Mabinogi II: Arena Cancelled, Nsquare moves on

Michael Dunaway
By Michael Dunaway, News Editor Posted:
Share:

Nsquare, the development studio brought to life after Nexon became NCSoft's single largest shareholder, has announced it has ceased development on Mabinogi II: Arena. Intended to be a sequel to the original Mabinogi, an open world MMORPG with a rather unique combat system, Mabinogi II: Arena attempted to re-envision the MMO with an updated combat system which still retaining the original's iconic combat style.

The issues began after Nsquare revealed Mabinogi II: Arena would use instanced dungeons similar to other dungeon crawlers (including Nsquare's own Vindictus) instead of the original's open world design. Nsquare also chose a more realistic visual style for the sequel, which as opposed to the more cutesy cartoon style found in Mabinogi. Fans argued the change in gameplay format and visual style positioned Arena as more of a Vindictus sequel. The claim makes sense given the fact Vindictus was originally labeled "Mabinogi Heroes" and Nsquare's reason for cancelling the title due to "current market situations" and feasibility" seem to coincide with player sentiments.

For now Nsquare will continue working on Maplestory 2 and an unconfirmed Unreal Engine 4 shooter. Early last year it was reported Mabinogi II: Arena was 70% complete.

Share:
Got a news tip? Contact us directly here!

About the Author

Michael Dunaway
Michael Dunaway, News Editor

Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.

More Stories by Michael Dunaway

Discussion (33)

蓬莱山の龍瀧歌 8 years ago
I agree with most of the sentiments expressed in the comments thread.
Mabi doesn't need a sequel--- it needs a graphics engine update (retain the style!), and perhaps a few more regions (like Uladh, Belvas, Iria...). Sequel storylines can simply be patched in via Gen updates, like the way it is now.

Darla 9 years ago
That's lame. All they had to do was make Mabinogi Open-World instead of instance-dungeon based. Game would have been fine, with Tera and ArcheAge there were players looking for a more MATURE vibe to Mabinogi instead of the out-dated polygon-look the game had earlier.

Keep the M-rated graphics just change the instance-dungeon. Shame the project was dropped all-together. No wonder why games like TERA were formed because of a similar instance with the supposed Lineage:3 that the game has now warped into what we know as TERA now.

C.L 9 years ago
YES! I get to keep my account!

Neroy 9 years ago
well mabi and vindictus are 2 diffrent times i would have kept going because if u listen to both stories u can feel the storyworld line goes by vindictus-mabinogi-mabinogi 2? and mabi 2 had alot more features than vind like the whole charecter's body being used by detail so i would atleast have ppl see how it is on a site because ik their is just a couple more generations till mabi complete because its VERY soon because chicol is still alive as shown (robed guy with fomor medal)and currently we dont even see him only macha and rurari so who knows it could end after saga episodes season 2

Kylepotato 9 years ago
Such a shame. I digged the art style, too. Maybe Mabinogi will get a proper adaption sometime later in the future.

Kimwer 10 years ago
OOHH, I just remembered Mabinogi, I played it for a little. I remember saying it's one of the worst mmorpgs I've ever played. I could never remember what Mabinogi was by looking at the video, since the game in the video looks nothing like the original. That's gotta be saying something.

View 1 reply
Coward 10 years ago
yes ty that game was disappointing anyways... it was like vindictive but nerfed combat was way to slow what they should be doing is making a mabingoi with vindictus characters and anime style characters like in mabinogi but just updated graphics or some kind of open world vindictus

Unknownslayer 10 years ago
Great

Takerukun3 10 years ago
well, if it was 70 percent complete hopefully they can rework a lot of it into a vindictus expansion or something. it'd be better than just scrapping all that wasted money.

Spunkify 10 years ago
Do you think perhaps the game should have been called Vindictus 2? Seeing as it was almost done, I can imagine people enjoying a fusion of the two MMOs if they thought it was more of a Vindictus MMO sequel and less a Mabinogi one.

View 2 replies
Vieric 10 years ago
I have yet to find another MMO quite like mabi, so I would be quite disappointed if they turn it into more generic hack-n-slash stuff that I can find anywhere else...besides, they already made this game they speak of, its called vindictus, do we really need another?

Honestly though, I am a bit glad this got pulled, the more I heard about it, the less I liked it...I don't want mabinogi to turn into more vindictus. As I said, mabinogi is a unique experience, vindictus, while well polished, is not. I can find the same kind of gameplay in other games out there. I would really hate to lose something unique to gain something that...isn't.

View 1 reply
Trumbles 10 years ago
We need a REAL mabinogi sequel, not some gritty realistic-ass vindictus clone. I wish a compentent dev could pick up the IP and make a PROPER Mabi 2

View 1 reply
Bic Boi 10 years ago
Meh..it was from nexon. Nothing of value was lost.

ron 10 years ago
thank goodness they canceled that abomination of an excuse to a sequel to mabinogi.
hopefully they start again and actually make it resemble the original game in any way possible (open world , cute gfx ect ect )

View 1 reply
ImBatman 10 years ago
R u serious? Video looked awesome, 70% complete? well nexon .. you stupid as a cunt as usual.

Anonymous 10 years ago
I really like Mabinogi, I hope we get a proper sequel soon. The story was really great on the first one, and I just want it to continue!

Mewthree 10 years ago
Eh... that's what I thought too... that it looked like "Another Vindictus."
I mean, like it's also based off of Mabinogi and is also instance-based.

Ushindi 10 years ago
Well that sucks. I looked pretty cool IMO


Read Next

You May Enjoy