Hello.

The theme of this post is a café dessert fair: a look at café-themed elements and appetizing desserts in games.

With that in mind, I have gathered some café-themed maps from MapleStory, along with some memorable dessert pixel art.

Café-Themed Map: Kerning Tower 2nd Floor

Kerning Tower is the theme dungeon that succeeded the old Kerning Square. It is set in a sleek, modern building—a rare sight in MapleStory.

Remnants of some Kerning Square maps can still be seen during quests exploring Blake's memories. None of the remaining areas appear to be cafés.

The entire 2nd floor of Kerning Tower is a café, with scenery and monsters to match.

One of the NPCs scouted during the quests who goes on to debut as an idol used to work part-time at this café.

Café-Themed Map: YOU&I Café

YOU & I Café is a building that appeared in <Maple 15th Street>, the 15th anniversary event.

This café map has a fairly cozy atmosphere. An event at the time reportedly awarded EXP coupons to players who entered with their guild members. Players who had not joined a guild therefore could not participate at all.

One of the minigames that awarded event coins involved balancing a cup while avoiding falling dust, as shown here. Judging by reviews from the time, it seems to have been quite difficult.

Irene, who oversaw this event, was also the NPC in charge of Maple Chat. She was removed during a revamp and can no longer be found anywhere in the game.

Finally, the café takes its name, YOU&I, from one of MapleStory's update themes from 2013. Shade, The Seed, and World Leap were reportedly first introduced during this update.

Other Café-Themed Elements

A café can also be found in FriendStory's entirely modern-day setting, though unfortunately, players cannot enter it.

Overseas versions of MapleStory reportedly held a café-themed event around 2021. I imagine its format and rewards were not very different from those in KMS.

I had never seen the NPCs featured in the event, however, so I tried a keyword search. They turned out to be from content exclusive to overseas versions and unavailable in KMS. They seem to be connected to content based on Japanese history.

Cakes in MapleStory

This customizable cake chair appeared in the 2018 Christmas event <카밀라의 두근두근 베이커리>. Its pixel art looks particularly well made, giving the cake an appetizing appearance. Events featuring customizable chairs like this used to return regularly, just as they were fading from memory, but they have now disappeared entirely.

There was reportedly also an event at the time in which cookies fell in towns at scheduled times.

I remembered seeing this giant cake monster somewhere but could not recall exactly where, so I looked it up. Apparently, it appeared in an anniversary event in Taiwan.

The event map also looks quite well made. It makes me wonder what it would have been like to see it brought over for a Korean event, even briefly.

The rewards reportedly included cake items that Korean players would also recognize.

The Dessert Pixel Art I Remember Best

Finally, the food pixel art that left the strongest impression on me appeared in <7스타 출장 뷔페>, an event held for the 17th anniversary.

This coin-earning event tied into Hotel Maple, the theme of the 17th anniversary celebrations. The premise was that defeating monsters would trigger deliveries of hotel food.

I remember how appetizing all the food looked, from the desserts to the other dishes. It still looks just as appealing now.

Although it was a separate event, the hamburger Punch King event that came later had a similar feel. I hope we get to see more food pixel art like this in the future.

Thank you for reading.