Blade and Soul - Kung Fu Korea - Action MMO

IfSoul of the Ultimate Nation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediacould get a western translation I am sure a much better MMO like Blade and Soul will as well. Took SUN something like 3 years post Korean launch though and SUN was terrible even then.

Trollface_sl said:

Man, B&S is NCsoft's flagship MMO. It will come to North America in one way or another.

Click to expand...

then I will be prepared to rape, going to start working on kung fu master soon, almost max on my summoner.
the fatigue system is retarded.

Bringing this out of the great void.

NCSoft does appear to be trying to release the game over here in NA, but haven't quite got the team put together. They are currently hiring for a Brand Manager and Sr. Community Manager out of their Orange County offices. So maybe those rumors of a 2015 release are going to be realized.

On another note, some russians decided to setup an unofficial server in Europe based on the CN release. Been playing there for about a week or so, and its miles better than playing on the CN (145 vs. 210 latency) servers, I can actually play the more latency dependent classes like Assassin and KFM. There are some slight differences in the quest path, and at least one area is missing content (compared to CN). The biggest difference is the lack of a Fatigue system, which is great if you want to play for long periods, but also doesn't have the bonus xp you could get from that system in CN, so lvling casually does seem a bit slower.

You can sign up here atPlayBNS, its all in Russian, but there is an English patchhere.Now the quality of this english translation is quite bad, at least for the quest dialogue, its really funny. Its like someone took the CN version, used Google Translate to change into Russian, then used Google Translate again to change that into English. It works well enough. Best thing is that all the skills, weapons, gem descriptions are translated correctly, which helps a lot.

I'll have to check it out.

I can't seem to get the English patcher to apply. Button is grayed out. Clicked on Korean in the audio update, and that seemed to trigger something.

edit:
Played for a few minutes. Looks like Tera a lot. Fun to play initially.

And all the female characters dress like whores.

Tried it out for a bit. The character customization has a good amount of depth, Bondurant would like it.

The combat reminds me alot of Tera, and it's very fluid. Just finished the starter quest area and it was fun, so ill probably sink a few more hours into it this week. My initial impressions are positive though my one reservation is the cash shop items. I could not tell what they were as the descriptions were still in Cyrillic. Hopefully nothing too PW2.

I wouldn't spend any money on it since it's a private server unless you want to pay some Russian for cash shop shit.

I suspect the game is going to be like Tera. Amazing combat and class system, very very dull gameplay as it's all going to be kill/fetch quests for ever and ever.

I don't mind kill quests per say if the combat is actually fun, which it seems like it will be. Just being able to use the various martial arts moves on your opponents is alot of fun to watch.

Hell I might just try and get to max and see all the kung-fu cutscenes and be done with the game before it even comes out here.

Long term appeal I'm thinking the same; alot of hours wasted grinding quests or mobs for +betterer crap or random chance +1 to upgrade (or downgrade!!!) gear components.

Combat only takes you so far though. I don't mind grinding with a cool combat system myself, but I have to be grinding something I want. Grinding 20-40 hours and running through shit quests (Like TERA) is boring after 5 levels.

I had more fun soloing and duoing the BAM's in Tera then anything else, though some of the hard modes were fun to tank. The storyline was garbage though, at least blade and soul's might actually have a coherent plot and some action scenes.


On a side note, I don't know why MMO's bother with a leveling system anymore since once you hit cap its just a gear grind. They should make it a 100% skill based with gear from the get go then at least you know what your getting up front instead of 50 pointless levels you grind out before getting to the real advancement grind.

B&S offers nothing special in regards to the quest grind to level up, though the story is pretty good, with quite a few awesome cutscenes. We miss out on all the drama of the story due to lack of a good translation / voice acting. Sadly, there is more than one grind to do in B&S, not only do you do the "quest grind" to level up (doesn't take long), you also have to grind out levels for your gear (weapon, necklace, ring, earring, belt), all of which require you to feed them pieces of like gear to level up / evolve. At higher levels, these gear upgrades will require a catalyst that is either a dungeon drop (always), a daily quest reward, or crafted. I won't even talk about the top-end weapons which require insane amounts of gold/materials. Though the chance of failing an upgrade (just the loss of material, not wpn/item) has been greatly reduced or removed altogether. I would say the gear leveling is far worse than gear enchanting in Tera.

