I must be crazy. I started another MMORPG. Blade & Soul, anime, fantasy originally from Korea so its characters are based on martial arts and various asian mythologies.

Jin are descended from the black tortoise, most human they are the most populace of the four races
Gon are descended from dragons and are the largest playable race.
Lyn are descended from kirn and are the smallest playable race.
Yun are all female and are descended from the Phoenix/

Except for the Lyn who have large ears and tails the other 3 races look basically human, the Gon are just big.

Unlike other games in which warrior is a specific class, in Blade & Souls all player characters are classified as warriors. Probably closest classes to traditional warrior are Blade Master (sword) and destroyer (axe). Force Master and Warlock are the main magic users. Assassin is the steal clash. Oddly I don't see that any class uses bows, summoner with their familiar is closest to ranger. Gunslinger uses guns. Kung Fu Master, Blade Dance, Soul Warrior are hybrids mixing traits of the others.

Update: the web site gives one description of the class difficulty levels, the character creation screen in the game another
I originally posted what the web site said, now changed to what game says, which in some cases is very different. I assume the game would be most up to date.

Summmoner is the only "Very Easy" class.
Gunslinger and Soul Fighter are "Easy" classes
Destroyer, Force Master, Warlok are "Normal" classes.
Blade Dancer and Blade Master are "Hard" classes.
Assassin, Kung Fu Master are "Expert" classes

Web site had Summoner and Gunfighter as easy, Soul Fighter as normal, Assassin as hard, Kung Fu master was only expert.

Unlike most other games in which there is a human race for which all classes are available Blade & Soul has no such race. Jin, closest to human do have the most options, with six of the ten classes being available to them. Gon have the fewest choices at 4.

Jin: Gunslinger, Assassin, Blade Master, Kung Fu Master, Warlock, Soul Fighter
Gon: Kung Fu Master, Force Master, Destroyer, Soul Fighter
Lyn: Gunslinger, Blade Dancer, Summoner, Warlock, Force Master
Yun: Gunslinger, Blade Master, Kung Fu Master, Force Master, Soul Fighter


Only Gon can choose Destroyer. Only Lyn can choose Summoner or Blade Dancer. Only Jin can chose Assassin.
Jin are only race that cannot be a Force Master. Lin only race that cannot be a Kung Fu Master.
Yun is only race that does not have a unique class.
(Note: Gunslinger was not originally available to Lyn but is now and this is not shown on the web site)

The female only Yun are the second tallest race, after Gon. They are also the skinniest.

There are two warring factions, both want to vanquish the evil, but they disgree on how. As a new player I dont actually have to worry about that yet. Eventually though my character will be asked to choose between the
The Cerulean Order or The Crimson Legion. Based on the name the first clearly believes in law and order, in some form of central government. While the Crimson Legion believes all governments are corrupt and rules and regulations just get in the way.

Kind of odd but the side that is for order is usually considered the bad guys (the Sith Empire, The Dominon) while the chaotic side is considered the good guys (Galatic Republic/Jedi Order, The Exiles). Although in my opinion chaotic side ultimately causes more misery.


Aibyouka Japananese for cat lover) is a male Lyn Summoner. Lyn are descended from the legendary Kirin. Lyn are the smallest of the four playable races. They have large ears and tails. Only Lyn can be summoners. A summoner bonds with a feline familiar, which actually does most of the fighting for the summoner. Supposed to be the easiest class to pay when questing, but difficult in PVP (which I try to avoid) and dungeons (not a fan of them either).

When you first create a character they appear in their underwear (1st image). After first cut scene you put on your first set of armor (2nd image). After several quests only involving talking Aibyouka gained his training staff (3rd image) so he could experience training for combat. At level 10 he joined The Cerulean Order and received his factions uniform (4th image). This has to be worn to do faction quests but puts him in player vs player mode so he can be attacked by members of the The Crimson Legion.

Aibyouka familiar is a Siamese cat originally named Frisky which he renamed Okkuu. Okkuu is taken from Japanese for "annoying" as I figured she would annoy his enemas by killing them. You get to choose from several cats including one that thinks its a dog. Some cats are female, some male, based on the voices.

When she stands on her hind legs, Okku is actually taller than her master.

Warning (not really a spoiler unless you are totally new to these games): DO NOT FALL IN LOVE with any of the characters you meet in the training area. Everything happening there is a flashback and given the first cut scene it should be obvious that they are all doomed, except of course for the traitor and you, because you are the hero. I also knew the instant I met the NPC who proved to be a traitor (there is always one) that this was that character's role. I'm also certain that eventually my character will take revenge and kill the traitor.

This first part of the game introduces you to the races. Most of the NPCs are Jin. The main trainer is Gon and the Master is Lyn. I think the evil woman who appears is Yun.

Thanks Guybrush,

They appear to have a decent fan base and active social network from the appearance of their YouTube channel

Is combat heavily turn-based as in JRPG's or closer to real time?


TM

Real time.

