Players travel the "Maple World", defeatingmonsters and developing their characters'skills and abilities as is typical inrole-playing video games. Players can interact with others in many ways, including chatting and trading. Groups of players can band together inparties to hunt monsters and share rewards, and can also formguilds to interact more easily with each other. Players additionally have the option to visit the in-game "Cash Shop" to purchase a variety of character appearances or gameplay enhancements with real money.
In July 2010, the Korean version of the game was revised in a patch named the "Big Bang". Other versions followed suit and have since received the Big Bang update. Later in the year, the Korean version received the Chaos update which introducedplayer versus player (PvP) and professions to the game. Its sequel,MapleStory 2, was released in July 2015 and features updated 3D graphics and a similar storyline. As of 2020,MapleStory has reached over 180 million registered users worldwide and grossed over$3 billion in lifetime revenue.
The plot ofMapleStory takes place across several different worlds, such as Maple World, Arcane River, and Grandis. Created by these people with powers called the Overseers, they assigned each world with three guardians to look over both worlds: the Transcendent of Time, the Transcendent of Life and the Transcendent of Light.[22] The first major arc revolves around the antagonist of Maple World, the Black Mage. The Black Mage was once the Transcendent of Light and was called the White Mage until an experiment went wrong and his pure light core was corrupted. The six heroes managed to seal the Black Mage for the next few centuries at the cost of being sealed away themselves.[23][24] In the present day, the Black Mage's forces called the Black Wings, began resurfacing and attempted to revive him. Fearing his resurrection, Empress Cygnus created the Cygnus Knights in order to stop the Black Wings and the Black Mage's Commanders.[25] As the seal on the Black Mage began weakening, the heroes of legend began returning as well. After the Black Mage broke free of his seal, Cygnus created the Maple Alliance, which banded together the free-spirited Explorers, the Cygnus Knights, the Resistance against the Black Wings, the six Heroes of Maple, and several brave adventurers from other worlds.
The Alliance continued fighting the Black Wings and won a decisive victory in the battle of Black Heaven, during which time, a hero of the Alliance awakened as the Adversary, a champion imbued with divine energy. Soon after, the Black Mage created a dimension called the Arcane River in an attempt to destroy the world and recreate it in his image. The Adversary journeyed through the Arcane River and battled the last of the Black Mage's Commanders before the Alliance launched a final offensive to stop the Black Mage from ending their world. The Adversary successfully killed the Black Mage and saved Maple World from annihilation.
With the Black Mage's death, the second major arc began in the realm of Grandis, which had slowly fused with Maple World due to the Black Mage's machinations. The antagonist of Grandis, Gerand Darmoor, believed that his race, the High Flora, was superior to all others, and so he sought to remake all life in his image. In order to stop him, several factions of Grandis had joined the Maple Alliance. After the Black Mage's death, the Alliance sent its forces to battle Darmoor and his Apostles.
MapleStory is a 2D scrollingplatform game.[26] Thecontrols for the game are executed using thekeyboard andmouse. The keyboard is used for many game functions, and much of it can be rearranged to suit users' needs. The mouse is mainly used to triggernon-player characters and manipulate items. Gameplay centers on venturing into dungeons and combating monsters in real time. The players combat monsters and completequests, in the process acquiring in-game currency called "Mesos",experience points, and various items.[26] Players are able to acquire in-game professions, allowing them to craft equipment, accessories or potions.[27]
Players have a variety of options when interacting with others online: they can form parties where loot and experience are distributed from a monster;[28] in-game marriages where the game will recognize the two players as aheterosexual couple;[29] guilds which is indicated with a guild's name listed under their character name;[30] or families, an architecture gathering of juniors and seniors.[31] Players are able to raise or lower the in-game popularity stat entitled Fame of other players and compete with other players inminigames, such asGomoku orConcentration.[32] They may engage in trading activities for "Mesos" or other in-game items.
There is small content that differs depending on the country it is serviced in. Recently, Korea Maple Story (KMS)'s artifact update was completed and is receiving a lot of attention.
MapleStorycharacters exist in worlds or servers. Players are able to create multiple characters in each world, though the characters in different worlds can not interact with each other. Each world is similar in content with each other. The worlds are divided into channels, among which characters are allowed to freely switch. The ability to transfer entire characters between worlds was added in December 2007 to GlobalMapleStory, with restrictions placed on items. In May 2012, this option was removed as it caused a negative impact on character gameplay.[33]
When creating a new character, there are eight branches ofclasses currently available to choose from with three classes that have no specific branches currently: Explorers, Cygnus Knights, Heroes, Resistance, Sengoku, Nova, Flora, and Anima. Beast Tamer, Child of God and Kinesis are classes that currently have no specific branches. Some classes are currently not available in other regions while others are only available at certain times of year.
