It's been a long time since I played the first Maple Story, but I was ready to try out Maple Story 2. The game is free to play and looks like a super cute anime world complete with all the anime characters. Making my character was pretty easy. There is a lot of customization so you can make your character to your liking. Next of course comes the job classes. There are nine different job classes to choose from. So your options are: assassin, berserker, heavy gunner, knight, priest, archer, runeblade, thief, and wizard. I decided to go with heavy gunner because it looked interesting to me. Also choosing which server you would like to be on comes up. I went with NA East because that has more people on it and a lot of my friends are on that one. After that I was ready to play the game.
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| My super anime heavy gunner. |
There is a bit of a tutorial showing you how the controls work. I have issues with arthritis in my hands so I use a controller often while playing games on PC. I was thrilled to find that Maple Story 2 is quite compatible with a gaming controller, so that is what I used while playing the game. It was very easy to set up and map the abilities to the controller. The world of Maple Story 2 is huge. There are a ton of main story quests and side quests to do. Exploration is definitely encouraged. Load times for the game are fairly decent so you can get to and from different areas pretty quickly. There are dungeons you need to do for the story quests and these are fun to explore offering experience and rewards for your job class.
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| Fighting a boss in a dungeon. |
There are group dungeons and raids as well. While you can solo some of the story dungeons, it goes a lot faster in a group. Raids are much more challenging and having a good group definitely helps. There is a daily reward cap of 10 dungeons and a weekly reward cap of 30 dungeons. Once you hit the cap you don't get any more rewards until it resets weekly on Fridays at midnight UTC. Whichever you like doing, they are a lot of fun. The dungeons and raids are colorful areas with a variety of cute anime style enemies as well as interesting story elements.
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| There are lots of colorful dungeons like this one. |
If you need a break from running around dungeons, there are also tons of fun mini games. The game will give a notification of a mini game happening like Dance Dance Stop and you can click on it and you will be whisked away to the event. Participating in these mini games gives you experience on your character and if you win you receive rewards such as a Kay coin which can be used to spin the Kay's Event Wheel for a chance to win accessories and consumables. The mini games are a lot of fun and a nice break from grinding.
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| Everyone having fun playing Dance Dance Stop. |
There are mounts in the game for getting around that great big world. Some you get as a reward for completing certain quests and others can be bought with varying currencies such as merets. Each mount varies in speed, riding options, and unique run cycles. Certain mounts can only be used on land or sea. There's a variety to choose from and getting them is half the fun.
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| I can ride around on a giant duck mount! |
An adventurer needs a place to hang their hat so you do get a little starter home in Maple Story 2. You get a tutorial on how to decorate your home, how to build things in it, and how to place items. You can customize your house however you like and some people have even expanded their houses. The creativity is endless and it's very cool to see how many different housing styles there are. You can also buy a plot in various areas and build a house. If you have the funds you can set up your pad and make it great.
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| Exploring my starter home. |
That's not to say that Maple Story 2 doesn't have problems. The biggest thing are all the bots. Bots seem to be the bane of every MMO's existence. Unfortunately the bots are rampant in the game. They are on every map and now some of them are invading the dungeons. It can be incredibly frustrating seeing the constant spam from gold sellers as well as how obvious they make themselves when running dungeons. Nexon has made a statement that they are aware of the issue, that their GMs ban them as soon as they are noticed and have an automated system. They have admitted that the problem is the bots create a weird combination and generate accounts too fast. They stated that because of this they are working on ways to combat the bots abusing their system. Hopefully they will have a fix for it soon. The other issue is some of the elitist players. That's not to say that everyone is like that, but there are some players in the game that feel that just because they're behind a screen they have a right to be rude to others. This is what the block button is for and it should be used accordingly. You can report harassment as well, but that should really only be used for extreme cases. Having friends to play with in the game definitely makes it better.
Overall, Maple Story 2 is a lot of fun to play. There is so much to see and do that it can be a little overwhelming, but luckily it's a game that allows you to be as casual or hardcore as you want to be. I love that I can hop on the game and play for an hour or two and hop off. Maple Story 2 is great for playing by yourself, but more fun with your friends. It's a big colorful world with lots of fun to be had. Get out there and explore! See you at the next adventure!
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| See you at the next adventure! |
*Maple Story 2 is available to play on the following platforms: PC
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