Mabinogi: Taking an idea and making it better
While searching for new MMORPGs to play a few months back I came across a game called Mabinogi. What I saw was a 2D game with a lot of promise. Fortunately, I was able to recover the handful of screenshots I got.
Here’s the clincher: Unbeknownst to so-so players like me who stick to one game until we get tired of it and start searching for a new game to play, South Korea-based Nexon took Mabinogi under its wings and spirited it away to a secret hideaway where they seemingly re-engineered the game.
The result is Mabinogi: Heroes, an action MMORPG developed by Nexon’s DevCat Studio. Although Mabinogi: Heroes shares its predecessor’s name and its world view, the game’s style and gameplay are totally different from ye ol’ Mabinogi.
I don’t know … maybe it’s in the game engine that Nexon chose for Mabinogi: Heroes. I mean, it’s not everyday you get to view what are supposedly similar games in both 2D and 3D. This is aside from the fact that the new and improved version of Mabinogi uses Valve’s Source engine; yes, the same one that powers Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike.
Well, it’s a wait and see game. Fortunately, we don’t have long to wait. The announcement’s already out that Mabinogi’s English beta will soon begin. Here’s an excerpt:
Nexon, the operators behind online games MapleStory, Audition, and KartRider, are counting down to the English closed beta of their new 3D Online MMO adventure game, Mabinogi (named after the Welsh pre-Christian prose), developed by Nexon’s devCat studio.
Featuring Cel-shaded, 3D, anime-styled graphics, the game service is currently available in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China.
Mabinogi features a broad crafting system, everything from farming and weaving, to mining and milking cows. Players can also create music with Music Markup Language (MML) an XML based standard for marking up music and melodies for output in a variety of different applications and devices.
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POSTED IN: Asian MMO, Coming Soon, MMO Action, MMORPG, MMORPG Videos, Mabinogi, Mabinogi Heroes, Valve
2 opinions for Mabinogi: Taking an idea and making it better
Medeza
Jul 19, 2008 at 5:15 am
pls can i play mabinogi in the philippines
Joel
Jul 20, 2008 at 6:51 am
Check out the North American site of Mabinogi Heroes for registration and gameplay details.
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