Current mood:	hungry
Entry tags:	games, mabinogi, mmo

Mabinogi review

I know I say this about every MMO within the first few days of playing, but I really think I mean it this time when I say I'm going to stick with Mabinogi.  The amount of activities available to do at any time are so numerous that I don't see myself getting bored for months to come.  First of all, there are the part-time jobs with different NPC's offering different jobs (chopping wood, gathering eggs, harvesting crops, shearing sheep, etc.).  Plan your day well and you could have a few jobs in one day; busy day, more pay!  Doing well in any one job will mean promotion in said job; the work gets harder, but the payoff is more rewarding.  Go from being a mere delivery boy to actually making stuff!  Any way to get money and experience aside from fighting is is a welcome way; I'm a gatherer, not a fighter!  You see that girl standing just outside the graveyard, waiting the strong fighters to take care of the spiders so she can go pick up the scattered cobwebs?  That's me!  (Just kidding; I can take on a spider.  Even if I couldn't, they seem non-aggressive.)

For those that prefer to go the entrepreneurial route, there are of course quests to complete and the slaying of innocent creatures for the gold that they drop (although only finishing moves will net a decent amount of gold) and junk that they drop and intrepid looters can sell for gold (actually...none of the things they drop are worth selling).  Hrrm...life's tough for the self-employed, isn't it?  Anyway, battles in Mabinogi are slightly less boring than in other MMORPG's; instead of the usual "click, wait for death", the opponent has moves that actually need to be considered before attempting your own move.  For example, if a fox has a shield displayed above its head, that means it is using defense and you must use the smash skill to break through or else be knocked back (or at least, that's what I'm recalling; could be wrong since I've only actually battled a few times).

The one thing I found to interfere with having fun in Mabinogi so far is the incredibly small inventory space.  Even the bank doesn't hold much.  Let's say I wanted to work on my tailoring skills.  Sure, I could buy cloth from Nora, but that's like baking a cake from a cake mix and calling it home-made (besides, the cost of those materials is highway robbery).  So instead, I collect cobwebs and shear sheep so I can get some materials with which to make yarn.  I fail at making the amount of yarn I need, but I didn't have too much cobwebs and wool to begin with since I can only hold so much, so I run back to get some more.  I succeed!  I still need to get more wool and cobwebs, though, since I haven't gotten the right amount of yarn yet.  Fail, run back, get more.  Succeed, run back, get more.  I've spent more time running to the graveyard and the pasture than actual weaving.  It's hard to actually make room to hold anything, especially after you've made whatever outfit you wanted to because that outfit probably takes up twelve or so squares (it's a grid-based system in which larger items take up more squares, but one would assume clothing could be folded up), which is a lot considering all the tools needed for everyday tasks, such as a sickle for harvesting (four squares), a gathering knife for shearing sheep (two squares), an axe for collecting firewood (two squares), a sewing kit for tailoring (one square), patterns for making clothing (two squares per pattern), gloves for making yarn (four squares), an instrument to hopefully please people with (four or so squares, I assume), etc.  Let's not forget the stuff you've collected using all these tools, such as wool (four squares), cobwebs (one square), firewood (four squares), wheat (four squares), barley (four squares), eggs (one square), etc.

Since the time between pre-open beta and open beta was so short, I didn't think there would be changes, but they actually improved the game.  Those black spots seen on some text during closed beta and pre-open?  Gone!  Starter dungeon?  Gone!  Okay, that's not exactly an improvement.  I can't say that it makes the game any worse, though, since no one was actually required to go through it (I didn't even know it was there during closed beta).  Let's just call it different; it was interesting to see another starter area in any case.