NCSoft’s European and North American team held a livestream announce event on May 21st to offer more details and answer questions on the upcoming western version of martial arts MMORPG Blade & Soul.
Some of the most anticipated details revealed during the stream were that the North American and European versions will be free-to-play, but NCSoft assures everyone that there will be absolutely no pay-to-win elements, and it does not want to separate players through content charges. It was also confirmed that the western version of Blade & Soul will be completely uncensored. And there will be no fatigue or vigor system in the western version of Blade & Soul, which is something that the Chinese version does have – the development team decided that it doesn’t transfer well to the western market.
Other bits of information include the servers for the western version being hosted in Texas and Germany. Also, there is currently no plan to region block at all, but it’s possible that may change in the future. And, if you’re wondering, there will be contests, in-game events, and holidays held inside the game.
Oh, and you will not be able to transfer a character over from any of the other regions’ versions of the game. So if you’ve been playing one of the Asian versions of the game that character will have to remain there and you’ll have to start a new one for the western version.
One of the things that NCSoft said over and over during the stream is that the western version will not be a straight port of the Asian versions of Blade & Soul. It will be the most up-to-date version of the client so it should be balanced right out of the gate, but will only be launching with the first three acts of the game so that people don’t blaze through it all at once – for comparison, the Asian versions are currently up to the sixth act. Additionally, NCSoft will be testing to see how long it takes players go through those first three acts during the closed beta phase to figure out how quickly the rest of the game’s content should be released.
At 21:25, NCSoft says that “one of the reasons it has taken a little while for [the western version] to get done is that it’s not just a literal translation of the text. We want to adapt the game, we want it to feel like an epic story that people here can get into. A lot of the time, Asian MMOs, when they come over, a lot of stuff gets lost in translation. So, because the story is such an important part of the gameplay here, we’re really trying to take our time and get that element right.”
It’s also pointed out that in translating the game the team has to do this in not just English, but also in French and German as well.
Outside of all that, you can see very early footage of the western version of Blade & Soul being played during the livestream, starting with the character creation screens from 9:55 to 16:45, and with exploration and combat being shown from 24:30 to 45:15. At 48:05 to 55:35 the team shows off the item, weapons, and armor systems in the game. And from 55:40 to 1:05:50 you can see some PvP footage. You can also watch the the trailer from 18:10 to 21:00.
Published: May 22, 2015 11:59 am