Seems like they're preparing a new part of Time Temple.

Because kMS nor any other version that isn't gMS doesn't have the Goetics. If they do, then it's only by the PvP armor, which is naming convention only.

Actually...
CMS has it.
TMS has it.
MSEA has it.

Furthermore, the Goetics were created in our region, meaning that it wasn't something that kMS could use to retcon into the Black Mage story (although they themselves would have to retcon all of Episode 1 to make a new story out of it, as well as add more Goetics).

Weird. I thought MSEA got it first. Seems I was wrong.
Fair point on the rest since it didn't originate in KMS.

Oh yeah, about Bakal - you must not play DFO. He's one of the core villains in that game: Dragon Tyrant Bakal. Go to DFOSource and search using "Bakal" as a keyword.

I played it for the Maple crossover event, but found it to be god-awful. Like, literally one of the worst games I've ever played.
Will give that a look though.

And one last thing - the Black Mage MAY be one of the biggest villains in Maple's history, but it doesn't mean that kMS HAS to bring him back to continue Maple's lore. It's like with Arthas in WoW - Arthas is dead, and Bolvar took the Lich King's helm out of sacrifice rather than powerlust - meaning we're NOT going to see a new Lich King encounter, because of the kind of man Bolvar is. (Forgive me for my mentioning of WoW - it was the only example I could come up with).

No worries. I was actually researching WoW last night because, despite having never played WoW, I'm aware of some of the lore, and was wondering how they dealt with a progressive storyline. More specifically, I was wondering how they dealt with the fact that the Lich King was defeated, as you mention.

Well, they didn't.
This exemplifies what I was saying before. Even if a boss is defeated story-wise, it will never be removed because that means removing content.
Luckily, Maplestory has a plot device that would easily allow people to return to this old content without restricting the plot from marching on: The Temple of Time.

That said, the Black Mage will be back. He doesn't have to be, but trends dictate that he will be.
He isn't "one of the biggest villains", he is the main villain.

It's the same with Mabinogi - even if Cichol or Balor somehow DIE..... you get my point.

I don't play Mabinogi, but, sure.

A good game/game series won't reuse a villain more than once (.hack//G.U. is a special exception here, since Ovan technically didn't die until Vol 3, and Aura pretty much brought him back as an NPC), and if they do, they wouldn't DARE use the setback (Kael'thas) story gimmick. That's like a low blow for storywriting.

You're either a hypocrite or your definition of "more than once" differs from mine.
If a villain returns for more than one story arc, he's been reused.

Speaking of which, I can't put my finger on what series your avatar comes from...