History VideoGame / MapleStory

** Almost none of the established characters have official ages, either. The closest we have are Kaiser and Angelic Buster, who are roughly 25 (the flashback cutscenes showed them as kids at age 5, with the present day being about 20 years later), and Athena Pierce who is between 900-1000. Kinesis is stated to be 18, while his friends Yuna and Jay are 18 and 17, respectively.

In short: Picture a 2-D ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' and you get the idea. It is now available on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

** Ever since Maya took the Weird Medicine, she hasn't aged a day up to the point in the Future. [[spoiler: This was later retconned into being an illusion created by the Black Mage as opposed to the future]]
** Orchid hasn't seemed to age a day in almost a thousand years. [[spoiler: It's likely to do with the fact the Black Mage was the one who made her and Lotus's bodies and the fact they were initially spirits.]]

** Subverted with [[spoiler: Wing The Fairy]] who tends to claim he's several centuries old... [[spoiler: Mercedes correctly guesses his age as only 21.]]

*** [[spoiler: However, this was proven false during the Kao's Memories questline. It is shown that while the Black mage succeded in creating a new Maple World, he failed to kill himself in the process. Thus the Overseers still control the new world. Seeing that the only way to save the world is be killed, the Black Mage sends Kao, the player's character who failed, into the past to change the future. A side effect from the time travel is that Kao lost all of their memories, and becomes the monk seen in the Temple of Time. They succeed in preventing Arma from attacking and wounding the player, but loses their life in the process. This change in the timeline cause the Black Mage to killed and completing his plan of freeing the world of the Overseers grasp.]]

** After the events of Black Heaven, [[spoiler: Orchid has apparently become this, as she lost her brother and no doubt isn't too happy with the Black Mage because of it, topped off with saving the population from Gelimer's plot.]]

*** [[spoiler: Beryl, from Xenon's story quests, survived, got adopted by two other robots as Bitterbot, and helps the player get onto the Black Heaven, despite seeing opposing Gelimer as futile.]]
*** [[spoiler: Riena Strait was being melted because the Black Heaven needed a coolant. The commander seen there was Gelimer's childhood friend, and the Demolishizer returns and the player gets to control it.]]
*** [[spoiler: The Evolving System was collecting combat data for Lotus.]]
*** [[spoiler: Shinsoo's Teardrop is used to revive the player at the end of the story.]]

** Compare the sprites of monsters on Victoria Island/Ereve and their monster versions in the future world. Although they are [[spoiler: gigantic mutants]], you can see a huge boost in details.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Orchid. After being almost killed by Lotus/Suu and Gellimer and left to die in an alley, she was saved and nursed back to health by the Resistance, joining them and abandoning the Black Mage. Whether or not she feels genuine remorse is unknown, but she did stop Gelimer's mind-control bombs in Black Heaven, helped the player character get to safety after he/she was gassed and after having lost Lotus for good, she appears to be working against the Black Mage these days. Her reasons aside, she's switched sides.]]

** The Black Wings, an evil organization that intends to [[SealedEvilInACan bring back the Black Mage]], may act as the Big Bad, with the Black Mage himself acting as the GreaterScopeVillain. ([[spoiler: As of Black Heaven, the Black Wings are gone. Most of their members were killed, the base wiped out when the airship crashed and exploded, and the only surviving members - Francis and Orchid - have turned on the Black Mage.]])
** After the Black Mage dies, the new Big Bad is Gerand Darmoor, High Prince of the High Flora race and the Grandis Trancendent of Life. Also, the [[spoiler: the Overseers]] but they have mostly been in a background role.

** [[spoiler: Heroes of Maple also ends on a bittersweet note. Damien's plans to become Transcendent of Life and absorb all life on the Maple World have been stopped, but the Demon is forced to finish off Damien with his own hands in order to destroy the evil spirits of his ancestors possessing Damien's sword, Alicia is forced to scatter her own life force in order to restore the life force Damien managed to drain, Alfrien is still dead and now that the other two Transcendents aren't in a position to oppose him, the Black Mage has decided to enact his plans. That's not counting further damage caused to Seoul, South Korea due to the Abraxas crash landing in it, on top of the giant sinkhole that leads into Reverse City]]
** [[spoiler: Winter Bard has our heroes all die trying to fight off Von Leon's army for long enough to light a distress beacon left behind by Freud. As Ryude finally dies defending the door to the beacon, the beacon lights just in time. Thanks to his sacrifice, the Heroes were rallied and the Black Mage was ultimately sealed. For his valor, Alicia enshrines his sword within her tower, where it can be acquired by players as a rare drop.]]

** Shinsoo's Tear. It showed up back when the Cygnus Knights were first released and while it recieved mentions here and there, it's never really used. [[spoiler: In the ending of ''Black Heaven'', Empress Cygnus uses it to revive the player after they die to Gelimer's poison.]]

* ConspiracyRedemption: [[spoiler: Evan joins the Black Wings initially]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: The beginning of the Demon storyline: he was once a commander for the Black Mage, but does a HeelFaceTurn when the Black Mage orders the world to be destroyed for defying his rule, [[spoiler: starting with the place where the Demon Slayer's family lived. In a cutscene you visit their burning house and pick up a photo of his now-dead mother and brother]]. Made worse when you realize that [[spoiler: at the end of the Heroes Blockbuster, he has once again lost the only family he had.]]

** A lot of the Battle Mage's skills involve some very "dark" themes (ex: "Dark Genesis", "Summon Reaper"), but the backstory of the Resistance faction puts them as the good guys. Additionally, the Knights of Cygnus' "Night Walker" class, and the Adventurers' "Night Lord", "Shadower", and "Dark Knight" classes - all involve some form of manipulation of shadows, darkness, or otherwise normally "sinister" skills. Also the Demon is a half-demon good guy with very edgy, dark, spiky attacks. Even though he was a commander in the Black Mage's army, he [[spoiler: was only there to protect his family]].

** DeathSeeker [[spoiler: The Black Mage, as revealed during the end of the Tenebris Expedition]]

** In first act of Black Heaven, for you and your NPC allies have to escape the Pulverizer, a machine that looks like a demonic steamroller. Not only does being touched by it [[OneHitKill mean instant death]], but you have to avoid the falling rocks in the room you’re running through, which can cause you to lose health. You have to flee from this thing again at the end of Act 5, which adds even more obstacles [[spoiler: (and it’s very, ''very'' gratifying to see Claudine and the other Resistance members swoop in and blow it to pieces after you succeed.)]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Ariant Queen Areda. Also, [[spoiler: Empress Cygnus in the future.]] Arguably the mook perspective on a high leveled Mercedes.
* GogglesDoNothing: Lampshaded, on the item Spectrum Goggles there is a description saying "Allows vision in multiple dimensions. Who says the goggles do nothing?" [[spoiler: STR+1, LUK+1]]

* HeroicSacrifice [[spoiler: The Black Mage's plan that is basically a ZeroApprovalGambit. This actually works, as the Alliance defeat his Generals and the Adversary successfully kills him, ridding Maple World of the Overseers hold.]]

* JerkassGods: [[spoiler: The Overseers in general. In Grandis, they force Trancendences to destroy the races they don't like and let Darmoor do what he wants. While they have let Maple World and Earth do what they want, they only step in when their power is at risk. They are the main reason the White Mage became the Black Mage and started his Transcendent killing spree ]]

** [[spoiler: The term Adversary was givin to the chossen warriors of the Overseers, the creators of the Trancendents that defeated and sealed the Ancient Gods. These warriors were implanted with Seal Stones that helped them fight the Gods. As the player became one after Black Heaven, it is reasonable that Mitra would see the player as a threat.]]

** [[spoiler: Queen Cygnus is now the leader of this trope. She has the ability to call on her Knights with just as much health as herself, has the ability to lock you into place while you take damage over time, the ability to disable your [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Equipment]], and inherits the traits of Pink Bean. The map also slaps you with a cooldown on potions. Brutal.]]

** As of the Black Heaven update [[spoiler: Lotus is the king of this trope with ''900 Billion HP'' on ''normal mode''. How hard is hard mode? Try '''8.1 Trillion HP'''. He also has all of the tricks listed above and more. He's so hard, that even the best players on every server consider beating him on anything but Easy or Normal impossible.]]
*** As of the Reutrn of Heroes update, [[spoiler: Damien takes the cake.]]

* NearVillainVictory: [[spoiler: Black Heaven was ''very'' close to bombing Edelstein, and the player character would have died if not for Shinsoo's Tear.]]