Explorer characters start onMaple Island and begin as a Beginner class.[34] The Beginner is able to advance into one of the five classes:Warrior,Bowmen,Magician,Thief, andPirate.[35] After choosing their class, further class progression is only allowed within the scope of the first class advancement with advancements at level 30, 60, 100,[36] and 200.[37] Three separate classes, under the adventurer branch, are created differently from normal Adventurers: Dual Blade (Thief), Kinesis (Magician) and Cannoneers (Pirate).[38][39]
Cygnus Knight characters begin as Noblesse class and begin their journey on Ereve.[40] At level 10, they are allowed to class advance into five Cygnus Knight classes, each one parallels to the Explorer class.[41][42][43][44][45] Upon reaching the level limit of 120, Cygnus Knights are able to change into a level 50 explorer with benefits.[46]
Six Hero classes are available: Aran, Evan, Mercedes, Phantom, Luminous and Shade. The Hero classes are characters with background stories related to the antagonist of the game, the Black Mage. Aran has the Combo System, a unique feature to the class, allowing them to generate combo counts by hitting monsters, giving them buffs and allowing them to cast combo-consuming skills.[23] Evan is similar to Magicians, but uses adragon, which fights alongside them.[47] Mercedes is an elven archer who uses Dual Bowguns.[48] Phantom is a Thief character with the ability to mimic skills from Adventurer characters. Luminous is a magician of light who can also use dark magic which they absorbed from the Black Mage. Shade is the sixth and forgotten hero, whose existence was erased during the sealing of the Black Mage. They use spirits to aid them in battle.
Resistance characters begin in Edelstein, a town taken over by the Black Mage's followers, the Black Wings.[49] The characters created under the Resistance branch begin as Citizens and have four available job advancements: Battle Mage, Wild Hunter, Blaster and Mechanic. A Battle Mage uses a staff for physical attacks, a Wild Hunter rides ajaguar while wielding a crossbow, a Blaster uses an arm cannon and a Mechanic uses a robotic suit to fight.[49][50] Demon, a separate class, under the resistance branch, is created differently from the normal Resistance.[51] A Demon character can become a Demon Slayer, who uses one-handed blunt weapons and axes, or the Demon Avenger, who uses a specialised weapon called the Desperado. Xenon, another separate resistance character, is a human-turned-cyborg who escaped from the Black Wings' laboratories who uses Whip Blades in combat.
There are three main continents common to all versions in theMapleStory world: Maple Island, Victoria Island, and Ossyria. Maple Island is where adventurers start off their characters. Victoria Island contains eight cities, and is where most classes begin. Ossyria features seven distinct regions with varying environments: El Nath Mountains, Ludus Lake, Aqua Road, Minar Forest, Mu Lung Garden, Nihal Desert, and Temple of Time. Ereve and Rien are separated from another land which is the beginning of another job of the game.
The Cash Shop is an in-game shop where players use real-life currency to purchase uniquevirtual goods such asavatars,digital pets and other in-game items.[52] Most Cash Shop items expire after a period of time. The Cash Shop also offers a shop permit, allowing players to set up a store in the in-game market location called the Free Market.
The current main composer forMapleStory is NECORD (ASTERIA).[53] In 2016,Nexon established its own music production team, ASTERIA, and sound team, NECORD, and started producing music and releasing albums on its own.[54] In 2017, they recorded music with an orchestra in Budapest, Hungary.[55]
The game'smusic received positive reviews, and as the game has been on the service for a long time, it has stimulated memories for those who have stopped playing.[56][57][58] Some music such as Lith Harbor village music,[59] Eos Tower/Helios Tower of Ludibrium music,[60] Blockbuster: Black Heaven music,[61][62] Chu Chu Island music,[63] Lachelein the Dreaming City music[64] has been played in South Korean broadcast programs.[65] The "Aquarium" music in the Aquarium which is a village of Aqua Road has been included in some South Korean musictextbooks.[citation needed]
The music from 2006 to 2015 was composed by Studio EIM, and since 2014, official sound sources began to be released starting with FriendStory and Blockbuster: Black Heaven.[66] At this time, M2U, who was outsourced from Studio EIM, composed Ariant Coliseum music[9] and Ereve music.[10]
In 2010, Kim Eun-bi, who was in the top 6 ofSuperstar K 2, became a Maple Girl, a promotional model forMapleStory, and unlike other Maple Girls, she released a song called I'm My Fan.[67] In 2015, incumbent professional singer Taru sang a song,[68] and from 2017,Second Moon began to play songs in offline events related toMapleStory,[69] because they were in charge of music for the hologram musicalComic MapleStory in 2016.[70] From 2018,Ha Hyun-woo[71] ofGuckkasten and the Guckkasten band themselves began to sing songs related to that game.[72] In 2021,Bewhy also sang a song.[73]
