MapleStory
MapleStory is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game, developed by South Korean company Wizet and published by Nexon. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, published by various companies.
Players traverse various worlds, including Maple World, the Arcane River between worlds, and the extraterrestrial world of Grandis, defeating monsters and developing their characters' skills and abilities as is typical in role-playing video games. Players can interact with others in many ways, including chatting and trading. Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share rewards, and can also form guilds to interact more easily with each other. Players additionally have the option to visit the in-game "Cash Shop" to purchase a variety of character appearances or gameplay enhancements with real money or in-game currency obtained through various means.
In July 2010, the Korean version of the game was revised in a patch named the "Big Bang". Other versions followed suit and have since received the Big Bang update. Later in the year, the Korean version received the Chaos update which introduced player versus player and professions to the game. Its sequel, MapleStory 2, was released in July 2015 and features updated 3D graphics and a similar storyline. As of 2020, MapleStory has reached over 180 million registered users worldwide and grossed over in lifetime revenue.
Plot
The plot of MapleStory takes place across several different worlds, such as Maple World, Arcane River, and Grandis. Created by these people with powers called the Overseers, they assigned each world with three guardians to look over both worlds: the Transcendent of Time, the Transcendent of Life and the Transcendent of Light. The first major arc revolves around the antagonist of Maple World, the Black Mage. The Black Mage was once the Transcendent of Light and was called the White Mage until an experiment went wrong and his pure light core was corrupted. The six heroes managed to seal the Black Mage for the next few centuries at the cost of being sealed away themselves. In the present day, the Black Mage's forces called the Black Wings, began resurfacing and attempted to revive him. Fearing his resurrection, Empress Cygnus created the Cygnus Knights in order to stop the Black Wings and the Black Mage's Commanders. As the seal on the Black Mage began weakening, the heroes of legend began returning as well. After the Black Mage broke free of his seal, Cygnus created the Maple Alliance, which banded together the free-spirited Explorers, the Cygnus Knights, the Resistance against the Black Wings, the six Heroes of Maple, and several brave adventurers from other worlds.The Alliance continued fighting the Black Wings and won a decisive victory in the battle of Black Heaven, during which time, a hero of the Alliance awakened as the Adversary, a champion imbued with divine energy. Soon after, the Black Mage created a dimension called the Arcane River in an attempt to destroy the world and recreate it in his image. The Adversary journeyed through the Arcane River and battled the last of the Black Mage's Commanders before the Alliance launched a final offensive to stop the Black Mage from ending their world. The Adversary successfully killed the Black Mage and saved Maple World from annihilation.
With the Black Mage's death, the second major arc began in the realm of Grandis, which had slowly fused with Maple World due to the Black Mage's machinations. The antagonist of Grandis, Gerand Darmoor, believed that his race, the High Flora, was superior to all others, and so he sought to remake all life in his image. In order to stop him, several factions of Grandis had joined the Maple Alliance. After the Black Mage's death, the Alliance sent its forces to battle Darmoor and his Apostles.
Gameplay
MapleStory is a 2D scrolling platform game. The controls for the game are executed using the keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is used for many game functions, and much of it can be rearranged to suit users' needs. The mouse is mainly used to trigger non-player characters and manipulate items. Gameplay centers on venturing into dungeons and combating monsters and instanced bosses in real time. The players combat monsters and complete quests, in the process acquiring in-game currency called "Mesos", experience points, and various items. Players are able to acquire in-game professions, allowing them to craft equipment, accessories or potions.Players have a variety of options when interacting with others online: they can form parties where loot and experience are distributed from a monster; in-game marriages where the game will recognize the two players as a heterosexual couple; guilds which is indicated with a guild's name listed under their character name; or families, an architecture gathering of juniors and seniors. Players are able to raise or lower the in-game popularity stat entitled Fame of other players and compete with other players in minigames, such as Gomoku or Concentration. They may engage in trading activities for "Mesos" or other in-game items.
Characters
MapleStory characters exist in worlds or servers. Players are able to create multiple characters in each world, though the characters in different worlds can not interact with each other. Each world is similar in content with each other. The worlds are divided into channels, among which characters are allowed to freely switch. The ability to transfer entire characters between worlds was added in December 2007 to Global MapleStory, with restrictions placed on items. In May 2012, this option was removed as it caused a negative impact on character gameplay.When creating a new character, there are nine branches of classes currently available to choose from with three classes that have no specific branches currently: Explorers, Cygnus Knights, Heroes, Resistance, Sengoku, Nova, Flora, and Anima and Jianghu. Sia Astelle, Zero, and Kinesis are classes that currently have no specific branches. Some classes are currently not available in other regions while others are only available at certain times of year.