** According to the stories on the official website, [[spoiler: the Cygnus Knights do this twice. First, they invaded Von Leon's castle, causing him to turn to the Black Mage for vengeance. In the future, Cygnus also steps right into the Black Mage's trap because she wants to find the Tree of Life for her knights.]]

** Everyone’s afraid of the Black Mage. Guess who actually ended up releasing the Black Mage from his seal? [[spoiler: The explorer.]]

** Previously, the Silent Crusade questline, which ends with [[spoiler: your partner quitting offscreen before you can make your confession to him/her, and you never see him/her again after that.]]

* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: Mir’s math quiz in Mirror Leafre. Also, the quiz to go on a date with PST during the final chapter of Friend Story.

* OurHeroIsDead: Near the end of ''Black Heaven'', [[spoiler: the Player character gets poisoned by Gelimer, and the antidote gets destroyed right in front of them. The Hero really does die, but Shinsoo's Tear is used to resurrect them at the very end.]]

** [[spoiler: They are managed by the Overseers, warrior gods that passively control them to keep themselves in power. However, most of the Trancendents do not know of their origin, as the power can be past down through descendants, or stolen. They can be killed, but they cannot kill each other or take their own life as this prevents the Overseers from controlling fate. This sets the White Mage on his path to become the Black Mage, and plan to 'break the chains' that the Overseers have on the world. As he cannot kill himself nor the others, he needs to find people to do it.]]

* ShootTheDog: [[spoiler: Damien's sword is possessed by the spirit of his and Demon's evil ancestors, who devastated Masteria in their lust for the power of a Transcendent. It corrupted Damien with this same desire and nearly did so to Evan as well. In order to prevent it from doing any more harm, Demon has to destroy it, but doing so comes at the cost of also killing Damien.]]

** After the credits for ''Black Heaven'', [[spoiler: a cutscene shows Arkaryum and the Black Mage discussing Gelimer's defeat and the seal stones being reborn in a new enemy (the player). The Black Mage decides to send out Damien, and he's more than ready with an army of what's most likely other demons. Another quest after Black Heaven shows that Francis and Orca escaped from Black Heaven before it's destruction and Orca meets Guwaru, the King of Spirits, and despite having defied their law by gaining a human body, asks him to help her unlock the true power of a spirit of darkness.]]

** At the end of ''Mushroom Shrine Tales'', [[spoiler: Genkou is still alive, though where he is is unknown since the whole screen is black. A shrouded figure called the One-horned Man approaches him and says that he will take what power remains in Genkou. The silhouette of the One-horned Man is the same as that of Dunas, a boss from the Neo Tokyo area, which is no longer available in JMS.]]

* UnwittingPawn: Evan is lured into joining [[spoiler: the Black Wings]] under the pretense that the organization is doing good for Maple World. In the process he not only does their dirty work but [[spoiler: gets the Seal Stone of Ludibrium for them.]]

--> '''Damien''': [[spoiler: The World Tree is dead. I ate it.]]

* WideEyedIdealist: Evan. He/she wants what's best for Mir the dragon, and actually [[spoiler: has a quest calling Condition for Joining the Secret Organization, where Evan gets duped into following the Black Wings.]]

** In the case of the Demon, it's a "You Killed My Mother and Brother" despite the Black Mage's explicit promise to avoid doing so in exchange for the Demon's services. [[spoiler: Subverted with the brother. Damien is currently the Black Mage's newest Commander.]]

* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Vita]] turned out to be an attempt at cloning [[spoiler:Orchid]], only she came out without any superhuman abilities and Gelimer decided to dispose of her by turning her into an unwilling suicide drone against the Resistance.

** When you're [[spoiler:infiltrating the Black Heaven]] your number is [[Franchise/LesMiserables 24601]].

** Of course, thanks to power creep the Liberated Kaiserium's power level is more or less merely on par with current end game weapons.

** [[spoiler: Winter Bard has our heroes all die trying to fight off Von Leon's army for long enough to light a distress beacon left behind by Freud. As Ryude finally dies defending the door to the beacon, the beacon lights just in time. Thanks to his sacrafice, the Heroes were rallied and the Black Mage was ultimately sealed. For his valor, Alicia enshrines his sword within her tower, where it can be acquired by players as a rare drop.]]

** Kind of. When playing as Angelic Buster or Kaiser, you can see that the official name for the other character is Tear and Kyle respectively. The offical webtoon comics show Demon Slayer/Avenger's real name to be Demon.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The Maple World has a modern force of secret agents that are supposed to patrol the world. They were first seen in a massive event in version 72, and again in the alien invasion event prior to Big Bang, as well as one lone agent who was seen around the haunted mansion during a Halloween event. These agents are connected to the Omega Sector. But as of Big Bang, they've all but vanished, with only the original Agent Marco in Omega Sector remaining, as well as Gaga, who has had his role in the story changed since then. The rest of the agents have vanished with no trace or hint of showing up again, and their role in the world seems to have been replaced by the Edelstein Resistance and Silent Crusade with some possible retconning happening to the overall plot.

* CriticalHit: All Archers, all Pirates (except Mechanics), Assassins, Cleric, Evans, and Battle Mages have skills that boost critical rate on all attacks. Other classes have only a 5% but some have skills that have separate critical hit chances. 4th advancement Archers can boost their entire party's critical rate and raise critical damage. Before the Big Bang only these classes (minus Clerics, Pirates and the classes that didn't exist at the time.) could critical hit at all. 5th job gives all archers a skill that lets their critical hit rate exceed 100%, which translates into signifigantly boosted critical hit damage.

** For the games's 9th year anniversary, Slave.In.Utero, author of ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'', was asked to do a promotional crossover. [[https://orangemushroom.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/maplestory-vs-tower-of-god.png He delivered.]]

* HeroicSacrifice [[spoiler: The Black Mage's plan that is basically a ZeroApprovalGambit. This actually works, as the Alliance defeat his Generals and the Adversary succefully kills him, ridding Maple World of the Overseers hold.]]

* MythologyGag: Whenever a storyline is completely replaced with a new one, the old storyline is generally still referenced as events having happened in the past. For example, the revampped Cygnus Knight questline features a re-enactment of the Master of Disguise attack from the original questline as a training exercise.

** [[spoiler: They are managed by the Overseers, warrior gods that passively control them to keep themselves in power. However, most of the Trancendents do not know of their origin, as the power can be past down through descendants, or stollen. They can be killed, but they cannot kill each other or take their own life as this prevents the Overseers from controlling fate. This sets the White Mage on his path to become the Black Mage, and plan to 'break the chains' that the Overseers have on the world. As he cannot kill himself nor the others, he needs to find people to do it.]]

* AHouseDivided:
** In Black Heaven, the Cygnus Knights and the Resistance make up the Alliance, but they ''really'' don't like each other at first, and argue all the time. The player often has to be the voice of reason in every disagreement [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything (resulting in them handling every major battle on their own)]] and eventually, [[spoiler: used as a scapegoat after a disastrous loss at the end of Act 3. Fortunately, this eventually leads to both sides finding common ground later.]]
** The entire Water Wars event is an idea by Cygnus for both sides to come to an understanding, but both Claudine and Neinhart seem to take it ''way'' too seriously.
** Evil example; Hilla and Magnus clearly don't like each other, despite being allies. Hilla specifically speaks negatively of him in cutscenes, and one stage of [[ZergRush the Dimension Invasion]] scenario involves factions belonging to both erupting into outright hostilities, the players caught in the middle of the battle. [[spoiler: There is, however, a few {{Easter Egg}}s that contradict this and suggest the two are an item, such as in Star Planet and in Friend Story where they ShipTease occurs.]]
** Damien has a similar hatred for Arkarium, and it's mutual. Justified as Damien is trying to replace him.
** ''And'' Hilla doesn't like Arkarium much either, laughing in his face after the events of ''Heroes'' [[spoiler:Leave his mind trapped in a snake's body.]] Suffice to say, the villains just don't get along.
* [[AbsurdlyHighLevelCap Absurdly High]]/[[AbsurdlyLowLevelCap Low Level Cap]]: Gets hit with both at once. The old cap of 200 is much easier to reach now than it was years ago, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRskdyU6VKI one player]] managing to do it in less than an hour. For many players, this is when the game truly begins. On the other hand, very few players have actually hit level 275 (and none in GMS have hit level 300, the new cap as of 2021), given that it takes several hundred hours even using every available method to speed things up.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Four of the Bosses in the Tower of Oz are evil versions of the four protagonists from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''. The FinalBoss of the Tower is Dorothy, and she can even summon a vicious, bestial version of Toto.

