First Impressions: Mabinogi part 3
This is Trefor, Tir Chonail's answer to Batman. We didn't want to offend him, so we refrained from pointing out that the whole reason to have slits in your helmet is for you to be able to see out. So filling in those slits is probably counter-intuitive. Regardless, it's Trefor who gives you more information on actual combat, and one of his Quest rewards is a new combat Skill. Notice all the Brown Foxes milling about. That's right, it's innocent creature slaughter time.
This is NOT what it looks like, whatever it looks like. What it actually is, is Trefor showing us how one can use a Skill to overcome the Defense Skill. Notice how far back we're standing.
Regardless, after chatting with you a bit, Trefor sends you off to the nearest, and first, dungeon to get more combat experience. Here's what seems to be an empty room, save for the enticing treasure chest. Note: there's a reason it looks like we're entering a monster's open mouth.
As soon as the chest opens, monsters appear, and you can't leave the room until they're all dead! Hilarious. Note the minimap in the upper right corner — you can see the entire layout of the dungeon from the get-go. However, each dungeon is randomly generated each time you enter it, so there's no point in trying to memorize the sequence of rooms. A bit more on dungeons later.
And look, just as we said, here's Trefor trying to inculcate us into telling time by the shadows. What do these people have against clocks? Also, notice how closely that fox is paying attention to us ... eerie.
Here's the first clue that crafting in Mabinogi can be more than merely clicking a button and waiting: this guidebook shows actual mouse movements involved in Tailoring.
And here's how to dye your fabric. The guidebook itself tells us that if you want something, you have to make it yourself. This is a great way to add to the immersiveness of the game world.
Here we are at the School, where we're about to attack a dummy. Ranald, the schoolmaster behind us, is rambling on about getting drunk. Just what you want in a combat master. If you pay attention to the in-game chat between our avatar and a friend's, you'll find that we're trying to locate each other in-world, but having difficulty. At one point, we're both standing at the exact same spot, yet invisible.
As it turns out, we're both on the same server, but different channels. One of us logged out, then back in onto the channel the other was using, and problem fixed.
Back to the dummy: this is the scary face you'll wear when you attack with a vicious stroke. It's actually more scary to us than it is to our enemies. What happened to our irises?
Also, with each strike on a dummy, Ranald gives advice. This one in particular, however, not so helpful.
Here's our friend Iris, who's making fun of our pants. She's shiny because of her skills in spellcasting. It's possible to set a spell for a quick cast, whereas otherwise casting spells takes a little time, time which your enemy will always attempt to exploit.
We joined Iris on a jaunt into a dungeon, to offer our help in taking down a difficult boss, pictured here. You know this spider is dangerous because it's got its own
ground effects.
Something to mention about entering a dungeon with a party: when dropping into a dungeon, alone or with friends, activation of the dungeon itself requires the sacrifice of an item upon the initial altar. This item can be anything you want, including money. It's this that makes the dungeon instance unique to you; if someone else enters and uses the same item for activation, they will enter the same instance you occupy. This is a problem, because if they enter after you've already been through most of the fighting, they won't get to fight anything, as you'll already have taken the creatures out yourself. Likewise for the rewards.
With this in mind, then, note that each one of your party members will have to drop the same item as you, or you won't actually be partying together in the same dungeon.
Yes, this is absolutely a giant spider. What this screenshot doesn't show you, however, is the freaky way this giant spider is virtually seething with rage to devour you.
Roughly two minutes into the fight, our avatar gets knocked out, leaving poor Iris to get repeatedly slammed against the wall. Notice that there are a couple more options now for revival: revive at dungeon entrance, and revive at last Statue of Goddess. The entrance is actually outside, and the Statue is where you sacrifice your item to enter the instance.
In fact, here we are at the Statue, reconnoitering. Next to us is another party, who were talking about World of Warcraft. Even across worlds, nay, universes, WoW rules all. Also, if you'll notice in our IM conversation, cursing is replaced with generic asterisks. We found a way around this, but that's not for us to reveal. You'll just have to make up your own curse words.
A few more random bits before we close up: this is what a critical hit looks like ...
... and here is the result: opponent thrown off-screen!
This is a Quest Owl, dropping a random, yet useful Quest Scroll onto us. Quest Scrolls may also be purchased at many shops.
And here's the first dungeon boss we encountered going solo. It's big, yellow, fuzzy; it's like a giant arachnoid baby chick. And if that mental image doesn't scare the bracers off you, the next photo will:
It's
ALF!
All kidding aside, Mabinogi is a wonderful game that's managed to feel fresh in the face of so many other outwardly similar seeming titles. With all the new features of the commercial release, and all the experience of Nexon (makers of the long-lived Maple Story) behind it, we're looking forward to a prosperous relationship with this game. Your fantasy life begins now!
