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Hello! If you’re here, you’re probably wondering a few things. For instance, what is a Bean World? Why would anyone play MapleStory in this day and age? Who are you and why is this your first Let’s Play? But let me address these concerns and hopefully provide the information necessary.
First off, what is MapleStory?
Good question! If you don’t know what MapleStory is, then you probably didn’t play it during its early inception years during the mid-aughts. But if you did play it during that time, you might be surprised to realize it both still exists and is getting regular updates to this day. To actually answer the question, MapleStory is a Korean MMORPG published by Nexon and developed by Wizet. You play a character in the eccentric and beautiful Maple World, adventuring and growing stronger while slowly learning more about the world and its denizens. The ultimate aim of the game is to defeat the big baddie, the Black Mage, who threatens to tear apart all existence.
MapleStory is a 2D sidescrolling action RPG. Characters get around by moving and jumping and climbing things. Like most RPGs you hunt monsters to get money and items, fulfill quests for story and experience points, level up, gain new skills, and so on and so forth. What sets MapleStory apart from its (admittedly probably much better) contemporaries is the beautiful world, cute creature design, stellar soundtrack, and humorous writing.
My own history with MapleStory is similar to most people's. I played it when it was new, and then fell off of it when school started getting more intense and I didn't have the time to commit to an MMO, along with my other friends who played it stopping giving less incentive to use it as a social platform. Around the 14th anniversary of the game in 2019, I picked the game back up. I had been previously playing a private server of old-school MapleStory but fell out of it when things started getting slower and less exciting, as well as encouragement from a new friend I had made that still played the official game. I had falsely assumed that the game stopped being relevant when its (now-cancelled) sequel came out, but on the contrary!
I came back to a beautifully made world that seemed fresh and new once again, and it instilled in me a desire to see so many of the new things that had been added since I left. And it's that aesthetic that keeps me coming back despite everything gameplay-wise that might turn away anyone that doesn't have seething nostalgia, and even many that do.
What is Bean World?
The crux of everything for this LP revolves around a certain character in MapleStory. This, my friends, is the beast known only as Pink Bean.
Pink Bean was the fourth major boss to be added to MapleStory back in the day. Players of the original might remember the dread statue Zakum as the greatest foe that was present in the game as a challenge. Well, Pink Bean is several orders of magnitude harder, despite also being several orders of magnitude cuter! Modern players of the game won’t struggle with Pink Bean anymore, but that doesn’t mean its legacy hasn’t carried on, not in the slightest. Pink Bean is the primary mascot character for the game’s marketing alongside its iconic snails, mushrooms, pigs, and what have you. However, we’re not looking at Pink Bean as a boss in this LP... no, instead we’re looking at Pink Bean as a playable character.
That’s right! In Bean World, a Pink Bean can be created as your character! For this event, he shares the spotlight with a Yeti character as well, who I will be touching upon for his unique content. The main goal of this LP is to complete the Pink Bean Step-Up missions, which are a multitude of tasks related to character growth and progression, with the culmination being reaching the pivotal level 200. 200 is where many veteran players of the game say that the “actual” game starts, but with Pink Bean we can relax and not worry about the meta.
Why this game and why this challenge?
Despite MapleStory’s multitude of problems it’s a nostalgic and comforting game to play for me. And I was going to participate in this event anyway - why not make it a joint experience? With Pink Bean, the availability is limited and once the event period is over he won’t be able to be used anymore, so I also see this as a way to document something that’s ephemeral, so in the future anyone will be able to understand what this all meant.
Realistically, the updates for this will have come out after the event’s conclusion. While it would be nice to play with you all as Pink Bean, editing and putting together updates takes time, so I’m not going to stress about doing it all in this thread during the event duration. However, if any of you DO happen to play this game, my main characters are on the Bera world. And if any of you want to start this game for the first time or after a long break inspired by this, I’d be glad to help you out!
I also want this LP to be informative, so while Pink Bean growth is the focus, I’ll also be explaining mechanics and other such relevant things as we go along. I’m not an expert but I should at least know enough about the pre-200 game to be able to give a good enough picture on it! I hope you all are looking forward to something a little tiny bit different from your usual LP here.
What’s the format?
My plan is to record every minute of my playing in Bean World, and to edit it down into screenshot format for the forum here. I don’t want to go through every little grinding session that I’m invariably going to have to do, but I want to at least point out the interesting things and go through content, like questlines that are considered standard for new characters. This game has a very wide window so my screenshots may sometimes be inconsistent in size, typically cropped down to what I feel is important for the update bit by bit. If every shot were the full screen window I think a lot of detail would be lost!
I plan to also be focused on explanations in my approach. I’ll do my best to keep things entertaining, but I’m at my best when explaining things rather than turning everything into a joke, so I hope you’ll allow me to do so. The game does a fine job of being funny on its own!
Show me the Pink Bean Step Up! What’re all our goals?
There are 13 tasks, and they must be completed in order. They are as follows:
1) Reach Level 30
2) Obtain 300 Combo Kills
3) Reach Level 50
4) Kill 999 monsters
5) Reach Level 70
6) Use 2 Runes
7) Reach Level 100
8) Clear Monster Park 2 Times
9) Reach Level 150
10) Defeat 5 Elite Monsters or Elite Champions
11) Have 50 Star Force
12) Defeat Horntail on Chaos difficulty
13) Reach Level 200
These tasks alternate between giving our Bean character goodies to make his journey easier, and giving my main character some helpful things for their own progression. I'll try not to focus too much on non-Bean things, though. The end-goal reward for getting Bean (and Yeti) to level 200 is a best-in-slot item for my main, so I'm gonna work hard to reach it.
Besides these tasks there are also a few events exclusive to this world, and I'll cover those as they become relevant.
Thanks for reading the intro post! Looking forward to getting this started!