Mabinogi is a free to play MMORPG developed by Devcat and published by Nexon. It was released in Korea during June of 2004, and was localized for America in 2008. Based loosely on Celtic mythology; Mabinogi features a classless timing based combat system mingled in with a sandbox life simulation and randomly generated dungeons. All of which is lovingly placed inside of a world nearing the 20th chapter of its story. Also Books! So many books that give this universe its own mythology and give us in universe perspectives on the events taking place within.
The downside is… well… Nexon. A company that some of you may know because of their habit of nickel and diming you for sometimes even basic gameplay features. In the beginning this might have been true. It used to be a pay to progress game, with a key mechanic being locked behind a paywall for a very long time. However, in recent years it seems to have undergone some kind of paradigm shift and Mabinogi has one of the most beginner friendly systems I've seen in a free to play game that isn't Path of Exile or Team Fortress 2. With exclusive benefits for players who have a cumulative level under 1000.
It's also a game that always has something for someone to do if you happen to be someone who's out to make their own fun. There's always some event going on. Whether it's a holiday themed dungeon, fashion contests, jousting tournaments, grandmaster tests, or even the occasional gaudy anime crossover like the time they promoted their European release with a crossover with Full Metal Alchemist or the more recent Sword Art Online event. Ick.
Simply put, Mabinogi is a long running game with a loyal community, some interesting ideas, and as I hope to show you; worth your time to at least come and check it out.
What's this about?
What I'm trying to do is create an In-Depth Let's Play of a game that I have many fond memories of. I started playing it back when it released and went on a long hiatus around the time Generation 8: Dragon was released. In the short term, my goal is to explain how combat works, explain some of the hidden eccentric stats such as Combat Power and its relationship with skills. Talk about the Talents, Life Skills, Titles, and show off as many books as I can.
This is going to be a long one folks, but I'll try to hold your interest in the same way this game has held mine.
Before we can even begin our journey, we must first create a character. Before we can do that, we must select a server. There are four servers in total. The first three released were named after the Three Missing Warriors, Tarlach, Ruairi, and Mari. The fourth server was released around the end of February in 2009. So around the time the Iria continent was released. I've chosen the Mari server for this let's play. Mostly because of nostalgia since Mari is the server that I originally played on.
After selecting your server, you are prompted to make your character's name, as well as select what kind of 'card' you are making your character with. In the beginning you have access to six Classic character cards. However at any point you may choose to purchase an Ace, Hero, and Elite Hero card from the store. Honestly I'm not going to bother with them as we don't have two characters to take advantage of the Hero system, nor are the benefits all that great. Especially the Ace card, who's only claim to fame is that it allows access Hero Talents and the Hero System. Of course the Hero System requires at least two characters on an account, so it's basically worthless to us.
Hero and Elite Hero cards cost upwards of 15 to 20 dollars, and they are amazingly inefficient. They're about the equivalent of WoW's level boost. Allowing you to create a new character with a cumulative level of 1000 with the Hero card, 2000 with the Elite Hero card, and preselecting all the ranks your skills have as well as giving you 400 to 800 ability points to play around with.
In short, they let you skip certain phases of the game and offer some very short term benefits. They also have more than their fair share of drawbacks, and using them is a good way of figuratively shooting yourself in the foot. I shall be sticking to my free classic card. Thank you very much game.
Mabinogi has three playable races. To start us off we have our tried and true Humans. Humans have no special bonuses outside of their human only abilities, but they also have no major flaws unless you count them having the slowest movement speed a flaw. They can become excellent in any form of play, even if elves might have a shorter cooldown magnum shot, or giants might be a little bit hardier with their defense skill up. With enough time and effort it really doesn't matter.
Elves are great at archery and are kind of all over the place with magic, but their dainty frames make them less than desirable when it comes to getting up close and personal. It's hard to place them regarding magic. Basic magic spells cost them more ability points to rank, provide no extra bonuses in intelligence, and cost more mana. However the second tier of spells has a significant reduction in mana cost with no ability point penalties. Elves also have the fastest movement speed.
