The MapleStory Fan Fest took place over the weekend of April 29 in Seoul, and we were actually lucky enough to be able to go! Thanks to the MapleStory Korea team and Steve (x3TheAran59), we were invited to the event while we were in Korea! It was so much fun, and I wanted to help share the experience with other players who weren’t able to go. Also surprise Orange Mushroom Blog face reveal! Although if you watched Steve’s stream from the day or his videos, you’ve probably already seen me lol. Overview Background Introduction Henesys Town Square Mushroom Store Dimensional Library Conclusion Background Basically, Steve and I were in Korea together (along with Neo and another friend). We had planned this trip to Korea months beforehand and hoped that the timing would work out to see any real life 20th anniversary events. When they announced the Fan Fest, we were really excited but long story short, we ended up not being able to get tickets. It was pretty depressing haha but we still wanted to make the most out of it so we went to the Nexon Computer Museum on Jeju Island and looked for all the special MapleStory ads around Seoul. But the day after we went to Jeju Island, the MapleStory Korea team actually contacted Steve and invited us directly to attend the MapleStory Fan Fest!! We honestly couldn’t believe it. Some of you may have watched Steve stream the day, and he will be releasing some videos as well. I was basically the designated photographer haha so most of the pictures you see will have been taken by me. Luckily, photos are the best format of media for a blog post, so this one will be centred entirely around our experience at MapleStory Fan Fest! It was so much fun, and we ended up being able to meet both the director of overseas MapleStory and the general director Kang Wongki himself!! Introduction We decided to attend the morning session of Fan Fest on April 29 (KMS’ actual birthday!). The event took place at Dongdaemun Design Plaza. The venue was quite large and split into three areas: the Henesys Town Square (main event hall), the Mushroom Store, and the Dimensional Library. Everyone that attended the event was given a bag with some goodies inside. This included: MapleStory notebook MapleStory notepad MapleStory stickers Yeti pen Orange Mushroom on a stick (a hand fan I guess lol) Maplestory branded water bottle (like a regular plastic one) They also included a pamphlet with a map, which had a Fan Fest stamp mission where you could collect stamps from different stations to get a prize in the end (a poster!). As we were led in by some Nexon staff members, we were actually able to meet with the director of overseas MapleStory, Lee Sanghyun! It was really cool getting a chance to talk with him (thanks to Neo for being our live translator for the whole day, it’s seriously a very difficult task but he was great!) And soon after that, we were extremely surprised when the general director of MapleStory, Kang Wongki himself, showed up behind us! He chatted with us briefly and we were able to take some pictures with him. It was kind of awkward seeing the giant group of people surrounding us haha. If you watched Steve’s stream or the MapleStory live stream a couple of days ago, you would have seen the picture of them together. Initially they were doing a heart but I told Steve to switch to a thumbs up because it’s become sort of a meme for Wongki to do that in pictures and I thought it would be funny. The Nexon staff seemed surprised that we knew about it and laughed about it too lol. Once that was done, we were left to enjoy all of the Fan Fest offerings. Here’s a shot from high up of the main space, where there were various mini games, booths, cosplayers, and the fan merchandise stores. Henesys Market Place At the main entrance was a gate with a couple of Orange Mushrooms on top, as well as a giant Orange Mushroom photo spot. There were multiple places with these giant monster balloons and each one had a table with some props you could use, including pixelated classic items (like the Maple Sword, Pan Lid, Frozen Tuna, and way more) and signboards. They were seriously heavy though! To the left of the entrance was the Henesys ID card photo zone, similar to a couple of the chairs you can get in-game. Sometimes we looked over and the line would be super long, and that was because Wongki was randomly sitting there taking pictures with people haha. In addition to those photo spots, there was a set of NPCs from Maple World that walked around for people to interact with, including Fritto, Mrs. Ming Ming, Chief Stan, and Cassandra. They were a lot of fun because they were all in-character, especially Chief Stan who nailed the slightly annoyed old man vibes! They gave out special Fan Fest lollipops which you could win if you played a game with them. You could take pictures with some monsters from Maple World! Slime, Orange Mushroom, Yeti, Pepe, and Pink Bean were in certain areas at different times, and they were adorable (it was hilarious to see them sprout legs and walk off when their time was over). I got a picture with all of them except Pink Bean In the middle of the area was a big Maple Tree with places for people to sit, and in one corner, there was a stage with a giant screen. There was also a signboard with a bunch of letters from various MapleStory team employees thanking players for playing the game. A lot of them had really good artwork! At the stage, halfway through the day, there was a