MapleStory/YMMV


 * Complete Monster: All signs point to the Black Magician being a figure who is tremendously feared and for some very good reasons.
 * In the original Silent Crusade quest series, Bastille certainly counted. He pretended to be funding the Silent Crusade, only he was loyal to the Black Mage and was the one responsible for burning down Starling's home village and killing everyone. However, as of February 2012, the original silent Crusade story was retconned out totally and replaced with a new story, and now Bastille is a genuine nice guy.
 * Many members of the Black Wings also count as very few seem to have any redeeming qualities whatsoever.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Maple Story has some excellent music which is often overlooked. Here are some examples:
 * The heavy metal/techno music that plays in the Phantom Forest and the rock music in the Yakuza Hideout in Showa.
 * The Crimsonwood keep area is a Crowning Moment of Awesome as a whole. Not to mention the music from inside the keep and from the bossfight is Wicked awesome
 * Lith Harbour's theme is an astounding tune and is also one of the first tunes you'll hear on Victoria Island.
 * The song that plays on the ship ride from Orbis to Ludibrium (called "On a Voyage") is a beautiful and epic sounding remix of Orbis' theme.
 * Sleepywood's Theme song is a great "Mellow out tune" and makes suffering through the Jump Quests much more bearable.
 * Ellinia's Theme song is among the most popular in the game, and sounds just as good, if not better, on Piano.
 * I was under the assumption that it was done mostly with a piano.
 * What about Repentance from the Time Temple?
 * The song that plays in Eos Tower while you're in the open is fantastic. It really picks up at 0:33.
 * Feast your ears Chryse's boss music.
 * The log-in theme music. Too bad it's been changed in the Korean edition and gradually other versions.
 * 's battle theme music. It is beautiful.
 * The new NLC theme for the Global version is a bit Darker and Edgier than the original, and it's pretty dang awesome.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse; Francis, the Black wings puppeteer has been getting considerable fanart lately.
 * Fridge Horror: One quest requires you to "lighten" the floating island of Orbis by killing monsters. Unless those monsters really do disappear when they die as is shown in-game, that would mean their corpses are being dumped off the edge of the island to lighten it.
 * Why are the Pepe invading The mushroom's kingdom. You see, Pepe are native of El Nath which is slowly being destroyed by Zakum as well as King Von Leon. They are running for their lives and you are murdering them in cold blood.
 * Concerning Orbis, the monsters pretty much just keep respawning after they bite it, anyway. Weird, huh? As for the Pepe, King Pepe didn't mention anywhere in the mushroom kingdom storyline his real reason for invading. I might be thinking about things a little too much, here.
 * Game Breaker: The new character classes Evan had been released fairly recently, and yet it is already considered as one because of its ability to master all of his skills, something that is impossible for other classes(also the fact he gets at least two skills for basically every element that's not Holy). Aran is also like this; although that is for different reasons.
 * Dual Blades have also been called this, considering most of their skills dish out massive damage and some can even hit multiple enemies.
 * Let's not forget Arans, they can hit large groups of enemies, AND deal massive damage. They also can slow enemies, knock them back easier, and they even get a skill that lets them steal HP from enemies when attacking!
 * Before Big Bang, 4th job Magicians had ultimate skills that they could spam constantly to nuke the whole map. These attacks register the monster as dead on the first frame of animation, making it hard for other skills to hit, due to the fact that other skills would just not register after the ultimate's first frame. As such, most KS wars usually lead to two or three Archmages/Bishops nuking the field, and any bystanders on Vista/Windows 7 would disconnect 1 or 2 minutes after entering the map. This even got to the point were guilds took advantage of this so hard, that if anyone mocked their guildmates or killed them with summon bags, the guild Bishops would make sure that said person "never gets to level again."
 * After Big Bang though, these Mage ultimates (and any other ultimate) were given massive cooldowns, changing them from super nukes into some of the worst skills for that class. However, Soul Driver, the Dawn Warrior's main attacking skill during 3rd job, works the same way as the Mage ultimates, and also does massive damage. With Advanced Combo and Holy Charge, this four hitting skill is as strong as the ultimates the Magicians overused. Shortly after Big Bang came out, before Galloperas were nerfed, Dawn Warriors would walk in and own the map, and there was nothing the other classes could do about it. They then proceeded to reach 100-120 in around 10 hours.