Giants are love, giants are life. They aren't able to pick up bows, and they're a little bit dim so their magic isn't going to be as strong as elves or humans. But who needs magic or archery when you can throw harpoons and stomp the ground hard enough to create an earthquake? Giants are all about getting in your face and smashing it into tiny pieces. They have the best strength, best will, and they get bonuses on practically every close combat skill in the game. Unlike humans, giants can equip a shield and a lance at the same time. Giants can use Two-Handed weapons in one hand. One of the best shields in the game is the Vales Shield, and only able to be equipped by giants! Ok, so they might not be able to dual wield swords, and that's fine. Giants who dual wield will just come at a monster with two war hammers, maces, whatever is blunt.
As some of you might be able to tell. I'm making a Giant.
Race selection aside there's still a few details that need hammered out, namely her age and appearance. Appearances aren't all that important in the long run, but age is something that everyone should pay attention to. Age determines your base stats and how many stats you gain when you grow older.
Its most important role is determining how large of a stat increase you gain each level. The amount of status points you gain is always 25% of your "age up" gains. For example, a 12 year old giant gains 0.75 Strength each level. Age also has a few minor functions, such as certain titles requiring you to be a certain age, such as "the old" or "who slew a bear at age 10".
Selecting age 10, I go to the bare bones character creation screen. As it so happens, they disable premium options when you make a new character. You can't even see them until you rebirth or go to the dressing room in-game. I'll talk about that more when we get there.
I was floating in nothing. An unseen river had been pulling me towards an alabaster estuary. My first instinct was to struggle against it, to reach the banks of the river before I was lost forever. Arms and legs that had never existed flailed fruitlessly against the unrelenting force that dragged me along. There was simply nothing I could do in that frail state. I was too disoriented, too deep in the current, too weak to overcome it.
So I changed myself. I needed strength, and so I gave myself strength. I needed the will to survive, and so I granted myself the will. I had to be hardy enough to outlast any challenge that was foolish enough to get in my way.
I gave myself all of these and more, until finally I overcame the current and took my first shallow breath on the banks of the stream. My hands pawed at the hard, silvery ground as my knees fought for some purchase. Until suddenly, something soft landed on my shoulder and I felt at ease enough to cease my battle.
I opened my eyes, and beheld what stood before me.
There were no words. I simply pushed myself onto my wobbly feet like a determined newborn doe. It was only when I finally settled that I realized the difference between myself and the person in front of me.
"I'm huge," I thought to myself as I towered over her. I had a full head and shoulders on the girl. Owls circled overhead and I spun around to follow their movements. I stopped only when dizziness sent me tumbling to the ground. All the while, the girl demonstrated the patience of a saint while waiting for me.
After standing back up, I focused on the silent guardian.
"Hello there. You are Cuimnich, right?"
There was no way for me to know. So I went along with it. I couldn't remember my own name anyhow. Everything before I woke up was muddied.
"I have been waiting for you. My name is Nao. It is my duty to lead pure souls like yours to the land of Erinn."
"Pure souls," I pondered aloud. Did that mean I was just born? Or did I have some other life before, and simply couldn't remember. I hope that if it's the latter, that the people from before this new life think about me every now and then.
"I see your soul has chosen the form of a giant," she says. "You'll find that giants are large and powerful, more physically adept, and experts in melee combat."
"Y-yes," I croaked. "That would be… that'd be great."
I asked the first thing that came to my mind.
"Where am I?"
Nao smiled sweetly at me.
"You're in the Soul Stream. Whenever a soul from another world wishes to enter Erinn, they must pass through here first. We call those who come from other worlds "Milletians." Soon, Milletian, I will send you to Erinn to begin your adventures."
I looked down at her with sparkling eyes. Nao completely enraptured me as she spoke about the types of adventure there were to be had in Erinn.