Explorer characters start on [|Maple Island] and begin as a Beginner class. The Beginner is able to advance into one of the five classes: Warrior, Bowmen, Magician, Thief, and Pirate. After choosing their class, further class progression is only allowed within the scope of the first class advancement with advancements at level 30, 60, 100, 200, and 260. Three separate classes, under the Explorer branch, are created differently from normal Explorers: Dual Blade, Pathfinder, and Cannoneer.
Cygnus Knight characters begin as the Noblesse class and begin their journey in Ereve. At level 10, they are allowed to class advance into five Cygnus Knight classes.
Six Hero classes are available: Aran, Evan, Mercedes, Phantom, Luminous and Shade. The Hero classes are characters with background stories related to the antagonist of the game, the Black Mage. Aran has the Combo System, a unique feature to the class, allowing them to generate combo counts by hitting monsters, giving them buffs and allowing them to cast combo-consuming skills. Evan is similar to Magicians, but uses a dragon, which fights alongside them. Mercedes is an elven archer who uses dual bowguns. Phantom is a Thief character with the ability to mimic skills from Explorer characters. Luminous is a magician of light who can also use dark magic which they absorbed from the Black Mage. Shade is the sixth and forgotten hero, whose existence was erased during the sealing of the Black Mage. They use spirits to aid them in battle.
Resistance characters begin in Edelstein, a town taken over by the Black Mage's followers, the Black Wings. The characters created under the Resistance branch begin as Citizens and have four available job advancements: Battle Mage, Wild Hunter, Blaster and Mechanic. A Battle Mage uses a staff for physical attacks, a Wild Hunter rides a jaguar while wielding a crossbow, a Blaster uses an arm cannon and a Mechanic uses a robotic suit to fight. Demon, a separate class, under the resistance branch, is created differently from the normal Resistance. A Demon character can become a Demon Slayer, who uses one-handed blunt weapons and axes, or the Demon Avenger, who uses a specialised weapon called the Desperado. Xenon, another separate resistance character, is a human-turned-cyborg who escaped from the Black Wings' laboratories who uses Whip Blades in combat.
There are three main continents common to all versions in the MapleStory world: Maple Island, Victoria Island, and Ossyria. Maple Island is where adventurers start off their characters. Victoria Island contains eight cities, and is where most classes begin. Ossyria features seven distinct regions with varying environments: El Nath Mountains, Ludus Lake, Aqua Road, Minar Forest, Mu Lung Garden, Nihal Desert, and Temple of Time. Ereve and Rien are separated from another land which is the beginning of another job of the game.
The Cash Shop is an in-game shop where players use real-life currency to purchase unique virtual goods such as avatars, digital pets and other in-game items. Most Cash Shop items expire after a period of time. The Cash Shop also offers a shop permit, allowing players to set up a store in the in-game market location called the Free Market, exclusively for the classic game mode.
Music
The current main composer for MapleStory is NECORD. In 2016, Nexon established its own music production team, ASTERIA, and sound team, NECORD, and started producing music and releasing albums on its own. In 2017, they recorded music with an orchestra in Budapest, Hungary.The game's music received positive reviews, and as the game has been on the service for a long time, it has stimulated memories for those who have stopped playing. Some music such as Lith Harbor village music, Eos Tower/Helios Tower of Ludibrium music, Blockbuster: Black Heaven music, Chu Chu Island music, Lachelein the Dreaming City music has been played in South Korean broadcast programs. The "Aquarium" music in the Aquarium which is a village of Aqua Road has been included in some South Korean music textbooks.
The music from 2006 to 2015 was composed by Studio EIM, and since 2014, official sound sources began to be released starting with FriendStory and Blockbuster: Black Heaven. At this time, M2U, who was outsourced from Studio EIM, composed Ariant Coliseum music and Ereve music.
In 2010, Kim Eun-bi, who was in the top 6 of Superstar K 2, became a Maple Girl, a promotional model for MapleStory, and unlike other Maple Girls, she released a song called I'm My Fan. In 2015, incumbent professional singer Taru sang a song, and from 2017, Second Moon began to play songs in offline events related to MapleStory, because they were in charge of music for the hologram musical Comic MapleStory in 2016. From 2018, Ha Hyun-woo of Guckkasten and the Guckkasten band themselves began to sing songs related to that game. In 2021, Bewhy also sang a song.
S.I.D-Sound composed some music such as MapleStory 8th anniversary event in 2011, the RED theme song in 2013, and the OST for FriendStory in 2014.
In 2015, SQUARE MUSIQ composed some songs such as Violeta Over Flowers which is a promotion song and vocal of "Promise of Heaven", which is a song of Blockbuster: Black Heaven.
In 2020, ESTIMATE and ESTi composed some music such as some Yum Yum Island music, theme of Adele's music, some Ristonia music, some Grand Athenaeum Episode VI: Sharenian Knights music and some Hotel Arcus music.