* AintTooProudToBeg:
** Part of a New Leaf City storyline results in your character being captured by an alien; if you beg and plead to be let go, ''he actually does it''. (This is how you go back to town if you're having trouble with the StealthBasedMission that comes next; the other option you can take also shows that the jailer [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain is pretty stupid.]])
** [[spoiler: In Black Heaven, after Gelimer poisons the player character, he tells him/her to beg for the antidote. Whether the he/she does so or not is up to the player; either way, Gelimer doesn't give him/her it, destroying it and laughing sadistically.]]

* TheAlliance: At around Level 70, you become part of one as all the leaders of Maple World gather to oppose the Black Mage. Not that they are in perfect agreement over everything, something that comes up a lot in Black Heaven. For example, Cygnus favors mercy towards Orchid, while the Resistance leaders don’t even like the fact that they spared her in the first place, arguing for a harsh punishment when she wakes up.

* AmbiguouslyHuman:
** The {{Yakuza}} thugs in Showa Town look human at first, but are classified as Devils in the Creature Codex. The BossBattle with the Big Boss (who clearly is ''not'' human) hints that the whole gang is more infernal than they look.
** Also, most of the mobs in the Ninja Castle (also Devils in the Codex) look human, but turn to wooden logs briefly when killed.

* AmusementParkOfDoom: Fantasy Theme World, although, the living plushies and toys that attack you here seems to be the reason paying customers even come to this one. (Although, the owner does seem to [[NoOSHACompliance be taking unnecessary shortcuts]] just to [[CorruptCorporateExecutive make more money,]] possibly even [[spoiler: tricking warriors into taking care of the problems by offering discounts and free passes.]]

* AnthropomorphicFood: Let's see, where to start...
** Many standard mobs are like this, such as Grape Juice Bottles in Edelstein, the Bubble Tea in Kerning Square (comes in Cherry, Mango, and Melon), the feral turnips and onions at the Ellinel Fairy Academy, and everything on Chu Chu Island (the daily quests have you gathering their body parts as food items).
** Lots of Event mobs too, including the cake, pie, and cookie mobs in Anniversary events, and the Whipped Cream Wight and Sweet Choco Cream during the Maple Castle Halloween event. The Food Fight event brought back several of those, plus new ones like walking Hot Dogs and bags of French Fries.
* AntiHero[=/=]AntiVillain:

** Kyrin may want the Black Mage dead, but she's also out to make a fortune and it's implied that the Pirate ranks she leads contain any number of wanted criminals. She also considers selling Jett, either into slavery or for scientific research/dissection, upon learning that Jett is an alien. Jett’s ship, too – even if it is broken. Also, while all the Explorer instructors are at Red Leaf High, she is not ''supposed'' to be there, being there to shanghai students into ''her'' school. (The Red Leaf quest regarding Kyrin is to get rid of her.)

* ArbitrarySkepticism: ''Black Heaven'' has a hilarious double-dose in Act 1 when you and your three bird-like NPC companions encounter the first Boss, a golem-like humanoid named Dagoth. Your friends are surprised to see a "talking rock" (you'd think this wouldn't be unexpected in a world with walking mushrooms) but Dargoth is ''just'' as surprised by the concept of talking birds with hats!

* AsteroidsMonster: In Aqua Road, a Bombing Fish House is a stationary monster that releases a swarm of Goby when destroyed. The Scrapyard has Modded Deliverybots and Modded Buffroids, both of which release a Modded Scaredroid, a Modded Broken Android and a Modded Laseroid when destroyed. (These monsters do spawn Elite versions, but if destroyed, they don't release Elite versions of the smaller monsters.)

** A lot of stuff you can get in events qualifies. Damage skins (which cause the numerals that appear when you deal damage to do so in bizarre fonts) can be fun, but not worth spending hard-earned coin on unless you've bought out the rest of the event shops already. The same goes for most Mounts and Chairs, most are cool, but frivolous.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: In the first Act of Black Heaven, you have to enter Orchid’s memories to find out what the Black Heaven is, and fight hordes of cute bunny-like creatures that seem to represent a lost innocence. A more benign one is [[ExpositionFairy there to guide you.]] unfortunately, when Orchid wakes up in a later chapter, she's ''very'' angry at you for "trespassing" in her mind...

* BedlamHouse: The Madhouse dungeon (installed for the 2015 Halloween event) revolves around this. A highly interactive take-off of the SurvivalHorror genre (much DarkerAndEdgier than most of [=MapleStory=], however), it starts when your player receives a letter from his/her hospitalized friend Chloe, pleading for help. Your character and five other friends go to check on Chloe, only to find the hospital turned into a zombie infested madhouse. You have three main goals: Escape the Madhouse, collect all the pieces of Chloe's diary, and defeat the Problem Patient [[TheMole (who turns out to be one of the aforementioned six [=NPCs=].)]] To do so, you have to explore the highly interactive rooms of the madhouse, where each room gives you only a five minute time limit and entering any room without power in your flashlight results in your character's frightening demise. (Starting the search over.) Along the way, you can defeat monsters for coins to buy useful Totems and Chairs from the Vending Machine.

** After the Black Mage dies, the new Big Bad is Gerand Darmoor, High Prince of the High Flora race and the Grandis Trancendent of Life. Also, the [[spoiler: the Overseers]] but they have mostly been in a background role
** Gelimer is, for all intents and purposes the BigBad of the Black Heaven story, the Black Mage only making a cameo as a GreaterScopeVillain.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Lots of insect and arachnid monsters, and the Big Spider is one you'll want to recruit as a [[{{Mon}} Familiar]] right away. Most notably, are the mobs in the Colossus area, which include giant hornets and a huge tarantula for a boss.
* BigEater:
** Oz is seen scarfing donuts and cookie in the cinematic opening of [=FriendStory=]; The Hidden Mission of Chapter 5 requires the player to get ComfortFood for her, and if successful, he/she remarks that "eating is Oz's favorite hobby".
** Also, Wonky, a fat fairy who acts as a QuestGiver in some Events; all his quests involve bringing him junk food.
** Of course, Oz and Wonky are hardly alone, considering the amount of food some {{Quest Giver}}s must eat. For example, the hermit Eurenth asks you to hunt down Dinorams and bring him 30 sirloins, while his pet - a dog-like creature - wants 30 tenderloins. In Malaysia there's a young girl named Nami who asks you to bring her 20 orders of Kangkung Belecan (a local dish made of water spinach and spicy sambal) from a vendor, and when she gets a tummy-ache from eating it all, wants ''a hundred guavas'' to settle her stomach. (She's thin as a rail, by the way; the title of the quest is "Nami the Voracious".)
** The player can be a Big Eater two in several event quests, like the one where the goal is to fly a fighter kite through the sky and gobble up as much of the cascading cakes as you can.
** The biggest eater of all is likely Alicia, the spirit of the Maple Tree. The mission on the third floor of the Tower of Oz has her request you collect ''a thousand'' Ancient Turtle Eggs, because she's hungry! (Justified, perhaps, because she's a goddess, but still...)

* BittersweetEnding: A couple:
** [[spoiler: At the end of Black Heaven, Maple World is safe, Gelimer is dead, the Black Wings are history, and the Black Heaven is a pile of junk. But this victory did not come without cost. Lotus, despite his crimes, was murdered by a crueler villain, and because Cygnus used the final Seal Stone to heal the player, there is no longer any restraint at all on the Black Mage and nothing hindering his return. On top of that, said “pile of junk” isn't as harmless as it seemed. The dark magic involved in the Black Heaven's creation and destruction has created a portal over Blackgate City, turning it into a deadly place populated by five vicious demons. What's more the Scrapyard itself is even deadlier, with many of Gelimer's evil creations still acting on his final orders and hunting down the friendlier robots, others acting on no orders at all and attacking anything that moves. (Each new area is for two different Level ranges, and the appropriate players can explore both areas to gain loot, items, and experience, if they dare. they can even fight Lotus in the Scrapyard if they so choose.)]]
*** [[spoiler: On top of that, by using the Seal Stone to revive the player, she turned them into an Adversary of Destiny. However, this is what the Black Mage was hoping for.]]
** [[spoiler:The Madhouse event has an ending that takes this as far as it can go without an outright DownerEnding and combines it with a CruelTwistEnding. You're too late to save Chloe, and it seems your other friends have been murdered too, given how Sean mocks you before the BossBattle by saying "you're the only one left". Even worse, Chloe claims she has fled after you defeat he, making Sean appear to be a KarmaHoudini after committing multiple murders. But it only gets worse; the epilogue shows that Sean and Chloe were [[TheDogWasTheMastermind the same person all along]], with Sean being [[SplitPersonality an evil side of her.]] (Meaning that ''you'' are the one who killed ''both'' of them.) The only truly ''good'' thing to come out of this is that ''your'' character escapes and Chloe's good side can rest and no longer has to haunt the awful place.]])

