Bless Online (Soft Launch on May 30th)

[ZGoten]

Hi everyone! I've done the search, but apparently there's no thread for Bless Online yet. So I'm creating this one.

In case you aren't aware of the game, Bless Online a buy-to-play open world MMORPG that is going to soft launch on Steam Early Access on the 30th of May (28th if you get one of the headstart packages). It focuses on both PvE and PvP, and there are two different factions with four races each. The game will launch with five classes: the Guardian, Paladin, Ranger, Berserker and Mage. More are on the horizon a couple of months down the road. According to the developers, the Early Access phase will be an adjustment period of roughly six months before the game properly launches. The game will cost 30 USD in its standard version and 40 USD if you want to get in two days earlier (as well as receive other bonuses).

Bless has had a very troubled history, unfortunately. It originally launched in Korea a couple of years ago and was unseccesful. Later launches in Russia and Japan didn't go much better either. But the West is getting a redone version of the game with completely overhauled combat and some other changes. Most people who have played the game already are happy to report that it plays well.

The game is being self-published by the developers at Neowiz, who have made it clear that they do not want to pursue a pay-to-win business model. They have recently revealed the details of the optional premium membership, and there really isn't anything resembling pay-to-win level advantages. Some people claim the opposite, but I think they're being ridiculous, frankly. The jury on the cash shop is still out. We don't know what will be included in there yet, but at this point, Neowiz has won my trust. They even went so far as to completely abandon their plans for priority customer service options and reduced the price of their collector's edition by 50 dollars after some feedback from the community. Their communication so far has been on point, in my opinion, and they truly do seem to want to make Bless Online a fair and fun experience for everyone. Again, we don't know what's going to be in the cash shop yet, but I think that's mostly because the developers themselves aren't 100% sure just yet.

I'm personally very excited for Bless. One of its coolest features is the ability to tame nearly every non-humanoid enemy in the game and make it either a combat pet or a mount. Obviously, with me being an Animesuki user, I'm also quite looking forward to the feline race, the Pantera, lol. But seriously, the character creation seems very robust, rivaling even the one found in Black Desert Online. There are also multiple dungeons in the game already, and they look like well-designed content. Some people are put off by the lack of player trading and by the fact that every server will have PvP enabled. However, I personally don't care for player trading, and I'm a fan of open world PvP, so I'm not really bothered by it.

For more information, check out their recent Q&A post on Steam.

Is anybody else looking forward to the game, or will you pass on this one?

[dragon1412]

Sound good from what we heard, but i would wait for it's out before giving judgement and try not to keep my hope too high, there was the whole fiasco with BDO before after all

[barcode120x]

As much as I have learned my lesson from purchasing early access games, most I have enjoyed enough to get my money's worth. Been itching to play a new MMO. Barely got back into ESO Summerset but I've had my eyes on Bless Online for awhile. I'll most likely get the Standard Access for $30 for Bless Online. Combat looks interesting, but better than the original.

[ZGoten]

Same here, barcode120x, even if I don't stick with many online games for long, I usually enjoy my time with them and get my money's worth.

Anyway, Neowiz released a new trailer for the game. It shows off the bonus skins you get for the 70$ and 150$ founder packs. The headstart begins on monday. Can't wait to dive in:

[ZGoten]

The game is out now for people who bought or are still going to buy a Founder's Pack. Here's the launch trailer:

[barcode120x]

Writing this as I am auto-pathing to my next location. Although I'm only in the game for about 30 minutes ago, I figured I'd give just a few first thoughts and impressions. I am really enjoying the fighting system, or rather the combo system. Playing as a ranger and it really does feel like I'm smashing, or I should say, pew-pewing my targets. The combat and combo system really makes you feel like your doing some narly damage to them despite mashing a basic skill button. The skill visuals are pretty bad@ss too despite just shooting arrows. You can really see the movement of your character draw back arrows, move back, and shoot. There is a delay when you are using skills, most likely due to the amount of players and latency, but overall it isn't noticeable except when using skills. It also looks like there are PLENTY of skills and multiple combo trees that you will unlock over the levels. Really liking this as it will differentiate you from other rangers. Let's hope in the future that all skill tree and combo trees are viable.

I am not a fan of their resource meter, at least for the ranger which is called Concentration. It's basically the ranger version of using mana. I don't see a purpose for it except to purposely slow down combat so you aren't constantly grinding away. With this resource bar, it forces you to make decisions on certain skills to use (which is a great idea), but in practice, it limits the players on their ability to constantly grind and kill things

Overall visuals of the game at this point are pretty good, but not the best. You'll notice attention to detail on certain things, while others there are none (i.e. you will see the trees/branches slightly swaying). I do have to say that I really don't like the UI and the camera. The camera viewpoint over your character is just weird. I know the game JUST came out into EARLY, early access, but it drives me nuts when early access games don't let you change your controls. The voice-overs are actually pretty good too lol. The overall maps of Bless looks huge; however, the zones don't actually appear to be big. The game doesn't seem to look like it'll will be "open world."

I do have to say that the overall game definitely gives the feeling of an Eastern (or Korean) MMO. Not sure how this will affect the game later on down the line though...

[ZGoten]

So I'm level 32. The recent patch has slowed down leveling quite considerably, lol. I know what you mean with the camera btw @Barcode120x. There is a "fix" for it which involves editing the .ini files. You can improve performance that way too. Unfortunately the game still needs a lot of improving, but I'm enjoying myself.