Video: Blade & Soul MMO Trailer
Wow, it's been a while since I've looked at a debut trailer for an MMO and truly been in awe at what I saw, much less a Korean MMO (since they can get very cookie cutter). The 11 minutes of video above for the recently announced Blade & Soul is definitely worth a look, if not to just marvel at the stunning in-game graphics and battle sequences. Add on top of that the fact that it is a martial arts based MMO, and they've got something truly unique.
The game comes to us from the Korean MMO giant, NCsoft, and has some of the staff from the Lineage 2 team working on it. That being said, it's easier to see where the stunning graphics come from in trailer, since Lineage has set a high bar for graphics in MMOs. There's actually a lot of info packed in the trailer, even if some parts near the end are solely in Korean still. There are apparently four different races in the game: the human like Jin, the muscular and strong Gon race, the graceful Kun race, and the small and mouse-eared Lyn race. All races seem to have some variation in the different characters we see of their races throughout the trailer, so there's some hope for good character customization in the game.
They also explicit showed off four different class types. They had the Blade Master who uses her blade to make quick work on her foe. The Kung Fu Master that uses only his fists to pummel his enemies into submission. The Force Master, which is more of a caster type class, manipulating the energy forces around them to assault their target from afar. The last one named was the Destroyer class that moves slowly, but carries a big battle ax as well as some heavy armor. One other class that seemed to be shown but never named was a gun-toting class that was facing off against the Destroyer, only to fail miserably and get his lifeless body thrown into the distance from the Destroyer's ax.
Near the end of the trailer it looks as if they are explaining some of the plot points of the game, but of course that part is still all in Korean, but it does look like there are some story sequences to the game, probably through the form of quests. At the same time, the battle system in the game seems very similar to a fighting game in which you are locked onto an enemy and quickly moving towards and away from the foe while using your varying skills. There's even realistic blood and other bodily fluids that slash on the ground as you battle. On top of the fighting system, they even have one part of the video that seems to hint at there being some platforming elements to dungeons, which would be interesting to see implemented.
Overall, this trailer really has me excited for the game; however, the game was only recently announced, and still has no release date in sight. So don't be expecting this one until at least 2011 (if not possibly later). As for now, you can at least dream of what you'd do with a Gon. . . in battle of course.
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games, Videos on 1 December 2009
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: blade & soul, classes, fighter, korean, kung fu, mmo, ncsoft, races, trailer, video
"Korean MMO"
Well that says it all for me, I went into Aion thinking that this was gonna be great and it just turn into another Korean Grindfest, either properly westernise or don't bother with a mass market attempt, just go down the usual way of badly translated Digital Download.
Either it has no grind as far as levelling is concerned or it can stay east for all I care. Grind mats for armour or grind instances for gear, fine, no problems. But as soon as the levelling suffers from grindtastic nature that dogs Korean MMOs its a deal breaker.
Hmmm, apparently NCSoft isn't going to take the formation of Bluehole Studio sitting down. If you haven't already you should check out T.E.R.A or The Exiled realm of Arbora
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aRNpiNudF4
made by bluehole studio, formed by a bunch of guys from NCSoft this game will most likely be it's toughest competitor.
BTW, the character designs are done by famous Korean character designer Hyung-tae Kim who did the designs for Magna Carta. (This is the best translation of his work to 3D that I have ever seen)
> BTW, the character designs are done by famous Korean character designer Hyung-tae Kim who did the designs for Magna Carta. (This is the best translation of his work to 3D that I have ever seen)
The only guy who atleast depicts male characters in armor with the odd nude hip or belly.
It's nice to see male avatars in games get some sexualisation. Even if nowhere near the level of female avatars.
The first thing that comes to mind is.. 'it had better be better then Aion'. Because of all the grinding and all the gold spam it made the game kind of boring near or around level 25-30. The art style is great, but then again a lot of games have looked great and been total shit.
The thing that does peak my interest though is the platforming game style it seems to have in it and if that dungeon actually functions like a D&D dungeon, filled with traps, puzzles and or riddles, then it would definitely be different from the atypical MMO.
I have a 'wait and see' attitude about this game, I am interested... but still cautious.
As for the earlier comment on 'TERA' well it looks like Star Ocean Meets Aion and seeing the various 'same' outfits on the girl spell casters.. doesn't hold much favor for me. I just hope that in B&B NCsoft has added more then six sets of clothing that the other thing that is different about them is stats and color changes, that was a f'ing lazy thing to do.