MabiPro: The Authentic Old-School Mabinogi Experience

I want to start off with I’ve played this game for 8 years, first on Mabi EU, then on Mabi NA and also then on Mabi Pro. I have never found a game that has kept me interested so long as Mabi has, so there’s clearly something special about Mabinogi for me. However, all in all, I don’t think it’s a particularly great game, instead it has a lot of promise and fills a lot of holes that other mmos do not. I’ll explain what I mean by all of this below and of course these views do not apply to everyone.

First let’s start with Mabinogi’s combat system. By far one of the most unique aspects of the game is Mabinogi’s combat system, yet for it’s uniqueness it’s rather bland. The concept is fun but the practicality is not very intriguing (Speaking more so for old school mabi here and specifically for melee), often the best way to complete harder content is by using Windmill. So where most MMOs offer a really nice feeling of challenge and suspense in dungeons mabi just doesn’t because the lack of variety in the combat skill sets do not allow for that. The combat is distinct, but it’s lacking in complexity if you compare it to MMOs that have complex rotations in order to maximise your dps which can feel extremely rewarding when pulled off. And I know mabinogi isn’t supposed to be one of those games, but I truly think that there is a large appeal for it (look at the popularity of mmos like WOW to this day). In comparison to that combat system (if you actually look at how you can maximise your potential in a game) Mabinogi is simply too straight forward. It doesn’t allow for hybrids, so you are shoe-horned into a pretty basic class. The simplicity of Monster AI also means that there really is a lack of complexity regarding actual combat for me in comparison to most mmos.

I believe this is why Official implemented skill sets like Ninja, Gunner, Bard and so on, which to me is the second problem with Mabinogi. I believe Nexon did this to fill a really large gap in terms of the variety this game offers. This backfired for some though because the classes felt shoe horned into the game. Personally, I was just happy for the variety because that to me is more important than its place in the Mabinogi universe. I’d rather have more classes than less, simply put, even if I believe the classes could have been better designed. In old school Mabi you have 4 choices: Alchemist, Warrior, Mage and Archer and more classes means more ways to experience combat that, to me, otherwise feels basic and under-developed.
Another thing related to combat, dungeons. Dungeons do not look cool. They lack variety, they’re a bunch of square rooms connected with hallways. Bosses look underwhelming, nothing about it really jumps out at you. There are barely any actual mechanics you have to follow and the main challenge about anything is “are the people strong enough to wm this room down?” or “can the ranged/magic users please kill these wights”, but that’s not actual mechanics. You don’t have to worry about traps, monster stuns, large aoes. All of that means there’s a certain amount of disconnection when it comes to actually running dungeons.

The next problem, enchants and gear. It’s funny because one of the most unique things about Mabinogi is the ability to be classless, yet everything secondary to creating your character forces you to become a particular class in order to be efficient. You wanna be warrior? Well I guess you gotta go clothing for them max damage/crit enchants. Oh wait you wanna be a spellsword? Sorry but theres no hybrid enchants available to you so I guess you just have to be a mage or a warrior. For a class that boasts freedom it’s incredibly limited and the gear progression is incredibly linear. There’s no variety in terms of “builds” because they are just flat out worse. This isn’t too much of a problem if you do not care about min-maxing, but if you do then this will be an immediate turn off for you.
Another problem, customisation. How could I possibly be annoyed at customisation when Mabinogi has probably one of the most advanced fashion systems I’ve ever seen right? Well yes it does, but there’s no real way to customise anything else like your house. Again Mabi official combated this with homesteads, which while their collecting stuff was seen as bullshit was in my opinion a great implementation in the game simply because you had a whole space that was customisable and yours and a lot of people really love that kind of stuff. Old school mabi really lacks this element to it, also because we have less options available to us (and also because we do not have homesteads etc.)

The last thing I’ll touch on is the art-style/graphics because both are important. The anime style has a very specific audience that it draws. People either like it or they don’t and for many people the aesthetic of a game is important (and ofcourse it would be, if you hate how something looks you won’t want to sit looking at it for hours every day.) However, in terms of graphics I don’t think it holds the game back as much as people think. If Mabinogi appealed to a mass audience and was a great game in and of itself graphics would largely be irrelevant. How many people still play games like Runescape or World of Warcraft which do not have amazing graphics, but have retained a good player base because of game content. I think largely the problem lies with Mabinogi content, which those who are familiar with the game care less about whether that’s due to nostalgia, loyalty and generally enjoying a lot of the other aspects the game has to offer.

This is not to say I hate mabi, far from it. The crafting system is one of the best I’ve ever seen. I used to love the social side of Mabinogi. I love the concept of Spirit weapons (even though its stupid that you can essentially progress your character through afking), and I like the idea of transformation and demi-god. But do I think I’d play this game after playing games like Tera, Final Fantasy XIV, Black Desert Online if I had never played it when I was younger? Honestly probably not. I don’t think I’d even be tempted to try it out, because the combat side of the game lacks too much for me now. What keeps drawing me back is the fact that my life changed when I played Mabi, i made friends, I met my boyfriend there back in EU. It was a major part of my childhood if not purely because of the social side of it. Basically, Mabinogi is not a bad game for those who do not care too much about combat content, but for those who do there are far better games out there that offer more variety, more challenge and ultimately more fun. Not everyone will care about these things... I personally do and I know most of my friends who did hate mabinogi hated it for these reasons, not because of the graphics for example.

-100 CP Suit (x2), Gloves + Sword
- 100 CP Gladius
-250 bow