 * Good Bad Bugs: These have since been patched, but between the Bodyguards in Showa (Japan version only) and Bigfoot in Crimsonwood Keep, Maple Story programmers seem to be quite good at forgetting to make bosses unpoisonable. What makes the latter even more hilarious is that it was released alongside a new server which had a double EXP event. Cue the speed-leveling Fire/Poison Mages.
 * Memetic Badass: Due to being the strongest boss in the game (despite its cute looks) and being incredibly hard to defeat, many Maplers believe that Pink Bean may be the mutated son of Chuck Norris.
 * Most Annoying Sound: In Japanese Maple Story, if you successfully inflict a debuff with a Flare/Sphere Glaive, or using a certain pet equip's special debuff ability, a very annoying sound is played. It gets worse in huge boss parties when everyone has it.
 * Also in any version that has Dual Blades as a permanent class, the sound of Dual Blades attacking. Made worse by the fact that most Dual Blades feel the need to show off their skills even in areas with no monsters whatsoever.
 * Nightmare Fuel: Despite the innocent-looking game (or maybe moreso because of it), there's some frightening stuff. Some examples include:
 * Rumors of the "White Lady" of Perion, a supposed character that would appear in Perion's town map very rarely. Some rumors suggest that Nexon put her there on purpose to honor someone who had died, some believe it was a bot-catching character, others believe it may have been a glitch(as the character appeared rendered from player sprites), while yet others believe it was a complete hoax. The character appears to be that of a female Warrior class with solid white skin and hair. Rumors have persisted for some time and there are even faked videos on Youtube, some of which are downright scary. Some claims suggest that clicking on the character brings up a player info box with an infinity symbol for the level and no number stats listed. No evidence of the character in the game's files has been found but if it was called from player sprites as most claim, then there would be no specific NPC sprites. But as of Big Bang and the new town maps, if the character was genuine, it may have been dummied out from appearing.
 * The boss Alishar. At first glance, it's already UNDER Stty scary-looking: a mutant whale with glowing eyes, huge teeth, prominent nipples, and tiny legs. Then it flips over and attacks. Those "nipples" are eyes to a demonic beast.
 * The Soul Teddy monsters. The first one, Soul Teddy, doesn't seem so bad. The Master Soul Teddy is still more cute than scary. Then you run into Death Teddy and Master Death Teddy. Their corruption of a teddy bear as a comfort object is what hits hardest.
 * Little girl marionettes and flying head marionettes, both which cry like little girls when defeated. You really have to watch it to feel it.
 * It's worse if one knows the story behind the mansion and its people. The dolls are modeled after the daughter of the man who ran the toy-making shop in the mansion (it was noted that these dolls looked creepy enough even before they were possessed). Sophilia  Now imagine that sweet, innocent Sophilia, who just wants her first doll, some candy, and to see her father, then imagine her wailing like the death cries of the dolls.
 * It Got Worse is practically a theme of the place! Poor Killian, oh yes, poor Killian, stuck roaming the woods which moan in the night, headless and an eternal slave of the Black Magician. THAT was a Moral Event Horizon crossing for the Black Magician, condemning someone to And I Must Scream for eternity. I have even heard rumors that, in a future update, when defeated, the Horseman speaks with a youthful voice, "Why does it hurt?"
 * Some of the tree trunk interiors in the Ellinia woods simply look cavernous with a lot of tree bark to jump on. Some of the trunk interiors in the higher parts of the woods, however, look like something out of an alien horror film.
 * When killed, Octopus monsters fall down while their skin rips open exposing their flesh as their eyeballs drop from their orbits. This being the most disturbing animation in the game.
 * These mannequin monsters   are...kind of unsettling
 * Play the Game, Skip the Story: Sadly.
 * Ruined FOREVER: Loads and loads of people had this reaction to the The Big Bang patch, which changed a lot of things in the game. It almost completely changes the core underlying mechanics, revamps lots of maps and changes around the monsters which appear where, and balances the classes. The changes are enough to essentially make it a "Maple Story 2."
 * Clerics virtually have only one place left where they can use Heal to mob monsters after the Big Bang patch, which, of course, gets useless after a while they level up. Hopefully the developers will introduce a new area where Heal mobbing is more profitable in terms of EXP.
