Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Blade And Soul Release Impressions

I talked a bit about Blade and Soul when it was in beta, but it has been released today. I'd consider waiting a few weeks if you aren't willing to subscribe, as the queues are insane at the moment. It's also overrun with gold spammers.

It's a very "Korean" MMO. If you don't like other Korean games like TERA, I doubt you will like Blade and Soul. The character creation is pretty amazing with a ton of sliders. The game tends to "skimpy female clothing" side of things.

The combat is pretty interesting. Lots of combos and abilities that change in response to other abilities. It does seem somewhat dependent on your internet connect, though.

The story and dialogue is pretty atrocious. I rather wish they had left in the Korean voice-acting, and just translated it with English sub-titles. However, I'm not very far in, so it may get better.

There are some interesting design decisions. For example, the default loot mechanism in random dungeons is Gold DKP. When an item drops, people bid gold. The highest bid wins and the gold is distributed to the other party members.

Personally, I think this is a great idea. It stops people from rolling Need on everything. If you don't win anything, at least you get a lot of gold to help you in your next run. It's a better solution than Personal Loot, as far as I'm concerned.

World PvP is enabled by equipping a special faction costume. Once equipped, you can attack people wearing the opposite faction costume. It's a very visual, in-game, approach to a PvP flag. However, there are also multiple pairs of factions, which might make things more interesting.

Truthfully, I don't really have a lot more to say about Blade and Soul. It's kind of fun. But I don't think it will hold me for very long.

5 comments:

  1. Which race/class combo do you play? I'd say Yun or Jin Blade Master. ;)

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    1. Nice guess. The first character I created was a Jin Blade Master. But I wasn't really feeling it, so I made a Yun Force Master.

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  2. I'm not really digging it. Something about the play style bothers me. Can't put my finger on it. That and having to wait 2 hrs to log in as a free player sucks as well.

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    1. If you're willing to spend a little money, there's a $5 "Student Bundle" which gives 7 days of Premium. That should be enough to take you past the worst of the queues during launch week.

      I kind of hear you about the playstyle. I felt the same thing with the Blade Master. But try a different class, it might feel better.

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    2. Blade Master was what I played as well.

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