"In Erinn, you can do whatever you wish. You can battle giant dragons, explore dungeons, grow strawberries, even participate in fashion shows…"
"You can fish, fight wyverns aboard hot-air balloons, joust, visit hot springs, search for ancient relics, and so much more…"
Nao looks up at me with her own glimmering eyes. A happy looking smile crosses her face as she continues her tale.
"It makes me happy just thinking about all the different things you'll discover in Erinn."
Her descriptions, they all sounded amazing. Fighting Wyverns on a hot-air balloon, whatever that was. I could just see me standing there, with a javelin in hand, fighting off attacks from savage beasts. It all sounded… a bit made up.
I leaned down, and whispered from the side of my mouth, "So umm… what kind of adventures do you think I'll have?"
"That depends entirely on you, Cuimhnich. "
I looked at her and tilted my head.
"You could create an idyllic life… fishing, crafting, farming, and sitting in the town square playing music you've composed or selling goods you've crafted," she took a breath. "You could charge head-first into danger, helping residents around Erinn as they struggle against dangers much bigger than themselves."
That sounded more like my style. I think sitting around doing nothing while people needed help would be dissatisfying. I was strong, that means I was meant to be in the fray.
"In between, you could participate in limited time events that celebrate holidays from your world and other special occasions. But it's really up to you. You have the freedom to pursue anything that interests you!"
Well… that was reassuring. At least I wouldn't be pressured into anything major while getting used to this Erinn place. It sounded peaceful. But still, I wanted to know more about Nao. Why is she the person here? How did she get this job? I had so many questions.
"So, if you don't mind me asking. Who are…"
"…What?"
She had closed her eyes, as if in concentration and suddenly I felt like closing my eyes as well. In a brief moment it felt like something was poking me, not harshly or teasingly, but like someone had just lightly pressed a finger against my forehead.
I felt my mind open up to a world of possibilities.
(Welcome to the Talent selection screen. This is the closest thing you get to traditional classes in Mabinogi. However they do not lock you into a preset group of skills and stats. What they do is increase the experience gained by skills under their purview. For example, if you were to boil an egg while having the Cooking Talent, your cooking skill would gain twice the amount of experience from doing so.
From left to right we have, Starter Talents, Combat Talents, Life Talents, and Hero Talents.
For Starter Talents, we have Martial Arts, Close Combat, and Ninja. If you're thinking about how cool starting out as a Martial Artists or Ninja would be, don't. I'm picking Close Combat. The reason why is because it is the strongest, most well balanced of the three. That's not to say that they're bad, they're both actually very good, and really nothing stops you from ranking up skills that aren't part of your talent anyhow.
Martial Arts is all about the single target damage, but finds itself woefully lacking whenever more than one monster targets you. I suppose you could say that it's all about punching things to death before it gets to that, but that's very hard to do in the early game.
Martial Art skills are pretty neat and interesting though. Most of its damage comes from your Will stat, which makes it a pretty good choice for Giants, and it provides Elves with a way to get around their lack of melee options. The skills themselves revolve around Knuckle Mastery and Chain Mastery. Chain Mastery is basically a combo system. Generally speaking your job is to use one of your abilities to flash step towards a monster and then unload on it as though you were Tifa with her limit break.
Martial Arts also happens to have a nice little side quest attached to it. The Rush of Love is actually one of my favorites in the game. You'll see why when I get around to it.
Anyhow, Ninja is another kettle of fish. They're really great when you're running through dungeons, but aren't as strong when you're alone. Their big thing is AoE attacks and debuffs. It isn't bad, just not what I would recommend to a player just starting out.
Close Combat is the best thing to start out with. It's the original combat style, before all these lances and alchemists and musicians able to do more than hit monsters with their lutes. It is precisely because it's the original method that it is the most well thought out and balanced talent there is. Your foundation is so much more solid after working in Close Combat.