 * As of the Destiny upgrade in 2022, this was addressed, with all the Explorer classes (including Clerics) getting revamped with serious boosts in Skills.
 * The Global Version, as of 6/14/10, had to fix a problem involving a currency exploit. It involved a two-day rollback. People are already complaining about losing somewhere between 10-20 levels, (in a game where one level in two days is impressive.) losing anywhere between 10-500 million mesos, and losing countless items. Doesn't this game use chibified characters as its main selling point?
 * Nexon has had a lot of bad updates. The one in 2010 introduced potential items and an increased drop rate, possibly in part to deflate the economy. The problem here is that it further divides the gap between funded and unfunded users, by making the potential items worth more while rendering anything without potential as being worthless. Users with cash in their pocket can simply buy the potential items and merchant them for a quick buck, while everyone else who had previously godly equips now find out that they're worthless because some idiot can pick up something that has the potential to be even greater... with less investment put in than the previous equips. One or the other could have fixed the problem. Both just made the situation even worse.
 * Scrappy Mechanic:
 * Dear lord, the Jump Quests. While some players claim - only on forums - that there is a “silent majority” of players who enjoy them, these players never speak up in the actual game. Here’s the set-up: Take a player who can jump or flash-step in ways that would make Mario or Mega Man jealous, then put them in a situation where they become as slow and clumsy as a snail as they attempt to traverse stages devoid of any interesting mechanics. Throw in tight jumps, bad control, and obstacles that try their darndest to cause you to make a mistake, with even one mistake causing you to lose all your progress due to a complete lack of save points and then make it a Timed Mission. These quests are not fun, they are boring, tedious, frustrating, and have made more than a few players Rage Quit in disgust. Worst of all, put this at the third act of the questline, where you’ve invested way too much progress to simply give up and can almost taste the promised reward.
 * Worst of all, they make little sense plot-wise, and the Power Incontinence in each one can get ridiculous. Take the one in FriendStory, are we actually supposed to believe that folks like Mercedes, Phantom, or someone with literal Magical Martial Arts like Kanna and Hayato have a hard time stepping over soda cans while trying to follow a security guard?
 * As bad as jump quests are, shooting galleries seem hated even more. If this was a light gun game, they might be fun, but for these (thankfully rare) parts of some quests, you have to use the mouse to position a crosshair and shoot targets that are often very small and move very fast. You have a short amount of time and a limited supply of ammunition, and nastier ones have targets you have to avoid, or even penalize you for missing.
 * While some players will defend the Jump Quests and Shooting Galleries, it’s hard to find anyone who will defend the AFK Mobs; players have even made YouTube videos mocking them. On most maps, there is always at least one ledge or climbing rope where the character is relatively safe while AFK (as in “away from keyboard”). However, in maps where the mobs are level 200 or higher, this additional feature is added. An AFK mob is either a unique mob or one that resembles the mobs in the hardest map of the zone. Unlike the other mobs, can move to any part on the map via flight, and aggressively makes a beeline for the nearest player. (Most mobs simply walk back and forth until the player gets close to them.) Simply touching one of them will inflict the Dry condition on the player (meaning it makes you unable to use potions or other consumables) and its attacks ignore any defensive buffs and armor, dealing damage equal to 10% of the character’s max hp per strike. They’re not too hard to defeat if you’re used to them, but a player who cannot fight back - like say, if they’re AFK - will be killed quickly. Now contrary to popular belief, this is not an anti-botting or anti-spamming feature, as such cheaters almost never manage to level a character that high before being caught. Rather, this is to prevent players from “camping” on one map in order to “claim” it and hog hot maps for themselves. (An unwritten rule among players in Maplestory says whoever is there first has a right to the map, and these mobs are to prevent players from taking advantage of such courtesy.) Unfortunately, while this was indeed a problem on Korean servers, it tends to cause other problems, as the AFK mobs ambush players who enter the maps via teleportation or even worse if you log on after disconnecting. Demon Avenger players have it really bad, as they have a powerful skill called Frenzy that consumes up to 70% of your hp and prevents healing in exchange for incredible battle prowess - you don’t want to get caught unawares by an AFK mob when using that. While an easy solution would be to simply implement a system that DCed a player after five minutes of inactivity, Nexon seems unable or unwilling to do such and honest players suffer as a result.
