Blade and Soul - deep review

pongdun

My thoughts on why this game sucks:

First of all: I already played lots of MMOs, lots... and in BnS I'm playing since first day and leveled 3 characters to level 45, so yes I know how things works in the game!

There's no end game, when you reach lvl max (45) you will need to do dailies, for gold, and other stuff, for gold.

NCSoft must win some money from gold sellers, because they never really block them in chat. They are the only big company that let the gold sellers spam. All other MMOs that I played they easily blocked gold spammers but NCSoft never do that. So the chat is a mess.. you can't read stuff.. it's gold spam nonstop!

Gear is very limited, no real variation. It's always the same gear that you just upgrade, from the begining to the best gear in game... totally lame!

Classes are totally unbalanced, really, this is a total joke. There's no balance on PVP and either in PVE. The last one, PVE, that's a stupid joke guys, some classes you can level very easy and others it's a pain, really, a real pain, and for nothing... just because they don't care to balance the PVE skill of that class!

NA version is much more p2w than the korean/japan/chinese. When you reach lvl 45, you will need lots of stuff sold in the market with gold. Yes, gold. It's not quests or tokens that you can earn doing dailies or pvp or etc, you will need gold.. so gear is based on gold (because of the moonwater transformation stone).

And final thought: I learned again that F2P model sucks.. they always creates some P2W stuff... always!

NegativeJoe

The game is super easy to get to 45. 
The game has a million weapon drops, that you NEVER use.  just sell the wapon or 'weapon chest' for 1 copper(really don't bother picking them up tbh)

The endgame is not really there:
-  You get the best shield by farming for a couple hours on a 'pvp' boss, or the 2nd best by farming the same easy dungeon maybe 4 times.  Simple and stupid. 
-  The rest is just upgrading your gear which, just takes money.  If you buy gold you can upgrade immediately.  If you don't, just either play the auction house (yawn) or run the same daily quests (yawn) or buy premium so gold drops are higher and farm certain npc's (yawn). 

Thats it. Thats the game.  Then wait for updates to catch it up to where the asian version was a a year ago..

Daikuru

Thats not a deep review.

Can't agree with you at all.

They block gold sellers as much as they can.

Yes there is not much content yet and balance is far from korean version, but here is the good thing, there is much content coming.

You know that this is a PvP game ? So endgame is pretty much PvP Arena / open world PvP.

The Gear system is pretty nice imo.

One of the better f2p models, no p2w so far.

If you dont like the game, just  dont play it.

iixviiiix

I prefer Tera over Blade n S

JackieRyder

ok so number 1 you are completely incorrect on your assessment, because there is a continuation of the story if you havent noticed, so pvp at this point is the end game, just because you cant access EVERYTHING right away and makes you mad is a description of what type of gamer you are, you just burn through it all without watching cinematics, reading the lore or doing anything that the developers worked so hard to implement and then you call it trash..

Number 2, you are calling this p2w just because you have to buy gold? that is the biggest joke ive ever heard, it takes me max 1 hr to farm 10 gold just from doing dailies alone, if i do my pvp dailies i rake in way more then 10 gold... case and point quit begging for stuff to be handed to you and just do it.

mcrippins

Hard to take the OP seriously. I don't find this game P2W at all. In fact it's far from many others. I think most people know that the game is far away from Korea's version, and hopefully we'll catch up soon. Yet, while there are some imbalances in PvP (welcome to MMOs), player skill is a major factor in the outcome of the game. 

NCSoft has actually taken a lot of steps to make it easier for players to block spammers, and to reduce the amount of spammers. Much more quickly than other companies have done in the past. So I see that as a positive. 

They are also releasing content pretty quickly. We get the first few floors of Mushin's tower in a week. I'm guessing the Warlock in a few months. Not bad!

As someone else said, if you don't like the game you can simply move on. Your review overall is very lackluster, but at least there's plenty of other games you can play. 

Happy Trails! 

