Maplestory Overview

With over 70 million accounts created, Maplestory is probably the most played free to play MMORPG of all time. Maplestory is a 2D Side-scrolling fantasy MMORPG with a massive amount of features and things to do. Although the game is now a little bit over three years old, it still remains fresh as the game has undergone countless content updates and patches. If you can look past MapleStory’s childish cartoony graphics, there is simply lot this game has to offer. Each player starts out as a classless novice, but can advance to their first jobs at level 10 or level 8 for magicians. The game’s first job advancements are:

Warrior- Warriors are the strongest melee class in the game with an incredible amount of hit points. They are perhaps the weakest characters in the game for the first 30-40 levels, but become incredibly powerful later on.

Magician- Magicians are the strongest characters in the early parts of the game. They are capable of dealing massive damage with their offensive spells, but they have the least hit points out of all the classes.

Bowman- Bowman in Maplestory are the generic ‘archer’ character with the ability to deal a large amount of damage from a distance, but are vulnerable in close quarters combat.

Thief- A Thief is Maplestory is the standard ‘rogue’ archetype with the ability to use either daggers or throwing weapons. Thieves can deal massive amounts of damage at higher levels but tend to have low hit points.

Pirate- Pirates were recently introduced to MapleStory within the last few content updates. They are very fast attackers, like rogues, with the ability to use both guns and fist weapons.

Maplestory Screenshots

Maplestory Feature Video

Maplestory Review

By, Omer Altay

If you haven’t heard of or played Maplestory yet, you’ve been living under a rock. The game pretty much pioneered the entire free-to-play genre as it was really the first ‘mega-hit’ free to play game out there. It boasts over 70 million registered accounts worldwide, which is quite a number considering World of Warcraft, the most popular pay to play MMORPG only has about 11 million subscribers. Okay fine, I know it’s not a fair comparison, because lots of people have multiple accounts and the 70 million figure counts the inactive accounts as well, but that’s still a LOT of players! The only real ‘turn off’ in MapleStory may be the game’s childish graphics, which I urge older players to look past, because graphics aside, Maplestory is one of the best free MMORPGs out there.

Okay ‘Nuff nonsense, on with the gameplay
Maplestory is a side-scrolling 2D Fantasy MMORPG with cute anime graphics. You start off your journey on Maple Island, the game’s tutorial area, as a classless novice. Here you can complete quests and get a feel for the game and gain a few levels while you’re at it. Players can advance to their first job after reaching level 10 if they want to become a Bowman, Thief, Warrior or Pirate and level 8 if they want to become a Magician. Maplestory’s gameplay is extremely addictive, as unlike other free MMORPGs, each ‘level up’ earns players three skill points rather than just one, which makes progression feel more meaningful. The game’s graphics are also unique, as it is one of the first side scrolling MMORPGs, but the game’s success led to games like La Tale and Ghost Online copying the game’s innovative graphics. The single best aspect of the gameplay is the simplicity, as the game practically has no learning curve. The only real downside to the game is that it heavily grind oriented which means you’ll have to kill the same group of monsters over and over if you want to gain experience.

Unique Quests
Maplestory does a lot to differentiate itself from other free to play MMORPGs. The game has an incredibly unique questing system which has a lot of fun quests that you won’t find in other games. One of these unique quests is the game’s ‘jumping’ quests that involve timing jumps and trying to get from one side of a map to another, sort of like a platforming game. Sure the game has regular ‘kill X amount of Y monsters’ type quests as well, but the fact that the game has these unique platforming quests definitely spices up the game, as it’s a welcomed distraction from the grinding aspects of the game.  Another fun and innovative aspect of Maplestory is the game’s ‘party quests’ which are exactly what the name implies; a quest designed for multiple people at once. ‘Party Quests’, or PQs for short, are usually a series of puzzles that a group has to solve through cooperating with each other within a set amount of time. The ‘unique’ aspect of MapleStory’s party quests is that they are more about solving puzzles and riddles than actually killing monsters, which once again is a welcomed change from the game’s repetitive grinding.

Job Advancements Galore
Maplestory has a large selection of job advancements which leads to the game having a great deal of variety. After players select their first job advancement at level 10 or level 8 for Magicians, they can select their next job advancement at level 30 and another at level 70. With the game’s latest series of updates, players can now select a fourth job advancement at level 120. Each of the game’s job advancements have a unique set of skills for players to learn and master. Unlike other MMORPGs, all of Maplestory’s job advancements and starting classes are incredibly balanced, with none of them being ‘overpowered’ or ‘underpowered’.  If you want to see a full list of available job advancements in MapleStory, click here.

This game is always fresh
The best aspect of Maplestory is that game is always fresh, as the publisher behind the game, Nexon, regularly updates the game’s content. I remember when I first started playing Maplestory in 2005, the game’s world was tiny with only land mass called ‘Victoria Island’, but today the game’s world has easily grown fourfold with the introduction of multiple new continents and areas to explore. The game’s latest content update introduced an entirely new ‘pirate’ class to the game and several new dungeons for players to explore. The sheer amount of content in this game jaw dropping, as there are so many quests to complete and places to explore, and by the time players even come close to completing all of the content, Nexon will quickly remedy that by releasing more content. The game has no shortage of events either, as there are events for every major holiday and occasional random GM events with bonus experience and item giveaways. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a game that doesn’t get old, MapleStory is your game.

Final Thoughts
Maplestory is one of my personal all time favorite MMORPGs along with Ragnarok Online. The reason both games are so good are because they both have a massive amount of content that gets updated regularly. The two most important aspects of an MMORPG is its playerbase and content, as without both, an MMORPG is dead. I urge gamers that are turned off by the game’s graphics to at least give the game a try, as even though the game feels childish, it’s an enormous amount of fun, I mean come on, if a game wasn’t fun, it wouldn’t have 70 million accounts worldwide.

Final Verdict: Excellent
Maplestory is hands down one of the best free to play MMORPGs of all time. The game’s varied gameplay and catchy game music will keep you hooked from the moment you start playing. Maplestory is definitely worth the download, so go download it!

Maplestory Screenshots

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Maplestory Videos

MapleStory Boss Battle

MapleStory Gameplay Video

MapleStory Town Video

MapleStory Cinematic Trailer

MapleStory Featured Video

Maplestory Links

Maplestory Wikipedia Entry

Maplestory Official Site

Maplestory Marketplace Basil Market

Maplestory Item / Quest / Monster Database

Maplestory FAQs / Guides

Maplestory System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / ME / 2000 / 98
CPU: 500 MHz Intel Celeron or equivalent
RAM: 64 MB
HDD: 1.5 GB Free Space
Graphics Card: Any 3D Accelerator Card

Recommended Specification:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / ME / 2000 / 98
CPU: 700 MhZ Pentium 3 or Better
RAM:  128 MB RAM
HDD: 1.5 GB Free Space
Graphics Card: Any 3D Accelerator Card