* BonusBoss: While most bosses are technically optional, defeating the Boss of Showa Town is not required for any official quest. However, defeating him - which can be done once day - nets you a hundred Elixirs, so it's worth the effort, especially at lower levels.

* BossInMooksClothing: The game has some ''literal'' examples:
** In the map right outside of Showa Town, [[spoiler: you're likely to run into Male Boss B; it's easy to mistake him for a Leader B, but he's two levels higher, has ten times more HP and has a far more dangerous ranged attack. (Later he shows up in the Armory as a DegradedBoss.)]]
** In the Parlor you might encounter [[spoiler: the Lady Boss. She might not be there (like most minor Bosses, she has a respawn time of about an hour) but if she is, it's easy to mistake her for one of the female Mooks, a fatal mistake, as she's ''three'' levels higher than they are, also has ten times more HP, and a much deadlier ranged ''and'' physical attack. (And you need to defeat her and pick up her Comb to get to the room with the Big Boss.]]
** Also, Riche, a Boss who appears [[spoiler: in the Dead Mine area of El Nath. It's very easy to mistake him for one of the other undead roaming the area, but he's a lot tougher than they are.]]
** Elite Monsters often qualify too. When they appear, players attack them with impunity, because when killed, they give good drops, and when enough are killed, one of the much coveted Elite Bosses is summoned. However, the Elites can sometimes come with dangerous abilities, like Seduce, Reflect, Transform, and Petrify (the last two notorious for getting AFK players killed).
* BossBonanza: The second-to-last part of the Beasts of Fury storyline is like this. You have to fight four Bosses in a row; first the two number two and number one students of the rival dojo, who aren't very hard; the third, however, is the rival dojo's Sensei. He's got ''two'' OTK moves with no damage cap, and can kill you quickly if you aren't careful. After you beat him, [[spoiler: you ''do not'' get a chance to rest before fighting the fourth and final one, even though you could after defeating the first and second.]] Defeating all four unlocks the final part of the storyline which requires you to win 50 victories against the dojo members (you can chose, but can only do ten a day) but you get quite a few good rewards for succeeding, including a ''very'' useful chair, an Epic Potential Scroll, and a Meister's Cube.

** The biggest example is the Nexon Administrator, a perky young woman who gives you several tutorial instructions; sometimes it's hard to tell whether she's speaking to the player or character.
** Seeing as Cassandra's job these days is to assign event-specific quests, she clearly knows she's a character in a video game; when speaking to the character - and player - she uses terms like "level range" and "time online" to explain the requirements.

** The new '''Reboot World''' has changed all of this. The new server, which focuses on the game's RPG roots, does ''not'' allow trading and the only NX-purchasable items are pets and cosmetics.

* BusmansHoliday: The Gold Beach storyline. You’re invited for a vacation by Gold Richie, but you end up doing chores (well, quests) for the two lazy and bossy managers (who hate each other) which involve killing the {{Muck Monster}}s. At least when you finish, you get Reward Points and a one-use item that boosts all your traits by five points.

* ButThouMust:
** Zigzagged in Black Heaven. You have options at times, but they don't change goals or outcomes of the story or plot, although they do change the methods such goals are accomplished. For instance, [[spoiler: In Act 3, when the Alliance airship is being attacked your goal is to rescue the soldiers trapped in the part that's on fire, you can either let Francis out of his cell, or leave him to die (the guard tells you to leave him, as rescuing the soldiers is the priority, but some players might prefer a more moral choice). Regardless of the player's choice, Francis escapes, Claudine later believing he warned the Black Wings and thus contributed to Belle, Brighton, and Checky's apparent deaths, leading to a rift in trust between Claudine and Cygnus. (And worst of all, Claudine blaming ''you'' for it.)]]
** One hilarious example of this occurs [[spoiler: the next time you meet Francis, which occurs when you and the Alliance temporarily part (either via your own decision or after they kick you out). Your options are, "Hit him", "Hit him hard", and "Hit him ''very'' hard!" Not that you likely don't ''want'' to after the trouble he caused.]]

** One QuestGiver for Halloween events is a cute little ghost named [[ComicBook/CasperTheFriendlyGhost Gasper]]

** In the Riena Strait scenario, you rescue - and then are accompanied by - [[WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer Nora the Explorer]].
** You even meet an Expy of Literature/TheLittlePrince (or maybe the real one, [[HeroOfAnotherStory given how the plot works]]) outside of Ariant.

* ChaosIsEvil: The terms seem mutually inclusive in this game, as the [[IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels hardest settings for some main Bosses]], including Zakum, Horntail, Pink Bean, and all four Root Abyss Bosses, is called "Chaos".
* ChefOfIron: The Cooking with Tangyoon Party Quest (available for players between level 60 and 90) requires you to prepare a meal by fighting the ingredients. (For example, if the stated entrée is Escargot, you have to summon waves of Chubby Snail, Red Snail, Orange Mushroom, Wine Bottle, and Potted Sprout, and slay them). Complete the quest enough times, and you get a chef armor skin, so your character can look the part. Also, players who completed the entire Beefy's Kitchen even get a similar, permanent skin, along with the Food Truck mount.

** Several characters that you encounter ''very'' early in the game, [[spoiler: including Jay, Alex, Utah the pig farmer, and Camilla (the girl who made horny mushroom pie) play important roles ''much'' later in Gate to the Future.]]

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Some of the opponents in the current version of Red Leaf High, which all resemble Player Character classes, exhibit this. For example, the Dual Blader uses a Necro Sword (PC Dual Bladers can only use Necro Daggers) and all of the Cygnus Knights except Mihile summon the monsters that the ones Gate to the Future do, with a few of the skills edited.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: Zigzagged; You can survive in lava-filled caverns, but you do take damage from being there; how much depends on your Strength Score. Having said that, falling into lava does a lot of damage, but you can survive it. (And one of the most universally-hated Jump Quests, which is now optional, forced you to wade through it every time you fell.)
* TheCorruption: Maple World was, for the most part, a world filled with war and monsters. The White Mage himself was corrupted in his quest to find the Ultimate Light, and instead found [[spoiler: the truth of the Trancendents and the rule of the Overseers]] that caused him to become the Black Mage. Since then, the monsters have turned feral and predatory as his dark influence spreads. This same corruption created Zakum, Horntail, Gollux, and other Boss monsters. [[spoiler: In the Gate to the Future scenario it's much, much worse. The monsters of Victoria Island have become mutated, nastier versions of their previous selves. It isn't known what happened to other parts of Maple World. However, this is reveled to be a ruse by the Black Mage, as it was a dream realm created by Lucid.]]
* CoversAlwaysLie:
** All the promo art and material for Angelic Buster describe her as the "idol of the battlefield" and often show her holding a microphone. She never once sings in the game (with the exception of cutscenes, albeit being single-panel and without music). She IS declared some sort of battlefield mascot by her people but only for killing lots of monsters.
** Also, promo art for the Beefy's Kitchen event showed a tough-looking African-American in a chef's outfit who fans assumed was Beefy. This character has yet to appear in game. In fact, there was ''no'' NPC named Beefy seen during the event.
* CrazyPrepared: In one early quest, while infiltrating the mine, Gelimer asks you to take Dolcetta 2000's NC Heart. But... She'll stop functioning if you do that, meaning she'll die. And Gelimer clearly doesn't care. Then her "brother" Zechtok-2000 tells you to take ''his'' heart to Gelimer instead, telling you that because he and his sister are two versions of the same model, it will work. But then, what about Zechtok-2000? No problem, he tells you to go to his other sibling Muscat-2000, who has crafted him a new one. Muscat-2000 said that all three of them knew Gelimer would do this eventually, so they planned ahead and built a new heart for Zechtok-2000. (Why not just build a new one for Dolcetta-2000? She's an advanced model, and her brothers lack the skills to craft one for her. your character comments on how much thought they put into this.)

