Your classic MMORPG+ storyline+ the Sims+ Animal Farm + jigglying anime boobs+ too much content almost done right
Basics- Think an awesome fantasy world where you can develop a variety of part time jobs, skills, crafting, engage in hobbies and of course murder monsters. The game is loaded with a huge amount of content that I highly doubt one can exhaust easily. Get powerful weapons that grow with you, "egos", develop crafting and hobbies through mini games, unlock hidden content by getting friendly with NPCs, embark on an epic quest in service to deities and primordial forces with unimaginable power, join those very gods themselves, unlock and rediscover powerful skills long forgotten to the world.
Good
-great concept, active fun gameplay
-lots to do, crafting, training skills, part time jobs, quests
-large storyline to play
-regular updates
-no real class restrictions (though you may "specialize"), use archery, facebashing, magic and alchemy as you please, or not at all and play more for the "Animal Farm" of the game
-"hidden" content to discover (browse the mabinogi wiki)
-rebirth/age system-> high risk, high reward
-diverse and abundance of content
-nice community once you find them
-art style! :D
Bad
-combat power system to measure characters power isn't great, nigh impossible to train certain skills like windmill if you don't do it early
-combat gets sketchy at times, (http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/index.php?title=Lag#Disabling_Nagle.27s_Algorithm)
-Absolutely horrendous connection, the server lags so bad sometimes the monsters don't spawn, and when they do spawn you may enter the classic situation of they cant hit you but you can't hit them
-never have enough inventory space, extra bank space given to you in the beginning is taken away from you without notice so if you stuffed something important there too bad
-community is dead or extremely reclusive, you need a party for certain quests (Generation 1)
-everything is rather expensive requiring grind
-Durability system is just punishing (I hate you Ferghus)
-challenging game
-bolt system-> rewarding preparation is good but 1 minute of charging for an attack is a bit much, wands cost too damn much and you know it
Story- The story is no Harry Potter (ok there's magic and needlessly complicated plots), or Twilight (ok there are angsty pretty boys), or Percy Jackson (ok the gods are involved and important). But it's a decentish storyline with a lot of content.
Gameplay- It is absolutely fantastic in theory and concept but terribly executed. Tactical active game play is what it is and it's great. However sketchy server and a tendency to do- or die scenarios is pretty terrible. Getting easily 1 shot by monsters who are your level according to the combat power system isn't fun either. The game needs better servers bad. The mini games are alright, movement feels incredibly clumsy because the mouse controls both movement, combat and camera. WASD is badly needed in my opinion.
Playtime/Replayability- If you exhaust the content you need to get a goddamn life or share your secrets, that is all. If you somehow did go work on world peace and solving the rest of humanity's problems because we need you.
Graphics/Sound- Great though they may annoy you. I enjoy manga and anime so the art style appeals to me, all types of music will grate on you after a while. The game does come with mutes so it's all good.
Final Reccomendations- It's definitely a fun game worth a shot but be prepared to rage when you start to notice the games faults, make sure you know what you're doing as well so you don't "ruin" your character by raising it's combat power too high or make it so you can't train windmill.