I can't say enough how much better this is than all of the other 'starter talents'. It helps everything that you need, regardless of whatever skills you want to work on. Critical Hit is so much easier to level if you only have to work half as hard on it. Windmill, good god Windmill, it saves you hours and hours of time working on it. Especially on the later ranks of Windmill when the EXP gain is so small. I'm talking 0.04 every time you kill something with Windmill and don't have this talent selected.
It's like Master Li once said. Remember the basics and keep them close to heart.
But again, it isn't like you can't just work on skills that aren't in your selected Talent. It's just a boat load harder when your skills are higher level.
So, let's talk Combat Talents. As you can see, we have the three Starter Talents here as well, so we won't go over those twice. If anything I'm more surprised that Magic and Archery aren't on that page. At least those have justifiable reasons for being there.
Although if magic were on there, I would consider it a newbie trap just because the majority of magic skills are gated behind long quests that require you to go through several difficult dungeons. To top that off, the majority of monsters in those dungeons have Mana Deflector, which means there's a good chance your magic will just tickle the monster.
Archery I could justify if we were an Elf. You're fast enough to outrun most monsters and load up your skills before they can get close to you and your damage is through the roof. To top it of, elves get Final Shot, which lets you teleport from place to place like a maniac while shooting arrows at things. Heck, even humans are pretty good with it. They get Revolver Shot, which lets you preload 5 arrows.
I have to admit that I have a soft spot for the music Talent. I'm very surprised to see it here with all the Combat Talents, because last time I played Music was just something that you played around with. It also involved a lot of work simply for the sake of composing longer songs.
I don't really have a lot of experience with the rest of these classes though, but I promise to look into them. Looking at Lance Combat tells me that the only thing that's in Lance Combat that isn't already in the Close Combat Talent are the three Lance skills, and there are several things in the Close Combat Talent that aren't in Lance Combat.
Gunner is a newbie trap though.
Anyhow, let's talk Life Talents. These will be easy enough as they're all fairly self-explanatory. In Mabinogi there are many life skills. As Nao explained we can take up fishing, tailoring, smithing, carpentry, and whatever else we want. However, all of these skills require things that can only be found in dungeons or by monsters that want to eat you. So it's wise to rank up a few combat skills before trying to make your fortune through crafting.
Hero Talents are good if you're willing to pay for an Ace Card or spend 39 Pon to use them. For better or worse, Hero Talents merge three talents together into one while also awarding you certain skills for nothing more than spending the money on them. I will not be looking into them as there isn't anything special about them unless there's some overwhelming demand. In which case, ouch, that's 4 dollars I'm never getting back guys.
Anyways, let's recap. Talents aren't classes as we think of them. They're areas of expertise that provide bonus experience to abilities that are within that area. Gunner is a newbie trap, Life Skills aren't that good until you're strong enough to fuel them, Hero Talents are dumb, and Close Combat is king.
Yeah, that sounds about right.)
I opened my eyes as the new thoughts poured into my mind. It was different from how I made my body. Like… a guiding hand was helping me figure out what I wanted to do. The process was easier, like choosing which door to walk through, or unlocking a certain chest. I think Nao must have helped. Yes, that felt right. With Nao's help I've unlocked my potential for close combat.
"Take the time to test out your new skills when you reach Erinn. There are many Talents to choose from, if you don't like the one you've chosen. You can try a new Talent once you learn how to Rebirth."
"Say what?"
I fumbled as Nao hands me a gift basic full of bread, some strange stones, and a book.
"Look for Krug when you arrive in Vales. I've also gotten you some supplies to help you on your way."
"Wait," I shouted out as I shook my head in confusion. "I have so many questions!"
"The Travelers guide? You mean this book here?!"
I panicked as the immaculate Soul Stream began to nothingness, and soon there was nothing but the distant flutter of wings as I felt myself moved towards someplace else. A light grew inside of the blank Soul Stream, growing brighter and brighter until I was forced to squeeze my eyes shut to protect them from it.
