Now.. People who know me, know that I’m not really the gamer-type, but for once I’ll do a post about a game, Maplestory, which I’ve played a lot in the past. Now some people would probably start babbling about how much this game sucks, but I decided to do this post anyway since this is really my “space”, and I’ll really post whatever I feel like.. So if you’re one of these guys, just press the “close”-button now..

Maplestory has really been one of my top favorite games (even xFire says so), and some years ago I actually played it constantly, thou I liked to take a break on a couple of weeks once in a while. After a couple of years it got kind of lonely, since most people I knew stopped playing, and in the end, so did I.

3 days ago, I however took a look at it again. I missed something to play, but since I didn’t really find any of the other free games out there interesting, I decided to give Maplestory a try.

If you know Maplestory, but haven’t checked it out recently, you don’t really know it anymore. Apparently something called the Big Bang have changed everything. And before you go ask “Oh, they finally turned 3D?”, then no. But as a Maplestory-geek some years ago, I practically knew most drops, almost all items (and their prices), monsters, places, skills, jobs and quests from level 1 to 50.

Now, after the so called Big Bang, not much of this applies any more.

The monster’s stats have changed.. Kind of dramatically for some of them actually.. Yesterday I found myself killing Stone Golems for the exp. at level 20. This was a monster you could hardly kill before level 35 before Big Bang. Today I was training at Zombie Lupins at level 25. A place where I was training with my level 40-50 bandit before Big Bang.

The drop rate of almost all items have changed.. Pretty dramatically too.. Before Big Bang I remembered always spending lots of mesos on potions, while today I can hardly use all the potions I pick up. For an example I had 20 red potions today, where I decided to start using the orange ones when I ran out, but this never happened. Suddenly I found myself with more than 50 red potions, so I guess that from now on you’ll sell potions as well as you do with etc?

Another things is the drop rate of equipments. I remember playing at 2x drop rate events, but I’ve never seen as many equipment drops as in these days after Big Bang. Will it possibly be as easy to hunt for your own equipment rather than buying it from other players in the future?

It’s easier to level up.. I haven’t totally figured out why yet, except I’m pretty sure the amount of exp. you need for each level have been decreased dramatically. Another good guess is that the amount of damage you’re able to do (in the low levels at least) have been increased. While it’s probably a combination of many things, I’m not sure whether it’s a good or a bad thing. It’s no secret that Maplestory always have been one of the tougher games when it comes to leveling. Not only is there 200 levels (for most classes), but the amount of exp. needed for each level was extreme. However, this seems to have changed now. There’s still 200 levels, but instead of using weeks on getting past the first 40 levels (at least in my case), you can now get past level 40 in less than a week (well.. It’s a guess.. As said I’ve only played for the last 3 days, but I’m already level 30). This kind of annoys me a bit since I’ve spent so much time in the past on something that can easily be done in no time today.

This will undoubtedly result in many new level 200’s, but instead of looking at this as a bad thing, I’m coming to think of many of the other MMORPG’s out there. A popular example would be World Of Warcraft where you’re only able to level to a specified amount of levels too (80 or 90 as far as I remember), but where you got so many other things to do that it doesn’t really matter. Could this be the new way for Maplestory?

The world has changed.. Not the graphics thou, but the whole structure of the world map, including the names of the places. I loved when I previously knew exactly where to train in the different levels, and knew where to find each monster, but that’s all past now, and I kind of have to start over. Not necessarily a bad thing thou, I think change is a good thing, but it’s still kind of annoying to have the thought in the back of your mind that there would probably be a better place to be training right now, you just don’t know where.

Some skills have changed.. I’ve been looking at a list of skill changes on BasilMarket (Oh yea.. A side note: I’m pretty sad to have notices that this awesome site isn’t that popular on EMS Kradia anymore). I haven’t looked through all the skills thou, and most skills only seem to have minor changes, while there’s a couple of new skills in between. One thing that shoked me thou, was update of the Thunder Bolt skill of the I/L Wizard. I’ve always looked as I/L Wizards as pretty hardcore, especially because of the Thunder Bolt skill, because it did decent damage and hit 6 monsters at a time, but after Big Bang it doesn’t just do that anymore, it also hits the 6 monsters 2 additional times, which means 3 hits times 6. I’ve been thinking if this is crossing the line, but what the heck.. They did all those other things already, so why not?

To me it seems like Nexon went from having a kind of tough game, to having a kind of easy game.. From one extreme to another.. But again, I’ve only played for the last 3 days, and I’m yet to find out how the game turns after level 30. What’s your opinion on the update? Was everything better before the Big Bang?