Trance
Posts: 30
Joined: 08-26-17
Last post: 1856 days
Last view: 1124 days
Mabinogi isn't a bad game, but it's definitely old. It's a bit too old. Look at a game like this, and Ragnarok. Most of the people who still play it or willing to try it either have terrible computers, or are driven by nostalgia. In the case of this server in particular, they're driven by both nostalgia, and a game that's core concept wasn't completely thrown out the window.
I don't think the gameplay itself is dated, it's just the game and the quality of life in the game that makes dated. There's not much for anyone to do in the "end game" when you've ranked every skill to max other than hunt a few cosmetic items that don't really do anything for you. You can hunt field bosses, but even then, the fun is fighting them with people for multiple reasons 1: everyone gets a drop, which means more chances for something rare to drop, 2: everyone gets experience. Soloing bosses is completely unfun.
Compared to something like Ragnarok which is a very solo-able game, actually rewards you for party play, IE: Increased EXP rates, while sharing exp. (bonuses vary with party size), endless dungeon (an endless dungeon designed for party play) and War of Emperium (a guild war where you're actually competing for territory that you will own until the next war). Mabinogi had a completely pointless guild war feature, but in ragnarok it was actually part of the focus, and the main reason anyone reached level cap and continued to hunt gear.
This game also suffers from the issues of power creeping in most F2P games. I like the idea of being able to level up every skill in the game being an ultimate jack of all trades, but at some point the only thing the developers can do is just make monsters become more damage sponges, than actually make the game harder. That's where Mabinogi fails dramatically. Rather than make the game harder, it just makes enemies do more damage, and take less damage.
In a game like Phantasy Star Online 1 and 2, where power creeping could be an issue, it's not. Harder difficulties actually net you harder monsters. Meaning they deal more damage, they take less damage, (Keeping up with your stat progression) and they're actually faster, which means, at least when it comes to bosses, you have to actually pay attention. but PSO2 is fundamentally a different game.
Personally I still play mabinogi because it's one of the very few MMOs that keeps combat exciting. After all these years, it's still such a fresh experience, like no other. Not only does it work, It just plain makes sense. I like to compare it to the likes of Street Fighter and other fighting games, except it's more or less a rock paper scissors kind of game, but there's an execution barrier, meaning you have to actually practice some combos before you can just start mashing skills