Blade & Soul Neo is gearing up for its February 25th launch, bringing the remastered version of NCSOFT's 2012 MMORPG, Blade & Soul to the West. With remastered visuals, new additions and some tweaks to the original formula to address player feedback over the years, Neo is shaping up to be an intriguing MMO entry in the first half of the year.
However, I have concerns which after a hands-off preview last week with the western publishing arm of NCSOFT, NC America, still lingered, namely the decision to skip launching on Steam. Instead, when Blade & Soul Neo releases here in the West, it will only be available on NCSOFT's own platform, Purple.
The decision to launch exclusively on Purple does make sense for NCSOFT. This way, any dollars spent on microtransactions in the free-to-play MMO go straight to them instead of sharing a cut with Steam or another publishing partner. It, in theory, could bolster the launchers presence here in the West if NC America is successful getting people to download it for Neo.
But for so many people, PC gaming is Steam. It is the PC's most ubiquitous platform for a reason. I know many PC gamers who won't even install Steam's biggest rival on PC, the Epic Game Store, purely because it isn't Steam. Large publishers, from Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, and even Microsoft, have attempted to make their games exclusive to their own launchers only to eventually fall into the gravitational pull of Valve's platform. My fear is that by eschewing Steam at launch, Blade & Soul Neo could be hamstringing itself before it even gets out the gate.
Heck, I forgot that Purple existed until it came up on the press briefing - and it's my job to know these things.
For their part, Neo's senior producer, Andrew Long, expressed that the team is confident in Purple during a press Q&A after our hands-off demo, stating that the team is working on its Purple campaign, including making sure that "people know what Purple is, and how to get into Blade & Soul Neo."
For my part, I really hope it works, because coming out of the press briefing last week, I was pretty excited with what NC America showed off with Blade & Soul Neo. As someone who never played the original, but still heard about the pain points from friends who did (namely post Trove update), the idea of jumping into a remastered and, in some ways it seems, reimagined Blade & Soul experience with modern visuals is compelling.
I've always loved Wuxia-themed games. One of my favorite MMOs was Age of Wushu, even got me to leave Middle-earth for a fair bit there in 2012, while more recently Swords of Legends Online (though I guess that one is technically a Xianxia MMO) kept my interest, especially thanks to its incredible player movement mechanics, until it was sunset in 2023. The idea of playing through Blade & Soul Neo is incredible intriguing.
When it launches on February 25th, Neo will feature its four playable races: the Jin, Gon, Lyn and Yun, while we'll see seven launch classes, ranging from the Assassin, the Blade Master, Kung Fu Master, the Summoner and more. Each race will follow typical MMO tropes where they will have different characteristics, and we will see some races unable be certain classes, such as the Summoner being exclusive to the Lyn while the Force Master is available for Lyn, Yun and Gon players.
Blade & Soul Neo will feature both PvE and PvP content, with field bosses for players to tackle together, dungeons to run, and more. PvP looked dynamic in the preview we got, with both one on one battles and three on three brawls turning into a clash of particle effects, skill management and, of course, the artistic fighting styles that Wuxia games are known for.
For me, though, I think I'm most excited about the removal of the stamina bar for traversal, meaning players will get unlimited windwalking from the jump. I love incredible player movement. It makes the moment to moment gameplay inbetween the fights feel more energetic and dynamic. Swords of Legends Online still has the best character movement I've ever experienced in an MMO, but after seeing the unlimited windwalking in action in Blade & Soul Neo, I do wonder if that will top it now. I'll have to see when I can finally go hands on with the MMO's launch.
While unlimited windwalking is a big change, it's not the only one. During our presentation, NC America highlighted some of the new systems coming with Neo, including a new skill book that will let players customize their skills, meaning there's a chance no two characters of the same class will be exactly the same.
An example given was the Blade Master's Thunder Drake Slash. While at its most basic form the slash is a powerful horizontal slash, the developers showcased a variant where it could be customized to become a spammable skill, dealing endless thunder damage to nearby enemies.
Another big change coming when Neo launches in the West is the inclusion of new weapon and accessory customization systems. The first, Weapon Soul cores will let players effectively learn the skill of a fallen boss, using it as their own. In the preview, we saw one of these skills in action, the Infernal Lord's Flame Breath. Slotted into the Soul Core slot of our player's sword, it unleashed a powerful, if long animated, burst of flame out in front of them, the disembodied soul of the boss bursting from the ground around the player as flames jutted forth.
It's a cool skill, and the devs say it's incredibly powerful - but it's long induction time means it might not necessarily be the best move to use in PvP.
Alongside the Weapon Soul Core system is the new Mantra system, which affects weapons and accessories. The Mantra system sees players able to slot Mantras into a slot on your items that have the correct slots that augment your character, an example being a Mantra on a necklace that gives a 5% chance to your recovery focus buff. Gant says that the possibilities are endless with the list of combinations you can make, which sounds like a system that can give some incredible fine-tuning to make your character exactly what you want them to be.
While it's easy to see Blade & Soul Neo as a simple remaster at first glance, these additions sit alongside some environmental ones that change the look and feel of Neo compared to its Live counterpart. Long told press in the preview that the team making Neo not only did updates to textures and models, but took that a step further by revamping entire areas of the map, even changing some structures. Additionally, he highlights the environment, namely the night sky which should now feature more stars twinkling above, stating that the MMO should simply be "a lot more beautiful" than its counterpart.
Blade & Soul Neo will be a free-to-play MMORPG, which means we'll see the typical live service inclusions to monetize the experience, from an in-game item shop to a battle pass. The team at NC America states that you will not be able to buy power, which should hopefully keep away the "p2w" bugbears that seemingly crop up in these discussions.
What we will see are potions and buffs on the battle pass, while cosmetics will be purchaseable in the in-game store so we can all take part in the MMO's actual endgame: fashion. NC America also mentions that all but one of the outfits we saw in the presentation were unlockable through gameplay as well, which hopefully means that if you don't want to interact with the store at all you shouldn't need to.
The battle pass will feature both a free and a premium track, and while NC America would not confirm the cost of the battle pass when asked, they did mention that these passes will "focus on consumables," such as Soju buffs, potions and such.
For those fans of the original who were soured by the monetization post-Trove, it doesn't sound like those issues will be in Neo. Weapon upgrading will not be done with trove-type materials. There will be no zero-to-twenty system like there was in the Live version, for example.
Instead, weapon upgrading is centered on "finding the perfect weapon," as Long put it in the Q&A. He explains that the secondary stat, Mantra and Soul Core slots on a weapon are random, but through upgrading it from its base version to its Awakened version, for example, you could see it come out of the process with an extra Mantra slot, or even unlock a Soul Core slot. The goal being that you’re not grinding through the Trove-era levels with crafting, instead you’re running content and upgrading your weapon to find that perfect combination of stats and core slots.
February 25th is fast approaching, and it'll be intriguing to see how things shake out, especially with the launch on Purple. Will the playerbase go where NCSOFT hopes, or will NCSOFT need to bring Blade & Soul Neo to them? We'll see.
For my part, I'm definitely going to be in there day one to check things out for myself. As someone who missed the first version of Blade & Soul and loves Wuxia-themed games, trying Neo is a no brainer for me. It looks like it can fill that Wuxia-shaped hole left in my heart when SOLO was sunset (again, I know it was a Xianxia game but humor me here).
I want to float with the unlimited Windwalking. There’s a lot going on here that has me cautiously optimistic that Blade & Soul Neo could be a great MMO. We’ll find that out for ourselves, though, in the coming weeks.
Class Tuning Incoming - 26 March
Class Tuning Incoming - March 25
