[Participating in the Nexon PEAK Post Challenge]

I don’t know if anyone else has a game they dropped for years, only to suddenly think, “Should I start again?” For me, there’s one game that keeps planting that exact thought in my head: Mabinogi.

Part of that is simply because I had such a great time with it throughout my school years. But after entering the game industry, I started thinking about it a little differently too—how many games really make you feel the idea of a “fantasy life” this well? In this post, I want to talk about why I still find myself wanting to go back to Mabinogi every so often.

Ever heard the phrase “Fantasy Life”?

Digging potatoes, shearing wool..

Back when I was really into Mabinogi, friends would often come up to me and say, “Is it really that fun? Should I try it too?” And then, more times than I can count, I watched them quit before even making it through a week.

Honestly, I think Mabinogi is a very taste-specific game.

Unlike most MMO RPGs, where getting stronger comes naturally as you level up, Mabinogi tied your character’s base stats to life skills. In other words, raising life skills wasn’t optional—it was a core part of progression.

Because of that, I think a lot of people just couldn’t click with a game style that felt so different from what they were used to.

But for me, there was real joy in discovering cooking recipes one by one, and in naturally wandering through all kinds of content just to get a single skill book. It genuinely made me think, “Wait... this feels like living in another world,” and that was exactly why it suited me so well.

Jack-of-all-trades is best

A lot of RPGs lock you into one class, which means that character can’t really enjoy other combat styles. Or, if you do switch classes, there’s some kind of penalty attached. Whenever that happens, I always end up asking myself: do I really need to level an entirely new character again..? Or do I just “take the penalty and switch?”

But the thing Mabinogi made me feel was very simple: “Jack-of-all-trades is best.” Debuffs? I do that... Damage? I do that too. There was something almost revolutionary, at least to me, about building a true all-rounder and then controlling that character well enough to handle everything by myself.

An MMO RPG doesn’t have to be all about fighting!

Because Mabinogi’s world was built around the idea of a fantasy life, there was just an incredible range of things to enjoy.

Of course, it had combat—the part no MMO RPG can really do without. But it also had crafting for weapons and armor, fashion play for putting together your own look whenever cute outfits came out, and guild communities that opened the door to all kinds of fun. It really felt like there were so many different ways to inhabit the game. (I still remember a guildmate cheering after making full-option gear with the crafter’s name stamped on it..)

It also had plenty of systems where the game set the stage, but the players themselves created the fun—things like ensemble performances or auctions.

Personally, this is the part that stands out most when I look back on Mabinogi now. It’s what makes me think, more than anything else, that this was an exceptionally well-made game.

It’s not easy for an online MMO RPG to build out nearly every kind of play style people might want, keep all of it alive, and continue updating it over time. The fact that Mabinogi has sustained that for more than 20 years is what really makes it feel like a genuine classic to me.

Of course, there have been major issues over the years—operations problems, probability-related controversies, things like that. But the fact that it has still maintained a steady player base for so long is impressive enough that I can’t help but respect it.

Mabinogi is hard to return to.. but I still want to recommend it

Whenever I think, “Should I go back to Mabinogi?” I end up hesitating. The reason is simple: getting to the newer content takes a real investment of time and effort, and now that I’m a working adult, that just doesn’t feel realistic.

If someone asked me what my “game of a lifetime” is, I’d probably still say Mabinogi.

It isn’t an easy game for me to jump back into now, but I still think it captured the slogan of “Fantasy Life” incredibly well and offered so many different ways to experience the fun of an MMO RPG. So if nothing else, I’d still say it’s a game worth trying at least once.