** Friend Story is called a crossover, but with ''what'', they don't say. (It seems to combine Maple Story with a typical teen sitcom.)

** The Resistance Leaders, especially Claudine, are pretty dark, as their costumes show, but are on the heroes side; not that they're [[GoodIsNotSoft soft]] or [[GoodIsNotNice nice]], however, given what they've had to endure under the Black Wings.
* DeadpanSnarker: '''YOU''' are! Your character's dialogue has him/her snark all the time at the characters he talks to, even showing frustration after given the runaround in long quest lines.

* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** [[spoiler:Poor Irwin; the guy rescues Belle, Checkers, and Brighton from falling to their deaths in Black Heaven, and all your character can say when this is revealed is, "Who's that?" (There's no other dialogue option, unfortunately, even if you ''know'' who he is.)]]
** Averted entirely for the actual playable characters in their respective stories, as their past achievements (in their questlines) are frequently touched upon (especially the Legends).

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: In the Grand Athenaeum, the stories you experience are history, and you are specifically told you cannot change the past. Thus, in the first story, where you play the role of the unnamed DoomedProtagonist who witnesses the White Mage’s descent into evil, there’s nothing you can do to [[TheHeroDies prevent your character’s death]] [[DownerEnding at the villain’s hands.]] (And worst of all, he [[KickTheDog dies after ignoring his own advice]]; but still, that is a potent message.) Fortunately, the other two books/quests have happier endings.

** The hatred shown by Ephenia (the Elin Forest Boss) towards humans is ''much'' worse. [[spoiler: During the Elin Forest storyline, she allies herself with the Black Mage in a plot to use a poison to slay the warriors at the Altaire Camp who had been brought there by Aran. (Including Athena Pierce, the infant Dances with Balrogs, and Kyrin's mother, who was pregnant with Kyrin; the [=PCs=] actions clearly averted a disaster.) The first Grand Athenaeum quest line gives her hatred of humans an explanation, and some justification. Before the White Mage became the Black Mage, the fairies were subjected to kidnapping by Evil Poachers, and the land being defiled by Hidden Grave Robbers.]]
** The three races of Riena Strait (seals, penguins, and wolves) don't like each other at all. [[spoiler: Only when they realize they share a common past and have a common enemy do they agree to work together.]]

* FriendlyEnemy: Murgoth is a lich who is a Boss in some events; he'll do his best to kill you if you confront him in said events. However, he's also an authority on Soul Weapons, who'll aid you in crafting them. (Ironically, you can even craft a Murgoth Soul Weapon, seeing as he's a Boss.)

* FunnyRobot: Even the MechaMooks and Bosses that are robots are funny. For example, Guard Robots have one wheel instead of legs, use weapons that look like electric tennis rackets, and have a siren on the “head” that blares when they attack, while the more humanoid robots have eyes that bug out when damaged. The first Boss in Black Heaven is a bulky robot that looks like some DumbMuscle thug with a square jaw in a suit – except he’s a robot. [[BewareTheSillyOnes He can seriously damage you if you aren’t careful]], but he looks so absurd, [[NightmareRetardant it’s hard to take him seriously.]]

* GentleGiant: Well to start, there’s the holy beast Shinsoo, who, despite being a dragon, is a kind, friendly creature who protects Cygnus. There's also [[GeniusLoci The Colossus]], a living mountain with the personality of a child, although the player's goal in the quest line surrounding it is to make sure it ''remains'' gentle by destroying the demonic giant insects trying to corrupt it.

* GoKartingWithBowser: In Star Planet, several Bosses have roles in the games; Zakum is the PVC opponent in Speed! Rock, Paper, Scissors [[note]]This game is like a cross between RockPaperScissors and Simon Says, where the hand sign you must enter depends not only on his, but what he says.[[/note]], while several of the Black Mage Commanders are game squares for Star Monsteropoly.[[note]]It plays like ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'', except with monsters instead of property and HP instead of currency. If you "own" the monsters, it buffs you if you land on the space; if an opposing player owns it, the monster attacks you.[[/note]]

* GoodIsNotNice: Claudine and the other Resistance Leaders show this, especially during Black Heaven when interacting with Cygnus and the Knights. While Cygnus pleads for mercy to be shown towards the now-helpless Orchid, Claudine favors a harsh punishment. Justified, of course, because the Resistance members live and grew up under the Black Wings’ oppressive rule and have seen their loved ones taken away by them.
** Phantom is a thief, a womanizer and has a hair trigger. The only reason he's considered a hero is because the Black Mage killed a woman he was in love with. Had he perhaps not fallen for her he'd never have joined the fight and even Freud suggests at their meeting that he should be in prison.

* GreenHillZone: Like most video games, most low-Level adventures are in places like this. Maple Island and the places around Henesys are like this. Places you travel to later like Leafre and the areas around New Leaf City are the same, but a little more exotic.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: This is one example where this Trope applies to the good guys HQ, at least the Resistance. At the beginning of the Evolution quest line, Orchid wakes up briefly and somehow manages to sneak away to Gelimer's lab (she no longer has her powers, remember, is injured, and is wearing a hospital gown). The player has to rescue her before she's killed in a confrontation with the AI. Also, in Black Heaven, the player assumes control of Francis, and is able to sneak past the guards and surveillance system in the Resistance HQ by doing nothing more than ''hiding under a box'' and inching past.

* TheHeartless: In [=FriendStory=], the Bosses are called Troublemakers, and are created by the negative emotions (like Greed, Jealousy, and Pride) of characters, amplified by the link to Maple World. (Except for the one in Chapter 5, which is a "special" one created purposely by [[spoiler: the White Mage.]])

* HeroKiller: According to Lita Lawless, Bigfoot has stomped 160 Heroes, 100 Night Lords, 80 Arch Mages, 190 Paladins, 90 Bow Masters, 110 Marksmen, 50 Shadowers, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a pet Skunk named "Moofy Snugglekins".]] With the obvious exception of the last, all victims named have 4th promotion Job titles. Indeed, Bigfoot is a tough Marathon Boss, being one of the few high level bosses capable of jumping, and it spawning on several different maps, giving the illusion that it's encountered randomly as it walks through the forest. If you succeed in slaying it, Lita is surprised you came back alive.

* HeroesRUs: Find something you can't use or don't want that other players could conceivably use? Cubed 33% INT on a Sweetwater Tattoo when you main a warrior? The Free Market is accessible from most large towns, and you can set up shop a there. (After paying NX as rent, of course.) Some special shops can be set up so you can ''sell'' something to a player's shop. Ordinary NPC merchants even sell a device called an Owl of Minerva that let's a player look for the item in the Free Market he wants to buy.
** As of 2017 the Free Market was eliminated and replaced with the Auction House(a misnomer as nothing is actually ''auctioned''), a sub-menu similar to the Cash Shop that requires no NX to use, only a 2000 meso deposit to list an item and a 5% cut for anything sold. Items remain listed for 24 hours or until sold. This allows all players to sell items and for much easier browsing of goods as you no longer need to manually check every shop or pay 70 cents to search an item.

* {{Hobbits}}: The Halfingers, short, furry guys who live in Minar Forest; ironically, they're friends with dragons - at least they ''were'' before TheCorruption created abominations like Horntail - and tirelessly watch and care for dragons' unhatched eggs, their houses converted into special dragon-egg incubators.

* HumiliatingWager: In [=FriendStory=], Irena inadvertently gets the player and the other Knights into one of these with Damien's band after a back and forth bout of TrashTalk goes too far, with the losers of the Battle of the Bands having to moon the entire school. (Fortunately for all involved, after you win the contest, she excuses them from it.)

