Participating in the NEXON PEAK Post Challenge

Collaborations between games and K-POP have become commonplace.
Skins featuring famous artists and special events are now familiar sights,
and collaborations on soundtracks are easy to find, too.

But the K-POP collaboration that has stayed with me most is Mabinogi Mobile's.
It did more than simply bring in a famous singer:
it felt like a natural expression of the game's identity, one in which music has always mattered.

⛺ A Song That Defines Mabinogi

I still remember the promotional soundtrack released before Mabinogi Mobile's launch.
“An Old Story from Grandma,” an iconic piece from the original Mabinogi's soundtrack, was given lyrics
and sung as a duet by Kim Chang-wan and CHUU.
Anyone who played the original would have heard it countless times on the login screen.
The music is so closely tied to the game that its opening notes alone bring Mabinogi to mind.

I remember always leaving the background music on as I explored the original game.
Hearing the two singers' warm vocals over that familiar melody
felt like revisiting my childhood memories.
Paired with the campfire scene on the album cover,
the song captured Mabinogi's distinctive atmosphere beautifully.

💨 A Song Sung by a Raid Boss

The collaboration with CHUU did not end there.
She later sang “Lullaby of the Wind,” the theme song for the raid boss 에이렐.

에이렐 is an innocent wind spirit who loves dancing and singing with adventurers
in a world of illusions created through music.
The boss wields a battle harp,
with skills named after musical terms such as Da Capo, Accelerando, and Capriccio.
Music is central to the character's design.

During the “Concert Quartet” mechanic, 에이렐 sings,
and adventurers must successfully complete a rhythm-game performance to survive the next party-wipe attack.
The song is not simply background music:
it becomes part of the raid's mechanics, which made the experience all the more memorable for me.

CHUU's clear voice was a fitting match for 에이렐's innocence.
As I listened to the melody, with its subtle East Asian feel,
I sometimes found myself imagining the stories of the spirits in Mabinogi's world.

🎤 The Ailee Collaboration Everyone Had Been Waiting For

I cannot leave out the collaboration with Ailee, who is well known for playing Mabinogi Mobile.
When CHUU's involvement in 에이렐's theme song was announced,
I remember some in the community saying they had hoped for a collaboration with Ailee.
In the end, though, I think the choices made were a better fit.

The collaboration with Ailee was unveiled at the 1st-anniversary showcase.
She sang “Grasp the Future,” a boss execution theme,
and her powerful vocals suited the intensity of combat remarkably well.
During the event, the song played as the execution theme in raids and Abyss encounters,
adding another layer of immersion to the battles.

I also remember running raids with friends while chatting on Discord.
Whenever the execution theme began, we would all find ourselves singing along
to the opening line, “Awaken me~”—a memory we still laugh about together.

✨ Collaborations Worthy of the Mabinogi Name

The name Mabinogi originally means “a bard's song.”

Music, then, is more than background sound in this game; it is an essential part of its world.
Bosses love music, musical performances become combat mechanics,
and the tales told by bards play an important role as the game's story unfolds.

Mabinogi Mobile's K-POP collaborations therefore do not feel like events built around famous singers.
To me, they enriched the musical identity the game already had.
Even now, Mabinogi Mobile is the first title that comes to mind when I think of K-POP collaborations with games.
True to the game's name, these collaborations stayed with me through music—and that made them feel quintessentially Mabinogi.