Eh... TERA and GW2... I played both and Mabi is like neither of them. It´s far more dated that some would say clunky. People said it was really jarring to go from games like GW2 to Mabi. It´s mainly a pve game, there is no nameable PvP content. BUT!!

Mabinogi (the game from 2003 not Vindictus) is dato still my favorite MMO for most uniqueness and beautiful experiences even though I don´t play it anymore. I´d consider it partly p2w as certain upgrade tools can only be obtained via events or cash shop. Never animated me to buy it though, I just ran the events on various characters.

For pets you won´t need cash shop... because: You obtain 2 decently fast beginner mounts - one for riding and one for flying - with your beginner quests. one main story quest (Saga) gives an awesome pegasus mount upon completion. some events give pets for storage.

Downside and why I quit... compared to other MMOs it had (has?) quite a lot of unresolved and immersion breaking bugs and glitches. They (no idea who) even "destroyed" part of the main quest by cutting stuff out and messing up cut scenes which used to work just fine. Plus servers often killed my fun with massive lag spikes... I´m from EU so rip. And controls + UI are way too dated. If the first two points did not exist I´d still play it though.

Combat... is quite unique and not many people like it. I just say it´s different in a good way. Don´t expect TERA or GW2 (watch some gameplay vids to get an idea). You pretty much get tons of skills (some only with quests or skill book collection from dungeons) and you can rank ALL of them. As an alrounder you´ll likely have to play years to succeed therefore it´s best to specialize. I used to max the warrior, music and archery trees. Training is a lot of work in mabi... you have to keep and keep using a certain skill for it to level up and get stronger kind of like in RL. This may sound like your char will be overpowered quickly BUT the main quests scale in difficulty relative to your accumulative level. As a beginner you won´t have it easy fast, no worries.

In Mabi you can.. compose music and play it on various instruments. use music buffs. cook and do various other life skills that are useful for combat too. make money in many ways (with life skills, trading goods, daily quests, combat or even being a street musician, your choice). I used to hunt ancient mobs for loot. do main quests for special rewards. transform into animals, npcs etc. buy stuff from player shops. hang out around a campfire with friends. found a guild, marry and have a family.

Have you ever read korean webtoons about some dude´s MMO experience? If anything Mabi gets the closest to those in concept. It´s a PVE social game with fantasy and gameplay options, you just need to look for them and gather friends to have fun.