Kotaku
Eee! Singing sheep! Nexon's not-new-but-new-to-the-US MMORPG Mabinogi is moving to open beta as of this coming Wednesday. The Harvest Moon-meets-MMORPG has already been through a closed beta and pre-open beta test run, apparently to a good response. You can sign up at the Mabinogi website or over at FilePlanet. I'm a total sucker for stuff like this, so I'll be wandering over to check it out. Full release after the jump:
Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia's leading online entertainment company Nexon Group, delivers the open beta for Mabinogi, its free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), on March 5. Slated for release later this spring, users can create their own personal "Fantasy Life," by signing up for the open beta during an exclusive 24-hour play period at FilePlanet.com or afterward at http://mabinogi.nexon.net.
Open beta users will tap into a world that has already birthed a civilization of more than seven million fans in Asia, and will retain these characters through the commercialization of the game. With over 30,000 users signing up for the recent closed beta, the open beta should prove a similar success providing players an opportunity to discover a beautiful 3-D, cell-shaded art style, featuring anime-type characters and gruesome monsters.
The open beta delivers users numerous new areas to visit, including more dungeons to explore. It also offers North American players a first chance to burrow into new game skills such as cooking, enchanting, meditation and composing music.
These are just the first phases of Mabinogi's deep, online universe, where players experience all facets of fantasy life. Dazzling 3-D graphics boast an art style based in Celtic and Welsh mythology, which also gives Mabinogi its name and foundation. Mabinogi provides a new experience with its gameplay variety, unique combat system and orderly time element and age component, to provide additional depth to Nexon's latest free-to-play offering. In addition to traditional MMO features - challenging adventures, exciting group quests and a plethora of fearsome monsters - Mabinogi offers a much fuller "life" for its players. Players can increase experience by taking jobs, such as cooking, shearing sheep or other farming duties. The game's unique music program allows users to write and share music in MIDI formatted files.
Mabinogi's traditional mouse and keyboard functions unite with its distinctive combat, and anthology of game-play styles, that should excite the most hardcore gamers. Players will also quickly discover Mabinogi requires more finesse and strategy during combat than just pushing a few buttons and haphazardly attacking everything in sight. The unique fighting system, which emulates paper, rock, scissors, adds another degree of complexity. Characters develop skills in three categories— Combat, Life, and Magic—so users can not only gain experience by fighting a giant spider but also by cooking dinner and learning a new spell. Players acquire Ability Points as they gain experience in the game to help show progression. This gives players more freedom to play Mabinogi however they choose.
Additionally, Mabinogi's time is standardized, allowing for users who play longer to earn different "daily" bonuses as incentives. Plus, avatars age on a weekly basis and get taller as they get older (up to 17). Avatars gain ability points up to the age of 25 as well. Plus, players will see their avatars' diet affect appearance. Mabinogi also features a long-term storyline that is revealed over a series of generations and weaves its way throughout the game. Using these unique features, as well as the heavy socialization aspect present in all of Nexon's games, gives Mabinogi a unique placement in the world of MMOs. And like Nexon's previous offerings, the game is free to play.
Comments
YAY! I hope i get to try this MMO out!
looks cool
"The unique fighting system, which emulates paper, rock, scissors, adds another degree of complexity." Well... I can't honestly say I'm blown away by the complexity of "Rock-Paper-Scissors"... but I'll see how they try and pull that off.
It is a decent Harvest Moon/Ultima Online Korean MMO. I spent a few hours with it during the pre-open beta. I think it'll do ok for itself.
I CANT WAIT FOR ITTTT!!!! :D I played the closed beta & open beta constantly while it was out. ^^ Too bad they're baleeting all our open beta characters though.. D: But w/e the full experience should be better.
So liek...where's the link?
THANKS AGAIN FOR LINKING TO THEIR HOMEPAGE KOTAKU WRITERS...OH WAIT! YOU DIDN'T. HOW USEFUL!
Enough cruise control, but seriously Kotaku, get your damn act together. Why should everyone who reads this article that's interested have to Google for a link to the games website? Do your part to stop clogging the tubes, link the damn sites.
its that hard, really? a link would be nice, but the added 30 seconds it took really didnt give me any visable scars.
Lol? You're telling me none of you guys play any nexon games? xD
Here;s teh link: [www.nexon.net]
To "where's my link" posts:
"...by signing up for the open beta during an exclusive 24-hour play period at FilePlanet.com or afterward at [mabinogi.nexon.net.]"
*sigh*
"by signing up for the open beta during an exclusive 24-hour play period at FilePlanet.com or afterward at [mabinogi.nexon.net]"
You seriously didn't read that link in there?
hmm.. I knew Nexon was spamming be for a reason... Didn't think it was because I quit KartRider
I'll probably check it out. Also, no link wah wah wah, get over it.
