Blade & Soul Preview

I've been keeping an eye on Blade & Soul since the first trailer I saw back in 2008.  I've been retired from playing MMO's for a few years now and didn't really have an interest in going back.  Word of Warcraft was the last one that I played hardcore and got burned out on it.


Blade & Soul might just be the one that gets me to play another MMORPG again.  I'm still a little leery it is a Korean MMO which are notorious for heavy grinding.  I'm hoping this one will be different.  Check out the gameplay videos below it looks like it plays like an action game.  The game producer Jae Hyun Bae says that it breaks a lot of the traditional MMO rules:

A nice scenery picture

A fantasy martial arts game inspired by Asian culture in artwork, mythology, and combat.  It definitively has a unique look and feel to it.  I really like the art style and the graphics they both look gorgeous.  It's not surprising with Hyung-tae Kim (Magna Carta) as the art director.  He uses a art style called manhwa you can think of it like Korean manga style drawing.  It's a very expressive style that exaggerates feminine and masculine features.

As of right now there are 4 announced classes: Blade Master, Destroyer, Kung-Fu Master, and Force Master.  Going by the class trailer (you can watch it below) it seems that there will be a summoner type class, as well as a ranged class that uses guns but they aren't confirmed yet.  They have also shown 4 types of races you can choose from: Jin, Kun, Gon, and Lyn.

Kick, punch, it's all in the mind

The combat in it looks brutal especially when you see the Destroyer or Kung-Fu Master in action.  As you would have guessed it they use brute force to annihilate their foes.  The Destroyer seems to be like a tanking class that can soak up tons of damage.  But that doesn't mean that they can't dish it out too.  They wield a huge two handed axe and aren't shy about using it.


The other two classes the Blade Master and Force Master have to use more finesse to destroy their foes.  That however doesn't make them weak .  The Blade Master seems to be more agile than the other classes and able to attack much quicker and do aerial combos.  They are also able to summon several floating swords that they can launch as projectiles at their foes.

Picture of Blade Masters swords

The Force Master is kinda like a traditional mage with a martial arts twist.  They can cast very powerful spells and don't have to stand still while they do it.  From firing smaller rapid energy balls to slower giant ones (think spirit bomb) they seem to be pretty deadly.  In one part of the trailer they grabbed a Kung-Fu Master that was leaping at them mid-air with a Darth Vader like force choke and flung them back.

I'm pretty excited about this one but I'm not fully convinced yet.  There hasn't been any real gameplay footage yet just trailers (although awesome ones).  That should change soon though later this month at G-Star 2010.

The developers have said they will be showing a playable demo so we'll finally get to see some real gameplay in action.  Be sure to check back afterwords for more impressions on the game and gameplay footage.  While we wait be sure to check out these trailers, you'll be glad you did:




Blade & Soul hopefully will be out sometime next year or at least start it's beta phase soon.  It's rumored that it's coming to PS3 but nothing is set in stone.  The developers have expressed interests in putting it on consoles and said it was possible.  We'll wait and see what G-Star holds this year.

UPDATE:

Here is are my impressions for Blade & Soul G-Star 2010