Blade & Soul: Warden’s Fury – Review
Follow Genre: Free-to-play MMORPG
Developer: Team Bloodlust (NCsoft Developer Division)
Publisher: NCsoft
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC

Blade & Soul: Warden’s Fury – Review

Site Score
8.1
Good: Diverse combat system.
Bad: A lot of popping in certain areas.
User Score
8.7
(3 votes)
Click to vote
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Rating: 8.7/10 (3 votes cast)

Making your name in the MMORPG genre isn’t as easy as it looks. Many games failed and flopped even harder than they could have imagined. A game which did make a name for itself is Blade & Soul, which made its debut in the West in 2016. Due to its graphics, its diverse combat system, the good care of NCSOFT and the massive community; this game is still one of the more populated MMORPGs out there. And with their latest major update ‘Warden’s Fury’ we are in for a treat.

Story

The story of Blade & Soul starts with Musung betraying the Hongmoon school for power. For this, he went to a woman named Jinsoyun. She has multiple purposes at the school, namely to reclaim a legendary blade and to kill Master Hong who is guarding that particular blade.

The past of Jinsoyun and every other character makes them who they are in the present. Each character has its own story to tell and will lead to a complex story mode. The flow of this story mode is rather slow because of every piece that is uncovered, only gets uncovered by completing a piece of the main questline.

Graphics

Overall this game has some nice graphical features, the areas are diverse and fun to explore. As we look at the NPCs you encounter we were stunned by their beauty, the graphic designers did everything they could to make them as beautiful as they are today. Sadly, this translates in a lot of popping when we walk around in the world. When we look at the style the game artist handled, the Oriental design pops out. Every corner you turn or every new area you encounter you’ll feel this theme has very deep roots in the game. The game is very colourful and vibrant, without being over the top.

This game has an enormous arsenal of cosmetics, this makes the gameplay even more fun and beautiful to look at. Probably every weapon skin you can imagine is put in this game. And it looks gorgeous.

Sound

In B&S, the developers made use of diverse background music which matches the environment perfectly. You’ll get a magical and fantasy feeling the whole ride. Not everything is voice-acted but most of the dialogues are. The combat sounds are of as much importance as the rest in this game because of the emphasis on the martial arts. The grunts, slashes, hits and other sound effects make the combat even more in-depth to play.

Gameplay

Blade and Soul is a fantasy martial-arts MMORPG that thrives, throughout the use of its in-depth combat system and storylines. What it lacks in our opinion is a vibrant crafting system. As a result of the high resource prices and low prices for finished items, it is no use to craft anymore in the game. Note that for a lot of players this game won’t be easy at first, you’ll encounter a lot of content and mechanics which will take some time to process.

The combat in Blade & Soul is rather different from other MMORPGs. Since a few years, developers truly put in a lot of effort in the combat systems of this genre, which results in a more dynamic and challenging combat experience. Instead of using only your number-hotkeys, they also let you complete combos that involve the right or left mouse buttons and different letter hotkeys on your keyboard. This makes the options much more in-depth and thrilling at the same time.

You’ll also get to deal with the numerous quests you need to tackle. Quests in this game are divided into certain parts and after you complete every single one, you get a huge chunk of experience. Quests can provide you with loot, money, experience and items.

The Warden’s Fury update brought us a new class: the Wardens. Before the update was already ten classes available. Each class has also a certain difficulty level, which means that some classes are easier to master than others. Wardens are a force to be reckoned with because of their elegant and strong attacks, executed with a variety of Greatswords. They are perfectly able to keep the enemy focused on them and this is the reason why they are perfect for the role of Tank.

In terms of gear, there are a lot of possibilities. You have your weapons and gear that can be upgraded with items that can be placed in weapon or gear sockets. You have also a soul shield which you can equip and it exists out of eight fragments. Soul shields are the main source of attributes on your character.

Conclusion

Blade and Soul is one of the more compelling MMORPGs of the last decade. With its new class ‘the Warden’ which was released with the latest major update, the game has eleven amazing classes for you to try out. Graphics are not yet perfect but there is always something which can be improved. This game is not easy to start out, you’ll be drowned with information, but after getting the hang of it, it was even more fun than we imagined.

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Rating: 8.7/10 (3 votes cast)
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Blade & Soul: Warden's Fury - Review, 8.7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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