At the end of the Mushroom Shrine, there is a portal at the top right of the "Forest of Animals".

This is the new Zipangu area, “Showa Town,” added on December 8, 2004.

“Showa” is a word you might have heard, even if you aren't interested in Japan.

In Japan, the Prime Minister holds political power, and there is a ceremonial monarch called the Emperor.

It's the same system as the UK. One of their emperors is Emperor Hirohito, also known as "Showa".

Emperor Showa did not directly start World War II, but he refused to surrender, clinging to his imperial power,

which led to the sacrifice of many Japanese people due to the atomic bombings, making him a kind of war criminal.

But why is the name of such a person in the Maplestory map? Emperor Showa reigned from 1926 to 1989,

and the famous Japanese "economic bubble," where they joked about buying America by selling Tokyo, collapsed as soon as Emperor Showa was succeeded by Emperor Heisei, leading to the Lost Decade.

So, it is not important what policies Showa had or what he did in the past; simply, the “economic bubble era” was during the late period of Emperor Showa’s reign,

and Japanese people miss the economic boom period before 1989, known as the “Showa Period”.

So, when the Wizet Studio content production team made the Zipangu area, they used the keyword “Showa” to create this area.

The symbol of the “Showa Period” in various media is the sunset, symbolizing the last brilliance of the declining 20th century,

This symbol is also applied to Showa Town, showing a contrasting landscape to the Mushroom Shrine. Anyway, if you take the portal from the Forest of Animals, you will enter a map called Showa Street 3.

As soon as you enter, monsters completely different from what we've seen so far appear. They are "human-form" monsters modeled after the yakuza prevalent in 20th-century Japan.

Here, we can slightly grasp why it wasn't released in KMS. As yakuza, they're filled with guys using wooden swords, bricks, bats, sashimi knives, swords, pistols, and machine guns,

and you have to fight these human-form monsters wielding detailed weapons; they even curse in a human voice when they die.

Because of this violence, MapleStory's "For All Ages" rating would likely have been raised to 12 or 15 years old.

Since this map is the path to Showa Town, there's nothing special except for yakuza walking around with bats,

but there is one unique field boss here. In English, it's called Male Boss, and in Japanese, it's called Oyabun.

This guy is level 95 with 1.5 times the attack power of Crimson Balrog,

and unlike other bosses, he isn't big and looks similar to regular mobs. If you hit him without thinking, you'll definitely die instantly.

By the way, overseas, there's also a summoning sack that summons this guy. It seems some people lured in newbies this way and took them down. Lol

The village that appears after passing through all three Showa Street maps is Showa Town. Showa Town was initially one long map when first released,

but over time, it was divided into two maps, creating its current form. As you saw earlier, Showa Town is basically a village occupied by yakuza.

In reality, or in media like 'Like a Dragon,' most yakuza built their power around loan companies called "Finance of Flaming Raccoon",

and the story unfolds around uncovering the reality of this yakuza group. First, let's look at the NPCs in the main map,

especially the important ones. The first NPC is Pope, who is presumed to be a detective in Showa Town.

He gives a simple quest where you can get a Dark Scroll for Shoes for 30% Jump. This NPC is investigating a series of incidents involving a notorious company in this village.

He thinks a company in Showa Town is evading taxes and gives a quest related to this,

but I will cover this story separately at the end. Next is Sakura. Sakura is a child who always plays with dolls alone because her father went to the city to earn money.

She is constantly crying because all her dolls have disappeared for various reasons. The player helps Sakura by gathering items like Teddy's cotton and a toy baby seal from the other region.

In this way, in Showa Town, you have to gather items from regions other than Zipangu,

or complete quests related to NPCs from other regions. An example of this is the quest given by Sakura.

In fact, the stories are all too far-fetched and were not originally added quests, but rather quests that were added over time and were overdone,

so there is too much content to introduce in a video. One quest I can introduce is the first quest in Showa Town, “Sakura, the Kitty, and the Orange Marble”.

To the right of Sakura, there is a crying fraidy cat. If you give it pet food, it will ask you to take care of Sakura next to it.

When you ask Sakura about the situation, she says that a boss kitty took away an orange marble that was a gift from her father.

So, you learn the cat language from the yellow cat and go to the boss kitty that took the marble,

the boss kitty says it will return the marble if you answer all of its quizzes correctly. However, each time you take the quiz, you have to bring 300 fried chicken for its group,

there are cheat sheets for these quizzes. Here are some example questions. If you answer 5 random questions correctly, you get the orange marble,

and when you return to Sakura, you receive two Dark Scrolls (shoe for 30% jump, helmet for 30% HP), completing the quest.

Anyway, there are such quests all over Showa Town. From a Japanese perspective, it is a very interesting town.

Returning to Sakura, to the right of Sakura, you will find the fraidy cat again.

Next to it is Konpei, a yakuza affiliated with the previously mentioned Finance of the Flaming Raccoon,

but actually an NPC looking for someone to bring down the Finance of the Flaming Raccoon. If you talk to him at level 50 or higher, he'll lead you to the "Hideout."

And if you go a little to the right of where the Boss Kitty was, Petite has also been here since around 2008.

In KMS, it was responsible for promoting the "Maple Member Shop", but here it was an NPC promoting the card game "iTCG."

By entering the serial number on the iTCG card pack for promotion, you could synthesize two randomly obtained items

to get the blueprint of the item you want to create and other materials; you could get the "Evil Warrior's Boots", known as Facestompers in Global MapleStory.