performance by Charming Jo and some talented musicians from his team! He is a popular Youtuber/Twitch streamer and the band did jazz versions of some MapleStory OSTs! Afterwards, Wongki came up and gave a small speech to all the attendees, thanking everyone for attending the event and helping to celebrate MapleStory’s birthday. I actually missed it though because I was in the merch shop lol. All along the edges of the market place were the different fan merchandise stores! There were a lot, I didn’t count but I think at least 20 of them. I gotta say, these people were extremely talented, a lot of the stuff looked completely official! I didn’t take pictures of everything (you’ll be able to see a lot in Steve’s videos), but there was a wide variety of items like stickers, plushies, acrylics, key chains, mood lights, clocks, figurines, key caps and more. I wanted to buy the Orange Mushroom keycap and figure but they sold out so fast Now let’s get to talking about the stamp mission. There were a total of 7 stations that gave stamps, and you needed at least 3 to get the reward. Cassandra’s Fortune Telling Shop In this station, you could turn the crank of a gachapon machine to get a random fortune. If you were lucky enough to get a ‘big luck’ fortune, Cassandra herself would give you a voucher for 5k NX! Commander Photo Card In this station, you could choose one of ten special photo cards based on the Black Mage’s commanders! It’s the same art as the teasers they released during the Black Mage update. There was a special kiosk where you entered the code corresponding to the commander you wanted, and it would print it out. We had a group of 4 people so we got to see 4 different cards. Fritto Eagle Hunting In this station, you had to hunt eagles in real life! Well not really, it was with a Nerf gun and the eagles were on a board, but still. I actually aced this game and hit every single target on the first try even though my hand-eye coordination is usually awful lol. If you hit enough targets, you would get a voucher for a cup of cotton candy! There were 5 different choices based on different MapleStory monsters. Super cute! Rock Paper Scissors with Zakum In this station, you had to play 3 rounds of Rock Paper Scissors. Everyone who played got popcorn in a Fan Fest themed box, but anyone who won 2 or more rounds got a special chocolate meso coin (which I did)! Maple Mailbox In this station, you could write anything you wanted on a note to MapleStory! I wrote one asking for the My Home system to be added to KMS (Nexon pls), and you can see Neo’s parting words to our favourite space pirate. Weirdly enough, when I went to place my note, the one right beside it was written by one of my guild members! What are the chances? Mushroom Store & Dimensional Library The last two stamps were given when entering the Mushroom Store (no purchase required) and the Dimensional Library. Mushroom Store To get into the Mushroom Store, you had to put yourself on the waitlist first. You just put in your phone number and it would let you know when it was your time to enter, so you could continue to walk around the rest of Fan Fest. They set it up to be kind of a one-way path where you could walk from the entrance to the checkout and see all of the products in a row. I’ll list them all out but I didn’t really keep track of all the prices, you might be able to see them in the pictures above though. MapleStory postcards MapleStory notebooks MapleStory folders MapleStory LED Acrylic Photo MapleStory commander photo cards (Orca and Lucid completely sold out!) MapleStory plushies (Pink Bean/Yeti/Rock Spirit/Orange Mushroom/Slime) MapleStory long mouse pads (Ellinia/Ludibrium/Arcana) MapleStory Pixel Acrylic Keyrings (46 kinds) MapleStory Character Stickers MapleStory mousepads MapleStory phone grips MapleStory monster stickers MapleStory Monster Badge Set I was really sad because all of the plushies other than Yeti sold out by the time we got in Pretty much everything Arcana related sold out too, like the long mouse pad. The keyrings were nice because they had one for every job in the game, in the same pixel format as the posters! The stickers were kinda like t-posing characters but they were nice (Lucid sold out too, commander waifus too popular). After the checkout, there was a big Pink Bean statue to take a picture with! Dimensional Library The Dimensional Library had a similar waiting list to the Mushroom Store. It took a lot longer though because people needed more time to go through and there were lots of places to stop and take pictures. It was split into 3 episodes, with a prologue and epilogue. In the spring of 2023, the Dimensional Library has found itself in the players’ world. The Dimensional Library is a special area where MapleStory’s memories from long ago are collected in one place. In the book that has been prepared this time, players can feel like they’re on a new journey together into a story with various elements of Maple World, like the beautiful backgrounds, familiar characters, and bosses that ignite your sense of challenge. Through this journey, we hope that the adventures in Maple World will live more vividly inside players’ hearts in the future. Prologue The first room was the Dimensional Library itself, with a giant book and bookcases. The bookcase in the middle also showed the librarian Thales and changed over time. To enter the next room, you had to walk through the library and between the bookcases which