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain:
** Most of the Black Wing henchmen around Edelstein are lazy, OnlyInItForTheMoney, or just [[MinionWithAnFInEvil not cut out to be bad guys]]. The first one you deal with (unless you play as a Resistance character) sternly tells you that it costs ten million mesos just to be allowed to stay in town – but he’ll waive the fee if you do an easy fetch-quest for him. Later, you can get into the mine – where only Black Wings are allowed – by buying a hat from another henchman, who tells you that only the guy watching the door even bothers to check for it. (Meaning, you can switch for your normal helmet once inside.) Once inside, pretty much everyone assumes you’re a recruit, and you can gain experience, gold, and items doing the quests there.
** Zigzagged with Francis. He can be a somewhat dangerous opponent in Boss Battles, able to use effects that prevent you from using skills or control your movement like a puppet. However, during the cutscenes, he proves to be incompetent, messing up and inadvertently letting the Alliance get ahold of the blueprints for Black Heaven.
** In one New Leaf City quest, you wind up caught by one of the aliens, [[spoiler: but after he foolishly tells you how to escape from your cell and gain the mechanized armor, you’re able to get rid of him [[UriahGambit by telling him to go tell off his superior]]; a scream when you leave the room is proof that it works.]]
** The villains in the Mushroom Castle quest are pretty incompetent too, the Prime Minister being LaughablyEvil at best, and the Black Viking being a wanna-be. (And a SissyVillain who tries ''very'' hard to hide it.) Of course, the whole Mushroom Court is a pretty nutty place.
* InexplicablyPreservedDungeonMeat: As if ''meat'' wasn't strange enough, the PowerUpFood that drops from mobs includes ice cream, cup ramen, sushi, egg rolls, and dozens of others.

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Sometimes you'll see a Mysterious Chest in the Temple of Time; clicking on it opens a shop with special inventory, like Premium Hair Wax, Suspicious Mineral Pouches, and maybe even Growing Potions, but you can only buy one each of each item. Also, when certain Bosses are defeated, like the ones in the Root Abyss, a strange Merchant named Frederic de Blanc sometimes appears.

* MagicalLibrary: The Grand Athenaeum, where reading a book causes the reader to assume the role of the protagonist. This area lets you take three plot-heavy quest lines where you can learn about the origins of the Black Mage, Empress Cygnus, and a story of the Knights in more recent history.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: Some residents of Perion, like Dances With Balrog and Wrestles the Wolves are based on this Trope; others like Blackbull seem based on ordinary Native Americans, and others, like Sophia, seem more like Caucasians dressed like them.

* MarathonLevel: The Tower of Oz combines this with BrutalBonusLevel, it is ''hard''. The fifty-floor tower consists of levels where you have to kill monsters, Jump Quests (some with invisible platforms, mobs, obstacles, or [[PlatformHell any combination of the three]]), nasty quizzes, and the Bosses, which are the easy part. What makes the Tower hard is the time limits; run out of time or get killed, you have to start over, and while there are floors where you can rest and pause the time, [[CheckpointStarvation you can't save]]. You can increase the overall limit of ten minutes with the Stupid Pills, and upgrade the counter to use more at once using the points you earn, but the Levels also have a sort of time limit, with the Flying Monkey Filbert swooping in to attack you if you spend too much time on one floor.

** Fighting Pink Bean is the last quest in a long quest line that requires slaughtering at least ''three thousand'' other monsters, three of them Bosses.

* MonsterTown: Monster Treasure Town, a location added in 2016 for the 11th Anniversary Event, is like this, although from the look of the place, it's under construction. Inhabitants include Mooks (or rather, monsters usually thought of as Mooks) Pink Bean (who runs the museum, a key function of one event) and Clara, the Monster Advocate.

* MuckMonster: Lots of these, particularly in the Gold Beach Theme Dungeon, where they have a Boss, Captain Darkgoo.

** Like most MMORPG games, ''[=MapleStory=]'' as a whole has no real way to "win"; each group of players bring some closure to their storylines in some way, but the Black Mage is still out there, and many loose ends still remain unresolved as yet, as more updates are added. The Transcendents in the Nova world have not been given much backstory either...

* NoHuggingNoKissing: Several female characters, including Cygnus, flirt with your player [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer (even if you have a female one)]] but they never get very close. [[spoiler: Unless you unlock the first Hidden Mission in [=FriendStory=], where Cygnus catches the player by surprise and gives him/her one, earning you a special title.]]

* NostalgiaLevel: The Korean Folk Town used to be a regular town until it was shut down as of the Elite Heroes/You and I update. Since then, it was brought back in an event as a Nostalgia Level where the player could fight Mushmom, the first Boss of the pre-Big Bang, fight mobs on the old grinding areas (using limited skills) and buy weapons and armor from pre Big Bang.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: In the original Friendstory, the [[{{Mooks}} Motes]] and [[StageBoss Troublemakers]] were just pests, doing little but pilfering things and causing mischief, although it was hinted in Chapter 5 that they likely worked for the Black Mage. When Kinesis shows up, however, there's no more "likely" about it, and they become ''far'' more deadly, attacking a subway and threatening lives, eventually leading to the sinkhole appearing.

* {{Oktoberfest}}: The Beer Tent, an event held during actual Oktoberfest weeks. The beer served is alcohol-free, but some of the Mushrooms found around the place have [[DrunkOnMilk somehow gotten drunk on it anyway.]]
* OnlyIdiotsMayPass: The Maple Tree is convinced that intelligence made the monsters of Maple World evil, so the Tower of Oz has a security system that prevents any but stupid people from staying inside long. (There's a mechanism to turn this off, but she has forgotten the password. (And she's already tried her name and "hello Maple World".) In game terms, you have to use Stupid Pills to increase the time limit; the more powerful the Stupid Pills, the more time you have. (This is only in GMS, by the way; in the original version, Oz is a dream world, and the player takes different pills to extend the time limit.)

* PointOfNoContinues: With some bosses, like Von Leon and Normal Hilla, you can rejoin the battle if you're killed, so long as there's time left. Other Bosses, however, have a Death Counter, meaning that you respawn in the arena when killed, but only a limited number of times; when you run out, your character is either kicked out of the arena or does not respawn until the battle ends. Some hard bosses like Pink Bean don't have this at all, and the only way to continue the battle if your character dies is with special items like a Wheel of Destiny or specific Skills like a Bishop's Resurrect and Heaven's Door are useful in such battles.
* PopQuiz:
** Given during FriendStory. Requires knowledge of ''[=MapleStory=]'', painters, and musicians for some reason. (Justified as Friend Story is set on Earth, so they'd likely be asking such questions. The former makes no plot sense whatsoever. Although since there are only so many questions and you can repeat this part infinitely, even if you don't know the answer, you can just keep playing until you guess everything.
** Also given by Boss Kitty in Showa Town for one quest (He requires 300 Fried Chickens first, and if you miss a question, you need 300 more.) Here the questions all pertain to the game.
* PowerFloats: Levitation and flight is a common villain ability; all the Black Mages commanders except Damien can do it, along with Francis, Baroq, and Elenor. They even tend to levitate - rather than walk - during cutscenes.

* ProductPlacement: [=KoreanMS=] and [=JapanMS=] used to have Coke Town, a Coca-Cola themed area. [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain It didn't last long.]]

* RememberTheNewGuy: Happens a lot. Examples:
** In Black Heaven, you are often accompanied by three bird-like [=NPCs=] named Dolpi, Gupi, and Lepi. The dialogue suggests you've known them for a long time, although this is the first time they appear.
** In the Madhouse scenario, released in the 2015 Halloween event, your goal is to rescue an old friend named Chloe from a BedlamHouse, and some other friend - Eddie, Marilyn, Chu, Lopez, and Sean - come with you. Thing is, all six [=NPCs=] don't appear in any previous scenario, despite dialogue that suggests you've known them for a long time.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Subverted and Inverted. The BadFuture scenario of Gate to the Future might lead the player to ''think'' this is the character's goal(and in fact, prior to the retcon, it was). In truth, the scenario is a nightmare the Black Mage is inflicting on Maple World residents in an attempt to enact [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight the opposite Trope]] and make sure it happens. However, in truth he created the false future so that the Alliance would have the will to fight back the chains of fate, which are controlled by beings even more powerful then him ]]

** In the Elin forest scenario, Yuri asks the player for suggestions on what to name her airship; the payer suggests ''[[Franchise/StarTrek Enterprise]]'', ''[[Franchise/StarWars Falcon]]'' and ''[[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Pearl]]'', but she deems those suggestions "terrible" before deciding to use the name she has chosen for her yet-to-be-born daughter.

** In Fantasy Theme World, there's a quest where you have to find a confused, lost alien's communication device. When you do, the quest completion message says, [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial "Hopefully he can phone home."]]

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the Romeo and Juliet scenario, the two young lovers survive and are reunited, provided the heroes succeed in their mission.

