. Now for the down side of this game. During the beta open of this game, i enjoy how people mostly just talk to each other. i Also enjoyed how we can make campfire out of wood and play music while chatting with each other. Sometimes, my friends and I usually just formed a party and go team up on some random dungeons. But as the game goes on, things became very easy for most people, like how they can solo dungeons that took many poeple to finish back in the old days. Also, People rarely even create campfire and sit back and chat. They just ignore that kind of style of playing and focus on making money, buying fashion, making more money, getting stronger, and making even more money. Only time they even make campire is using them in battle -__-. As for the Landscape, people mostly dont even go into most areas. Example is the Iria continent, most people dont go there, which end up being a drag for the game and causing more lags. They even create the place that like 100 times the size of dunby and it end up with no one being there, not like how they display in the iria trailer where people ride around in horses exploring and stuff like that, sure they do that, at the first few days when iria was out, ya they do. Same for Rafting and Balloons, most of that dont do that. Ok, im done with graphic, on to the nx items.

NX items: now in games like maple story, nexon pratically ripped us off, a 9 dollar pet that only last for 3 month and wont do anything except auto pick up and auto hp/mp?
Well, you can get a 5 dollar pet that last forever, they can help you fight, store items, and even get stronger lving up. There are also many pets that have different function, along with different price, but they are all worth it.

Storyline: unlike games that just tell you to spam lv and stuff like that. Mabinogi include many storyline for you to follow, and in the end, it benefits you with great reward if you finish it. The story line include that you do many interesting quest like RPG dungeons, where you get to play as a NPC and experience their skills. There are also many boss levels in story line, where you can team up with you friends to bring it down. Mabinogi is still updating every story line. Up to now, it has a total of 6 story line to play with and in a few weeks, the 7th is going to be out =D.

Community: Helpful, nice, and doesnt say F*** off or CC PLS. there may be some assholes in the game, but there are very few.

Battle system: very nice, unlike games where you just spam a few button like maple story D=

Number 1: You have to pay for almost everything; without nexon cash, you cant even have more than 1 character, your damage is useless, you run slower, and basically suck. Like hell. Without paying you only have a few customization choices, and all of them are hardly different from one another.

Number 2-The gameplay was fun-for the first few levels.Luckily you level fast in this game, unlike Malplestory(Thank God!) Sadly, as soon as you reach level 15 or so (which even an idiot would be able to do in about 2-3 hours) it becomes just about impossible to do quests. The combat system was good.. but as you go on its next to impossible to attack a monster, and have the time you die trying to kill something your level. Quests were in the beginning not terrible, but once again, as you progress, the quests become WAY too hard, forcing you to grind.

Number3-Putting that aside, one last major problem is that health and mp, even at level 15, s terrible. Most monsters can kill you in 3-4 hits, even though they are your level and lower.

All that aside, conclusion is that: DONT PLAY THIS! You will regret it!

A) Interface is awful and there is no error reporting (Don”t know what you did wrong? Don”t expect the game to tell you.)

B) Community is not very social. Chat is always quiet except for all the gold spammers (and the game is jam packed with them.)

C) Community is not newbie friendly.

D) Grindy and made grindier for the following reasons in order:
D1) Camping deduction which takes a (big) percentage of your xp if you stay too long in one spot. Rises too fast and only causes more camping (irony) near mobs on border lines.
D2) Rock-paper-scissor combat makes for unpredictable fights with mobs your level. One minute you win, the next you lose because no matter how well timed your counter attack is, 1/5 times you just won”t make because the mob gets up too quick, or your skill level isn”t high enough vs your opponent.
D3) When you get hit once by a mob, it causes a chain reaction of damage that is hard to stop. You die easily if this happens w/ mobs your level, and fighting mobs under your level means extremely slow xp.
D4) You can”t fight without stamina, and it runs down while you attack. You need pots to restore it, which are $$$ and if you use too many you can poison yourself.

E) Nexus tries to milk every cent from you by pressuring you to use the cash shop at every turn, e.g. no new characters unless you pay, no rebirth unless you pay (one of the core features of the game is rebirthing.)

D) Economy ruined, gold farmers everywhere and no GMs or game guides in sight to remedy it.

E) Marketplace prices are dumb. Items not priced according to stats or usefulness, only cuteness. I”m all for unique identities, but when a black item with the same stats as a white item costs 17x more, you have lost your mind. Stop listening to Barbie Girl and put down the Teen People.

F) No class restrictions, but extremely limited AP meaning no hybrids early on. Pointless feature, unless you want to grind your brains out.

G) Pets are useful but can only be summoned for a short period of time, 1.5 to 2 hours. Considering how grindy the game is, that time is too short.

H) Repetitive quests with nothing interesting about them. Dungeons are instanced, and extremely “samey,” reminiscent of Last Chaos.

I) Non-combat skills like crafting and whatnot are very reminiscent of Runescape, e.g. click the sheep and wait to harvest wool; click the chicken and wait to harvest eggs… Bring mats together to make clothes or food… Not exciting or unique.

J) The only unique skill is music composition. Note the word composition, you cannot play live. Most people do not write their own, only steal songs from internet. If you want to know what it”s like, imagine being stuck on the highway with everyone blasting their favorite radio station, except everyone”s stereo sucks and can only play MIDI files (kind of what the internet was like in 1998.)

Final conclusion: Runescape with better graphics, worse interface, more gold farmers, and slightly better community (if you think being ignored is superior to outright ridicule.) Some unique features, but buried under all the drawbacks. Pretty mediocre overall.