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@lucky644: Some people don't actually READ the article apparently.
I signed up and was accepted for the closed beta.. and honestly, it played like absolute crap. It felt extremely incomplete, and everything seemed kinda wonky.
I can't remember, but I think the text and the interface really irritated me.
I imagine these servers won't be shared with the other regional servers...
So my マビノギ experience will continue to remain free of SSJ_Sasuke, Naruto_311 and all the detergent-tards running around yelling insipid crap from Naruto and Bleach.
I really enjoyed the game back when I was first playing the Japanese version back in...I think...2005-2006. It's fun, and like EVE Online, character development does not mean rat-killing. (Unless you enjoy that sort of thing...) Whatever it is you WANT to do, earns you XP, and that's really refreshing. (EVE takes that a step further where character progression is completely passive.)
I don't know what it is about them, but for some reason I always like games with deep crafting systems, in the case of Mabinogi, it was the cooking and tailoring...
(To quote the Zero Punctuation review of GHIII, 'I AM NOT GAY.')
I still return to the game periodically when I have time to play stuff like that. The visuals and ambiance really are enjoyable, and for the sake of the US players...yes, even SSJ_Sasuke and friends...I hope the US version doesn't change the experience much. I'll probably stick to the JP version though.
@plus.medic: haha calm down, its in the article. plus, how much effort does google really take?
Is this 3D or 2D?
It is 3D. I played the closed beta.. It was pretty much unplayable... Too many bugs, not interesting, and the translation needed SERIOUS work. Unless open beta is many times better, I will not be playing.
i didnt read the article
but i saw that singing sheep
i dont know about you guys, but to me that indicates a great game in the making
@Roller: Ahahaa! Sounds like they really bollocksed it up. :3 I guess no one cares about the US, since both the Korean and Japanese betas ran smoothly for the most part xD (At least in the experience of the people in my circle)
I watched some of those episode things that explained the game. They were kind of cute and now I'm interested.
@plus.medic: If not posting a link keeps a choad like you out of the game, I'm all for it.
I played the stress test, it's definitely one of the better localized K-games out there. I wasn't as impressed as I hoped to be, I'd been waiting over a year for some sign of an English version. I will say the combat was far and away more interesting than most other games out there. I'll be trying it out again at launch.
I'm a sucker too. I need something to latch onto after ditching Ragnarok Online.
Oh, yes, I'll play it every free hour until the 9th. Then, it's Nexon's Mabinogi by moonlight. Playing Brawl by daylight. Losing in all of these fights......
@Xanto5824: Sorry, I'm a lazy bum. Actually, I generally skip the part where the developers pat themselves on their backs for a not-so-great-game and just see how the game is myself.
Hmmm...a japanese MMO interpretation of ancient celtic mythology. Should be entertaining to say the least.
And did someone say singing sheep?
I'm interested by it, and played the CB parts. I did like that everything you did gave xp in a way, but the rebirth cards still keep me from totally being happy with the game. If rebirth is one of the ways to further level by the time you hit max AP from aging, it kind of takes away from the 'free' to play aspect. Still, it'll keep me interested at least till Hello Kitty Online starts up.
No.. I'm serious.. Hello Kitty.
Stop snickering at me damnit!!
@Cpt_Bongwater: It's actually a Korean game, but so far it's seen the most widespread popularity (Internationally, anyway) when the Japanese version hit.
As for the sheep... Here's one of my old screenshots. Don't...judge...me. orz
Can you perform indecent acts on or with sheeps?...
If so, this will be a hit. At least in New Zealand.
PS. No offence, Kiwis, just a silly joke playing on stereotypes.
The battle system is based on Rock, Paper, Scissors? I'm awaiting the day for when that actually works out and isn't unfair or boring. I wonder how this could possibly be different, though I admittedly don't know anything about it.
Played the open beta, and although it was very much a beta build (aka bugs, translation errors, etc.) it seems like it may turn out quite nice. Oh and for those that don't know nexon's other MMO is a pretty good 2D action rpg hybrid (aka MAPLE STORY). I highly recomend checking it out as well, after all its free.
i wouldnt exactly say its based off rock paper scissors... But it does require some amount of attentiveness IE you cant just sit there and click the mouse and attack repeatedly or use skills on a whim. If you knock the enemy down you should take that chance to use defense for instance so you dont get hit bad and can then attack them after they hit you for a low damage.... Its far more complex battle system then has been in mmorpgs up till now and its not that hard to get the hang of.
Once you do it gets to be interesting :)
best online game ever!
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