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I agree with your statement - MapleStory was supposed to be about your story.
Before, you were a normal person that decided to take up archery, magic, melee combat or a thief-like lifestyle. It was common for you to meet with other people, some like you, and others not so much.
In the present, you are a legendary hero who lost all of their abilities, and you have to work your way up until you regain your power. It's a mood-killer to see thousands of 'legendary heroes' just like you.
The only required quests were the ones that gave you your new abilities, as a reward for your hard training. Now you have to do all of these quests to regain your memory.
With Aran it was okay. It was original in the game, an old legend that comes back to finish what he had not. But now it's all the same. You were a legend in your time, you fought the black mage, you didn't kill him, he freezed you, you come back to life hundreds of years later and realise that you have lost all your powers and that the black mage is still alive.
I my opinion they could have made it better. Instead of making these stupid storylines, it could have gone something like this:
An old legend reappears. He had been gone for a long, long time. You meet him in some caves or some other place far from society. He tells you he has been training for long to kill the black mage, but he had realised it was not his destiny to do it, instead, it was to teach the new people of the maple world how to fight him.
Or maybe he got old and can't fight shit, but still can teach you how to kick ass. The point is that it's still YOUR story. You decide to learn from him. This makes sense when you meet with people that have your same skills, because you all are taught by him. You won't lose that feeling of 'uniqueness' when you encounter someone with the same skills, because his story is a lot different. Each one makes its own story. You can use the skills you earned from the Legend for evil, for good, for nothing.
We have to acknowledge that the frequency of patches and amount of new content introduced is far greater than in the old days. But now they don't let the game 'settle' for a bit. Every patch seems to be game-changing.
I truly wish they had just added more quests, bosses and places and that there wasn't any Black Mage, Cygnus, Resistance or Legends.
They could have added the classes in the class tree. Instead of making a battle mage, let someone become a magician and then a battle mage, as a job advancement.
You could have added everything without it being your destiny or something fixed that you don't want to change. You should be able to be from Ellinia, the forest of wizards, and still be a part of the Resistance, because you believe in freedom. You should be able to be against the resistance, and that way PvP would make more sense.
Regarding Big Bang - they could have made it optional. Label some servers (seriously, half of the servers in the game are dead) as 'casual', for casual players. Apply big bang EXP changes and power there. Those that still wish to go old-style and continue with their normal characters, they are still able to. Some can use it as a test server, i.e., you want to experience how a class is, but you don't want to do it in a hardcore server because it would take too long, and you want to make the right decision for your final character.
Let me rewrite the story of maplestory legends using the script I wrote above.
Mercedes-
you encounter an old woman in a weird place. she is very exhausted, and can barely talk. you give her some potions and feels better. she tells you her story, and how her town is sealed and needs to be saved. she promises you that she will teach you her old abilities if you save her town - because she is too old and weak to do it now. in the end, she proclaims you as the new king of the elves, or something.
Cannoneer-
this story is good as it is. you receive a cannon from a weird guy, a monkey saves your life. you choose to do whatever you want with it.
Demon Slayer-
as a quest from someone in a town you go to a cave to kill some bats that have been bothering people and killing farm animals. you encounter an old man surrounded by bats, you have a discussion (you've been killing his bats, he has been bothering the people of the town). you ask about his powers and he says that he is the only one that remembers the devilish powers of the shadows (or something like that). you ask him to teach you (optional, of course, you can choose not to start the next quest and follow your warrior path), and he tells you that you'll have to defeat him. while in battle, you find that he is very weak, but he his abilities are varied and interesting. he passes out, you take care of him/you wait for him to wake up, and he teaches you. you have to stop any relationship with dances with balrog, and choose this man as your only master.
the fact that you did not stop the bats (he's the one making thems appear) makes it reasonable to meet other people that have tried too to stop the bats problem and finally ended accepting the man as their
Aran-
a mix of both above.
clarification-
when you 'decide' to get lessons from a person, you are able to refuse. i see this as a job advancement. you start as a warrior and dances with balrog tells you about the cave of bats because he's too busy to do it himself. it's a quest, you accept it or refuse it.
