Maplestory & Me
Frankly, I'm not sure how I discovered Maplestory. I've been an avid player since childhood–I began before I even hit 10 years old, if I'm not mistaken. I assume that I somehow stumbled upon it when looking for online games similar to what I was into at the time (Fantage, Neopets, Webkinz) and was lured in by the cute artstyle. My first character was likely Mercedes, but I played all of the available characters at the time...though Mercedes and Wild Hunter were my favorites.
There was something so spectacular about Maplestory at the start of my adventure. Every map had a unique layout, and every other map had new monsters, with interesting designs, sound effects, attacks. There are hundreds (of thousands?) of maps with captivating concepts and layouts. The world feels so incredibly alive, something you can't really say about most other games. Even to this day, areas I've only visited once stand out in my mind! I often go out of my way to grind at less-than-ideal training spots just because I prefer how the visuals are. While that sense of wonder has waned with age, I still hold dear many locations in my heart, as is the case for many players.
Maplestory has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Even before I got into collecting and other otaku hobbies, one of my first pieces of merch was a 3D puzzle of Phantom's Lumiere! If I knew it would end up being $100+ nowadays, I definitely would've taken better care of it. Needless to say, Maplestory has shaped not only my love for MMORPGs, but also VGM and storytelling! In the case of VGM, I've now listened to hundreds of soundtracks...it's just a hobby of mine. Still, even after everything I've had the pleasure of hearing, Maplestory reigns supreme in terms of consistency and tone. You really don't find games with perfect soundtracks often! Most of the time, you'll get 50~70% greatness and the rest isn't noteworthy. That's not the case with Maplestory at all–I recommend poking around the
Maplestory Music page.
A long time ago, before the dozens of retcons happened, Maplestory was pretty simple in terms of plot and lore. It was very much a "heroes beat bad guy but bad guy shows up again!!" cliche, though extremely enjoyable nonetheless. Despite all the bright colors, cute monsters and chibi artstyle, Maplestory is definitely a dark story. In the Xenon path, we see the Black Wings doing human experimentation on children...huh?! I remember being super taken aback as a kid when all of that happened. A lot of content has been cut down (as far as I can tell, I'm a returning player) so people who began recently don't get to see Maplestory at it's peak, which is unfortunate! I loved stuff like how rude Alicia was in the Root Abyss storyline. Still, if you take everything seriously, there's lots of angst to be found. Von Leon's entire deal is depressing as fuck, Hilla's obsession with staying beautiful and her subsequent sacrificing of Azwan, Lotus and Orchid, Phantom and Aria...etc, etc.
It's a strange feeling caring so deeply about this stupid game. Nexon are the pioneers of the
free-to-play but pay-to-win model, meaning that the current state of affairs on the official servers is quite bleak. It's not as bad as Elsword (or is it?), yet still discouraging! I suppose my relationship with MS is, at the moment, like going back to an old partner over and over again. No matter how bad things get, I'll still love Maplestory, the characters, world, music, and the thousands of memories it has given me.
As of February 2025, I've begun playing on the official server again! The last time I did so was 5+ years ago, so I have a lot of catching up to do, in both gameplay and story. I'm currently maining Angelic Buster because she's the best ever and awesome and it's peak...
Empress Cygnus
If you know anything about Maplestory, you're probably surprised to see this character here...and trust me, I'm definitely a bit flustered that she's my favorite MS character of all time! Oh, er...actually, I guess it's not surprising since I plastered her face all over this shrine.
Anyways, Cygnus! Huh? There's a lot of background information as to why I like Cygnus, but most of it concerns my stupid, young, dumb self, so I won't get into it. All I can really say is that I adored Ereve and the NPCs there since childhood. I fell in love with Cygnus so much that I started drawing just so I could see more fanart of her, which was rare back in the day!
Ereve is a floating island above Maple World and Cygnus is its empress, meaning that she technically holds one of the highest political positions in the game despite being a child. We get some more information in
Grand Athenaeum, where we learn that she was more or less forced into that position out of necessity as Ereve was without a ruler following Empress Aria's death. Although not blood-related, she's the only living relative Aria has, and thus became a ruler at a young age. With her stoic tactician, Neinheart, she does her best for her people, despite being quite frail and meek.
There's not a whole ton to work with before she becomes a commander (which I haven't read, that's technically "new content" to me!) but I always saw her as a poor girl who has the weight of way too much on her shoulders. Claudine and the Resistence has beef with her for something that was out of her control and yet she doesn't try and argue, she just accepts their anger. By the time we see her in the Mihile storyline, she's already quite mature for her age. It makes me sad to think about how much she's been through, how much she'll go through, and the childhood she had stolen from her.
I have a lot of headcanons about how Cygnus, Neinheart & her knights operate...which will stay secret, as it's quite embarrassing to discuss at length! I will say that I view the aforementioned characters to be a big family. Oh, and somewhere, somehow, Phantom fits into that...?
Err, anyways, I really love Cygnus. She's probably the first character I've ever gotten maternal feels™ for. I've always been fascinated with her design and character, so Grand Athenaeum and all of the other new updates
that I've yet to read are welcome additions to her story! I'm still in denial about her growing up...maybe I'm just old?
Phantom
Uh oh, it's jackass. Yup, like everyone else, I
love this guy...to the point of cosplaying him when I was younger *gulp*. Good thing I don't have any pics because it probably looked awful.
Phantom is the dude of all time. He's like a cooler version of Tamaki Suou, but at the same time he also manages to be lamer. His whole shtick is that he's a thief who steals from corrupt people, like politicians (lol). One day, he was stolen
from...Empress Aria, the ruler of Ereve, lured Phantom out by conjuring fake rumors about a powerful and expensive gemstone she owned: the Skaia.
