The Striker lands today in Black Desert Online. The latest new class to hit the game, he focuses on using his fists and feet as his weapons of choice. He’s basically like Ken or Ryu from Street Fighter and that’s just awesome. We caught up with Pearl Abyss' Project Director JH Kim to ask him about the class and what’s next for BDO.
MMORPG: Can you give a brief overview of the Striker? Looks a lot like Ken or Ryu from Capcom's classic games.
JH Kim: Striker is not a typical character that uses traditional martial arts. We wanted a pure melee class based on a Western character that differs in fighting style compare to existing classes. So we played around with the idea that this class would only fight with fists and feet.
Unlike our current roster of classes, the Striker does not use any weapons, but that doesn't make him weak. Players can use skills such as Knee Hammer to dash to a target and follow up with brilliant looking combo moves.
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Striker is a master in martial arts, but continuously trains to surpass its own level of mastery.
MMORPG: Can you tell us the lore behind the class?
JHK: Lore-wise, the character is originally from Calpheon. At a young age, he became stranded and was separated from his family while traveling through a storm in the sea.
After he reached a small harbor, he learned oriental martial arts from a master to took interest in him. After many years, he returned to Calpheon but were unsatisfied with the level of mastery in his skills.
In order to become a master of oriental martial arts, he trains at a small valley south of Calpheon, where he achieves Awakening.
MMORPG: What are his strengths and weaknesses? In PVE and PVP?
JHK: Striker’s strengths are in his ability to perform instant combos. Due to its fast maneuverability, many of its moves can be linked into combo moves that are strong in both PVE and PVP.
A PVP weakness of Striker would be his relatively short attack range, compared to other classes that have longer range weapons. However, the Striker’s ability to swiftly approach and deliver devastating combos definitely makes up for his close-range fighting style.
Since the key characteristic of Striker lays in performing combos, deviation among users is likely to vary, depending on the user’s mastery in utilizing Striker’s numerous combos.
MMORPG: What hole in the game do you see the Striker filling, what role is he taking on?
JHK: In terms of class variation, a close-combat style class did not exist, and a lot of users wanted a male class. We also wanted a class with strong physical strength and fast maneuverability that can easily perform fantastic combos. In these aspects, we think that Striker definitely fills a key strategic position in the BDO roster.
MMORPG: Any insight to what his awakening will be? How does it alter his gameplay?
JHK: Briefly speaking, our current plan is that Striker will have a taunting skill that will attract more monsters and to widen his current range of attacks.
We plan to make Striker able to combine awakening and non-awakening techniques, which makes it very exciting to play. With his new awakened power, Echoing Soul (working skill name), players will be able to experience powerful and dynamic battles.
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MMORPG: Will there be a female version eventually?
JHK: Although the next class in our development schedule is a female class, please note that we cannot disclose detailed information because we have not yet determined her weapons or skill sets.
Pearl Abyss always listens to its Black Desert Online users and their feedbacks. At this point, all options are open for discussion. After Striker becomes available for play and if users express their desires for a specific class or other in-game features, we will work to make this a possibility. User feedback is what guides and inspires us in our development process. We thank all users that have given their comments, suggestions, and criticisms on BDO and encourage them to continuously do so.
