Blade & Soul Neo Review

In November 2009, NCSOFT shared the announcement trailer for Blade & Soul — a new MMORPG that was in the works from Team Bloodlust, a subsidiary of the then-MMORPG publishing giant. It was a glimpse into what could have shaken up the genre; trading in tab-target gameplay for what I had, at the time, only seen in action RPGs. 

There were perfect counters, dodging, grappling, and air juggling. It was a game I would become obsessed with, waiting for each new trailer to appear in a grainy 720p. But excitement came and went, as Blade & Soul eventually found a Western release in 2016, four years after its debut in Korea. It didn’t arrive with a bang, but instead a whimper. And while NCSOFT pushed for an active PvP scene, it didn’t come to fruition. 

Plagued with bots, gold-sellers, and an obvious favoritism towards specific races and classes, Blade & Soul clung on. However, in January 2025, NC America announced it was bringing Blade & Soul Neo, a revamp of the MMORPG made in Unreal Engine 4, to the West. And given its status as a “modern reinterpretation” of this once promising MMORPG, it’s more of a remaster, carrying over almost all of the issues from its original debut in the West.

Blade & Soul Neo is exactly what it claims to be. Remade in Unreal Engine 4, it’s more or less an exact replica of the game as it was released in 2016. There are a few things here and there that have changed — such as a new user interface that is a bit easier to manage, but still has that cheap, simplistic shine of the modern Korean MMORPG, and a few adjustments to how players can acquire specific items. 

The story is the same; you are the promising young student of a martial arts master that is betrayed by a former pupil, Jinsoyun. It is up to you to seek revenge against this foe and the various factions that have allied with her in some shape or form. While the premise is more or less stock and standard for Chinese wuxia stories, its flair for the dramatics keep it interesting and character moments engaging. 

However, like most NCSOFT games of its era, the translation and voice acting are less than stellar. Blade & Soul Neo keeps the original voice acting and script, so nothing has changed here. Which is a shame, because the narrative of Blade & Soul is at least moderately compelling and unlike whatever else is on the market, so it could keep players interested — as I played the Japanese version of the game long enough to compare notes, back in the day. It feels like a huge missed opportunity with the Western market’s interest in traditional Chinese storytelling.

But that is largely my biggest complaint with Blade & Soul Neo, outside of NCSOFT’s continued issue with bots and gold sellers on their servers. This isn’t unique to Blade & Soul Neo, as it’s also a persistent issue with Throne & Liberty, and was at one point so infamous in Lineage II that it was even reported on in GameInformer in the mid-00’s. 

This problem has followed NCSOFT through its multiple new releases, and is still one in Blade & Soul Neo. General and Trade chats are drowned out by gold sellers, bots populate areas, interfering with the idea of existing with others in a shared digital space. At the very least, I can say that this was true to the launch experience of Blade & Soul in North America and Europe. Which I have a Founder’s Pack of, thanks to my partner, who at one point let me use his Chinese ID to register for a QQ account and play in 2014 after it was released in that region. (As you can probably tell, I was really into Blade & Soul. At the very least, the idea of it.)

Blade & Soul Neo is more or less the starting experience veteran players would have had on release. There are only a handful of classes, each limited to specific races — the Gon, Jin, Yun, and Lyn, each based on the Four Guardians in Chinese folklore. I wouldn’t say any race has any specific advantage, outside of what classes they have access to. This impacts your cosmetics above anything else, and how little clothing you want to wear. 

My first foray had me playing a Jin, and I genuinely loved dressing her up. The character creator in Blade & Soul still remains a head above the rest, and hasn’t changed in Neo. You can change the broadness of your shoulders, the size of your feet, hands, and because the game relies on sex appeal, even the breasts of your character. It’s a game that boasts designs from Korean concept artist and studio lead Hyung-tae Kim of MagnaCarta, now Stellar Blade, fame. This isn’t a knock against the game. It knows what it wants to be, and I applaud it for sticking to its guns. Sometimes you want to be sexy and kick ass, and Blade & Soul has always fulfilled this fantasy.

However, this time I opted for a Gon this time, shrinking him down in the expansive character to creator, to not be an absolute mammoth of a man as I slung around projectiles made of ice and fire, alternating to keep up status effects as a Forcemaster. However, I did end up remaking the character I played in the original Blade & Soul, a Jin Kung-Fu Master. She excelled in hand-to-hand combat, and I loved making use of perfect blocks to deal damage back to enemies, and even counter attacks at later levels. The dynamic action of that class continued to call to me, and in the end I abandoned my Forcemaster (which is Blade & Soul’s caster) for the raw damage my fists provided.