…
…
A chill wind pushed gently against my hair, and I opened my eyes to witness Erinn for the first time ever.
"…"
Something cold, and wet, landed on me as the sight of the land around me stole my speech. A thin vapor emerged from my mouth with every breath I took. Eventually, the words just came to me.
I can see you've formatted this as a Let's Play, but you are also looking to explain the game, do you mind questions?
You and Tankette got me to download this yesterday, and I can not find a general Mabinogi thread on the forum.
I've not really had time to get into the game yet, or perhaps I should say I just started? (Was just able to finish the "equip a weapon" tutorial quest before logging off.)
Anyways, as you do mention you are going to go over combat, is there some way to hotkey a normal attack so I don't have to use the mouse for that in combat?
I'm sure I'll have more questions but after less then an hour I really haven't gotten anywhere yet.
I'm Diazo on the Mari server if you don't mind having someone in your friend's list who's going to do nothing but pester you with questions.
(Note I'm not looking to party up, just chat. With two small kids in the house I have to AFK without warning quite often, including the middle of combat and I'm not going to ask party members to put up with that.)
I can see you've formatted this as a Let's Play, but you are also looking to explain the game, do you mind questions?
You and Tankette got me to download this yesterday, and I can not find a general Mabinogi thread on the forum.
I've not really had time to get into the game yet, or perhaps I should say I just started? (Was just able to finish the "equip a weapon" tutorial quest before logging off.)
Anyways, as you do mention you are going to go over combat, is there some way to hotkey a normal attack so I don't have to use the mouse for that in combat?
I'm sure I'll have more questions but after less then an hour I really haven't gotten anywhere yet.
I'm Diazo on the Mari server if you don't mind having someone in your friend's list who's going to do nothing but pester you with questions.
(Note I'm not looking to party up, just chat. With two small kids in the house I have to AFK without warning quite often, including the middle of combat and I'm not going to ask party members to put up with that.)
Sweet! I'll be adding you, then. Currently, I'm selling my Ewura Gappie Drops (and NO ONE IS BUYING D:<), but I would do some G1 quests w/ you if you need to.
Oh, any the above is one of the things that Mabinogi does worse than, say, Runescape (they have a worldwide market, where you can get prices and sell to bidders). I Mabi, you have to personally ask for prices to other people.
I can see you've formatted this as a Let's Play, but you are also looking to explain the game, do you mind questions?
You and Tankette got me to download this yesterday, and I can not find a general Mabinogi thread on the forum.
I've not really had time to get into the game yet, or perhaps I should say I just started? (Was just able to finish the "equip a weapon" tutorial quest before logging off.)
Anyways, as you do mention you are going to go over combat, is there some way to hotkey a normal attack so I don't have to use the mouse for that in combat?
I'm sure I'll have more questions but after less then an hour I really haven't gotten anywhere yet.
I'm Diazo on the Mari server if you don't mind having someone in your friend's list who's going to do nothing but pester you with questions.
(Note I'm not looking to party up, just chat. With two small kids in the house I have to AFK without warning quite often, including the middle of combat and I'm not going to ask party members to put up with that.)
Not at all, in fact I even welcome questions. Feel free to add me as a friend in game and I'll happily answer anything you ask.
To answer your question, yes! There is a way you can hotkey normal attacks. All you have to do is open your actions tab, default N on the keyboard, and drag the Normal Attack action onto your hotbar at the top left corner of your screen.
Welcome back! It's been… two years? Yeah so, we're just going to ignore that. Never happened you hear? No hard drive malfunctions that completely killed my drive to play this game at all. Nope. Nuh-Uh! Anyways, while we're here. Let me show you what Nao has to say when you ask her who she is as a Human.
(Nao Smiles.)
"No, never mind. Forget I said anything. It wasn't important anyway. Was there anything else you wanted to ask?"
