I last mentioned this MMO earlier in 2018 when the 2nd Korean CBT was about to begin. And as I noted in that posting, it wasn’t something I was really following because Nexon was the publisher in Korea…
However, they’ve (Nexon USA) done a pretty decent job with MapleStory 2 (not perfect especially for players who are end game grinding gear) but overall, they’ve kept to their word regarding keeping the “P2W” out of the game for the western version.
There’s a weird twist here though since Barunson E&A (their development studio Studio 8 and Nexon are developing the game) is going to be publishing it in the west (and not Nexon USA) later this year.
They will be hosting an “announce party” at PAX South where they will also demo the game. The announcement also hints at a “series of betas that is coming up fast”. The panel at PAX South is also being called “No More Pay to Win with Astellia”. So it’s going to be interesting to see how this pans out (and if there is actual collaboration with the Nexon USA MapleStory 2 team as to how to deal with removing a lot of the blatant stuff fro the cash shop).
