15/09/2012 - Blade & Soul is coming to the West!

Addict of Fiction: [Post]

NCsoft have finally released the official Blade & Soul website for NA and EU users and the new trailer they have released with it looks truly amazing!

For the best part of everyone I know and a large population of the internet – they would have never heard of Blade & Soul. To be honest I only found out after my time playing Tera when a lot of people on the forums were saying that this was the main game they were waiting for – so I started following the Korean version. The Korean version released earlier this year, so it was only a matter of time before NCsoft started bring out news about NA/EU release news – and this is the first step!

As a quick overview of the game, it’s not your classic ‘fantasy’ MMO – it’s a pretty awesome martial-arts MMO which is based on Asian cultures and myths. I don’t really remember any ‘major’ MMO that has come over to the Western market that has this theme – so it could pick up a really big audience, or sadly fade into the crowd.
The game features 4 races, which includes a female only race and a cute ‘chibi-like’ race with a variety of animal ears and tails. Along with that there are 6 classes, but like many Asian MMOs these classes are bound to the races – such as: the Lyn can only be either a Summoner or a Force Master, and the Gon can only be a Kung Fu Master or a Destroyer.

It’s not just the combat that looks truly amazing, the artwork for the game is so perfectly suiting. If your familiar with the Magna Carta games and recognise the art style then you will be pleased to know that Hyung-Tae Kim has moved on to Blade & Soul as the game’s art director.

An interesting question which I found in the FAQs asking whether the game will have a subscription fee or a micro-transaction model – in a nutshell they said that they wished to evaluate what the Western market really wanted first before creating a set business model. Currently the Korean version of the game has released with a subscription pay to play model (KRW 23,000 per month – which is equivalent to *nearly* £13 per month).
Will Blade & Soul be pay to play in the NA and EU market? I speculate not due to the recent release of Guild Wars 2, and that they won’t gain many players willing to pay a subscription come next year. In my opinion they’ll succeed more with a simple micro-transaction market filled with vanity items – everyone loves vanity items!

The Official NA/EU website can be found here: [Link]

Thanks for listening!
Toodles x