This week I'm going to be reposting an older review I did. This ones from the game Mabinogi.

March 2008
So I've been playing this game for the better part of a week. The very first day I played I was hooked.

There's was only one problem with the game and that was that the camera kept forcing me to look north. Fortunately there was an easy fix for this problem which was simply pressing the Z key.

I was really hesitant on posting about this game until I was completely sure about it. Now that I have been able to play the game for a while I'm sure It needs a post here.

The game starts with a Character generation like most MMO games. One of the first things I noticed was that you could choose your age. The scale here was that the younger you picked the more difficult the game is to play. So I automatically picked the youngest age I could. Call me daring but I like living on the edge sometimes.


When you finish Character creation you are taken to what looks like a platform in the middle of white nothingness. A beautiful woman comes floating down and starts to talk to you.

She then proceeds to transport you to the beautiful world of Erinn.

Starting out you are asked to help out the villagers around you. They then throw a few quests at you. One of the most unique things about this game is they sometimes just throw random quest's at you. From what I can tell as you do Part time work for the people in the town your status in the town increases and they give you new quest's to meet everyone in the town.

The first quest that you get from an NPC is to kill some foxes.

This is fun and easy but the best part is holding the control button to target the fox nearest to you. After you are taught a skill the NPC gives you a card for a beginner dungeon.

The beginning combat system is like a big game of Roshambo Or more commonly known as Rock, Paper, Scissors. You have 3-4 skills that you can use that you need to anticipate the monsters move. You do have a skill which tells you what move your opponent is making so its not tough to figure out.

There's the Smash skill which is good Against the Defense skill. The defense skill is good against a normal attack. Then there's the counter attack skill which is good against a normal attack and the smash skill. Fortunately you can see which skill the monster is prepping.

There's also magic but this early into the game its not a main function. From what I've seen it can be really powerful though.

Every dungeon you go into is completely unique. The best part is you drop an item and that takes you and your party into the dungeon. Now random people who drop the same item can also join your dungeon as well. This adds a really nice dynamic to the game.

The beginner dungeon is pretty much a solo thing this time around though. The dungeons reminded me of an easier version of Zelda dungeons. You fight some monsters and they drop a key so that you can advance to the next part of the dungeon. This dungeon was pretty small but I imagine that as you advance they get more complex. I did notice as you enter it said I was on level 1 of the dungeon. Which means they can be multi level.

At the end of each dungeon you have a boss. In this dungeon it had a Giant Spider.

After Defeating the spider you are allowed to go to the treasure room grab the loot and teleport back out to the dungeons entrance. Altogether it was a great dungeon experience. What was very nice were the little traps and such throughout its interior. As an example there were some rooms where there's a bunch of poles and you need to pick the right one or monsters spawn.

After the dungeon I noticed my stamina started getting a little bit black and the max stamina was going down. What I didn't realize was that you need to eat to keep your stamina up! What was actually even more amazing than that was that the food that you eat makes you fatter or skinnier in the game. This is a concept that most games don't go into. Your character actually changing by something that you do in game. (Besides armor and equipment which by the way changes as well when you put it on in this game.)

Another nifty little thing I learned is that your character ages. So I don't have to be a little shrimp forever hehe. Also learned that as you age you get more AP or ability points to get new skills.

I also noticed that my health was starting to get blacken out and my total health was lower. As you adventure a bit more they teach you the rest skill. Turns out that you can't adventure forever. You need to sit down take a rest and let that puppy restore so you have full health again.

The best part about resting It gives you time to setup a campfire and interact with people. One of the more unique things about the game is that people can compose their own music on the games website and bring it to the game and play it for people. Its really funny to hear Linkin Park played on a Lute. It really sets an atmosphere for the game. It also lets you notice the little graphic easter egg's in the game like when people laugh their mouth changes.

Building a campfire also lets everyone resting share food. It's only about half as filling as normal but everyone can share and everyone benefits. Plus while resting near a fire your health restores faster.

Now that I conquered a dungeon, met a few people and learned to setup a campfire I decided to try out a few part time jobs.

When you go to a part time job you need to be prepared to do what the task entails. Any prep work you can do is a bonus. Some jobs are simple delivery's. Some of the other jobs require you harvest crops and make some flower which is a bit more complicated. You can on the other hand take a look at what they want you to do before you accept the job. It helps but you have to be careful though because they only hand out so many jobs to people per day. Plus there's a time limit which you have to get the job done.

Day's go by pretty fast in the game so don't worry too much if you mess up.

My first attempt at a part time job was helping out by sheering some wool from some sheep. You equip a gathering knife (which was really inexpensive at the blacksmith's shop) and sheer the wool from a few sheep. It was pretty simple task, just click on the sheep and it starts gathering the wool. When you return with the wool requested, you are rewarded with a couple choices. Most rewards consist of Experience and money but some choices have more money than experience and vice versa. Sometimes they also offer items and experience.

Another unique thing is that the more you talk to the NPC's and do work for them the more they start to like you. If you constantly go to NPC's and fail to complete your part time jobs their opinion of you changes more to the negative side.

For your work you are rewarded ultimately with a title. Though you have to do a lot of work for them before getting the title. The titles actually give you bonuses to some attributes as well as to health stamina and mana.

There are skills for just about anything you want to do in the game from Fishing to making clothes and even cooking your own meals. There's also modifying weapons and armor which I haven't even gotten into yet.

My experience in Mabinogi I must say has been an amazing experience.

I'm currently playing on the Mari Server You can find me there as Seriene.

Game Website: Mabinogi