This post is [participating in the Nexon PEAK Post Challenge].

New games usually don’t come with much information at first. That’s probably why people say “찍먹” so often. There’s no exact dictionary definition for it, but the easiest way to explain it is that you take a little taste first to see whether it’s crap or doenjang, and more broadly, it means you’re not diving into a game with a heavy, serious mindset from the start—you’re just going to try this and that lightly, have a bit of fun, and decide later. Since I’d had such a great time with Mabinogi Online and Mabinogi Heroes, when Mabinogi Mobile came out, I honestly had no idea how I was supposed to just ignore it and move on. But I’m also at an age now where starting any game too seriously feels like a bit much, so I decided I’d just give it a light 찍먹.



 And the result? I ended up becoming the kind of open-day player who still logs in every single day. As of July 17, ’26, the day I’m writing this, Mabinogi Mobile is at day 479. And my own login count is 474 days. Why the 5-day gap, you ask? Back in June of ’25, I got picked in the lottery for Nintendo Museum tickets, so I went to Japan. I had no idea Mabinogi Mobile login was blocked when you were overseas. So that’s how I ended up being forcibly unable to play Mabinogi Mobile for 5 days.



Honestly, if you take 5 days off, that can be enough to just quit and let it fade out—but this game, Mabinogi Mobile, had me logging back in the moment I returned to Korea. What a Pyongyang naengmyeon kind of game this is. While I was in Japan and couldn’t log in, I really did think, huh... is this how I end up dropping this one too? But in the end, the game I only meant to 찍먹 turned into full-on 부먹, and before I knew it I was in so deep I was eating until the meat went all soft and soggy. Mild, understated, but somehow impossible not to keep craving—Mabinogi Mobile really is that kind of Pyongyang naengmyeon game. So, let me tell you about Mabinogi Mobile.

Each little bit of fun is mild on its own, but together it becomes impossible to quit — you, like Pyongyang naengmyeon

By my standards, Mabinogi Mobile feels relatively un-stimulating compared to other games. In some ways, it’s downright mild. After you make your character, log in, and step into Erinn, what happens doesn’t really feel like some nonstop dopamine explosion. It feels more like everyday life with a little fantasy mixed in. Of course, some people might say, what do you mean low-stimulus, when the story is literally about a hero saving Erinn? But the main story isn’t the only thing this game is fun for. There’s combat, sure, but there’s also romance here, and life.

There’s so much to enjoy here—sitting around a campfire and playing music together, chatting and laughing, chopping wood and gathering herbs and slowly building up a life of your own. But if I had to go through those things one by one, none of them is some huge killer blow on its own. Any single part by itself doesn’t quite have the impact to make me say, yes, this is the one reason I keep playing Mabinogi Mobile. But when all of it blends together, that’s when that flavor hits—the kind that keeps making you come back. Some days I log in because I really want to clear Abyss, some days because I want to chat with a friend, some days because I just feel like performing, and some days because I need to do life-skill processing. And if you keep coming back like that, a day turns into a week, a week turns into a month, and a month turns into a year, and it just keeps going.

Clothes in Mabinogi Mobile, and dyeing too

People say the real endgame content in Mabinogi Mobile is dressing up. Every player’s character has a different look to begin with, and even the exact same outfit can look completely different depending on how you dye it. On top of that, new outfits come out regularly (my bank account). When new drops keep arriving on a steady schedule, there’s really no helping it—you start waiting for the next one. Adventurer Pass outfits, Epic outfits you can only get through draws, Abyss outfits added whenever a new Abyss comes in, raid outfits tied to each raid... fashion here really has no end. If I had one small wish, maybe it’s just that I’d love to see more basic outfits added that you can get with basic fashion tickets too.

I’m definitely going to clear this — Abyss and raids with new gimmicks and new difficulty

Starting with Glas Ghaibhleann, the first raid released after G1 ended, then Succubus, Tabhartas, Eirel, and now the newly added Kabrach, the game keeps giving us raids where every gimmick feels different and every fight has its own kind of fun. Sometimes they even mix in an event, and suddenly you’re heading out to take down Glas Ghaibhleann with a party of eight Imps. Abyss is the same. We started with Math Abyss, passed through Barri Abyss, and now we’re in the Rundal Abyss season. A huge part of the fun is looking forward to what kind of boss will show up this time, and what kind of gimmicks we’ll need to figure out. Rundal Abyss in particular got even more fun this time, because new gimmicks were added starting from Hell difficulty.

Even when I want to rest, I still think about the weekday chores — it feels like a waste to miss them!

No matter how little a game makes you feel bored, there will still be days when you want a break. Maybe you went to the beach, maybe your family got together for the first time in a while, maybe you spent the day happily running around an amusement park with friends—life throws all kinds of things at you. And yet even then, I still end up logging into Mabinogi Mobile, even if it’s only for a little while. To run the weekday dungeons, and to keep the processing factory in my workshop going. To do at least one Deep Dungeon run a day and go see Molly, and to visit Fergus and barter for steel ingots and alloy steel ingots. In a way, these tiny things are probably one of the reasons I keep playing so steadily.

Just when you’re about to forget, just when things are about to feel loose, they give out free tickets — and I can’t give that up

When the main story gets regular updates, convenience features get improved, and events roll around, something else comes with them too. Yes—free currency items like rebirth stones, premium fashion tickets, and premium pet tickets. If you keep living your Erinn life diligently, the next season comes closer, the next update arrives, and gifts come along with them. They usually hand them out during Campfire Live too. And then it turns into this surprisingly satisfying little joy: wondering what they’ll give us this time, and how I should save it all up carefully and decide where to invest it.

I started Mabinogi Online back in 2014 and played it until my mid-20s, and now with Mabinogi Mobile, I honestly can’t even guess how much longer I’ll keep going. It makes me excited, and a little scared too. Back then, I drifted away because real-life circumstances like getting a job started to matter more, and the kind of fun I was looking for had shifted a bit too. But right now, I’m having so, so much fun living my Erinn life in Mabinogi Mobile that I genuinely have no sense of where this will end. I just hope this joy lasts a long time. The newly revealed stories still to come, the events still to come—that sense of anticipation itself feels like one of the things that keeps me playing. And of course, I can’t leave out the precious connections I’ve made here. They’re a big part of why I can stay, and why I keep coming back instead of leaving this game behind.

So today as well, to everyone reading this,

I hope you’re all happy,

+P.S.+

As of the last 1st anniversary,

if I’d already spent 259 days continuously logged in out of 366, then now...

I honestly can’t even imagine how long I’ve stayed in Erinn.