Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a casual gamer, chances are you’ve either played or come across one of the more popular games back then: MapleStory.
However, so much has changed since then, with the Big Bang, new classes with dragons floating over their heads, and new maps with even weirder monsters. The real essence of MapleStory is so much different now.
For the sake of nostalgia, here are some awesome memories from the old MapleStory we all knew and loved.
- The best hangout spot in the whole game
Who could forget this spot, where people just came here to chill and relax? Back then, levelling was so tough that reaching level 30 almost seemed impossible unless you had no life. Instead, we hung around and just talked or flirted while passing time. Despite being a MMORPG which emphasis on levelling, we took the social aspect more seriously, and made plenty of friends.
- Kerning PQ, autoclicking the way to victory
Levelling was so mundane back then that doing party quests was the easier and more fun way to level up. Everyone would queue up in Kerning City around the sewer area and just wait for their turn to enter the quest. I believe the instance system was relatively new at that point in time, thus disallowing parties to enter at the same time.
Let’s not forget the endless challenge of trying to jump to the 3rd sewer drain
Most players would end up downloading a software called ‘Autoclicker’, which did exactly what it’s named after, so as to increase their chances of getting in.
Probably the earliest form of boss fight you can encounter as a player was the King Slime in the Party Quest, where you had to kill it.
The damage it dealt was ridiculous and back then there wasn’t such a thing as tanks and aggro. This means that you had to jump out of reach and constantly deal damage to it at the same time.
- Grinding in the Slime caves
Speaking of these little green cute’ses, everybody at the point knew that to maximise levelling, you had to train at the slime caves, where spawn rate for these green little dudes were the highest. These caves were located around the town of Ellinia, where the mages reside. Training here and also listening to the soothing music was surprisingly de-stressing, especially after a whole day in school where you had to explain why you didn’t do your homework since you were too buy mapling!
- The best BGMs
Probably the most memorable parts of the old games were the Background Music. They had almost the perfect combination of soothing and uplifting tones and were also addictive. They change as you travel so that it was hard to get bored of them. Have a trip back to nostalgia-land by listening to these:
- Exploring Sleepywood
Sleepywood (and subsequently Ant Tunnel) was a memorable location (amongst all the other memorable locations) simply because if you reached here, chances are you already invested a lot of time into the game.
People who reached here probably already had their 2nd job advancement and were ready to tackle the next stage of their levelling process.
We used to challenge each other just to see how deep we can travel through Ant Tunnel before our entire party got wiped. Although seemingly a waste of potions, it was fun just to see who had the wit and skill to survive all the way till the end.
Sleepywood, especially in the Sauna Room, is usually where the infamous ‘Drop Game’ is played. A ‘Drop Game’ is like gambling, where each player (usually 2) would take turns to drop their items, and the other has a chance to snatch it up.
- Testing your patience during Jump Quests
These quests were probably the by-product during the creation of hell. They were the true tests of patience, where you needed to accurately jump on each platform all the way to the top. One misstep or loss of tempo resulted in a fall that either required you to restart the whole process or death where you had to restart everything all over again.
Personally, I never got around to completing these quests. I’ve never regretted it.
- Experiencing the crowd at Perion ‘Marketplace’
Channel 1 of Perion will definitely bring back fond memories of the events that take place here. Forget the night markets of Taiwan or even any shopping mall during the holiday season. THIS was where the action was.
Players from all over Victoria Island would come and sell, trade or buy stuff there, using ‘@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@’ to help bring their chat bubbles slightly higher. There really wasn’t a need to go to the Free Market, since the action is all there.
- ‘Selling Fame at 7k!’
Any MapleStory player would have at least seen someone either buying or selling ‘Fame’ in their journeys. In fact, ‘Fame’ was probably Maplestory’s first ‘service-orientated business’. A player can either give or take away another player’s ‘Fame’ once a day. People who wanted Fame (usually for some equipments or just for lulz) would end up buying them, while selling them was an easy 7,000 mesos a day.
Henesys, the town of the archer, was notorious of having all sorts of pros running around buying Fame, and all sorts of noobs running around selling Fame.
Bullying was also done using Fame as well. When there was a certain someone you wanted to bully, you would call all your friends just to go to that person to ‘De-Fame’ him. This became such a huge sensation, especially for people who went through painstaking efforts to increase their Fame.
