Mabinogi

"Mabinogi has ruined other mmorpgs for me."

This game is old, old enough I even played it in high school. It also happens to STILL be the best MMORPG out there, and its F2P. Why the best you ask? Oh, its nothing much, just its constant updates, events, unique combat system, great shop system, fun social interactions, TONS OF APPEARANCE ITEMS (im not fing joking here, theres no two characters that look alike, hell I rarely see two people wearing the same shit), its unique lvl system, unique skill system (including life skills, which can lvl you as fast if not faster than combat), make your own music and... oh god, just play the game already.

I get bored of Mabinogi, no doubts there as I get bored of anything after a while, and I just keep coming back to it. I have played tons of other mmorpgs, iv tried tera, iv tried vindictus (mabinogi heros btw, its a sequal to mabinogi), iv watched reviews on rift, so on so forth. The fact is

Mabinogi has ruined other mmorpgs for me.

. WHY? Because I cant stand just clicking on stuff anymore, like ruinscape or wow, or almost every damn stupid MMORPG out there (notice, i said almost, ha). I mean it, Mabinogi has so much to do and so many unique interesting systems and parts, theres nothing else out there that comes close.

Combat

So I now skip any game where the combat is "click on this mob", "click on these skill boxs" repeat. In mabinogi the combat is not super fps action, but is a clever change to the standard mmo, many call it a rock paper scissors type system, but thats not right, as there are far many more ways to fight then that entails. Abilities/skills are target based, you can lock on, but many abilities will still need to be with in range. Plus lock on is more for convince because as the mob moves around you might find it hard to click as you move to dodge it. Its hard to explain, but I think you get by now that its pretty interesting.

World

I also cant stand linear games anymore, games that force you to certain areas using their various tricks (mob levels, level requirements, etc.). In mabinogi you can, at lvl one, right as you enter the world, GO ANYWHERE, jump over to the other continent, go site seeing on a hot air balloon (yea, not joking), or poke fun at a elephant. Yes, there are strong creatures out there, but its not like endless fields of monsters where YOU MUST run into them to get past, the mabinogi world is super huge, and open. Best I can compare it to is skyrim or oblivion in terms of openness (and yes, even size its close). Also its not like the only monsters you can fight are in area, there are strong AND weak mobs all over the world, its made for exploration for any level. The world is filled with dungeon instances, open world mobs, theres shadow missions, castles, residential areas (where players have houses) and TONS to discover and explore.

Leveling

Now lets get the leveling system of mabinogi, which is one of the most unique systems ever. There is no level cap. None, nada, nothing. The sky is not the limit. Mabinogi has a rebirthing system, where you can, every week, have your character reborn to reset the level, oh and age (yes, your character ages, and visually gets taller and bigger as they grow). So what does this do? Each level nets you some AP, which is your skill points. These points are used to level a skill. You can rebirth any number of times (im on like 40 now and level 2000 or so). OHHHH, but wait, you cant level them till you train them!

Skills

Skills do not simply get better because you leveled up and put points into it. Instead its a fun system like skyrim or oblivion where you must use the skill, but they make it even better. Lets say you are ranking defense (its a skill, there is a def stat but this is kinda like a defense stance your taking), it will say something like "defend against 10 melee attacks" for the lowest rank or something. As you rank it, it will start adding in "defend against 10 arrow attacks" then magic, then some other stuff like attacking a defending creature, and even require you to do all those things but with stronger monsters. Now when you start ranking stuff like sword wielding you can kinda understand what that means. Also, combat is not everything in mabinogi, its a small part. There are TONS of non combat skills, and as you rank them, you gain stats (you gain stats with combat skill ranking to), these stats can boost your character! However it gets even better, just like the open world, your skill system is open, there are no classes!

Classes

Yea, yea, i just said there are no classes, and that true, but they did add in destiny's. A destiny can be chosen each time you rebirth, so you can switch every week, so no worries. A destiny is not a class per say, it does not force you to use certain skills, or block others from you. All it does is give you double training rate for skills associated to a set destiny, so you have to do half the work ranking those skills. Now remember those life skills I talked about before? Well, there are destiny's for life skills to, in fact there are a lot. They are not bundled with combat skills or anything like that, you have to understand life skills are as important as combat in this game. Also, yes life skills will give you exp and level you just as well as combat could.

Quests

Quests, again, are like everything else in Mabinogi, open and free. The starter quests are your standard quests, run here do that, run here do that, do this, do that. The main story quests are great, and they come in whats called Generations. These generations also happen to be big updates to the game. Each generation is different, though a few are linked together. Like there are generations that deal with Shakespeare and his plays, generations that deal with the history of different NPCs. Generations where you fight dragons, ones where you fight the grim reaper, ones where you face off against gods. This game has it all. Theirs not just the main story's quests, theirs side quests, hunt quests, and many others you can find, including skill quests to unlock certain powerful skills, like a transformation skill that can turn you into a Black knight, or a paladin for a time, with huge increases to stats and special skills.

Equipment

YESYESYESYES! Open and free system for equipment. With the exception of a few cloths/armor/weapons that require you to master a set skill set (like warrior, or archer) you can equip anything, even if you are not using that destiny, it doesn't matter. There are no level requirements, or stat restrictions, you can start the game and day one have a friend hand you a super powerful weapon. But I must add, even that weapon wont help you as a lvl 1 noob. Your skills and knowing how to use them determine your strength more than anything. Most people don't wear armor except if they have a set that looks good, or are going into hardcore combat. Most people enjoy looking stylish and unique. I love this game a lot for its fashion, theirs so much that everyone looks special. You can even pick your friend out of a crowed without seeing their name.

Shops

There is no world auction house crap here (seriously the stupidest thing ever created). Here we have people actually setting up a square area in a town and putting their items up for sale. To find something you want you will have to go around the market and search (or be lucky and have a friend who frequents the market place). Its so fun to fine amazing deals, or find rare items this way. There is an auction board (and people selling using party system) but its best to go through shopping areas instead, as the prices tend to be lower.

Theres so much to this game, and I cant go through it all, seriously, this is not everything that is unique about this game.

--------------------
2017 update
--------------------
The game was great, the game was awesome, the game was love. However the game is constantly updating to become whats considered "modern" more and more. Which means making players more and more OP, making less lore content and more wtf content, removing the social feel by making it "solo friendly", and making pretty much all social content alllmmmmooosttt pointless (see crafted materials/lifeskilling).... There is a private server out there, which is running an older build of mabi (though not old enough to avoid the annoying OPing of players), ill do a post on that later (mabi.pro). Oh and maybe a mabi moding post.