Bless Unleashed Breaks Down Changes Coming To Its Combat Design

In a new developer blog, Bless Unleashed has detailed many of the combat changes coming to the MMORPG later this year. In the blog, the Lead Designer Jeomsul Park highlights the changes.

The first open beta hits Xbox One on November 7th, and the team wanted to detail some of the changes made to the combat based on the feedback from the last closed beta test. Specifically the combat design changes as well as the controls themselves. 

According to Park, the main points were combat and controls feeling sluggish, as well as understanding what abilities needed resources. Finally the team took at look at the lock-on function and the overall game controls to improve upon.

During our last closed beta we received so much feedback regarding the combat of Bless Unleashed. We did our best to review and comb through all of this feedback, and concluded we had three main points which needed to improve before players returned to the game.

These points are as follows:

1. Combat and movement speed was too slow, and felt sluggish. You told us that the delay between player input and character reaction was too slow, and that characters moved too slowly during combat. Many of you also felt that there were not enough opportunities to cancel out of actions to evade enemy attacks during combat as well.

2. It was difficult to tell what abilities needed resources, how to gain those resources and that some abilities, especially those with movement components (like the Guardian’s charge ability, or Berserker’s leap) were difficult to use properly.

3. The lock on function and the controls of the game needed improvement as well. Many players felt the target lock-on control was difficult to use, and many players experienced difficult both aiming attacks and pressing the attack button, as the camera was controlled via the right stick, and the primary attack buttons were also on the X, Y, and B buttons.

To combat this, the team increased combat speed and worked to improve upon the controls  and character movement for the upcoming beta. Park mentions that doing so isn't an easy task. However, the team has ensured all combo steps will now connect easily with the dodge system, meaning that it's easier to dodge your enemy's attacks. Additionally they increased the speed of some of the lower tier combat attacks, creating less of a delay between the input and the animation. 

As far as abilities and resources, the team has "improved the way abilities chain into combos." Abilities can now be used to interrupt combos, and the power of most abilities has also been increased. Additionally, the team has improved the camera and the lock-on system, specifically fixing the POV based on the monster size, as well as locking on automatically to the nearest target. You can easily swap between targets using the R stick, however. 

You can check out the full post on the Bless Unleashed developer blog. Xbox One players will have a chance to check out the upcoming MMORPG on November 7th when the open beta hits the platform.