Additionally, you could also make an item called "Crystal Ilbi Throwing Stars" with a 29 attack boost through this Petite.

Looking at the stats of the items you could get... it makes you wonder how many card packs you had to open to get them.

Next is Hikari in the center of town. Isn't she the one from Mushroom Shrine?

Yes, that's right. However... the NPC originally here appeared in Mushroom Shrine in KMS.

By the way, Hikari didn't give quests in Showa Town, but the Eliminating Blue Mushmom quest added in KMS was well-received,

so the quests from KMS Mushroom Shrine were imported back to Hikari in Japan. Hikari is basically an NPC who lets you enter the Showa Spa, for 300 mesos,

which is one of Showa Town's unique spots. Inside, there's a merchant selling items like milk for returning to nearby towns,

Mushroom Shrine, and Showa Town, and a bathrobe with +10 movement speed at level 20.

The bathrobe has decent weapon defense, making it a substitute for the Sauna Robe overseas.

Entering the portal to the right brings you to the spa, where you automatically change into bathrobe attire.

Male characters go to the men's area, and female characters to the women's area.  From there, they can't meet each other.

There's a Gachapon exclusive to Showa Town. Incidentally, the shower sound is the BGM for this map. It's quite whimsical and fun.

To the right of the map, there's a hidden portal leading to the Secret Spa. This map is based on the imaginative idea of "If there's a hot spring, there should be a volcano."

Only Firebomb and Red Slime appear in this map, and since Red Slime is level 55 (quite high),

some lower-level users with high natural INT, using HP washing, took advantage of players who couldn't reach level 58 in Singapore to leech Slimes.

Now, let's leave the spa and enter the second map of Showa Town through the central portal.

The first character you see is "Faito," an NPC with a similar role to Staff Sergeant Charlie in Orbis.

You hunt monsters in Showa Town and collect 100 of their ETC drop items for exchange,

like how Staff Sergeant Charlie exchanges 100 Nependeath Seeds, with a 1% chance of getting a scroll for an earring that increases INT by 10%, right?

There are also rare items here with low drop rates. The list of items is as follows, and we should check two things:

The Brown Work Gloves and the Yellow Adventurer Cape. The Brown Work Gloves have 7 upgrade slots, making them a beloved item.

The Brown Work Gloves have 7 upgrade slots, making them a beloved item. The Yellow Adventurer Cape has 8 upgrade slots.

However, there were Gachapon items like the Pink Adventurer Cape with +2 weapon attack,

and the Purple Adventurer Cape with +7 magic attack, so wealthy users applied 60% Chaos Scrolls to these capes.

While relatively lower-budget players utilized the high number of available stat upgrades. And the other NPCs here just give quests, so let's skip them.

To the left is Shinta, the weapon seller. Shinta sells Japan-exclusive weapons, like this 2 million mesos special weapon

or the Pico-Pico Hammer, which appeared as dummy data in KMS, and hard-to-find items in KMS like the Aluminum Baseball Bat, Fish Spear,

and the Red Brick, Green Paint Brush, and other items that are dummies in KMS.

Next to him is Hanako, who was in Mushroom Shrine in KMS, right? She is originally Shinta's wife here.

Hanako sells armor and throwing stars instead of weapons, with the armor being so-so but the throwing stars being unique.

She sells the "Orange" and the "Paper Fighter Plane," which is sold as a cash item in KMS, as a throwing star.

Both have an attack boost of 20. On the far left is a grocer named "Doran,"

who also sold "Japanese specialties." First, the "Red Arrow for Bow." It's an arrow with +4 weapon attack.

But where are the crossbow arrows? "Samurai Raiu" at Mushroom Shrine sells the blue arrows for crossbows.

Not sure why they split them up! The most notable item Doran sells is "Cider,"

which is not available in KMS, but is kind of a buff item. The item description doesn't specify how much it increases weapon attack,

but simple calculations show it boosts weapon attack by +20 for 5 minutes. Doesn't that break the balance?

However, this item is special in that only one bottle of cider fits in one item slot. Lol.

So, normally you would use Takoyaki or Baby Dragon Food, and fill your "Use" slots with cider only when entering boss battles.

So, we've explored a few NPCs and maps of Showa Town. Let's uncover the truth of the Finance of Flaming Raccoon through Konpei.

You can access Konpei's hideout in town.  The journey begins by infiltrating the Parking Lot on the first floor and reaching the fifth floor,

to defeat the final boss, The Boss.  The BGM changes as soon as you enter, since it's the final mission.

In the Parking Lot, you'll find Leader B and Extra D. Extra D is unique among the human-form monsters; she's female,

making her a popular monster.  She gives a lot of experience relative to her level and HP,

and because the Parking Lot's layout is simple and the monster spawn rate is high, it was a popular hunting spot for mid-to-high-level users.

The next map is the main floor of the Finance of Flaming Raccoon, where Leader A appears along with Extra D.

Despite the name "Finance," it's essentially a loan shark operation. The interior resembles a poorly made office rather than a bank.

Next is the "Parlor." This map features Extra D, Leader B, and Leader A,

but it's popular because a field boss spawns here.  The boss is called "Female Boss," or "Anego."

한국에선 금지된 지역, 『쇼와 마을』

한국에선 금지된 지역, 『쇼와 마을』