S.I.D-Sound composed some music such asMapleStory 8th anniversary event in 2011, the RED theme song in 2013, and the OST for FriendStory in 2014.[12]
In 2015, SQUARE MUSIQ composed some songs such as Violeta Over Flowers which is a promotion song[15] and vocal[16] of "Promise of Heaven", which is a song of Blockbuster: Black Heaven.[66]
In 2020, ESTIMATE and ESTi composed some music such as some Yum Yum Island music, theme of Adele's music, some Ristonia music, some Grand Athenaeum Episode VI: Sharenian Knights[74] music and some Hotel Arcus music.[75]
MapleStory was originally developed and released in South Korea and was localized to ten different regions as of 2003.[76] As other publishers license the game for their region, proxy blocks are put in place (excluding the Korean version, it requires aKSSN), forcing players to play their localized version.[77] In 2011, LevelUp! Games did not renew the contract for localization in Brazil.[78]
An update entitledBig Bang was released in KoreanMapleStory in July 2010 with other regional servers following suit soon after.[79][80]Big Bang changed the game's core coding, and changed many aspects of the game.[81] An update entitledChaos features the introduction of professions, andPvP.[82]
An update forMaster's North American server was released on March 11, 2015, entitledBlack Heaven. Players that registered prior to the update and before March 9 received a free Ignition Pack if they logged in before March 14 and after the update went live.
Nexon released theMapleStory Reboot update for its North American server in December 2015, which allows access to the Reboot world. This world has disabled trading, increased Meso drop rates, and weapon/equipment drops that are specific to the player's class. Reboot has the same monsters as other worlds, but with increased stats and experience points awarded.[83]
Another update to the game, the 5th Job Advancement, was released in December 2016. When players reach Level 200 in the game, they would need to complete their job advancement quests before they are able to fully access their 5th Job skills. Different from the first four Job skills, the 5th Job skills come in three types of skills. The first one called the Shared Skills are skills that all characters share and have that they are able to use. The second one is called the Class-Specific, which are skills that only specific classes can use and the third one called the Job Skills which are skills that only that specific Job can use.[84][85]
In July 2022, Nexon released theDestiny: Remastered update for its North American server. This update revamped all the Explorer classes (excluding the newest Explorer class, Pathfinder) by updating their skills and adding new storyline content for them while streamlining their original storylines. A new boss, Kalos, was also added to the game.[86]
Nexon released an update named 6th Job Advancement in October and November 2023, featuring new skills for all classes.[87][88]
In GlobalMapleStory (GMS), more than a million players bought items in the Cash Shop, by 2010.[89] By 2006,MapleStory had a combined total of 39 million user accounts worldwide.[90]MapleStory Global had over 8 million users by 2011.[91] As of 2014, it was among the top ten MMOs by worldwide revenue.[92] As of 2020, the game has reached over 180 million registered users worldwide.[93]
Up until 2011, the game grossed $1.8 billion.[94] Between 2013 and 2017, the game grossed $1.181 billion, including $326 million in 2013,[95] $240 million in 2014,[96] $253 million in 2015, $83 million in 2016,[97] and $279 million in 2017.[98] As of 2020, the game has grossed over$3 billion worldwide in lifetime revenue.[99]
In 2024, Nexon was fined₩11.6 billion (US$8.9 million) for a violation of South Korea's Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce Act, allegedly for changing the appearance rate of certain items inMapleStory without notifying players. At the time, this was the largest penalty issued for a violation of the act and the company's second violation of the act, following a 2018 fine connected to its gameSudden Attack.[100][101]
MapleStory - The Girl's Fate is a spinoff for theNintendo 3DS and is a single-player game, featuring a new character named Mugi. The game was released on April 25, 2013 in Korea and Japan.[103] It's known asMaplestory: Girl of Destiny internationally, following the fan-made English translation.[104]
The sequel,MapleStory 2, was released in Korea on July 7, 2015. Unlike its predecessor,MapleStory 2 takes place on a 3D voxel-based plane at an oftenisometric angle.
MapleStory R: Evolution is an idle-game mobile RPG game. It was officially released in Southeast Asia on July 28, 2023, and is a vertical screenRPG.[106][107] Its launch was promoted with live events held in Malaysia and Vietnam.[107]
MapleStory Universe is a collection of games that integrate into Cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology.[108]MapleStory N, which is a part ofMapleStory Universe, is set to launch in 2024.
The Japaneseanime entitledMapleStory (メイプルストーリー,Meipuru Sutōrī) was adapted of the game and produced byMadhouse. It aired onTV Tokyo between October 7, 2007, and March 30, 2008, spanning 25 episodes. The plot revolves around a warrior as he journeys to revive the world tree.