NegativeJoe

thats all well and good if they are updating quick, but when it takes about 15 hours to get max does it really matter. 
pvp 'endgame' you might as well just play cs or something, there are no real leveling, rewards, reason to pvp.
p2w yes it is.  anything that makes you get more powerful easier/faster is p2w.  you can get the very best from scratch in 3 days if you pay.  dismissed.

shalissar

Bloodlust221 said:

ok so number 1 you are completely incorrect on your assessment, because there is a continuation of the story if you havent noticed, so pvp at this point is the end game, just because you cant access EVERYTHING right away and makes you mad is a description of what type of gamer you are, you just burn through it all without watching cinematics, reading the lore or doing anything that the developers worked so hard to implement and then you call it trash..

Number 2, you are calling this p2w just because you have to buy gold? that is the biggest joke ive ever heard, it takes me max 1 hr to farm 10 gold just from doing dailies alone, if i do my pvp dailies i rake in way more then 10 gold... case and point quit begging for stuff to be handed to you and just do it.

wait... how? i'm 45 now and the dailies get me 30 silver tops, i can't make 10 gold

oh yeah, big peeve off about this game, blackwyrm spawns, the channel is full before the thing even has a chance to render fully

edit; nvm i found a video on how to accomplish this, yay google lol

filmoret

This game sucks so bad he took the time to lvl 3 max characters.  Yea I don't think you know what sucks means.

filmoret

@vardahoth ; This is ncwest not nceast.

Zen00

If you guys want a real deep review, I'll write one eventually once I hit level 45 and have some time to experience end-game.

pinktailz

who thought that aion on steroids will be any good anyway lol

NegativeJoe

filmoret said:

This game sucks so bad he took the time to lvl 3 max characters.  Yea I don't think you know what sucks means.

In his defense, you can do that in a week or 2 max...I am not a fan of this game but I've played worse for a week..

Sovrath

Vardahoth said:

I really lol'd at this...

Unless you meant to say they block people who report gold sellers. Here, read this:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/NCSoft/Austin-Texas-73301/NCSoft-Lineage-ripoff-2-Bots-Farmers-Bad-customer-support-Lineage2-Austin-Texas-241041

Sun Lin who worked for NCSoft in Korea in 2005 as GM. Lin says that he got 2000 complains during his time at NCSoft about cheating people. After he banned nine accounts, he got the instruction from his boss to stop that, because that would decrease the incomes. According to Lin 30 to 40 % of the L2- players use bot-programs.
Instead of doing his normal work Lin was forced to close accounts of players who complain to much about the bot situation: " I thought this was unfair but we were forced to do this." [...] 

While this might true it might not be true.

Why is it when someone in gaming says something that others want to be true they automatically assume it is?

Maybe he's a disgruntled employee and decided to lambaste NC Soft when things weren't going his way?

Like I said, it could be true, it's not beyond the pale, but just because someone makes a claim doesn't mean they have the best intentions and aren't lying.

cerulean2012

pongdun, let me tell you why your review means nothing.

1.  You come out and say game sucks, never say this in a review no matter how bad game is, auto turn off of your topic and discredits you.

2.  Not only do you say game sucks you claim to have 3 max level characters.  If game is so bad you would have had trouble maxing one out.  Again this discredits you.

3.  You are claiming NCSoft is in league with gold sellers.  This is another bad statement to use without proof.  Just saying it means little and shows you really don't like the company and in combination with you maxing 3 characters out it shows you are really mad at NCSoft and like the game.

4.  No this is not the Korean version.  Never was never will be.  You complain about the lack of gear and indicate you know and most likely played Korean version.  If you know about the game then you already should know about the gear, plus if you read anything about the western version it tells you about the gear and how it works.  So either you really didn't play the other versions or you know little about the game.  What ever the case it again ruins your review.

5.  As has been noted.  The game is designed around PVP, thus PVE balance will suffer and unless they redo everything there will never be balance in both pvp and pve.  This should basically be the same as the Korean version, which you claim to know about, so you should have already known this.

In conclusion I have decided that you are actually one of the following:

1.  Someone who was banned for some reason
2.  Someone who never played the game
3.  Someone who is mad because they rushed to end game and now have nothing to do after 1 month

or....

4.  Someone who is just lying about it all.

So your review means nothing and your reputation has dropped quite a bit from your shallow attempt at hatred and trying to look cool. 

GeezerGamer

So, I finally got around to DLign this game last night. I created a summoner named "Imaguydammit" and played to level 2. Exited the proving grounds and logged off. Maybe someday, I might think about getting to level 3. Idunno. Overall, the intro has been...........forgettable.

