Review: Blade and Soul

Blade and Soul is a Chinese fantasy Action MMORPG. It goes without saying that it’s free-to-play. We all know what the term MMORPG stands for. I am willing to bet that almost everyone reading this article played the genre at least once. It’s the “Action” part most people are not familiar with. The damage you deal, the aiming, the attacks you dodge, will all be up to your skills and reflexes, unlike other typical MMORPG games where almost everything in combat is left to “stats”. Luck is never a valid excuse. That’s the part that attracted me the most to this type of game.

Enough talking about the genre, let’s talk about the game, shall we? The plot goes as follows:
You will be trying to take down the Earthen Realm’s most fearsome enemy, “Jinsoyun”. She has the Twilight’s Edge -a very powerful sword- at her disposal and the Dark Chi fueling her martial arts’ skills. She seeks revenge for the death of her master. She is known for taking a person’s weakness or hatred and twisting it to her own needs, therefore turning them into an ally. The story will go as such for 4 Acts and then it takes a major turn as she is reborn in her child form and becomes one your many allies that you gathered in your journey. I’ll leave discovering the next plot for yourselves, as I can’t dare spoil it. 😊 [ I can’t stress this enough but the story is quite epic!!! Don’t ruin it trying to level up as fast as you can and skipping the story, you’ll get there. Enjoy what the game has to offer you along the journey].

I played the game for quite a while. At my first dive, I was simply stunned by the graphics and the details put in the characters. Not to mention that from the very first quests you get to participate in some interesting events. The leveling process is quite quick, the level cap is 55 with 15 other additional levels (they’re called Hongmoon levels and quite tough to go through, as they require a lot of time). After the first 55 levels, the game will revolve mainly around dungeons and PVP events. The dungeons’ get difficult as you go further in the Hongmoon levels and the tactics vary from one dungeon to another. They get super challenging and harder to conquer. So, it goes without saying that grinding for stronger gears will take much more time. But you’ll get there I promise!

Remember when I mentioned that the game is obviously free-to-play. Well I have even greater news. The PVP arena system in this game is quite unique. We all know how frustrating it gets when people spend money and get super powerful gears for easy wins, don’t we? We all hate it! Worry not, in this game everyone is equal in the arena. Which means your gear & level wouldn’t matter at all! The only way to win is through your skills and the mastering of the class. The players are ranked in the arena from bronze to diamond [quite similarly to League of Legends].

There is also a Faction system. As you level up, you choose your “faction” and get its outfit. When you wear the outfit, you are declared as an enemy to the players wearing the outfit of the other factions and can engage in battles anywhere in the map.

It could take me all day talking about what the game has to offer from outfit hunting, the events changing each month, faction battles, etc. but it would bore you to death [Hoping the article didn’t manage that already]. So why not dive in this wonderful game? The holidays are around the corner 😉.

My rating is as follows:
Graphics: 5/5 Gameplay: 5/5 Fun:4/5 [5/5 if you have a party]

Written by Hamza Kchok