- KS-ing
The hostile act of KS-ing, or kill-stealing, arguably started in MapleStory. This involved the act of killing the other player’s mob before they can deliver the finishing blow. By doing so, you deliberately lower the experience they can get from the monster. Once again, there was a thing where you could call all your friends and simply go out to mass KS a person’s mobs, slowing his entire levelling process. You may get sharp ‘CC!’ requests (which is a request to change the channel which you were playing in) or him just attempting to run away. However, MapleStory had a ‘Find’ function where nobody could escape from anyone’s target.
- Taking a plane to Orbis
Probably the highest point of the Maplestory timeline was the opening of Orbis, where you had to pay for ticket to get there. After almost 2-3 years exploring the old Victoria Island, the opening of a new island was definitely appealing for all.
One particular instance then was the occasional appearance of the Crimson Balrog, which was the most powerful monster back then. It was probably the thing that would piss anyone off the most, after paying the money to get to the new island and ended up in a gravestone back in where you came from.
- Exploring
Overall, the general feeling of playing MapleStory wasn’t grinding for levels. Sure, there were people who set out to do that to reach the maximum level of 200. But realistically, 200 was a level so difficult to achieve that people don’t really bother.
Instead, we ended up partying and just exploring Victoria Island together. We could spend all day simply travelling from Lith Harbour to Henesys, Perion, etc. Or maybe visit new spots like Florina Beach or going deep into Ellinia forest. There was plenty to do and see, and we had fun every second along the way. Present players wouldn’t understand the feeling, since this isn’t an economical use of time (even WoW tries to promote map exploration somewhat by granting experience if you uncover new locations).
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Other than MapleStory, MMOs in general has placed much more emphasis on the levelling, rather than the social aspect. However, emphasising too much on the social aspect of a game stagnates it (think Habbo Hotel, Second Life) MapleStory back then had a good balance of both to cater to all players alike. No matter the reason why you played the game, there is always a way to fulfil it, be it to be the highest level or just to hang out with friends.
So, what do YOU miss most when you were playing MapleStory? Comment below!
Gaming - I've lived my life doing that 
two of the screen shots are mine! *pride* the 1st and 7th one..the 7th one is from the beta version
so many memories from this game, and so many changes – the game atmosphere was totally different
I’m ShadyCleric from Bera – cheers
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Thanks for uploading such great screenshots!
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There come a time where you have to train in a certain map in order to lvling…and you and your team have to keep change channel to seek for slot!!! Sometimes we would just do map raid if they are just too noob….
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I can still remember the days when panlid was the rarest shield, and everyone was just hunting at the top lane of henesys hunting ground with high hopes of a brass-colored shield dropping from 1 of the green mushrooms =s
Most people who played maplestory enough can associate the expressions’ hotkeys (F1-F7) by heart
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these face expression hotkeys became part of the language 😛
I remember having a pan lid in beta and it cost around 400k mesos, which was a big fortune to spend
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I remember the typing out the facekeys over msn, and even in chats in other games, or even in ms. Good times, good times
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F3 so true
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Do you guys remember why must we say “PM me” instead of whisper me? Hahahahaha. Summoning monster sack, playing the mini games, training your pet while waiting in the ship to orbis, having guilds and alliance, going gacha and get adventure cape or bwg…. Haiz…. Memories
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You were probably one of those douchebags that went into Henesys Hunting Ground 1 where the noobs were at and opened a summoning sack and watch as the noobs would flounder around trying to run away from them. I can’t say I’ve never done that myself, so uh…. :3
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HHG must be one of the things I miss the most. The change of maps they did was awful, there were “secret” maps you could get in by pressing UP, now those maps are gone or some of them still there but they show you where the door is. Maplestory is not fun anymore.
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Trying to level up in pig beach until that iron boar came along. All the noobs had to jump up on the ropes or die while they wait for a higher level to come kill it. And just knowing about how to get to pig beach made you cool. Oh, and no pin numbers. And when they introduced pin numbers, being able to type it in with your keyboard.
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I used to be a warrior and buy all those crappy stuff to explore the maple world at level 18. I always wished of getting steely and ilibi at those times. Maple was such a fun place where I would just chat up with strangers and beg for mesos like a noob. The fun part was during the Ship to Orbis. I would sometimes hide in the ship , attempt to kill it like a noob or try to loot the things they dropped when killed by other pros. I would follow my cousins to kill Mushmom and loot their stuff , being ever so annoying.
