[Preview] Blade & Soul: Hands On with Blademaster, Force Master and Summoner

SBFord

As we announced elsewhere on the site, Blade & Soul is finally coming to Europe and North America this winter, with a closed beta beginning this fall. The Free to Play MMORPG from Team Bloodsport and NCSOFT has a lot of pent up demand behind it, and we got our hands on the Force Master, Blademaster, and Summoner classes to give you our first impressions.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Blade & Soul - Hands On with Blademaster, Force Master and Summoner.

The game’s vistas are absolutely stunning.

Punk999

About time!

NoxiousBass

Oh man, another interesting looking mmo in my radar!

If I were to eventually play every mmo that I have my eye on coming this year (maybe early/mid 2016), mine as well plug myself to the matrix and isolate myself from the real world :O

Nanfoodle

Nice review, told me what I need to know. 

senseirain

Dafuq? Why Not Release it with the Latest Patch / All classes,.. its 10 years Late already,...

zakraidarbg

Is this game going to be free to play ??  cause  we all know  its coming from NC soft ....

dancingstar

Originally posted by zakraidarbg
Is this game going to be free to play ??  cause  we all know  its coming from NC soft ....

From the official site:

"Blade & Soul will be coming to North America & Europe free-to-play in English, French,and German!"

Unfortunately, for a whole slew of reasons, a sub-based (with cosmetic cash shop at most) Western release was never seriously likely for this game. If the Western release hadn't spent 3 years in Development Hell, NC might have tried it, but it would likely have gone the way of Aion, L2 &c. in even shorter order.

 

Mikeha

Finally a quality mmo coming in 2015. 

mithoss

FINALLY. Tera better prepare cause B&S Combat is supperior.

kinkyJalepeno

No sub based servers with barely a cash shop?

 

No way am I touching this....

bamwalla

It's a pretty awesome world.  I'll take canned flight over insta-portals or riding a "llama" any day.  Looking forward to this one for sure and judging by the tone of your voice you are as well.

Nemesis7884

combat looks awesome, the art style and graphics looks good too - BUT i just really cant get into the whole martial arts mmo...i really cant

Homura235

Finally a new MMO that sparks my interest. Yes, I know it's 3 years old, but new to us. Skyforge is too lobby-based for me, and until Black Desert comes out, this looks like it will be my new MMO. I am currently playing TERA and really enjoying it, so I am sure I will love B&S. 

Yochy

you only need is look this for know this is a f*** good game 

MrMelGibson

Love Blade and soul and have been lucky enough to get my hands on this mmo.  Best mmo combat I've played yet.  Tera's combat was my standard favorite mmo combat till I started playing B&S.  I'm so happy to finally get this mmo.  I've waited with anticipation since I first read about it.  Finally, we are getting it!x

andre369

Is it pay to progress faster/skip progression? I want to play a MMORPG to feel rewarded, not comparing my time spent in game to the money in my wallet. 

Thanks. 

DeserttFoxx

blade and soul has no end game, at all. Tera will be fine.

DeserttFoxx

blade and soul has no end game, at all. Tera will be fine.

Zarkin86

this site is a glorified marketing tool. suddenly all columns, videos and articles pop up to hype the west release of BnS. i cant trust this site at all

MrMelGibson

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx
blade and soul has no end game, at all. Tera will be fine.

This was only the case at B&S's launch.  It's been out for a few years now and has accumulated quite a bit of content.  I don't think they will launch with "no endgame".  But, if they did it would pretty similar to how Tera launch I guess.  

 

I was there in beta and intill it went F2P.  So, no hate at all for Tera.  In fact, it is my second favorite combat system after B&S.  I just think there is a market for both games.  Hopefully, more developers see how fun and skill based these combat systems are and do their best to take that idea and improve upon it.

Longhiver

Great review. Went to the point and had good refences with other mmos.

DeserttFoxx

Originally posted by MrMelGibson

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx
blade and soul has no end game, at all. Tera will be fine.

This was only the case at B&S's launch.  It's been out for a few years now and has accumulated quite a bit of content.  I don't think they will launch with "no endgame".  But, if they did it would pretty similar to how Tera launch I guess.  

 

I was there in beta and intill it went F2P.  So, no hate at all for Tera.  In fact, it is my second favorite combat system after B&S.  I just think there is a market for both games.  Hopefully, more developers see how fun and skill based these combat systems are and do their best to take that idea and improve upon it.

You know the na version will be behind right, by a lot, as it usually is.

BanyoHD

People seem to get on the hype train real easily these days. The F2P model that they will be using hasn't even been revealed yet. It's a perfectly viable strategy to claim that the pay model will be fair only to make it not fair in the end. To be honest I expect a little more from a game that was supposed to have been released years ago. When release is around the corner I'll be there to check it out. But I'll be damned to trust any game with a pre-order these days and others should do the same!

sacredgray

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx

Originally posted by MrMelGibson

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx
blade and soul has no end game, at all. Tera will be fine.

This was only the case at B&S's launch.  It's been out for a few years now and has accumulated quite a bit of content.  I don't think they will launch with "no endgame".  But, if they did it would pretty similar to how Tera launch I guess.  

 

I was there in beta and intill it went F2P.  So, no hate at all for Tera.  In fact, it is my second favorite combat system after B&S.  I just think there is a market for both games.  Hopefully, more developers see how fun and skill based these combat systems are and do their best to take that idea and improve upon it.

You know the na version will be behind right, by a lot, as it usually is.

You know the NA/EU client is actually going to have the most current and up-to-date version of the game, as confirmed several times during the official announcement livestream?

It's weird how people are just dying to look for reasons to doubt or hate this game.

cheyane

Originally posted by discord235
Finally a new MMO that sparks my interest. Yes, I know it's 3 years old, but new to us. Skyforge is too lobby-based for me, and until Black Desert comes out, this looks like it will be my new MMO. I am currently playing TERA and really enjoying it, so I am sure I will love B&S. 

Love that anime . What an absolutely rocking story dark and full of grief.

JDis25

Originally posted by cheyane

Originally posted by discord235
Finally a new MMO that sparks my interest. Yes, I know it's 3 years old, but new to us. Skyforge is too lobby-based for me, and until Black Desert comes out, this looks like it will be my new MMO. I am currently playing TERA and really enjoying it, so I am sure I will love B&S. 

Love that anime . What an absolutely rocking story dark and full of grief.

Yeah it's definitely a love it or hate it anime. I think it was a bit rushed but I enjoyed it a bunch.