was pretty cool. Your first step in the world of MapleStory, where would you like to go? MapleStory’s unique feel and graphics have been brought to life with ‘Lith Harbor’, ‘Ludibrium’, and ‘Arcana’. Feel the anticipation and freshness of the gateway to Victoria Island, Lith Harbor, the liveliness and brilliance of the toy town Ludibrium, and the dreamy atmosphere of the Forest of Spirits, Arcana. Also, unrevealed town artwork will be available for the first time for players to see right now! Look back on past memories or imagine the adventures to come as you browse the illustrations that recreate each area’s personality in different tones. Episode 1. Book of Towns Along the walls of this section were illustrations of a lot of the major towns in MapleStory! Ellinia, Kerning City, and Perion looked particularly good since it seems they used an updated art style for them, similar to how Henesys was updated visually a few years ago. I wonder if they’re planning to do the same for those towns? The main draw for this place though was the three sets of Lith Harbor, Ludibrium, and Arcana. You could step right into them (even on top) and take some great pictures! It was fun climbing up the little staircase in Ludibrium haha. Do you remember the first time you logged in to MapleStory? From the moment you started your journey, the characters became the players themselves, as well as an appearance to other players, and alter-egos too. Recall the memory of the moment you took your first steps in Maple World. Now, all of the characters are waiting together for you, the player. Episode 2. Book of Jobs At the entrance of this section was a giant screen showing off the different jobs of MapleStory! It was a video that would highlight different jobs over time where they would say some of their iconic lines as well. After that was a long hallway with unreleased (I think) artwork of pretty much every class. This seemed to be more like reference art since most of them were from different directions and some had detailed drawings of weapons. These are also the art that was used for the stickers in the merch shop. Shh, watch your step from here on. This is a place where those who have endangered Maple World with their power have gathered. First, vividly experience the power of the Commanders with your eyes and ears. If you can escape from them, the Black Mage, who dominated Maple World for a long time, Cernium’s Seren, and Gerald Darmoor, who is gradually growing his forces, await you. Now, enter directly into the story and feel the aura and majestic presence of these bosses. Episode 3. Book of Adventures In the first room was screens for each of the Black Mage’s commanders! They had all 10 commanders (Orca, Suu, Magnus, Will, Demon, Arkarium, Hilla, Lucid, Demian, and Von Leon) and what was cool was if you stood right in front of them, you could hear their voice lines. Most, if not all, of these artworks were completely new and looked super good! I hope they use them in-game somewhere. After that there were three separate rooms you could go into. The first being the one and only, the Black Mage! This was hands down the coolest part of the entire Library lol. The combination of the chains, lights, smoke, and soundtrack was awesome! The second was Chosen Seren, with the Holy Sword of Mitra in the middle! This one wasn’t as in-depth as the Black Mage’s, but it did do the same phase changes as in-game, for different parts of the day. The lights in the room as well as Seren herself would change accordingly! The last room was Gerald Darmoor! I guess they didn’t have much to work with for him but the animation from in-game with his giant wings was cool. The players’ adventures will always be recorded here. If you ever want to look back on your stories, please come here anytime! Chirp! Epilogue The path to the exit was just some more new artwork of various towns. Leafre looks so good! Conclusion Overall, it was a crazy experience from start to finish. We had already resigned ourselves to missing Fan Fest and then went absolutely nuts when Steve saw his messages lol. A huge thanks to MapleStory Korea’s social media director, we wouldn’t have been there without him!! Meeting the overseas director and general director Kang Wongki himself was so cool. After watching him at all of these showcases, presentations, and events over the past few years to actually seeing him face-to-face was not something I ever expected to happen. We were also able to meet a few KMS streamers including Myunghoon (명예훈장), Shinhaejo (신해조), and Geulja (글자네)! The Fan Fest itself was lots of fun! Being somewhere surrounded by people who love the same game you do, showing off their talent with great merchandise and cosplays was amazing! The day we were there, we saw people dressed up as the Angler family (Senya, T-Boy, Cosim), a Chew Chew Adele, Orca and Suu, the Black Mage, Checky, and even Fairy Wonky haha. I think there were a lot more the next day, which they showed a little bit of in the MapleStory channel’s video above. It really was an unforgettable day just because of the circumstances of us even attending, but the rest of it was just as good! I’m very grateful to the Nexon employees who made it possible and helped us out while we were there, Steve for being such a big streamer that we got noticed lol, and Neo for translating for us all day! Here’s Steve’s videos about the day if you want to check them out as well! Source: Orange Mushroom's Blog