On the positive side, it's still better than WildStar.

svandy

As sad as it is, OP's review has more "depth," than blade and soul.

I guess Korean's have a vastly different idea of what an MMO is than we do in the west. Of course there will be people who defend Blade and Soul until the bitter end, but I think largely the MMORPG community (in the west) will write this game off soon, if they haven't already.

I don't understand why this game was even made. Why not just make a fighting game? The whole leveling/gear grinding aspect of it is so out of place, poorly done, and pointless. This game has 0 mechanics that we have come to expect from MMORPGs at this point, even 4 years ago when the game was made. Or rather I should say... the systems that are in place really feel like they were thrown in there in the most lazy attempt possible just to check the box. Yeah, we have crafting...

Claustrophobic zones, invisible walls, atrocious UI, recycled enemies, no anti-aliasing (that works, anyway), piss poor performance, and quite possibly the most annoying thing of all - no sprint when in combat. Which, by the way, so much as breathing hard near your mouse puts you in combat. Character building is a joke, the character creator is cool, but its unlikely anyone will even see your creation, unless of course you make anything other than the furry race because you will stick out like a sore thumb in the sea of summoners. Terrible loot rules, easy exploits, insane amounts of bots/gold spammers. Also, and this is probably just me, but why the hell does the game need to repair exactly 85 bytes of data every time I launch it? Oh, and I may as well tack on the horrendous localization... it's not Age of Wushu level bad, but it is close. And, personal taste here, but I don't get the people claiming the game has a good story. It feels like a cartoon aimed at 13 year old boys who like bouncing boobs and cat ears.

It isn't all bad, though. The combat is indeed fun and feels rewarding, the costumes can be pretty cool and the classes are neat. I did not play PvP, I couldn't last that long, but I can easily see the draw of it. But again... why not just making a fighting game? This game just doesn't feel like it should exist (in my opinion).

Sovrath

Vardahoth said:

I found out it was true when my friends were getting banned for reporting bots. Ncsoft gave them no reason and wouldn't respond to them.

It amazes me how ncsoft keeps doing this and the level of denial from the players makes the cycle never end with them. It's kind of amusing to watch.

I'm sorry I just don't buy that.

I've reported so many bots, gold sellers, and even players who farmed gold (early lineage 2) to sell both in Lineage 2 and Aion and never once got banned. At all. Not even a wagging of the finger.

A lot of reports. Tons.

I don't know your friends or in what capacity they are your friends and it't not my place to speak badly about people I don't know but I do suspect that maybe they went to forums to vociferously complain and got banned for that?

Because why did they get banned for reporting people/cheaters and my own private crusade never landed even a "talking to"?

Wizardry

Yes NCSOFT is a corrupt operation i learned that way back in my Lineage days.

ONLY one nope try Eve online CCP,when i last played that game the noob chat was absolute insane with scrolling ISK sales spam and there were GM's in the chat room to boot.Developers don't care about anything ONLY about money,if every player or a high majority threatened to quit they would then be forced to do something about it.
END GAME is a poor excuse for judging a game,there shouldn't even be a mention of end game for several years unless the game is just that shallow.

Gear limitation?Well yeah there is a MUCH deeper story than just gear limitations,the entire depth of a game and it's systems matter IF you want a really good game.I have been preaching depth in systems for a long time,most developers are simply selling us rubbish ,terrible efforts.

Want to know why so many average to bad games are doing well?The INTERNET,mass marketing,fancy videos,simple sell ideas like graphics and character creation tools however when comes to the actual game we are seeing generic assembly line games.
Adding in Epsport will not improve the game ,not even 1% that is just a gimmick to attract pvp gamers without even looking at the game's qualities.

MagikarpsGhost

NegativeJoe said:

thats all well and good if they are updating quick, but when it takes about 15 hours to get max does it really matter. 
pvp 'endgame' you might as well just play cs or something, there are no real leveling, rewards, reason to pvp.
p2w yes it is.  anything that makes you get more powerful easier/faster is p2w.  you can get the very best from scratch in 3 days if you pay.  dismissed.

