Mabinogi: Fantasy Life

For specific in-game information, see Category:General Information and Category:Game System.

Mabinogi (Hangul:마비노기) is an online role-playing game released by South Korean Game Distributing Company Nexon, and developed by devCAT studio, one of several development teams in Nexon Inc. inspired by Celtic mythology. The Welsh word mabinogi is found in the original manuscripts of the Mabinogion. Mabinogi offers a multitude of skills to be cultivated and a generally high level of diversity among players, skills, and environments.

Despite being based on the Mabinogion, Mabinogi also drives its inspiration from other mythologies; for example, Latin and Germanic mythology/etymology is used for Elves and Giants.

The game has multiple, dedicated regional servers: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mainland China and North America. With the exception of the North America server, all servers are IP-restricted to players within those specific countries. The North American servers are unavailable to players who have a Mabinogi game server in their own country.

In 2008, the North American servers were opened to include Oceania.

A European server used to exist and was launched in 2010. Russia, Israel and Turkey were initially blocked from playing on the European servers, but shortly after the server's release, the ban was lifted to include players from those countries.

The European servers were shut down on April 25th, 2012 due to insufficient player-base growth and profit. No events or sales occurred since its release, and the servers were also dealing with severe issues including hacking and a lack of staff to manage the game.

Compensation was given by the North America server to players that had logged in the EU server up to six months prior to the shutdown and had bought Cash Shop items. The redemption period lasted until July 2012 and consisted of a portion of the NX spent on the account.

The European Server players were encouraged to start over on the North America server with no character transfers. The IP ban on Europe was lifted in the NA region.

Development

The game was initially developed by DevCat and published by Nexon, but eventually came under the direct wing of Nexon by 2010. Content is typically developed and released by the Korean team of developers, with patches later translated and ported to the other region servers, with some exceptions.

• The original DevCat team has likely not been developing the PC Mabinogi game since Generation 12 at the latest.
  • HanStone was the composer for most of the tracks up until Generation 9.
  • 'Mabinogi' is credited for a variety of tracks ranging from chapter 3 to 7.
  • The Nexon sound team, also known as SFA, are credited for tracks dating from the Pet Trainer update up until Generation 24.
  • NECORD, Nexon's official music label, have been credited for the game's original soundtrack since Generation 25.

Branding

In 2012, the North American servers attempted a turn from Fantasy Life to Anime Life, with the release of the Ninja talent and a crossover event with Sword Art Online, but it did not stick.

The game's deep customization options, jobless skill system, and depth of immersion have been the main marketing point of the game, with slogans such as the world's most unique MMORPG or The world's most expressive MMORPG

Legacy

Multiple spin-offs have been made in Mabinogi's image, including Husky Express Online (2009-2011), Mabinogi Heroes, later known as Vindictus (2010- ), Mabinogi Duel (2015-2018), Mabinogi:Arena (2012) and Mabinogi Mobile, currently under development by the original DevCat team.

• A console port was attempted to make use of better graphics, and add in controller support with a Xbox 360 version of Mabinogi, but the project was discontinued due to differences of opinion on the commercialization model between Nexon and Microsoft.
• There used to be a Chinese game called Mabinogi Rebirth Mobile or known as Fantasy Life Mobile developed by Kunlun Games and NEXON released in 2018. It was shut down on October 15, 2020 due to an expiring license.
• Mabinogi:Arena, intended to be a sequel to Mabinogi, ceased development due to backlash about being too different from the original game and was never released.
• Vindictus is an intended prequel to Mabinogi, but the two games have since split into their own stories.
  • For Mabinogi, this can be pinpointed to Generation 16, when the story markedly took its own direction.
  • Characters found in one game may still be found in the other, sometimes with vastly different appearances and goals.
  • The Japanese and Thai servers for Vindictus ceased activity in 2018, but the North American servers are still live.