Blade & Soul Revolution Preview – Mobile Martial Arts

Several years after its original release on PC, Blade & Soul fans and newcomers alike are about to experience the tale of the young warrior in mobile devices. Blade & Soul Revolution is launching for Android and iOS in North America and Europe this March, with Netmarble helming development. Described as the ultimate MMORPG, it has a lot to live up to, and after testing our martial arts skills for many hours on a Blade & Soul Revolution preview build, we are ready to share our thoughts. Is this cricket shaping up to be a true hero?

Blade Soul Revolution Preview – Races and Classes

You start the game by choosing your character from a somewhat brief selection. More classes will follow in the future, but assuming this lineup is expected for launch, you get to pick from four races (Jin, Gon, Yun, and Lyn), and five classes (Force Master, Blade Master, Kung Fu Master, Summoner, and Destroyer). Yun and Gon are gender-locked for now, but you should find the missing counterparts in future updates. As you can see, the initial selection isn’t tremendous, but Netmarble’s track record tells us that new content will follow shortly.

After making your choice, you enter the character creation phase. You have hair, face, and body choices, with a few presets for each one, alongside a handful of sliders for body customization. There isn’t much in the way of variety, but it covers the basics and should give you enough room to experiment and create a couple of unique characters.

Those who are familiar with Blade & Soul know that the beginning of the adventure is filled with twists and a deep story that sets the wheels in motion. It is widely considered as one of the best stories ever made for an MMORPG, and although some players disregard it as a generic revenge storyline, it may tickle your fancy. One thing is for sure, you have a lot of reading to do and cutscenes to watch if you like the setting and characters; otherwise, that skip button will get a lot of use.

Naturally, those who appreciate a good story will get more enjoyment from Blade & Soul Revolution. One of the reasons is that the first hours are pretty much used for exposition and world-building, to teach you the ropes and explain the basic mechanics. Progression is standard fare, and the inclusion of a traditional auto-play button doesn’t help to keep the excitement level right up there. Everything feels familiar, and that is a good or bad thing depending on your initial expectations for Blade & Soul Revolution.

We’re always expecting that groundbreaking and addictive gameplay mechanic or twist that makes jaw drop; Netmarble did something like that with The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, but that element is either missing or I haven’t discovered it just yet.

Fast-Paced Action Combat

Still, there’s a lot going on for Blade & Soul Revolution besides its intriguing and well-rounded storyline. There’s a nice depth to combat that you will only discover after going through the many tutorial sections, with joint attacks, chi restoration, sidestepping, and backstepping adding to the ballet that the fights often become. Furthermore, there is a range of combos that you can memorize for devastating results, often accompanied by exciting cutscenes.

You need to get a firm grip on combat if you plan on overcoming the challenges that await beyond level 40 or so. The easy leveling will soon be a thing of the past, as you need to stock up on potions and manually intervene, mainly against bosses. Sidestepping is a move that is often required to get away from danger, and the AI isn’t going to do the job for you, so I would say that a mix of auto and manual combat yields the best results.

Blade & Soul Revolution includes every feature that you expect from a robust mobile MMORPG, from crafting to skill trees, forging, salvaging, side quests, and more. I had to frequently travel to the fire pit to keep my gear up to the task, not to mention salvaging plenty of items that were cluttering my inventory. The weight limit was one of the biggest hurdles that I had to face, so unless you purchase additional space, you’re going to be salvaging items a lot.

Cooperation with other players mostly happens in the shape of 4-player dungeons and 16-player raids, with recommended attack and defense power to give you a general idea of the challenge ahead. There are various PvP modes to try, from the usual 1v1 and 2v2 arena combat to massive open field battles in Faction War. Sadly, we were unable to test any of these options due to their unavailability and/or lack of players to form a party in this preview build.

Unreal Engine 4 Put to Good Use?

In terms of graphics, Blade & Soul Revolution looks good but not that good. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by recent releases that delivered top-quality graphics like A3: Still Alive or Dragon Raja, but there is room for improvement here. Despite running on Unreal Engine 4, with very high settings, the textures still feel low-res, and the character models’ quality wildly varies from good (Jinsoyun, Namsoyoo…) to average. This may eventually change in the final game, but I wanted to mention it just in case, as I recall the PC version as being one of the most stylish MMOs in the visual department.

There is no question that Blade & Soul Revolution is going to be a good mobile port of the PC version. It’s not a revolution per se, but more of a competent revamp, if you will – it’s familiar enough for connoisseurs, but newcomers are likely the ones who’ll enjoy it the most. It surely would have helped if you had other warriors to fight at your side, but it gets better as you level up and unlock new dungeons, face tougher foes, and stray away from auto-combat. Don’t be fooled by a somewhat tame beginning; persevere and you’ll find out that there’s plenty of flair in the heart of this young Cricket.