Mabinogi

[Gryph]

http://mabinogi.nexon.net/

Despite being a Korean MMORPG, this game is surprisingly good. It's not great, but it's actually something worth trying out.

The graphics are a bit simple and cartoony, but unlike most Korean MMOs, you actually get to customize your character some. You pick your gender, starting age, hair, eyes, and mouth.

The game has quite a bit of depth for being free.

Age: As I mentioned before, you pick your starting age. Your starting age is between 12 and 17. After that, you get older every Saturday, until you reach 25. Each time gaining stats.

Food/hunger system: You have a stamina meter that depletes with every skill you use. This meter will be made smaller as you get hungry. So to ensure you have plenty of stamina, you have to keep your hunger from getting too high. There's more to it, though. It also has a weight system connected to it. Depending on how often you eat, how much over your hunger you eat, and even how active you are will physically change your characters appearance. Depending on all these factors, you character will gain and lose both fat and muscle. This system never really gets in the way of the game. Food is really easy to get.

Crafting system: This game has a fairly large crafting system. You can make clothes, cook food, forge weapons and armor, and make potions. To make these things, you have to get the raw materials. To do this, you need the proper tools. For instance, you need a knife to sheer sheep, to get wool. You then go to the town's spinning wheel and turn it into yarn. After that, you then use the loom to combine the yarn with another thread to make fabric. After that, you use a needle and finishing thread, along with a pattern, to turn the fabric into clothes.

Jobs: You can go to any of the shops and request a part time job. Every shop has one particular job every in-game day, and certain amount of times it can be done. These jobs range from deliveries, to making items. All of them have the same time limit. You have to get the job done by the end of the day. So depending on the time you take the job, it could either be easy, or really hard. Completion of the job lets you pick from multiple rewards, depending on if you want more experience, money, or items. Sometimes you can get special items this way.

School: Every town has a school. Each school has two teachers. One will teach you about physical abilities, the other will teach you about magic. You have to pay a certain amount to take a class. Each class lasts at least 3 in-game days, with a quest of some sort on the last. Going to school gives you lots of things. You always get exp after each session. Besides that, you can get stat boosts. It's also how you gain most fighting skills and magic.

Titles: Mabinogi has a title system similar to the Tales series. Completing certain quests, and other feats, you earn titles. Equipping these titles on your character will grant them various stat bonuses and other special features.

Dungeons: The dungeons are done in an interesting way. When you first enter a dungeon, there's a statue in the middle of the room. You walk up to this statue and drop an item in front of it. You're then taken to a dungeon determined by the item you dropped. Dungeons are laid out similar to The Legend of Zelda. They're made up of a series of rooms. When you enter a room with monsters, the doors close until you kill them all. One monster will be holding a dungeon key, that you use to unlock the door in the next room. At the end of the dungeon you get the boss room key to unlock the door to the boss. After killing the boss, you get the treasure key which lets you unlock the special chest in the last room to get various items.

Class and Skills: The game doesn't really use a class system. You can pretty much learn every skill, then specialize in whatever you want. To improve your skills, you have to use them. Each successful use gives you exp towards it. Once you get 100% you can upgrade at the cost of ability points. Upgrading a skill also gives you stat boosts. If you wait until you've gained extra exp to master the skill before you upgrade it, you can get even greater bonuses.

Battle System: This game has a pretty fun battle system. It's a variation on the old point and click style. It's not the usual "stand there and beat each other up" system. When doing a regular attack, you can do a combo by clicking again at the end of each attack. Besides this, there's also knock backs, and knockdowns. They all affect the flow of battle. You can't just keep doing normal attacks over and over. Doing so will get you killed pretty quickly. Every enemy can also do combos, and at the very least, use the Smash and Defend skills. These two skills are the cornerstone of not dying. Defend serves two functions. First it greatly reduces inflicted damage. Second, it prevents you from being knocked down, allowing you to counter attack. Smash is used to break the Defend skill. When an enemy uses a skill, you'll see a thought balloon above their head. Depending on the level of your Sharp Mind skill, you have a higher chance of seeing what the skill is, thus letting you plan your strategy accordingly. It surprisingly doesn't really get that tedious. It generally stays somewhat fun. Even more so when it comes to bosses.

Now, the game does have it's negative points. Unfortunately, you can only make one character for free. To make more, you have to buy a character card. Beyond that, to select from the full character options, you have to buy a premium character card. At the moment, there's only a hand full of items you can buy, so it doesn't really make an impact on the actual game.

Really, though. That's about the only real issue I have with the game.

[KiSin]

I have a character on it. It really is a great game, but with a lack of money and my internet out right now, not a lot I can do. I'll be probably over 25 before I can play it again and without another character card, I will not be able to rebirth. Which is a point that I find annoying about the game.

The counter-attack skill is also very usefull. The defense skill actually got in my way most of the time. o.o

Though, I believe the age range is 10 to 17, not 12.

Kei and I think Mao is cute.

[Gryph]

Due to the way it works, Counter Attack is most useful against enemies stronger than yourself.

[KiSin]

Don't I know it. xP