Game-A-Week

Game-A-Week Episode 11: Blade and Soul

9:27 PM

Betcha didn't expect to see this one here, huh?

9:28 PM

Blade and Soul is an action-RPG MMO based on martial arts

9:28 PM

And its pretty dope.

9:29 PM

That's pretty much the bulk of what I have to say on the game, if I'm being perfectly honest.

9:30 PM

Originally, I knew this game as "Blade and Boobs" because before it was released, that's what people called it due to the plastic barbie doll-esque character models the game has.

9:30 PM

But personally, I think "Boobs and Soul" sounds better.

9:31 PM

Either way, my favorite thing about this game is the movement.

9:32 PM

It just feels so fluid, like you've become water as you dart across the landscape in a full sprint, jump 30 feet into the air when your stamina starts to get low and glide to the ground as it recovers.

9:32 PM

That sound like a lot?

9:33 PM

Yes, you have a certain number of stamina and with a press of a button, you can sprint to move at alarming pace.

9:35 PM

In other MMOS, you'd need a mount to go this fast, but in this game, you can do it with your own two legs. Is there a such thing as MMO player character power ranking tier lists? Because this fact alone would put the Blade and Soul player characters in the S rank. This is the Goku of player characters.

9:36 PM

Anyway, sprinting will deplete your stamina but if you jump while sprinting, you'll fly into the air much higher than a normal jump will take you. You can then press the jump button again once in the air to daintily glide, causing you to descend slower which allows you to reach farther distances.

9:37 PM

Its probably the closest thing to superman-esque flight in an MMO I've ever experienced and its my favorite thing about this game. Flying is around is such fun!

9:39 PM

It truly makes you feel like you're a character in a kung fu movie. Its something you really have to experience for yourself to truly understand it.

9:40 PM

Combat is combo-based and it feels really fluid. What this means is, a left mouse click will make you do a jab, while the right mouse click will make you do a heavy attack.(edited)

9:42 PM

You can string these two moves together to perform a variety of combos. And that's not the only moves at your disposal either, like any other RPG, you gain new abilities as you level up. And in this game, new abilities means more moves to string together for even more combos.

9:42 PM

It's a really fun system to mess around with.

9:42 PM

The class I chose was Soul Fighter so I had the power to punch things and throw around kamehamehas like a cool kid.

9:43 PM

I found being able to switch seamlessly from ranged combat to melee combat, very valuable and I honestly couldn't imagine playing any other class.

9:45 PM

I cannot confirm or deny this but this leads me to assume to playing another class is much more than just having a different set of skills. I get the feeling each class will feel like a completely different experience.

9:45 PM

But I was so content with my class, I never felt the need to try out another one. But that's the vibe I got while playing. I felt my class was something unique and I couldn't see the other classes feeling the same way.

9:47 PM

Unfortunately, the game is extremely poorly optimized.

9:48 PM

The game is not graphically impressive, and absolutely not very taxing. However, it has a horribly long start-up time, lags constantly, textures have an abysmal pop-in time and it crashes every now and then.

9:49 PM

The game just simply does not run well at all. And I know its not an issue on my end because I've played much more high specs games on this computer such as Black Desert and this is not the first time I've played Blade and Soul. The last time I played this game, I had NONE of these issues.

9:50 PM

So I'm convinced this is a server-side issue and honestly, I'm not surpised.

9:51 PM

The publisher of this game is NCSOFT and if I had to pick one company in the MMO industry that is the absolute worst, it would be without a doubt: Nexon.

9:51 PM

But NCSOFT is a close second.

9:53 PM

Its a great game getting DESTROYED by its publisher's garbage server service.

9:53 PM

It has nothing to do with he actual game but that is the game's biggest negative and its impact is major enough that I couldn't leave it out

9:56 PM

Other than that, the other only negatives I have about the game other than the aforementioned barbie doll character models is that the story is cliche and the voice acting most certainty does not help it. But that doesn't stop my enjoyment of punching things.

9:56 PM

Other than gliding, my other favorite thing about this game is PvP.

When a player is defeated, they have a chance to recover if they can get away while crawling. If they can get away successfully, they can recover and jump back into the game. But a single kill will finish them off, killing them.

9:58 PM

Did I mention my class, the Soul Fighter has a skill where they can damage and stun enemies by stomping on the ground?

10:00 PM

There is nothing more satisfying than walking up slowly to someone while they're desperately trying to crawl away from you and then stamping out what little remains of their pathetic life by merely stepping on them.(edited)

10:02 PM

Unfortunately, you can only PvP if you can find another player flagged for PvP by wearing their PvP outfit AND has ALSO joined the opposite faction to you.

10:03 PM

Finding someone to fight is like finding a needle in a haystack. Its fun to kill people, I just wish I could find people to kill.

10:04 PM

There IS organized PvP but despite it requiring level 15 to join, you have to be level 55 to play any of the maps so I had to stick with open world PvP.

10:06 PM

So I trained myself to memorize what the opposing faction outfit looks like (and every different variation of it), so whenever I see someone foolish enough to wear one in my presence, I throw mine as ASAP and instantly zoom in to end their lives.

10:08 PM

I give Blade and Soul a 6/10. It's an incredible game held back by extremely poor optimization. Yes, that alone was enough for me to take off 4 entire points. It's THAT bad. But, I found myself wanting to continue playing it after the week was over. So that's what I'll do. It's a keeper.

10:11 PM

I didn't get to show you guys, Sephel Ekto, my Tibia character, so here's some bonus pictures of the sexmaster and kung fu legend herself: Ninijatt