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I missed the part when we would be tracking the progress of another player in the kerning PQ by spamming the /find function, and having the other three members to hide. We used to send spies too. 🙂
I also fondly remember the dreadful experience of a magician in the beginner island (i forgot the name) where we can only pump INT and LUK so it was super hard ttrying to defeat one orange mushroom XD
And how Dragon Knights would go to hhg 1 to spam roar to ks the noobs
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One time as a low lvl 20 noob i was killing green mushrooms just next to Henesys in order to complete a quest. As usual high level folks were spamming aoe spells in order to get those very rare Maple items as they were really rare and good at those times. After a bit of farming a maple staff for lvl 53 was dropped and every one went over it trying to take it. At first I simply stared at the mob and then i noticed no1 was able to take it. So i gave it a shot and was able to take it. At that point i was so happy that i still remember this till today. (it has been 8-9 years since that happened). Good old times.
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Btw it seems that theres a server thats running an old version of the game. its called MapleRoyals. Spread the rumor !
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Im currently playing in that server. It crashes a lot atm but soon there will be a massive change to the client to fix all those problems.
The nostalgic experience may not be the same but it’s the closest 1 yet.
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is the website safe? any viruses?
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Nexon should bring back the old school maple where there is no potential system. This system ruin the game
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i still remember when old days, I often play drop and get some pro stuff that seems to be general nowadays in kerning.
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Probably the greatest thing I would miss is the overwhelming number of hidden portals, old Thieves’ Hideout was one of them too. I remembered back then I even looked up the Internet to find those hidden portals and explore those hidden maps, feeling very accomplished.
Now, these things are no more.
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CC PLS
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Started playing maple in sec 1 and I remembered that i received a installation disc in the mail, at that point i thought, the game seems so lame and childish. Then, coincidentally, my friends were just starting to play in the asiasoft cyber cafe, and they called me to jio me to play. And the epic adventure began.
Apart from all the things that we all used to do, one of the memorable times I had in msea was
hunting evil wings at werewolf for 1 month plus, when it finally dropped, my heart skipped a beat ( or two?) then a random low level warrior came by to explore and I gave him 200k or so mesos as a celebration.
All the comments and posts brought back precious memories from old times *F4
Ps. Anyone from maplesource forum? wasnt very active, but made a few friends there.
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You forgot about the teamwork and efforts to kill a single boss
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Oh my god. so much nostalgia. I remember that hang out spot outside Henny near the green mushrooms at the top. Let’s not forget the awesome Maplestory music too. There was something oddly compelling about that cheerful repetitive music.
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Im going to cry. I am just 9 years old back then. I rmb that i dont even want to waste mesos to buy potion, and just press Ctrl , Do you guys rmb wat is that? xD Yes!! Its the CHAIR! and i just sitting thr waiting for my hp and mp to recover LOL . I played for months and only get to lv30 and now. U can get to lv120 in a month 😦
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haha yea right! It’s better if you were a magician though
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I have so many memories from maple like you guys. I have 500+ screenshots all the way from 2004-2015 and it always makes me tear up a little when I browse through them. I still occasionally play maple just for sake of memories but it will never be the same it was before (maybe I’ll check the private server..)
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I mostly missed the good people of maplestory. I remember where random people would just chat up with you and make you feel awesome. I loved the society back then but recently…that all seems to have vanished. Everyone is into leveling to get all the cool new skills and not bothering to have fun along the way. I feel that the “improved” leveling system ruined the fun of leveling with your friends and the feeling you get when you reach your desired level. I truly missed the old maple. OH YEAH and does anyone else remember the old green apple suits? Those were the best man.
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It’s been a while since the last time i had the oportunity to play maple. Something that i remeber quite well is the first time that, me as a magician, was able to touch barlong and run like a little btch and hide inside of the boat. And a lot of people were asking me if barlong was outside. Really good memories.
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Does any of you use to head down to kerning or henesys and suddenly summon your summoning sacks?
