From reading the posts on Maplestory news it seems that the last area of the Arcane River is limited-time stuff. It make sense - Moonbridge and Labyrinth of Suffering are limited because it's detailing your hero leading the charge through the final stretch of the Arcane River, which is the heart of the Black Mage's domain and thus the most dangerous area in all of MapleStory with normal mobs that can one-shot a Level 275 character in one hit! And let's not talk about the Black Mage, who is the ultimate enemy and has several transformations...
Or let's DO talk about him. More likely, the fact that his HP is shared over every server in Maplestory. He has ten googol HP and everyone in the game who is Level 250 or higher has to help cherry tap his health down, but once you do he switches to ANOTHER phase with buttloads of shared health. It's obvious this is the ultimate epic ending to MapleStory's story...
Is it?
Just like Kingdom Hearts 3 is not going to end the series and retire it, I doubt slaying the Black Mage will mean that MapleStory will end up like Wizard101 at the end of Empyrea where all you can do is just party quest and sit around Henesys exchanging war stories.
So this thread is to discuss what will happen in the years to come once Nexon ends the Black Mage event and removes this final area of the Arcane River(maybe the whole Arcane River?) from MapleStory's servers. Where will the story go from here?
I am thinking of a few things, but this is just my speculation and how MapleStory could make eke out a few more years of life before Nexon tells everyone to start playing MapleStory 2. If anyone wants to comment, feel free, promote discussion. Since we are in the final final chapter of the Black Mage saga, it's time to discuss the future of MapleStory.
* Maybe replace the Arcane River with a new map that is basically a hub world where you can revisit Lucid, Will and Verus Hilla in smaller maps. I am not saying that Nexon should dump Arcane River, just make it a post-story thing. After all, there is nothing preventing players from replaying Black Heaven, so it might not be likely that they'll replace all of Arcane River, just replace the Black Mage map with something else since the Alliance will be disbanded after the Black Mage is defeated in the story.
* What I think will happen with Kingdom Hearts after the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 will probably happen here - we've defeated the big bad Black Mage, but his minions and dark monsters are still around so future storylines(for up to Level 275 gamers) will be to clean up the mess. They didn't remove the Black Mage's Commanders or Black Wings after those quests are done with so why not make some clean-up story where players go on daily quests to clean up elite bosses?
* Finally, hint at and tease at an even darker power who is licking up the spilt blood of the Black Mage and absorbing his corrupted power to become even more of a threat to Maple World... Maybe the White Mage in FriendStory absorbs the Black Mage's power and turns into a new more sinister Black Mage who threatens both Kinesis's world and Mapleworld, or a High Flora who steals the power and becomes a true monster(which would bring Grandis more into a bigger role - with the new Flora classes of Ark and Ilium and the new Fox Valley story which I deeply enjoyed, it seems that the evil is turning towards the alien worlds of Grandis, maybe a Verus version of Magnus?).
Comments
2. We already did remove Black Mage Commanders. They're all dead, Jim.
3. We already have been getting hints at a new big bad. We even got one at the end of the Black Mage fight.
i saw KMS GOT THEIRS
I'm not saying that Arcane River will get removed. I've been doing the first quests on my Cannoneer to get her to Level 210(for Level 3 Link Skill) and it's pretty good. Nice taking only one point of damage and fighting Erdas.
I'm just saying what will happen with the Limina area, since they removed Moonbridge and Labyrinth of Suffering. Also, I hope they remove that quest over my Cannoneer's head. It's annoying and I'm way underleveled to do the quest.
Tenebris will not be removed either. When the level cap is raised to level 275, Tenebris will be available as a training area. Level 245+ for Moonbridge, level 250+ for Labyrinth of Suffering, and level 255+ for Limina. Additionally, the story will still be available for characters to progress (and, further, there are additional cutscenes if you proceed through the areas after this update).
Only the event-version of these areas have been removed as the event ends. The Expedition event was made specifically so that any character above level 200 could still participate, even without completing Esfera (this is also why the event warns you that it contains spoilers).
Additionally, the next major Big Bad is confirmed to be Gerald Darmoor, the leader of the High Flora and the Transcendent of Life in Grandis.
Darmoor was mentioned initially in the Angelic Buster and Kaiser storylines, as well as the Heliseum storyline and Magnus prequests. He was later confirmed with the Cadena, Illium, and Ark storylines. His arrival was also hinted at in the Fox Valley theme dungeon.
Okay, thanks for letting me know that! It's good to see my fears were unjustified.
Also, I knew Grandis would be the next spot where a big bad baddie would spawn to fill the void the Black Mage leaves after his demise, though from what I read in the lore, wasn't Darmoor the Light Transcendent, similar to the White Mage, and he also drained the power of the Time Transcendent as well? *shrugs*
Spoiler tags have spoilers. Be warned if you care about those.
Very close. He's the Transcedent of Life, not Light. Tana (Aeona) is the Light Transcedent. However...
But he's mostly been in the background while we wrapped up the Black Mage stuff.
Essentially, we still have him to fight, which could be tough as
TL;DR: hold onto your dookie it's about to get spooky.
"You don't know what I've seen. The chains constricting this world. I've seen a carless god, and people without purpose." (In-Game, before you fight him)
"This world was nothing more than an experiment." "Because humans are nothing more than mere pawns." "I reject the fate that YOU have decided." (Part 6 of Black Mage: Origins)
Then also Tana, who heard this thing, but isn't implied to have seen it.
"However... there was something strange in what she said. She said she had no choice it sounded like she did it against her will." (Melange quoting Aeona)
"I hear the voice... This is... you were right. I can't free myself from this." ... "But... It won't go the way they expect." (Tana Esfera Questline)
The fact that both transcendents of light, probably the two most enlightened (ha) entities in the entire lore seem to really hate this thing, I'm going to guess it's not good.
You could argue what Mars said in The White Mage is true.
"He was engulfed by the power of light. The power of light was far too grand. We were fools to think we could comprehend it all, much less control it."
That merely seeing/hearing the voice is enough to drive even a transcendent mad.
Either way, this thing is scary. Even if simply because we know nothing about it.
The one where the world is broken and he can't fix it, or the one where he ends up destroying the world?
Because the Black Mage appears to be constricted in chains as well.
Also, if you want to create a world. You need the power of Light/Creation. So why did the Black Mage throw his away and kill all of Aurora?
Perhaps as an act of defiance while he still had some control?
When he looked Beyond with the Ultimate Light in Black Mage: Origins, he was standing on a chess board. No piece on a gameboard actually has control of their actions.
The Black Mage set it up for all his enemies to be defeated. Except it appears, the one who can actually defeat him. Miscalculation or deliberate?