* TakeThat:
** The Singapore map may be a Take That aimed at the real UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}; most of the Quests deal with fighting dirty monsters who in some way pollute the place and spread trash, and one QuestGiver is a cop who justifies the quests as community service for littering (which you didn't do). There's even a fetch quest that involves [[RoadApples picking up monster droppings.]] This is all likely a reference to Singapore's draconian laws against littering, probably.
** The second promo video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq_1LJWkOeI Maple Rising Star]], the game's 8th Anniversary event, is a 3 minute middle finger aimed at ''American Idol''. First is the female judge, clearly mean to be Paula Abdul and even called "Paula", depicted as either being incredibly stupid or on serious drugs(consensus in the comments section leans towards the latter). The Simon Cowell lookalike is such a rude ass that the Black Mage gets offended and murders him on the spot for insulting both contestants and Paula. This is on the game's official Youtube channel!

* ThisBananaIsArmed: How weird do you want it? Available weapons have included huge flowers, umbrellas, shish-kebab skewers, surfboards, and possibly even actual bananas. If an object is shaped like the weapon it's supposed to emulate (and sometimes even if it isn't) the characters in this game can use it as such.

* TooDumbToLive:
** Who on earth would be stupid enough to feed an infant with porridge made from [[http://maplestory.wikia.com/wiki/Mossy_Snail this thing?]] Well, Sion and Loha decide to make just such a porridge for the baby they're looking after, and he gets sick. (Oddly, the cure involves something taken from Mossy Mushrooms, but at least ''they'' look kinda cute.)
** In Black Heaven, Francis sneaks on the Alliance airship in an attempt to “rescue” Orchid (whom he’s in love with) with no plan for getting off; then, after you take him prisoner, he offers to give you the blueprints to Black Heaven if you let him see her (forgetting he’s tied up, and can just take them from him now that you know he has them).
* TownWithADarkSecret: Magatia was built over the original laboratory of the Black Mage, and discovering it and trying to harness its secrets is what doomed Dr. De Lang. Eventually, the player learns this, and whether he shares this knowledge with one of the two Guilds or his wife is up to the player.
* ToyTime: Ludibrium. It has plenty of LivingToys of both the Good kind (mostly citizens, merchants, and workers) and evil kind (below in the factory).

* TrickBoss: A couple:
** In Golden Temple, once you reach the room that contains the Boss, Ravana, you find an exhausted monk who says he has fought Ravana for hours, but cannot continue. Thus, Ravana is injured too, and it’s easy for you to finish him off. [[spoiler:To fight the real Ravana, you must find a special version of the key you used to come to the room the first time, and be in a party of two to six players. (And for this Boss, you’re gonna need them.)]]
** In Act 2 of Black Heaven there's a variation. You fight a long, grueling Boss Battle against a large airship that everyone assumes is the actual Black Heaven. But after you shoot it down, the ''real'' Black Heaven flies out of the clouds, a colossus several hundred times larger than the airship you’re on, surrounded by a fleet of airships like the one you defeated. (Cue MassOhCrap from your forces, and Empress Cygnus ordering a retreat.)
* The two Bosses of Fantasy Theme Park are called Tanga and Scarboss; however, both of them have both a Normal and an Angry version. (Angry is more dangerous.) When you enter the Boss arena, you always find one Boss, and it might be Normal ''or'' Angry, both chosen at random. (However, completing the quest requires defeating one Targa and one Scarboss, and it doesn't matter if either is Normal or Angry.)

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Currently, Red Leaf High is run by a {{Samurai}} warlord named by Oda Nobunaga who gained control of it by force and now used it to train Maplers to become strong and powerful warriors. Oda Nobunaga was an actual historic figure who did attack a Tendai school during the Sengoku period, as he feared the Tendai would use religious claims to make him unpopular.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** Red Leaf High plays with this; if you every wanted to beat the crud out of a cute school girl (like Hermoninny) and an equally cute teacher (like Kumi) this gives you the chance, although ''both'' are tougher than they look.
** The Monster Picnic Event Quest involves you character ''slaughtering kindergartners on a field trip''. Well, okay, they're monster kindergartners and their idea of a field trip is attacking civilians in Henesy's, [[YouBastard but still...]]

* YourSoulIsMine: The heroes can do this to the villains! Well, sort of. When a Boss is defeated, he or she may drop something called a Soul Shard; if you collect ten of the same type, you can combine them into a complete Soul, and socket them into a weapon to create a powerful Soul Weapon. This can be interpreted any number of ways, but it ''does'' create a phantom image of the Boss behind or above your character...

* ZombieApocalypse: The Zombie Survival event, also installed for October 2015 as part of the Halloween Event, is like this. After accepting the quest, picking up one of the infected coins turns your character into a zombie in 30 minutes unless you apply a vaccine, including the Basic Vaccine. After that, you become one of five zombies, each with a specific beneficial buff, for 10 minutes, and becoming human again requires a special vaccine specific to each. After ten minutes, you lose the buff and become a Vector, meaning you cannot become infected again, but spread the infection to other Maplers; this condition requires a cure called a Source Vaccine. Basic and specific vaccines are gotten from killing Disease Control Agents and Disease Control Wagons found in towns, while Source Vaccines are gotten from [[ShoutOut Titan]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkamCity Zombies]], also found in towns. At the end of the event, players who found a vaccination 100 times gain a special prize, and those who were zombified 30 times gain another prize. There's a third prize for those who have undergone 30 consecutive Zombie Examinations. (Seeing as these prizes are special androids, it's only one per player.)

** Your default pronouns in NPC dialogue are [[GenderNeutralWriting they/their]], except for class storylines where gender is relevant.

** Zombie mushrooms, ''giant'' zombie mushrooms, ghost pirates, toy octopi riding [[strike:LEGO]] generic block golems, just to list a few.

* YourWorstNightmare: [[spoiler:According to Shinsoo, the BadFuture your character encounters in the Gate to the Future is a nightmare caused by the Black Mage using [[ArtifactOfDoom the Dream Stones]], and he assures you it is not likely to occur. (We have to trust Shinsoo on this, but seeing as the Black Mage did recruit a girl with the ability to manipulate dreams in the Cygnus Returns update, it makes sense.)]]

* FakeBalance: Many classes had examples of this before balancing patches that took cues from player feedback:
** Arans were limited to using a special melee combo as an ordinary attack, and could only use their skills by consuming their combo count. They both deal piddly damage.
** Angelic Buster was known easier time upping the damage cap. She didn’t have an easy time upping her actual damage.
** Evans used to get over eight job advancements as opposed to everyone else's four (their revamp occurred before 5th job existed). You wouldn't receive your best attacks aren’t until level 160, and your damage would be subpar until then.
** While most screen-clearing skills have a cooldown of 30 seconds when maxed out, some skills have no cooldown and clear the screen anyways, such as Demon Cry (Demon Slayer) and Reflection (Luminous).
** Mercedes has incredible combat mobility and subpar DPS outside of burst.
** Demon Avengers have 4x the health of everyone else when buffed. This is due to their main stat being max HP instead of STR and their buffs giving you more than 200% bonus max HP. Expect a buffed 40,000 HP by level 120.

** The first letter of each post Black Mage major patch focusing on the Grandis storyline appear to be spelling Grandis. [[note]]Currently '''G'''lory, '''R'''ise, '''A'''wake, '''N'''eo, '''D'''estiny and '''I'''gnition.[[/note]]

* JerkassGods: [[ The Overseers in general. In Grandis, they force Trancendences to destroy the races they don't lik and let Darmoor do what he wants. While they have let Maple World and Earth do what they want, they only step in when their power is at risk. They are the main reason the White Mage became the Black Mage and started his Transcendent killing spree

* Semi-Divine: The Trancendents. Nine of them were created for each of the three worlds, with each world having one of Life, Light, and Time.

* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous
** When taking the ship between Orbis and Victoria Island in either direction there is a 50% chance two Crimson Balrogs will show up and kill everyone on the ship (unless at least one person onboard is around level 100 or higher, which is around the level the Balrogs are at, and able to defeat them or if you spend the trip safely inside the cabin), making you go back to where you were. However, there’s also a safe zone inside the ship, which is where everyone would hang out anyways.
** To get to Crimsonwood Keep, or just to the training maps before it, one has to go through two maps where a monster that does 10k or so damage randomly spawns. After that one has to do a jump quest which involves dodging giant totem poles that will OHKO you if you touch them. When one gets to Lower Ascent and the next few maps it's possible to fall off the map, forcing you to do the second part of the jump quest again.
*** Not anymore. As of the "alien invasion" that destroyed New Leaf City, they simplified the haunted forest and Crimsonwood Keep maps into just a few straight maps, ditching the confusing maze and puzzle jump segments.
** This game just looooooooooooooves to spawn monsters right where you're standing. This is especially frustrating as a Mechanic since the mech has no knockback and can block out quite a few enemy sprites. You suddenly take damage for no apparent reason until you move or the enemy comes into view.
** When you're trying to fight a mob one by one, your character either locks on one mook you hit first, regardless of where it is as long as it is within your attack range, while ignoring other mooks which are about to [[CollisionDamage crash]] onto you, or locks on random mooks in the mob, usually the furthest ones, even after you hit the one on your face, [[RunningGag while ignoring other mooks which are about to crash onto you]]. This is why multi-target attacks/[[HerdHittingAttack crowd control]] are extremely useful, and Wizet indeed seems to acknowledge this by giving most new classes some crowd control skills; when you can smack multiple mooks at once, it doesn't really matter which ones are almost out of reach and which ones [[OverusedRunningGag are about to crash onto you]].

* Semi-Divine: The Trancendents. Nine of them were created for each of the three worlds, with each world having one of Life, Light, and Time. [[spoiler: They are managed by the Overseers, warrior gods that passivly control them. However, most of the Trancendents do not know of their origin, as the power can be past down through decentents, or stollen. They can be killed, but they cannot kill each other or take their own life. This sets the White Mage on his path to become the Black Mage, and plan to 'break the chains' that the Overseers have on the world. As he cannot kill himself nor the others, he needs to find people to do it.]]

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Subverted and Inverted. The BadFuture scenario of Gate to the Future might lead the player to ''think'' this is the character's goal(and in fact, prior to the retcon, it was). In truth, the scenario is a nightmare the Black Mage is inflicting on Maple World residents in an attempt to enact [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight the opposite Trope]] and make sure it happens.]]

* GrumpyBear: Played with, with a bear. Edelstein's Checky, a man in a bear suit, is constantly picked on by kids trying to get a look at his real face under the hood, even going so far as to task the player into throwing snakes into his costume to try and make him take it off. He also sometimes has trouble breathing and must occasionally use a special respirator with a mask cast to fit the bear's face. He's not grumpy, really, and stays cheerful but he's always being annoyed about the bear mask despite his insistence that the only thing under the mask are "hopes and dreams". [[spoiler: But really, Checky is secretly the leader of the Mechanics in the Resistance, and he will eventually admit to the player that there is nothing under the mask because it's not a mask- it's his face. Checky is actually an anthromorphic bear who only seems to resemble a cartoonish bear suit]].

* {{Machinima}}/FanVid: A growing number of these are on [=YouTube=], amazingly. Very subject to SturgeonsLaw, and varies from animated music videos and homemade series to movie versions of romance movies.

** Icebird Slymm, mayor of New Leaf City, looks a lot like Mayor Tilton from ''Film/TheMask''. (Though he's supposedly based on governor David Patterson, but Patterson is a rather skinny guy with some hair whereas Mayor Tilton and Icebyrd Slimm are rather overweight and bald. And the name would seem to be a shoutout to memoirist/crime writer [[AwesomeMcCoolName Iceberg Slim]].)

** There is also an item in the Cash Shop called the Alchemist Overall. It consists of [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist a red jacket, black pants and black shirt.]]

* {{Cap}}: There have been many different caps in the history of [=MapleStory=], but perhaps the most famously meta defining cap is the damage cap, which has was 999,99 at first, but raised to 50,000,000 in the Unleashed update, 10,000,000,000 in the 5th job update and will increase to 150,000,000,000 in the Neo update. PowerCreep assures that eventually a new damage cap will become feasible for most classes to reach on a regular basis, which begins to alter the balance of classes as DeathOfAThousandCuts classes can end up doing a lot more damage than stronger classes that output a lower number of actual lines per damage assuming both can reach the cap.

** The Lv. 260+ Grandis areas (Cernium and Hotel Arcus) take the Arcane Force mechanic UpToEleven with Sacred Symbols and Sacred Force. Just when you thought you'd be done with dailies for good...

You have read Wiki/TVTropes for 3 hours. We suggest you take a break from the WikiWalk.

* [[AbsurdlyHighLevelCap Absurdly High]]/[[AbsurdlyLowLevelCap Low Level Cap]]: Gets hit with both at once. The old cap of 200 is much easier to reach now than it was years ago, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRskdyU6VKI one player]] managing to do it in less than an hour. For many players, this is when the game truly begins. On the other hand, very few players have actually hit level 275, given that it takes several hundred hours even using every available method to speed things up.

** Many Cash Shop outfits, tops, and bottoms (stuff you can wear over your armor) can be worn by characters assigned either male or female at creation. This, combined with the above two examples, makes any more or less [[GenderBlendingTropes any form of gender expression]] accommodatable in-game.

* AnIcePerson: Some classes. Snipers can summon Frostprey, an ice hawk, and fire ice-charged shots. Ice/Lightning magicians are partially these. Arans can charge their attacks with snow and summon blizzards.
* AnnoyingArrows: Played with in the Bowman path: due to the wide damage range, they play this straight one moment, and avert it the next. Finally averted later when skills narrowing the damage gap become available.

** Also in place in the new Black Heaven content. There are a few difficult segments which allow you to skip them if you fail enough times in a row.
** Fifth Job advancement's final section requires keeping each of the three stones opened for 2 hours apiece. The timer will pause if you have to exit the game, however.

* AntiGrinding: Inverted with the pendant of spirit, which gives increasing experience multipliers based on how long you’ve been logged in.

* AnthropomorphicFood: Let's see, where to start... Many standard mobs are like this, such as Grape Juice Bottles in Edelstein, the Bubble Tea in Kerning Square (comes in Cherry, Mango, and Melon), and the feral turnips and onions at the Ellinel Fairy Academy; lots of Event mobs too, including the cake, pie, and cookie mobs in Anniversary events, and the Whipped Cream Wight and Sweet Choco Cream during the Maple Castle Halloween event. Most recently, the Food Fight event brought back several of those, plus new ones like walking Hot Dogs and bags of French Fries.

* ArbitraryGunPower: Guns have low weapon attack.

** Promotional artwork

** Older equipment which was only available through the CCG, such as the Arcana Crown and Bosshunter armor sets. These items were rare and looked nice, but were released well before Big Bang and are now obsolete. Being only level 70, even if potential is added, it's capped at 2% stat increases(4% for the double stat potential). Even the HP boosts the armor gave- which were quite useful to Bowmen back when their HP was a mess- are now moot as many changes since Big Bang have given players more HP. The Arcana Crown has almost no useful stats whatsoever, making it eye candy.

* BeefGate: Leaving Victoria Island before your second job advancement isn't a very good idea. Especially after the Big Bang, which drastically increased the levels of almost every monster outside of Victoria Island, the World Tour areas and the various {{Noob Cave}}s.

** Fire hurts plant-based and ice-based monsters. Ice hurts fire-based and many fish. Holy hurts undead and dark. This is not true in all cases however; which tends to annoy the elemental-users because of how most of the game is biased towards those who specialize in non-elemental offensive methods.

** Dark Scrolls work more often than their regular counterparts, but can potentially destroy the item they're used on if they fail. Potential and Equipment Enhancement Scrolls are like this too, but they WILL destroy the item they're used on if they fail.

* FakeBalance: Absolutely every class in some way.
** Arans are limited to using a special melee combo as an ordinary attack, and can only use their skills by consuming their combo count. They both deal piddly damage.
** Angelic Buster has an easier time upping the damage cap. She doesn’t have an easy time upping her actual damage.
** Evans get over eight job advancements. You don't receive your best attacks aren’t until level 160, and your damage is subpar until then.

** Mercedes has incredible combat mobility and very little combat DPS. Ditto for Jett.

* FoeTossingCharge: All warriors except the Dawn Warrior will have this skill one time. Useful for grouping monsters together to kill them all at once, or shoving mobile bosses to a more convenient location or for some of their squishier friends. Notably this is the only movement skill the Adventurer warriors get.

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Sometimes you'll see a Mysterious Chest in the Temple of Time; clicking on it opens a shop with special inventory, like Premium Hair Wax, Suspicious Mineral Pouches, and maybe even Growing Potions, but you can only buy one each of each item. Also, when certain Bosses are defeated, like the ones in the Root Abyss, a strange Merchant named Frederic de Blanc sometimes appears, who is similar.