 * The PIC system was so hated that Nexon eventually did remove it. Like most websites, you need a password to log on and an account to be allowed to play their games, but to log onto the game itself, a PIC system was used that needed a second password, one which you could not type, you had to use the mouse to point and click an on-screen keyboard. Even worse, this code also had to be used to open the in-game storage (Open storage, enter 2nd password, check something, close storage, realize you forgot something, open storage, greeted with 2nd password again… What in the world did they assume could happen in three seconds??), the character creation screen, the Meso Market, anything at all involving items from the Cash Shop (trading, gifting, and deleting), enhancing or crafting V Matrix Nodes, and changing a character’s name. While it originally simply had to be a six-digit code, later updates required it to have upper and lowercase letters or letters and numbers, and each code could not have duplicate letters. This was a pain when you were disconnected and needed to log in quickly. Worse, if you didn’t change the PIC password every few months, they’d bother you every time you logged on, suggesting you do so. This often led to players hastily changing it simply to get the messages to stop, and if you forgot it (as always, you were sternly warned not to write it down) changing it required multiple email, text, or mobile verification. Obviously, this was meant to discourage spammers, and while it might have seen some success on that front, for every spammer that was caught there were dozens of enraged actual players. Eventually, as of 2021, they got rid of it, offering an optional Two-Factor Authentication system as an alternative, which nobody ever took advantage of.
 * "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Oh, you silly kill stealers. Woe to everyone who's a warrior, as they have no ranged attacks (Except the Beginner Shell throwing skill, but who uses that?) while everyone else past Beginner class is capable of learning such attacks.
 * People will continuously debate about how late-game mages are generally top-tier in terms of level grinding and having high survivability while being mostly looked down upon in most bossing parties, and vice-versa for Bowmen. Then there are the very expensive stat-less or HP washing builds...
 * "I don't respect people with Aran characters! They take no skill to play! What, you say that it's fun? And that your other characters are from the original four classes? Well, shut up! I'm better than you because I'm playing a class that nobody plays anymore because they're more interested in the added content in the newer classes!"
 * All newer classes in general are pretty much subject to this. Whenever a new class comes out, people gripe about Nexon should be adding new worlds, quests, and bosses, instead of new jobs. While many people like playing as the new classes, those players get a lot of flak just by playing as one. Especially true with Evans, and probably with any new class that gets released.
 * Tear Jerker: Poor Jane Doe's story and her reaction
 * That One Boss: Many, many examples.
 * That One Sidequest:
 * Every jumping quest.
 * Jumping Quests nothing. Alphonse Green and his Nependeath Honey. Although that one is less difficult than it is long
 * Basically, any sidequest involving ultra-rare random drops (before Big Bang, when they were all made much easier).
 * Arwen's Glass Shoe, FULL STOP. That slipper has a less than one-in-one-million chance of dropping. This quest has been removed; ironically, it's still possible for some mobs to drop them, and players who find them usually have no idea what to do with them.
 * That's not as bad as having to gather over two thousand of an specific random drop for a single string of quests. At least you have a chance of instantly getting said slipper.
 * A while ago, before it was made easier, Maya and the Weird Medicine. Dear God, MAYA AND THE WEIRD MEDICINE.
 * PERIDOTS. The average time to complete this quest is about 7-12 hours of hunting. Have fun! Same with Lunar Dews.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The Big Bang patch.
 * Possibly justified for clerics and archers, where the game balance actually screws them over. Clerics can now deal more damage if they have decent weapons, true, but chairs are completely useless for restoring needed MP points (when before MP Restore would have renewed in conjunction with MP Eater in battle). Hence, the prevalence of pots dropped by enemies. In the latter case, there is an accuracy equation based on levels rather than stats (which would be okay if it only allowed you to hit things at lower levels, but it also prevents training at twenty levels higher (so, no boss runs with archers).
 * Again, a big part of the Destiny update gave clerics and archers a lot more to work with.
 * The maze forest near NLC now has a different system, making the already confusing maps in some guide websites like Hidden Street useless.
 * It's the Same, Now It Sucks.
 * While many pots drastically cut in price at the main towns after Big Bang, the outskirt towns that had high healing or % pots, which are still very much expensive.
 * For that matter, many of the quest unlocked stores have absurdly high prices for common items.
 * Outside of big bang edits, there are a large number of forgotten towns, that routinely miss most updates of store or game function.