Combat is what makes B&S shine though, and Tera doesn't really compare very well due to all its animation locks. The combos each class has within its skillset, and how those can work with other classes is pretty cool. Plus, it is pretty important to use them at the right time while running dungeons. It takes til the mid-to-upper 20's for your class to have access to all its tricks from gaining skills and talents...watching Assassins and Blademasters is pretty fun. Unless they are a Jin female in a swimsuit...then its just a distraction. The style of B&S outfits is pretty awesome and has no effect on your abilities / stats.

The cash shop on this russian server is pretty much a direct copy of the CN cash shop. Haven't seen anything in there is P2W, just the typical convenience stuff, though the Premium status item does offer a minor boost to combat stats (5%).

Seems a bit late for this.

Seems a bit late for this.

Here's the press release I got this morning:

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. (May 20, 2015) - NCSOFT? has announced that Blade & Soul? will launch in North America and Europe this winter. Blade & Soul is a game unlike any other, set in an Asian, mythological world where fast-paced combat collides with the visual beauty of a Far-East martial arts massively-multiplayer online universe. Since its initial launch in Asia in mid-2012, Blade & Soul has attracted tens of millions of players across South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan, while emerging as one of the top MMORPGs in the world.

"Blade & Soul is one of the most anticipated online games by Western consumers," commented John Burns, senior vice president of publishing at NCSOFT West. "This is a tremendous opportunity to bring one of the most successful and fun online games in Asia to our Western audience this winter and we can't wait to deliver this extraordinary and distinct gaming experience to millions of new players across North America and Europe."

Blade & Soul delivers an engaging story and vibrant world for players to explore. In the game, players must fight to avenge the death of their fallen master in a classic Wuxia storyline. Wuxia, which literally means "martial hero", is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. As players explore the world in Blade & Soul, they will see a fusion of Asian cultures that delivers stunning landscapes and vistas.

Blade & Soul defies typical MMO conventions, delivering action-based combat with ability combos and a flexible party role system that does not require dedicated healers. It gives players unprecedented movement abilities around the world as their characters leap over mountains and fly through the air.

The first major Blade & Soul livestream will take place on Thursday, May 21 at 10AM PDT / 17:00 UTC atTwitch. In addition, fans can receive exclusive and on-going information on all things Blade & Soul by signing up for the game's newsletter atBlade Soul. Player feedback will help shape the game as it evolves, so fans are encouraged to follow and interact with Blade & Soul via social media and other communication channels, including:

Twitter: @bladeandsoul
Facebook: facebook.com/bladeandsoul

Selected fans who sign up on the site will be given access to the closed beta that is planned for fall of 2015 in North America and Europe. At launch, the Western version of Blade & Soul will be fully localized into English, German and French (including voice-over). Additional information about the business model will be revealed this summer.

About Blade & Soul
Blade & Soul?, developed by NCSOFT's Team Bloodlust, tells the story of players' quest for vengeance and redemption against a backdrop of Asian fantasy, set in a beautifully crafted online world. Blade & Soul prominently features martial arts inspired combat and Windwalking movement, as depicted in classic Asian martial arts adventure films. For more information on Blade & Soul, visitBlade Soul.

About NCSOFT West
NCSOFT? is the world's premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games, including the critically acclaimed Aion?, Blade & Soul?, Lineage?, Guild Wars? and WildStar? franchises. NCSOFT West is a division of NCSOFT that holds operating responsibilities for North America, Europe, South America and Australia/New Zealand. More information can be found atNCSOFT - World's Premier Publisher of MMO Games.

This is a good thing. The cash shop will probably be a lot like GW2, mostly convenience items / costumes, so I don't expect anything like P2W. Hopefully they don't go full retard with censorship. The trailer showed off the lvl45+ area's, which will help the game last a bit longer, at least it will have more to do (if you want) at max lvl than Tera, though I'm disappointed that they appear to not be releasing with the Warlock class.

Edit: Odd, wonder why they aren't using actual ingame character graphics/artwork for their website. The drawings they are currently using are bad.