NCsoft, one of the world’s largest publishers of online games, announced plans to bring the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Blade & Soul, to Western gamers. The incredibly popular MMORPG has been available in South Korea for 12 weeks and it has already attracted millions of players, who flock to internet cafes across the Asian nation to play Blade & Soul. The game has an extremely high rate of player loyalty, averaging 230,000 concurrent players since its release.

Stephen Levy, an NCsoft executive, gave an inspired description of the game, saying, “When you try to imagine what combat in Blade & Soul looks and feels like, think of typical Asian martial arts classics like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of the Flying Daggers and think of the player as Jet Li.”

The game was developed by NCSoft’s Team Bloodlust, the company’s in-house Seoul division, and Korean artist Hyung-Tae Kim, character artist for the strategy role-playing War of Genesis games and the South Korean Magna Carta series.

Blade & Soul promises to introduce Western gamers to Asian martial arts combat role playing at its finest. While the game is based on an existing South Korean version, NCsoft promises Blade & Soul will not be another entry on the long list of Korean MMOS that subject players to the nightmare of endless grinding. Executive Producer James Bae said, “I assure you, Blade & Soul will never run out of content to keep players engaged in the game. This game will not be a repetitive grindfest.”

Although the storyline of Blood & Soul is one of revenge, each player’s journey will continue long after you have defeated your enemies. “We don’t intend to stop there or end the story when you finally have your revenge,” Levy says. “We plan on continuing personal storylines through episodic content, further expanding the game’s solo content. It’s important to us that players will experience an epic yet personal story.”

Today’s announcement did not include a release date or pricing information for Blade & Soul. Instead, NCsoft emphasized that the game would be true to its roots, saying, “Exact release timing for Blade & Soul has not been confirmed, but NCsoft is already aggressively tailoring the title for Western players, working closely with Team Bloodlust to ensure the rich Asian martial arts theme stays intact.”

Stephen Levy continued, “We want to keep the game exactly as it is. What they play now will be what you will play. There is one exception: Mechanics like levelling curve, drop rates, and instance resets will be tweaked for Western audiences, as NCsoft believes there lies the gap between the two worlds of gamers. Apart from that, Blade & Soul is a Korean game, and it seems we will be playing a translated Korean game when it comes out.”

The dedicated gamers here at The Inquisitr look forward to bringing you more information about Blade & Soul as it becomes available. Be sure to check back often for all the latest news about the games you love to play.

NCsoft Reveals Plans To Bring Blade & Soul To Western Gamers is a post from: The Inquisitr