MapleStory 2 – The public alpha test

Hello there. It’s been a while since we’ve met, haven’t we? I’ve been posting a lot of information on my Tumblr blog.
But I feel like I should give my WordPress blog another shot, because it is something I cannot let go.

You all have heard about MapleStory 2 by now. Almost six years ago, I first published news about the development of MapleStory 2. It’s shocking that almost six years have passed by now… The development team behind MapleStory 2, projectMS has decided to let users test their game in alpha state. The game was first developed by NSquare which was a collaboration between Nexon and NCsoft, but that team has been disbanded and projectMS came to life. That is also why you see NSquare in the cinematic trailer, but projectMS in the later videos.

In this blog entry I’d like to give you my review on the alpha test that was in progress from September 17 till the 21st.
Be warned that there is a lot of text. I am looking forward to your questions and opinions.

MapleStory: You & I

Hi,

Information about the Winter update has been revealed. To read more about the “You & I” update, please click here. While you’re at it, click the FOLLOW button  in the top-right corner to follow me on Tumblr.

MapleStory ~ Official Webtoon: Demian (Chapter 3)

The first and second chapter in English can be found here and here, thanks to Maplf. The artist (다솜) who created this webtoon has a Daum blog which can be found here.
I had spare time so this was possible all because of that. Anyway, read after the jump. Translation by me. Everything else by 다솜 (Dasom). :-)

Caution: After you have clicked on “read more”, please note that the images are really big, so therefore it might load slow. 

Level 200 !

A quick and short update this time: I finally accomplished level 200 on my Zero character! It took me a few weeks to level it from 100 to 200.
I like Zero so much that I switched my Evan character for it. Upon reaching level 200, you unlock your final Transcendent Skill which is Intensive Time.
This Transcendent Skill is basically Hero’s Echo. However, with Zero’s Time Holding skill, you can reset its cooldown time of 2 hours every 2 minutes and 55 seconds.

Time Holding is another Transcendent Skill that you unlock upon reaching level 120. Time Holding resets the cooldown time of all your skills and makes you invisible to enemy’s attacks for a short period of time.
At level 200 and beyond, your character card of Zero gets an upgrade to +10% bonus EXP. Besides that and the Intensive Time skill, you do not get anything else. Not even a medal. But, you get the Child of God medal (+2 W.ATK/M.ATK) at level 180.

This is the level where you reach the end of Zero’s story line and break free from Mirror World. What’s there to do after level 200? Nothing… yet. It would be a smart move of Nexon to simultaneously release a new high leveled area with the 5th job advancement. Like Leafre and the 4th job advancement release.

Dual Blader and Cannon Shooter, ready for takeoff!

This will be our moment!

That feeling~

Seems like some people judged too fast about the “special treatment” for Dual Blader and the Cannon Shooter character class.
The RED update was actually divided in three updates, but it seems we’re getting a fourth update which will probably include this revamp.
As of right now, we don’t have Boss Arena (Boss PvP). I’m curious what Nexon has in store this time.

I have sympathy for the Flame Wizard and Night Walker users. No revamp for you yet.

The “Nexon Hype”

The 3rd content update of MapleStory RED named “Critias” was released yesterday. I’m not entirely sure now if it is the last patch because there is content missing. That bit of content is Boss Arena (boss monster PvP). It might be the case where Nexon will add a surprise update à la Legend update. Nexon surprised players with an extra content update in the Legend update.

But, I don’t want to talk about the content update of yesterday. What I want to discuss with you is what I would like to call the “Nexon Hype“. What exactly is hype? FreeDictionary.com gives me the following answer:
hype ¹  (hp) Slang

n.
1. Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion: the hype surrounding the murder trial.
2. Exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material: “It is pure hype, a gigantic PR job” (Saturday Review).
3. An advertising or promotional ploy: “Some restaurant owners in town are cooking up a $75,000 hype to promote New York as ‘Restaurant City, U.S.A.'” (New York).
4. Something deliberately misleading; a deception: “[He] says that there isn’t any energy crisis at all, that it’s all a hype, to maintain outrageous profits for the oil companies” (Joel Oppenheimer).

In this blog entry, I will be giving my honest opinion on the RED update.

The Maple Auction in RED

The second content update of RED, “Child of God” was released on the 18th. It added a new playable character class Zero, a new world Mirror World and the Maple Auction. Nowadays, you can expect an animated video with the launch of a new class. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here are two animated videos that are used in Zero’s tutorial:

That Day

Nine meets the Girl

Enable the English subtitle by pressing the CC button. In the tutorial you play as Nine. He named himself Zero after his past has been continuing for 9 times and wanted to start over. Therefore he is now known as Zero. The handsome grey-haired person with a book in his hands is Will, a new commander of the evil Black Mage. Critias is coming closer to launch in the test server. In Critias, you will see the appearance of the commanders. I’m curious, but we’ll have to wait a bit.

But let’s discuss the new Maple Auction system!