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Is there an order to classes?
So I tried MapleStory a while back, played a few classes, had no idea what was going on story wise, and then left in confusion. I want to give it another go, but I'm confused on where to start. I don't really care which class is easiest to play or has the best link skills, I just want to get a sense of the story and whats going on in the world. Any suggestions?
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The best way I can put this is that each class, or group of classes, is in itself one part of a whole with regards to story. The explorers(including dual blade and cannoneer), the resistance and the cygnus knights are all single facets of story. Each individual hero class(shade, mercedes, phantom, luminous, aran, evan) are separate facets of story. Zero is a separate facet, as are both the nova(kaiser, angelic buster, cadena) and flora(illium, ark) classes. The demons(slayer and avenger; two sides of the same coin as far as story goes) and xenon are also separate facets from the resistance classes.
Another problem is that the story is spread across all these different classes, or groups of classes, and it stretches from when you first log in on the newly-made character all the way up into something like the 260 or 270 range of levels. The best time, story-wise, to play would have been last winter during the black mage events. This would have allowed you to see the primary storyline to its conclusion. Now it's level-locked to 250+.
For now, pick one class that you like and focus on that. In time you may find yourself branching out to other classes, either for link skills or legion board pieces.
Basically, you'll see the same story (like exact same text/quests/lore/etc) for all explorers give or take minor detail changes (such as primary instructor/classes of your "fellow" npc explorers). Small exception would be Dual Blade and Cannoneer who have a slightly special beginning and middle parts (though the overall story is basically the same). Resistance idea for Xenon and the Demons. Cygnus same idea Mihile. Nova, I think is a bit more special, iirc Kaiser and Angelic Buster have similar story, but I feel like Cadena is a bit more unique, though I guess end goal is the same with her story. Haven't gone far in Illium or Ark but I felt like their stories weren't even related.
Basically, one sentence summaries for each "branch" of the story until like level 120/200ish where all the story stuff start to come together to a big picture: (apologies for any lapse in my memory / incorrect interpretation of the story)
Cygnus Knights: Travel around the world to combat the Black Wing and set the stage for the Maple Alliance.
Resistance: Defend Edelstein from the Black Wings.
Nova: Save Pantheon/Grandis from Magnus.
Flora: Learn to control odd ended power you end up with. (I guess in hindsight, their stories might be similar in that sense? But their respective areas didn't seem to cross until much later, hence why I think they have "separate" stories)
Sengoku: Establish base in the Maple World and something or another about Nobunaga and Princess No.
Thanks again!
There are a few exceptions though. Resistance, Demons and Xenon have their story quests and job advancement quests separate from one another. Kaiser and Angelic Buster have unique interactions in the Heliseum dungeon and their story technically ends after Magnus is defeated, which can last until 175. Zero has his own plot with its own chapters. Sengoku characters have quests after 100 and their story continues with the Hiezan Temple quests until Princess No is defeated, but its much looser than with the Novas.
Zero, Cadena, Ark, and Illium additionally reference a few plot points that may be confusing.
Otherwise, character storylines generally take place simultaneously. Mihile technically takes place before everyone else's storyline, but this isn't actually all that relevant in the long run.
After you've done that I recommend both Resistance/Cygnus character types.
After you've completed those three character stories (Each last to around 100 or so) you can start doing basically everyone else.
Those three class types setup ground work for basically the rest of the game. I'd hammer them out first then do other characters and their related stories.
You can easily tell which quests belong to which character once you've played through a few, as you'll be interacting with characters important to their story.
Ark/Illium/Cadena/Angelic Buster/Kaiser are Grandis setup. This will be important for Darmoor, the next big bad of the game.
Savage Terminal/Pantheon/Heliseum has some world building for Grandis.
Hero Classes give good backstory into where they came from as well as some history on MapleWorld in general.
Demon/Xenon are aspects of the resistance story.
Kinesis has a somewhat self contained story, but is also related to Heroes of Maple.
As mentioned above, FriendStory is the prequel to Kinesis story.
Mihile has some background pre-cygnus knights story/lore.
Grand Athenaeum has multiple stories inside.
You'll find the story for the black mage's creation.
Cygnus becoming empress.
The starting point for the Resistance/Cygnus feud.
The start of the fight against the black mage/rise of the heroes.
And a prequel to Zero's story.
Edelstein has some non-character-specific Black Wings story.
Riena Strait shows some of the impact of the Black Wings.
Lion King Castle is general Black Mage lore/setup.
Fight for Azwan/Hilla is general Black Mage lore/setup.
Ellin Forest is general Black Mage lore/setup.
Gate to the Future is general Black Mage lore/setup.
Evolution Lab is the setup for Black Heaven.
Black Heaven takes place before Heroes of Maple.
Root Abyss is the setup for Heroes of MapleStory.
Heroes of Maple is the setup for Arcane River.
Kritias is the setup for a section of the Arcane River later on.
I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, as I rarely do certain areas and some characters I admit I glazed over because I plan to eventually redo them.
Hopefully this helps you find where you need to look for more explaintions if you're confused on any story aspects.
Story is the only reason I'm still playing. I wish more people gave it a chance because it has a great one.
And a reason more people probably don't give it a chance is, well, look at how long your post is; all of that is centric to understanding the lore/story in the game. A lot of it requires significant time investments too. I'm with you on the story being about the only reason I still hang around, but I can also understand why it would put some people off.
Sure, most people probably don't play an MMO for the story. And it's hard to pick apart the real story from all the pointless quests.
Perhaps if Nexon added a tag before quests that actually matter like [Story], much like they have [Required].