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I remembered it took me like more than 24 hours to download the first ever maplesea
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I have no words to describe what I’m feeling right now, all the gold times I had having fun with my friends in the same guild, grinding, chatting, doing party quests, now maple has changed so much i can’t even recognize it, and it’s never gonna be the same
I’m glad I had the pleasure to play in the good old times, because these are memories I will carry with me forever! :’)
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I remember how it took me nearly 7 months to get to level 45, and I was spamming LudiPQ with my sister who was playing a Cleric. I’ve given up on MapleStory altogether, the feel just isn’t there anymore. I definitely miss the old Henesys Hunting Ground, I wish they had kept the original maps the way they were in terms of layout and just increased the number of explorable places instead. Back then getting to level 70 was a massive achievement already, let alone 200. Oh, and everyone knew who MrYaNdAo, JessBunny and Osiris was.
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Man, we could just go and look at MrYaNdAo while he was training in the sea killing sharks when we got bored of training. Those were the time! That was 10 years ago haha.. Nostalgia.
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I have been playing since the beta. I miss the game before the Big Bang patch. My favorite thing to do was to help new players along. Now in Maple, if you want to help a player, they think you have an ulterior motive. It bothers me that Maple no longer has or gives off that old feeling of a good community. Now it just feels like people are stupidly greedy for the most powerful items, or the most mesos.
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Weddings? Some pretty fabulous weddings back in the day. MS was so social. Big Bang ruined the game for me and most of my friends. 😦
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The biggest change to maple, in my opinion, was the increase in damage cap. Back then there was no such thing as upgrading or character cards, so most people did around the same damage if they were at the same level. This made pq-ing alot easier since anyone would be a good addition (whereas now you want the high damage dealers and tanks). And, of course with a large community, there was always the name calling. The most memorable name was Heny-Ho (Henesys Hoe) where the person would go around flirting with all the characters >.< The new maple isn't bad, it's just different. (If you've stayed with maple through all 10 years then the new maple would be a mere upgrade; if you played back in 08/09 and then re-started now then the new maple would be "bad" or "like an entirely different game". It just depends on how much you've followed maple over the years.)
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I remember exploring the Victoria Island Dungeon and going to try to see the Jr. Balrog. No doubt that was the best memory on the game. Once Big Bang came, Maple Story died to me. Everyone started to just be to themselves compared to when I made friends and socialized. Too bad those days can’t come back.
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I just recently started playing maple story again and I’ve got to admit, the atmosphere is so different. It’s definitely a lot easier to level now. I got to level 56 in like two days. I couldn’t even get to level 30 in two days back then! Kerning city is deserted and everything is not the same. No more kerning pq ): I h
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Oh man, all these feels i have. I stop mapling for almost 2 years before going on and off, i still can keep up with the new updates, but yeah true, maple for thoes who had not been back for a donkey while is so different now. But i still like the trace spell, no need to hoard so many scrolls, except some special ones.
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Anyone remembers having to sell your items on basilmarket? Makes finding the items you wanted so much easier and get to make new friends too!
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after reading all the comments, i know i am not alone.. really MISS the old MS! i played since the BETA lanched… i’d been stopped for years… and i’d heard lots about the new MS… how i wished i.could turn back times… good or bad, they are nostalgia memories…
for instance, if i hanged on the string without chatting, it meant i fall asleep, my friends will then take care of me by killing those mobs around me all night long..
not to say teamed up to explore the deep dungeon? ant tunnel? when there were the most scary maps back in old days… a floating spirit over the grave when dead? :X gosh we would just spend time chatting till time’s out! LOLx… ❤
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My fondest memory of MS was traveling to Ludi and proceeding to get stuck at Aquarium cause A Friend and I were too low of a level. It was a miracle that we even got there (one of our higher lv friends had to come and bust us out lol). So much hype, from the boat ride, going down the tower and swimming for the first time. Ahhh. I learned so much of my leet speak from that game, and my reading level in general went up.
I played for probably around 2-4 years but only got to lv 45 (Cleric wutwut). I was absolutely terrible at lving.
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Yes!! And last time mesos were so hard to earn…. I would get stuck in those high level places and cant return home until i hunted enough monsters for the tix 😂😂
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Ah, the burn of nostalgia. I actually stopped playing MS before Big Bang, & when I came back, Ant Tunnel & Slime Caves were on my list of places to visit. I lso recall a fishing dock at the end of the swamp near Kerning. I also remember their being a much larger variety of pigs, snails, & mushrooms around Henesy’s, Nautilus, & Lith Harbor.