The North American publisher ofNexon released aMapleStorytrading card game on November 6, 2007.[109] Nexon Korea and Japan have since released similar trading card games, while Nexon North America has discontinued this service.
Two adaptations ofMapleStory have been released foriOS by Nexon Mobile:MapleStory: Thief Edition andMapleStory: Cygnus Knights Edition. TheThief Edition has only one job, Thief, while the other edition features two jobs: a Soul Master and a Fire Wizard. The games do not have multiplayer.
Nexon released a public beta of aMapleStory Adventures on July 27, 2011 as an adaptation forFacebook gaming format. The game consisted of mainly single-player play, but incorporated the main goals and themes of the fullMapleStory game, which included creating an avatar, fighting monsters and completing quests.[110] This version was discontinued on July 31, 2013.
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^"한때 작곡가라 불리던 때가 있었더랬지 feat. 메이플스토리" [There was a time when I was called a composer. feat. MapleStory].Naver Blog (in Korean). Naver. July 6, 2021.Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. RetrievedFebruary 8, 2022.
^ab"메이플스토리 8주년 기념 테마송 및 프로모션 영상 공개" [MapleStory 8th anniversary theme song and promotional video released].Inven (in Korean). April 28, 2011.Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
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^"［NDC］NECORD 출범 1년, 음악은 게임을 기억하게 만든다" [［NDC］One year since NECORD was launched, music makes games memorable].Beta News (in Korean). April 27, 2017.Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
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^"[게임 속 OST] 잔잔한 멜로디로 귀정화…메이플스토리 BGM" [[In-game OST] Cleanse the ears with a calm melody... MapleStory BGM].Game Chosun (in Korean). March 2, 2018. RetrievedAugust 4, 2023.
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^"햇살에 물든 하루" [A day in the sunshine].MBC Newsdesk (in Korean). MBC. November 4, 2010.Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^경북 포항 구룡포_달빛 아래 징검다리_35회 [Guryongpo, Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do_Stepping Stones Under the Moonlight_Episode 35] (in Korean). 광주MBC. January 29, 2016. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^［서프라이즈］스스로 사이코패스라 고백한 남자! 사이코패스는 유전이다?... [［Surprise］A man who confessed to being a psychopath himself! Psychopaths are hereditary?...] (in Korean). MBC 미스터리: 심야괴담회 X서프라이즈 (published December 11, 2016). November 21, 2017. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^［서프라이즈］스스로 사이코패스라 고백한 남자! 사이코패스는 유전이다?... [［Surprise］A man who confessed to being a psychopath himself! Psychopaths are hereditary?...] (in Korean). MBC 미스터리: 심야괴담회 X서프라이즈 (published December 11, 2016). November 21, 2017. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^탬버린 할머니와 네눈박이 11남매! @TV 동물농장 20180304 [Tambourine grandmother and her 11 four-eyed siblings! @TV Animal Farm 20180304] (in Korean). SBS STORY. March 4, 2018. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^강식당 주방에서 이수근이 부릅니다! '첫 면의 사랑'｜강식당2 kangskitchen2 EP.3 [Lee Soo-geun sings in the kitchen of Kang's Kitchen! 'First Noodle of Love'｜Kang's Kitchen 2 kangskitchen2 EP.3] (in Korean). tvN. June 14, 2019. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^"［Opinion］게임 음악을 만드는 레이블 - 네코드뮤직 ［게임］" [［Opinion］A record label that makes game music - Necode Music ［Game］].ArtInsight (in Korean). November 2, 2019.Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^ab"［게임&컬쳐］게임 음악이 문화로 인정 받는 그날까지…'스튜디오EIM'이 꿈꾸는 미래" [［Game & Culture］Until the day game music is recognized as a culture... The future that 'Studio EIM' dreams of].Inven (in Korean). June 30, 2015.Archived from the original on July 29, 2023. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
^"[인터뷰] 메이플스토리 속 '이리나'로 변신! 가수 '타루'와의 데이트" [[Interview] Transformed into 'Irina' in MapleStory! Date with singer 'Taru'].Inven (in Korean). April 22, 2015. RetrievedJuly 30, 2023 – via Naver.
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^""홀로그램 뮤지컬로 다시 보는 인기 만화"" ["Popular cartoon revisited as a hologram musical"].Sisa Journal (in Korean). August 1, 2016. RetrievedJune 12, 2023.
^"국카스텐 하현우 무대 공연... '다크니스' 열창" [Guckkasten Ha Hyun-woo stage performance... Passionate singing of 'Darkness'].NSP News Agency (in Korean). June 16, 2018. RetrievedJune 11, 2023.
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