Previously, I did a first look impression on the mobile sensation ‘Maplestory M’, and while the response was lukewarm at best I reckon I should do a full review on it anyway, just to round things up. Incidentally, here’s the link to it if you’re interested.
Now, just to clarify, I’ve been playing this game for the past 12 days or so, so this is by no means a half-assed review.
During these 12 days, I made sure to explore the very depths of the game, from the various EXP dungeons to discerning whether that cute avatar’s player is really a girl.
Well, first impression has won. How does it fare after two weeks of gameplay?
So without further ado, I shall commence my full review of the game, and determine whether Maplestory M’s more of a hit…
Or a damn miss.
Levelling up’s pretty easy
Think Usain Bolt is fast? Well, you’ve obviously never played Maplestory M. I’m telling you…
Levelling up is a breeze.
Indeed, my colleague, who created a new account just three days ago, now boasts a level 85 Bishop with 7K critical damage. Not too shabby, considering how he didn’t exactly play the entire 24 hours, and mostly just lets the game run on auto-quest.
Isn’t that too easy then, you scream. It’s a floppppp.
And really, that’s what I would have said too, had my colleague not come up to me and said:
“The quests stopped. And my level did too.”
That’s right folks. Levelling up might be as easy as ABC for the first 80 levels, but after that, it’s pretty much ZYX. With quests diminishing faster than a bowl of salted egg cookies in our office, you’ll more or less have to grind it out in the dungeons (a la old Maple) in order to really get those levels up again.
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Incidentally, here’s a pic of me grinding it out. Say cheese.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you humblebrag about your character. Teehee.
Convenient buffs and items
It’s probably because Maplestory M is still in its initial phases, but the game masters have been particularly generous with their giveaways, whether it’s exp buffs for 15 minutes or mesos pouches that could give anything from 50,000 to the infinity stone (not kidding… not).
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But of course, I’m not complaining, seeing how it’s free stuff, and free stuff’s always welcome.
I do, however, have some gripes with it, like…
The lack of a proper trading system
That’s right. There’s a lack of a proper trading system in the game and one that really should have been established considering this is Maplestory I’m playing, not Fable.
Sure, there’s the trade station, where you can kind of register your equipment and items for sale (and vice versa).
But there’s no quick, definitive way of trading with your friends, which I’m sure is a core aspect of Maplestory that players dig.
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Storyline
Really, this is where the game falls flat, though it’s not in the way you think.
See, Maplestory M leverages an auto-quest function that brings your avatar through various quest missions, without you actually having to control it. And while that’s pretty normal for mobile MMORPG games in general, it kind of defeats the purpose in Maplestory M, because you’re so busy auto-questing everything that you forget what the storyline’s even all about.
Indeed, I shoot the occasional glance at my screen to see how my avatar’s doing, and sometimes he will be hitting up random angels with wings with words like “So I heard you like fairy eggs. Wanna make one?” and I would be like.
What.
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Server Maintenance
I’ve been playing Maplestory M for the past 12 days or so.
And I reckon I’ve faced just as many server maintenance periods, if not more.
Granted, the game masters might need some time to fix connectivity issues, which got really bad at times, especially the weekends, but server maintenance periods are unquestionably disruptive, and I doubt players would like it too much.
Social Aspect
Maplestory M is at the very core an MMORPG.
But from what I see so far, it could be an RPG and there would be no difference whatsoever.
With players so absorbed in levelling up (auto-questing and auto-battling in particular), there’s really not much time to engage in friendly chit chats with the players grinding it out on your road map. Sure you can always party up, but chances are that you will see more attack signals than conversation starters.
Plus, the fact that the dude over there’s constantly following you and ks-ing you doesn’t exactly help either.
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Battery consumption
100% to 70% in the space of one and a half hours?
‘Nuff said.
So… is it a Hit or Flop?
Really, if you just did the numbers game, you would have realised that this article boasts 2 pros and 5 cons, which obviously signals that the game’s a hit. #amirightoramiright
But for some unknown reason, I still find myself strangely addicted to the game, despite the flaws just staring me in the face and daring me to back down.
And it’s not just me either. In fact, my colleague Justin had this to say:
“I don’t even know what I like about it.”
But to this point he’s still grinding it out in a star force field dungeon, even if he has all but given up by forming a party, waiting for party members to join and thereafter just waiting for rest exp to come.
So my general consensus would be this. Maplestory M might be a game that’s filled with more flaws than hits, but it manages to retain the charm of its PC counterpart (in the sense that it’s so darn addictive and glues us to our mobile phones day in day out). As such, I would have to call this game a hit, because it pretty much fulfils a mobile game’s primary purpose.
To get us to play it.
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