I always stuck to the lower channels because the large concentration of players were blocking my view of the beautiful landscape art, distracting me with all their squishy killing noises, stealing my kills, & their mere presence caused horrible lag in the game.
I never liked timed or jump quests, so I really dislike Black Heaven. I did enjoy Friend Story though, even if it felt more like one of TellTale’s interactive cartoon series than an actual game.
Both now & before Big Bang, I never ever encountered a Balrog. But seriously…Fuck that waiting time between islands. When you’re playing a game for fun, no one wants to relive the excitement of waiting for the Metro.
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Think of the time when exploring is so much fun. When you go into a map with mobs you cant handle. Spamming of potions!
Not to mention the guild outing which we meet in real life.
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Think back when you enter a map with mobs you cant handle. Spamming of potions begins!!
And the occasional guild meeting when we meet in real life.
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Anyone remembers Shanghai? Haha used to level and hunt there with my bro and sis during our 25-35lvl (around), hitting chickens, ducks, sheeps, cows. Eventually I came back when I’m stronger to kill the Centipede boss haha.
Great memories that are not coming back anymore. x’)
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HI! panlid for mages. 1m! HAHA good old days.
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Oh god the memories…. #3 would be my main memory lane, I just loved training in those slime caves haha (and the BGM was addicting >.<)
This blog post even made me check out one of my old maple videos I created in the past:
So many great memories~ Sure was nice to watch that again :']
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most epic word….CC PLZ! (if no work then KS battle started) LOL
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Back then, when my lvl 85 Spearman was sufficient enought to make other player’s jaw drop….
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Glitch pq at orbis anyone?
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I could swear that the MagicDragon was me in maple global back in 2004.
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That list truly hit home. I can’t stand playing today (not that I really do). But CH.1 Perion was SO full. Solid list you put together, and you truly are from the Beta like me. I miss it.
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I remember the first time I played I got trolled by my friend, in order to gain more (SP) I need to add int so I could have more than 3 SP to up my skills…and creating the character is a pain in the arse too….rolling a perfect dice for a new character is like taking FOREVER!
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Those were early times of my life, but I’ve missed them. It was my first online game I’ve experienced. I remember this game at the sight of seeing this article – I’ve noticed the times features didn’t exist before they do, players before features practically use alternatives, later on to newer features.
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The Christmas event was one of my favorites too! Always looked forward to dec when they would open the Christmas event and the very first time I went to the event was so much fun. Not to forget all the girls and boys hunting for maple gf/bf and getting married after awhile. I had a grand wedding with my maple bf and I still remember inviting all my maple friends down. Wow really miss my maple days! So many good memories were made. I played it when I was 10/11 and I’m 20 now. I still go back once in awhile just to go back to the old maps that are still around and explore new maps that have been created. Maple will always be a big part of my childhood 🙂
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Kim, I was 9/10 when I started… I’m 20 now too! It was also a huge part of my childhood!! I was just listening to old Maple music, the Henesys Hunting Ground and Ellinia music… starting to cry almost. Tonight’s a nostalgic night for me. My first char was a magician, named NatureGirl01. She eventually became a cleric but I messed up on her stats and she was never all that strong, so I spent a lot of time helping lower level mage noobs right outside of Ellinia, healing them as we trained and buying them new gear. I remember exploring the new land of Orbis with my friends and going to Sleepywood, able to take on some of the quests for the first time. Actually able to hit one of the drakes without it always being a “miss”… all the mysterious, beautiful areas with that haunting, yet strangely soothing music. So many memories! I just started downloading MapleRoyals tonight, because I’m way too nostalgic to let it go.. I just hope it will be something more like the old MS. I miss it so much!!! Wonder if our characters ever crossed paths back then. If you ever download MapleRoyals, let me know! We could be friends and re-live the experiences!!! wildlife.love.peace@gmail.com
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BWG +9 was the best item!
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LMPQ !!! they should bring that back !!
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Honestly the social aspect of maplestory was diminishing before big bang because a lot of the older players were quiting or going on hiatus. Big bang theory was the first major change for maple where leveling got easier which made newer players focus on it.
Never gonna forget needing like 20 parties just to kill zak 😂😂 good times
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