So since my impromptu hiatus (why do I keep taking these if I like this game so much?.?) they've made some changes to the game. Mabinogi is a generation newer, they've done some changes to the tutorial, and I hear that there's a Life Skill update just on the horizon, so I'm looking forward to that!
Anyhow... I guess we should probably start! Again....
((Omg Pleione Engine, Plz don't do this to me. ))
"Noo… no giants, please. I don't want to be ten feet tall…"
Taecia woke on a grassy knoll. Her head flush with sweat as the mid-morning sun burned in the sky. She laid in the grass, not knowing what to do as an ache in her legs abated. She stood up on wobbly knees and looked at her surroundings.
"…Huh."
Unsure if this were part of an elaborate joke, or if she were having some kind of coma dream. Taecia stared at the couple. Maybe I was hit by a car and now I'm dying in some hospital bed, she thought. Though she didn't very much remember what happened the night before. She certainly didn't remember getting run down by a runaway truck. But, she figured, that might just be part of the dying part.
Seeing no other course of action, Taecia hobbled over towards the pair.
As she approached, the sheep opened its mouth.
"I ram what I am," it said in a thin, high pitched voice.
"Oh my god, a talking sheep!" she yelled, and turned towards the blue haired girl. "Miss! Are you aware that your sheep TA-"
She looked at 'Lorna', her eyes wide as dinner plates as she gaped at excited young girl.
"How do you know my name?"
"I've been waiting for you for you since I heard the news. I'll be teaching you a bit to help you out in Erinn!"
Lorna paused for a moment. She rubbed the back of her head as she finished her spiel.
"Even though I may still have a lot to learn myself… eheh."
The sheep displayed it's strange ability once more and spoke over Lorna's nervous laughter.
"We'll be your benevolent mentors, muahahaha!"
"Um…." Taecia began, "Are you sure you don't mean 'Malevolent'? Because… I don't really trust that laugh."
Lorna's laughter died off quickly after that, and she seemed to be in deep thought for a moment.
"Wait. Benevolent. Right, so talk to us if you need help!" The young woman finally said. Her eyebrows crunched together as she nibbled on the top of her lip. It seemed Lorna was having troubles of her own.
"Uh, if this stuff's too easy, you can skip it. But Pan and I worked kinda hard on it, so… Oh! Plus, we have a gift for you afterward!"
(Jesus christ, look at that face)
"Hmm, wait. Lorna… Taecia already seems to have a broom. I don't think this is their first time here. They must've switched characters."
Taecia looked on in bewilderment. Already been here before, switched characters. Tutorial?! In that moment she was absolutely sure of one thing. That this was definitely a coma dream. Nothing else made sense.
"What, really? You've been here before? Aww… I was really looking forward to this…"'
"Again, this shouldn't take long! But… if you reeeally short on time… You can click the "SKIP" button at the top right.
"H-hmm… Anyway! Let's do this! Talk to me again once the conversation ends."
Taecia, overwhelmed by the antics of the pair, turned and looked at the sheep.
"I baalieve you're stalling. Go talk to Lorna. Talk to Lorna to progress through the quest."
((Alright so I'm still working on how to best mix the narrative portion of this LP with the game mechanics portion of it. Honestly this part doesn't lend itself well to the narration, even if I think it would be hilarious. I was honestly tempted to skip this bit, since it's just your standard tutorial. However I think that because I named this thread "Mabinogi In-Depth" I'm obligated to show you everything that I actually can. However, something that I understand is that you want to start the story where it gets interesting. So I'll leave it to you guys, do ya'll want to go through this tutorial? I can made it a side update if anyone reaaally wants it.
In the next update. Taecia finds herself talking with old people, doing part time jobs for the church, and generally learning about the world. See you then!))
(Nao Smiles.)
))
"I've been waiting for you for you since I heard the news. I'll be teaching you a bit to help you out in Erinn!"
"Hmm, wait. Lorna… Taecia already seems to have a broom. I don't think this is their first time here. They must've switched characters."