Surprise! There was no gemstone. As a lonely and bored Empress, Aria heard of Phantom's dubiously noble exploits and desperately wanted to meet him. The two fell in love despite their seemingly fiery personalities. One day, Black Wings commander Lotus killed Aria after tricking her with talks of parley. In his rage, Phantom killed Lotus, angering his twin sister, Orchid. Little did Phantom know that Lotus' body would be preserved and experimented on in hopes of his revival...
Back when the Hero classes were released, Phantom, Mercedes, and Luminous were the only ones to get proper animated cutscenes, with the latter two's showing the final battle with the Black Mage. Phantom's was super different in tone, instead featuring on him saving Empress Cygnus from a disguised Hilla, who hoped to take her seat on Ereve's throne. It really made an impression on me, to say the least...and the buildup before that cutscene was a really fun sneaking segment with lots of cocky monologuing.
Phantom also got special treatment from the developers–he's one of, if not
the first character with a "teleport home" skill! Rather than "home", however, Phantom gets go return to his awesome flying ship, the Lumiere. There are also basic facilities and area-specific NPCs! It's not just one map, either...in all, there's a bedroom, a lobby, a cockpit, a study, training rooms...all for a single character! Generally, you seldom end up visiting any of these rooms, meaning that it was made just for the hell of it! Phantom also has a portrait of Aria in his stash of riches...his most prized treasure.
His entire gimmick is stealing skills and using cards. Back in the day, the Bishops were the only class that had access to a party-wide EXP buff, and Phantom had the ability to steal that–albeit a slightly weaker version. As such, Phantoms were highly sought after for any group content. Although he's fallen off with the ever-changing meta, it's important to show respect to the original GOAT.
Phantom is awesome. He's cocky and he knows how cool he is. Amongst the Heroes, he's definitely the one with the least agreeable personality, so he often quarrels with Luminous (or rather, teases) and gets told off by Mercedes. With how serious the other members can be, he's definitely a breath of fresh air! He's also the only one who gave Freud lip, which is impressive in its own right. I adore this character archetype, and my love is doubled because of his connection to Cygnus. If they had any substantial screentime together, I swear they'd be the family of all time...! (I'm delusional.)
Evan & Freud
A combo shrine?!
Who could've seen this coming?!
Evan is a young boy from a farm in rural Henesys. He spent most of his life helping out his parents and doing chores. He's quite literally a country bumpkin who never explored outside of his little home! One day, however, he finds a mysterious dragon egg, and by touching it forms a pact with the Onyx Dragon, Mir!
The Black Mage wiped out every Onyx Dragon and Afrien, king of the Onyx Dragons and Freud's partner, was only able to save his own child, though the egg remained dormant for hundreds of years until Evan arrived. Caught up in a whirlwind of events, Evan spends a lot of the early levels fumbling around familiarizing himself with magic. Upon finally leaving home, he's manipulated time and time again by the Black Wings! The cleanup falls on Aran, another Hero, which she spends quite a bit of her story handling.
Evan is...silly. He's clumsy, bad at his job, and gullible, but his honesty is what makes him so lovable. He's suddenly thrust into a world he knows nothing about and tries to be a hero, but this kindness gets him taken advantage of constantly. He doesn't even realize what he's doing until he meets the other Heroes and they chastize him...which leaves Evan feeling understandably insecure. He has huge shoes to fill, and frankly, he's not super cut out for it! Yet he does make amends with the others, fighting an uphill battle to earn respect.
Where there is Evan, there is Freud! Freud was Evan's predecessor and was commonly referred to as the
Dragon Master after making a pact with Afrien. He was regarded as one of the greatest mages in Maple World, being able to impress even the other Heroes with his strength. Once the Black Mage became an impossible problem to ignore, it was none other than Freud who managed to gather Mercedes, Aran, Phantom, Luminous, and...huh? That's it, right? There are only 5 Heroes...
Freud was everything that Evan isn't: confident, intelligent, capable, and easily earned the respect of everyone he met. A lover of life itself, his words were capable of even inspiring a then-suicidal Eunwol (Shade), the 6th and forgotten Hero, to continue living. Even the other Heroes, who are all noted to be somewhat peculiar and difficult to handle, deeply respected him.
In the final battle with the Black Mage, Freud died...just kidding?! *Checks notes* Apparently they retconned this and he dies while everyone else is trapped in ice. Umm...we're just gonna ignore that for the sake of this article, I don't have time to go back and comb everything just yet...
Anyways, Freud was fucking awesome. If you were to draw a relationship chart between the Heroes, pretty much everyone's lines pointing towards Freud would be "♡". He's so awesome that the writers can't let him die, apparently, since he shows up a million times as a spirit before finally fading away. I've always really liked him, though! Freud's at the center of the Heroes and is the only reason they work as a team, even capable of taming the prickly Luminous and cunning Phantom. He and Mercedes are somewhat implied to have been a pair...which makes things even more depressing.
Evan and Freud are, overall, a very interesting duo. If Freud were still alive, he'd surely take Evan under his wing and act as a patient mentor, but without him, Evan's constant fuckups make him an even more incompetent successor to Freud in the eyes of the Heroes. I really like both of their designs and personalities! Putting them into tropes, Evan's a
stepford smiler and Freud a
badass bookworm. I can't even put into words how interesting this nonexistent dynamic is...argh.
Clicking on a character chibi will take you to a personalized shrine