P2W=paying for an advantage over others that is UNOBTAINABLE via normal means. BnS is not p2w, sure you can buy keys and such to get your weapon quicker or XP boosters, but honestly it is not. as for hitting max in 15 hours that is a flat out lie. i have been playing since CN/KR launch and i know where and how to lvl quickly. It still takes around 32 hours to hit max.

Quicksand

Not disputing the OP's "opinion" or anything, mostly because I have not even Played BnS. However, if I find a FREE game that entertains me enough to play three separate characters to the max level, regardless of how easy or hard that is, I would have to say that I got my moneys worth and did infact, happen across a rather decent game. Good job NCSoft.   

Sovrath

Vardahoth said:

Sovrath said:

Vardahoth said:

I found out it was true when my friends were getting banned for reporting bots. Ncsoft gave them no reason and wouldn't respond to them.

It amazes me how ncsoft keeps doing this and the level of denial from the players makes the cycle never end with them. It's kind of amusing to watch.

I'm sorry I just don't buy that.

I've reported so many bots, gold sellers, and even players who farmed gold (early lineage 2) to sell both in Lineage 2 and Aion and never once got banned. At all. Not even a wagging of the finger.

A lot of reports. Tons.

I don't know your friends or in what capacity they are your friends and it't not my place to speak badly about people I don't know but I do suspect that maybe they went to forums to vociferously complain and got banned for that?

Because why did they get banned for reporting people/cheaters and my own private crusade never landed even a "talking to"?

I'm telling you it happened with the entire community.

I'll give you one example...

People with /signed titles in regards to those screen shots were getting banned for it. I put that title above my head, and then I was attacked by mobs of farmers (who were going around pking everyone on the server with that title). after they went red, I got my friend to help me get revenge on the one who was red. He dropped his weapon "arcana mace" and this was in c4. 10 minutes later, my friend was banned.

I still don't buy it because we constantly pk'ed farmers. Heck, we had a huge raid in one of the Necropoli where there was a giant meeting of farmers and the entire alliance went red. And you can bet they were calling us all sorts of names.

No, I think the bannings have less to do with reporting bots and more to do with NC Soft thinking that players with that title were causing a disruption to the game world and what essentially counted as a public protest in their own game. Why would they allow that to happen regardless of whether they support bots or not.

I can't imagine any company that would. It's the same thing with forums where players start screaming "infringement of freedom of speech" and not only is it not an infringement of freedom of speech but game companies do not allow their forums to become hot beds of dissent. Regardless of whether they are guilty of any wrong doing or not.

I bet what we have here is mistaking correlation implying causation.

"we complained on the forums, we organized a protest we adopted an in-game form for that protest and were banned therefore NC-Soft is on the side of bots.

As opposed to ""we complained on the forums, we organized a protest we adopted an in-game form for that protest and were banned because NC doesn't want to encourage the forums/game worlds turning into something that takes away from their game.

Yes I know, farmers/bots take away from game play but I don't know many games that don't have them. Should they do a better job? Yes. Should they be more aggressive in eliminating the symptoms? Sure! Are they on the side of bots/farmers? possibly but I doubt it.

filmoret

The only thing deep in this thread is the poo.

Sovrath

Vardahoth said:

believe whatever you want. I've witness first hand where the ethics of ncsoft is, and I know better than to spend my playtime in any of their games. And I will continue to warn other players as a good citizen everytime they release a new game. Then I will also continue to laugh at the same complaints made 10 years ago, and the same denial posts such as this one, and watch the cycle continue.

Great, but I just can't believe that you were singled out when myself, my alliance and others attacked farmers all the time and never once were banned. Why were we spared? What is the difference? The difference is that you were part of a protest. 

Do you seriously think that any game company would allow such a thing in their game?

mmorobo

pongdun said:

...

There's no end game, when you reach lvl max (45) you will need to do dailies, for gold, and other stuff, for gold.

...

Classes are totally unbalanced, really, this is a total joke. There's no balance on PVP and either in PVE. The last one, PVE, that's a stupid joke guys, some classes you can level very easy and others it's a pain, really, a real pain, and for nothing... just because they don't care to balance the PVE skill of that class!

...

Not a deep review.

I thought PvP was the end game at this point.

What classes?  What Skills?  What did you play?

filmoret

@vardahoth if your theory is correct then please explain to us where all the gold sellers went?  Because they are just about all gone.