The game has one feature I find annoying. A duel security system. Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Wildstar and Blade and Soul are published by NCSOft They all ask for your NSSoft password. B&S then goes a step further and requires a PIN. I find having to log in twice to be annoying. And the numbers on the keypad are not in numerical order. THey're randomized so you actually have to pay attention you canot just click on box 1 for 1 box 2 for 2, etc. I guess they are afraid of someone watching over your shoulder and memorizing the postions instead of the numbers. So they mix the numbers up each time. And some reason I don't get at the digits are in different colors.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has an optional step of using a random code generator but you have to choose to turn it on and the game rewards you with extra coins for doing so. With B^S its not optional and you're not bribed to to use it.

Free players only get 2 character slots. I have yet to receive any of the coins you need to unlock more. In Wildstar there are two ways of doing this one of which involves giving them real money and the other is omnibits which drop randomly during combat.


B&S why of handling skills is odd. Most games the skills are simpled numbered and you can change the order to suit your style of play. In B&S some skills are assinged to mouse buttons, some to numbers, some to letters. And its not consistent between classes. Summoner's intital two attack skills are left mouse key and right. And to star with thats all you need on most foes. For gunslinger left key loads the guns and right fires them. And again for most foes thats all you need. Force Master on the other hand uses mouuse buttons to switch beteen fire and ice. Numbers to use the skills. I think they really want you to stick with one character.


There is really only 1 story so 1 character is really all you need. SWTOR every class has its own story, there are two starter worlds per faction. In Wildstar there are 2 starter locations per faction but eventualy you arrive at your sides capital and then all the quests are the same. The main differences are in the paths. In Blade and Soul there is one story. Every character does the same quests.

In the first part of the game everyone calls you "Cricket" which is silly if you're a Gorn or Yun.

I created a Gunslinger than deleted it to try Force Master. I like Gunslinger better. Summoner and Gunslinger are certainly easier. I'll have to think about whether I want my one character to be the Summoner I already got to level 12 or want to start over with a new Gunslinger. Either way I'll delete the Force Master.

When you delete a character, which I'm doind regularly as I try out all 4 races and several classes (I wont try all 10) after picking the character and clicking the delete button you have to actually type "Delete". I don't have a problem with that. SWTOR makes you do the same thing. Whats a bitt annoying is you actually have to type exactly that. "delete" wont work. if the caps lock key is on "DELETE" wont work. Nothing works except "Delete" and then you have to wait 5 minutes. I get that people sometimes change their minds but I have never changed my miond 5 minutes after hiting the delete button. Five days after maybe, 5 minutes never. Wildstar makes you type the character's name to verify the deletion but is not case sensitive. So if your character is Bill Smith "bill smith" will work. BTW the Wildstar character cries before its vaporized. B&S and SWTOR the character just vanishes.

Something has gone wrong with Flicker. Previously I used my email adress to log in now its asking for my yahoo sign in info. So apparetnly Yahoo has taken it over and now even though I can see them the links it provides to use in messages dont work. I'm going to have to find a different host. Whihc is annoying because this is second time I had to change because previous free site went pay. And this one has changed hands and its broken.

New class coming to Blade & Soul this year. A tank that instead of spending focus sacrifices its own health to protect others.

Sogeki Taihou Jin, Gunslinger (Sogeki Taihou is japanese for shooting guns). In the fourth image he's wearing Crimson Legion uniform and holding his new guns, in fifth image he's wearing an outfit he won from the wheel of misfortune.

Gunslinger is fun to play but it should come with a disclaimer, do not try anything it does in the real world.

When you click on your characters in the character selection screen they show off their skill with their weapon. The gunslinger fires wildly with no thought as to where his shots would actually go. Worse, in the game every time your gunslinger reloads his two guns he twirls them. That looks great in a video game. In reality that would be a foolish and dangerous thing to do. It violates every gun safety rule. He'd most likely shoot himself and/or the person he is showing off to, and probably drop the guns, possibly firing them again.

This game has lots of costumes.

Aibyouka's expanding wardrobe
Image one is a random drop. Image two is unifrom he received for joining the Bamboo Guard. Third image is uniform he got for joining the pirates who are the enemy of the Bamboo Guard. Image three is a uniform which was let him by a friend who's dying wish was that he would wear it. And image five is the costome he received when he learned he was the "chosen one" who will keep the evil dark lord from conquering the world.. He had a choice and took the one wiht the green stone instead of the orange
stone.

Apparently they've updated the game but not the wiki. The wiki says you get a quest introducing gathering and crafting at level 15. I did not receive then quest and when I asked about it in the forum I was told you actually don't get it until level 50. And you can't really craft anything until then.

Since the game has sent Aibyouka to a new town I guess I may never find out if the mayor of the old town is as corrupt as I believe him to be. Unless the story curves back there later.

I've done the first dungeon 3 times. Different quests kept sending me there. Though the game claims its hard its not. You can pretty much do it with your two starter skills. Though other skills will speed up the boss a little. Everytime you kill the giant scorpion the man who claims it his pet just gets another one. And you can kill that one too. The box you get drops random rewards each time. So three different times I got three different objects. I've done the second dungeon once. Game tries to get you to look for another person but its not necessary at least in these early dungeons which aren't very long.