I've invested about 24,000 total hours into this game since 2005 till now, I kept up with private servers since the dawn of them starting out, and even played pservers for old maple while playing this, for almost a decade. I'm saying this because a lot of people here always mention nostalgia, and then say this game isn't what it used to be, you're correct. Things change, games change, everything eventually changes.

Maplestory in its entirety is not so bad. Old maplestory was impeccable due to the new age of MMOs, was purely social, people did whatever they wanted because it was their story. Leveling took forever, leeching ruined the game, barely any end game spots, bosses were purely lackluster and the only thing that made them difficult, was needing to HP wash, and All Cure Potion spamming, plus no Resurrection invuln. However, after BB the game became exponentially easier, and broken. With v95 being BB update, wasn't too bad. Then came v100 with Dual Blade, the first installment that ruined the whole game we all know in love, then v105 came LHC, and every area in the game for high level became dead, and then the game had a downward spiral for years, to the point they almost shut down the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game because of how bad hacking got, the economy, market, players complaints, bugs, issues, etc. The list literally goes on forever.

In response, Nexon made a huge leap and created Reboot, which ~67% of all players who play Maplestory reside in. One of Nexon's only good moves, ever. Reboot is literally Current maple, but Ironman mode. No leeching, no economy, no market, no bs ways of obtaining gear, no trading, it literally resolved every issue the game had from 2005-2016, no joke.

Miss grinding forever, getting your own gear and how hard it was to obtain? Miss getting together a party to boss because they weren't able to be solo'd? Pre quests for skills? Finding new areas? Well, I have news for you, you can still do all those things in current maple, you just choose to bash it because it isn't old maple and isn't nostalgic anymore. Grow up.

The game has an immense amount of content, but the game starts at 200 realistically, unlike old maple where 200 was cap, here the game opens up into an entirely different world the second you hit 200. Arcane River is genius, everything post 200 is impeccable. The game has turned into dailies, weeklys, and so on/so forth, but every F2P game does that ♥♥♥♥, even the MMO's you sub to (FF XIV for me) do the same. Log in for raid, log off. Do dailies, log off. Same rules apply here, so not sure why people are bashing this when literally any and every MMO does this type of style. It's comical.

The grind as well is infinitely longer than old maple ever was, only thing is you kill mobs faster here than you ever could in old maple. In exchange, killing enemies fast and getting little exp feels slower than killing enemies slowly and getting little xp, which is why people tend to quit. It's 2023, there isn't any game that's truly old school anymore, so killing ♥♥♥♥ slow isn't a thing anymore in games in general.

Obtaining gear is on your own accord, people here saying "you'll need to invest countless hours to obtain good gear"...... yea...... it also took countless hours back then too.... so what's the point of even stating something like that? If anything, it took exponentially longer to obtain gear in old maple than it is here. However, upgrading the gear in current maple is where the difficulty is, due to needing to farm mobs for meso to upgrade gear, and an incredible amount of meso may I add. It's funny because the same ♥♥♥♥ was in old maple. HTP took forever, Zak Helms, MoN, perfing a weapon, getting certain scrolls that were only obtainable back in the day through Gachapon, which was literally a Lottery Ticket ($1 per ticket). You'd sell your soul away leeching just to help fund your character. At least here you actually get to play your character, and purely progress on it if you'd like. Sure, you need to make other characters to buff your main, but once again, almost every F2P game is formatted that way, so I really, really do not see how that stands up in any way to rating this negative.

And I'd also like to add, all these people stating you need to spend an incredible amount of money to progress? That's absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. As I stated before, Reboot DISABLES ALL TRADING AND THE MARKET, THEREFORE THERE IS NO WAY TO PAY FOR ITEMS WITH REAL MONEY, ESPECIALLY UPGRADING GEAR ALSO DOES NOT COST A SINGLE PENNY. Cubes that better your gear cost meso, the in game currency dropped by monsters. In the non-reboot servers, yes you'd have to pay real money for cubes instead of meso, but that's exactly why ~67% of all people playing this game are on reboot, so they don't ever have to deal with P2W bogus. Reboot is PURELY F2P, emphasizing FREE. You don't need to spend a penny to get better damage or better gear in reboot, the only thing you need to spend is your time.

So all in all, Mushroom game is good, Reboot is genius, old maple is still a classic. However, comparing the old version to current is silly, because the game is still good, it's just Nexon that's the problem. Always was, and always has been. And also, anyone on here who reviews the game negative with barely any time means they didn't make a dent in what the game has to offer. The grind is difficult, it's boring, just as old maple grinding was, only thing is now we're older and don't have as much time, which is fine. However, if you really want to know, only ~10% of players make it to mid game (250), so for anyone to bash the game without even coming close to what the game has to offer is silly. Do better. Grind more. That's all Maple was, and ever has been, Grinding.

So do yourself a favor, stop listening to buffoons here and just try the game. There's no harm in trying. You either will like it, or you won't. Just be warned, there is an incredible amount of things the game has to offer, take it at your own pace and don't feel rushed. After all, it is purely solo progression on reboot, ain't no one getting you to where you need to be aside from yourself. I guess that's why people decide to pay, since they're not able to do things themselves anymore ;) But paying real money in reboot gets you nothing but glamour items for your gear so you look cool, no damage gains from $, nothing, just fashion.

Reboot is impeccable. Never play the regular servers. Only Reboot. If you play regular servers, you're playing a dogwater game. If you play Reboot, you're playing an immaculate game that focuses on solo progression. Enjoy the grind!

IGN: Eurekan if anyone wants to add me in game :)

P.S - Just because this game isn't old maple, doesn't mean it isn't as good as old maple. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug, indeed. However, never let nostalgia cloud your judgement on something that is truly great. Old Maplestory is better left off as a memory, so move on, and grow a pair. Time moves forward, not backward. Most people prob didn't even make it far in old maplestory, they just miss the feeling a new game had back in 2004 (Beta)/ 2005 (GMS release). Shame the company, not the game. I don't support the company, so I don't spend a penny. I just play Reboot. & Also, I've spent $0 on Reboot, and have 5.5k legion & a main sitting at 255. So don't tell me you need to pay money to make it anywhere, you only need to give your time and effort.