Other classes are available too. The Gon Destroyer slots into what I would consider Blade & Soul Neo’s closest equivalent to a tank, and the Lyn Summoner, which is kind of a healer. But I wouldn’t say that any of these classes are defined in any real way, it really just impacts the range and damage you do. Since there are no true healers or tanks, the game relies on a “downed system” which allows for players to revive themselves if they can stay out of combat for a specific period of time. Aggro swapping is a popular technique, with players juggling the attention of the boss to give party members room to breathe and heal. 

There is also some cross pollination with the classes — the Blade Master can be selected by the Jin and Yun, the Forcemaster can be played by Jin, Yun, and Gon, the Kung-Fu Master by the Jin, Gon, and Yun, and the Summoner and Destroyer unique to the Lyn and Gon respectively. Blade & Soul Neo will roll out other classes, like the Warlock, through a planned update this spring. So if you’re looking to try out that class, you’re better off waiting. Because leveling Blade & Soul is a chore by comparison to modern MMORPGs.

As to be expected, the grind is relatively slow. You get experience from side-quests, main scenario quests, and class specific quests, which are designated with color coordinated markers. The main scenario quests don’t provide enough experience to get you through the story unbothered, so you’ll want to pick up some side-quests along the way, which do help flesh out the world, even if objectives are as menial as picking a specific amount of flowers for an NPC or burning the bodies of jiangshi. 

You can also just do the main scenario and class quests if you want, it’ll just be a touch harder. But that’s where the fun comes in. Since Blade & Soul Neo is so skill based, you can tackle bosses and challenges at significantly lower levels and sometimes walk away victorious. It can take awhile to whittle these bosses down (which feel like they have inflated health pools in Neo), but it is possible. Better weapons do help, which can be obtained through quests or in-game gacha wheels that are littered throughout the handful of regions currently available in the game, along with Soul Shields. Soul Shields are where your stats come from, and you can customize what you want to prioritize, like attack and critical hits, and so forth. Sometimes Soul Shields from the earlier eras of the game might suit your playstyle more, and you can mix and match to varying effect.

And while you might be grinding for experience, the real grind is with the aforementioned gacha system. World bosses will spawn in each zone, and you’ll likely be able to find where that location is since players (and bots) will be camping the area. Deal enough damage to the boss and you’ll get a drop that will let you spin the wheel of fortune a prize. This includes Soul Shields, random weapon caches, and even cosmetics — which is where the real end-game is. I cannot tell you the amount of time I spent in The Scorching Sands and Gloomdross Forest, not for weapons and Soul Shields, but for outfits. 

Related:

Blade & Soul Neo Spring and Summer Roadmap Offers New Maps, Dungeons, PvP, New Class, & More

Even if I wasn’t particularly interested in whatever dropped, I just wanted to add to my growing collection of cosmetics. You could say I was pulled in hook, line, and sinker, just like I was before, but it was genuinely fun grinding away with friends, even if we were waiting on timers, hoping we’d deal enough damage among the handful of other players desperate for a shot at a cool outfit. This does keep more powerful players coming back to old zones, though, so it does have some benefit.

Overall, Blade & Soul Neo is exactly as I remember Blade and Soul, just with a few minor improvements. The user interface is largely easier to get around, character traversal feels faster with the stamina bar removed, the game performs better and seems better optimized, and that’s really just about it. But it has all of the rough edges returning players will remember. A shoddy translation, shoddier voice acting, and a gacha system that can feel maddening to be at the whim of for more powerful weapons and cosmetics. 

That said, I think this is the perfect time for new players to jump in and experience what I feel is a time capsule of what could have been a new step forward in the genre — or at least a competitor to larger MMORPGs at the time, as Blade & Soul offered something truly unique. 

Will I keep playing Blade & Soul Neo? Probably. It’s a way for me to relive the summer of 2014, hunkered down with my laptop, next to my partner, coordinating how to duo a boss we had no right fighting. And if I stick around long enough I might even get the chance to check out classes that were released by the time I dropped the game. I just can’t see the revival of this MMORPG being a particularly large success for NCSOFT, even if I wish it would be.

Full Disclosure: A Mega Booster pack was provided by PR for the purposes of this review. Reviewed on PC. 

Correction: An original version of this review stated that the remaster was built on Unreal Engine 5, when it is infact built on Unreal Engine 4. We have corrected this error.