Is Blade and Soul Worth Playing in 2021?

Hey guys! I'm blown away by the number of views and comments this video has, and I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for that! I want to respond to a few comments I've been seeing, particularly about my stance on Pay to Win (P2W):

1. PVP is aggressively P2W - I don't PVP, so I didn't consider it when discussing P2W. However, there are PVP items available for purchase, and the game makes it very unclear on how to obtain PVP items otherwise, so I would consider PVP to be P2W.

2. The game is full of cheaters - This is tough because I don't see a problem with using macros because the game has the feature built-in (simple mode), but I do think it makes PVP worse. However, I do not know of any other mods that some would consider cheating, so I can't speak to anything other than performance mods.

3. There is no way for new/returning players to catch up - This is just not true. Sure, it will take time to do so, but it is possible. There are systems in place that make it so a freshly leveled character can do 80% of the content in the game after just 2 weeks of playing, which I think is pretty good for an MMO (see my other videos). NCSoft also runs catch-up events semi-regularly, so that can speed this process up even more. To me, it's the community of players with ridiculous AP requirements for dungeons that hold people back from being able to do the content, not the game itself.

They change so much, I tried to relog in I was so lost. the characters changed so much

Heya FatBento! Will you please share with me your ReShade settings? I really want to know what you did to make the characters and scenes look like sic as fuk anime toons. The Borderlands look really works for this.

Blade & Soul kind of reminds me of Warframe for some reason.

Pay to win is optional which is cool but the problem about this is that the cash shop and swipe events are more in your face than the f2p alternative (like in Warframe, its kind of a newbie trap to getting nee frames because the option to buy the frame is in your face before thinking there is a f2p alternative). New players dont think to deep research if it doesnt show up in yt videos or google because of the lack of updated guides. I know theres a new discord for guides since ue4 and im hopeful that there will be more upcoming guides from various users, maybe even drawing Eckogen, Licod or Kerropi back in but this is unlikely since I’d imagine their burn out.
I’ve reached endgame as a returner as of a few days ago and so far its a slow progression to replace my story provided gear. I was concerned that the toxic gear requirement would still dominate the community but from questions in my faction chat, this has dwindled significantly. To quote a member who responded to my worry: “If they kick you from a dungeon you need gear from because of your current gear then theyre just being dumb and lazy”

Great video, dude. Have you tried Black Desert? I feel like it may be of interest to you. Cheers 😎

The answer is fk no

As a free to play player, you will never catch up with high tier players and f2p players can't do pvp or better dungeons unless they become pay to win players themselves.

Downloaded Lineage2 to check whats new and got shocked how much it became "pay to win", il try blade and soul and i hope its not that much "pay to win" features

I would say it's worth playing for just the story alone. I just recently played through the main story line and I'm currently playing through the others. That along with the combat, and just how you move around in the world makes it pretty enjoyable for me. All the extra goodies with the call to arms event is pretty nice too.

I think every MMORPG is worth playing in each respective year.. depending on what your expectation for the game is.

Blade and soul is P2W especially at the beginning of the launch. You can buy UPGRADES literally stat booster at the cash item shop and it improves the progress against other players.

In Star Trek Online you can get your gear to max level in 2 weeks top. But in Blade & Soul I have never gotten any of my gear even remotely near max level. And that is a Major turn off.

I hadn't been addicted to a game this much since runescape (before rs3) and ms2. Personally, I think it's worth it, even if it's just to watch the cut-scenes. Unfortunately, ever since the new update i get 0-1 fps :/, so i can't even play the one game my laptop could handle T.T. However, for those who can afford gaming computers/laptops, i think giving it a chance would be worth it.

Good points

This game is the most p2w game in the history of video games. BELIEVE IT!

great review mate yeah BnS is quite good :)

If you have guild or running it by yourself? I would like to join hahaha cant see anyone or any guild that help newbie like me they ignored me T-T

pay 2 win only happens if you suck at the game

i don't mind play to win - most things in life are pay to win lol

i put so much time and money into it and they kept spam the keys events which was absurd and people paid so much money until i had enough and quit that game.

i cringed a little when you said spending rl money isnt nessecary and then you went on telling us how benefical premium is.

i know this is unsolicited but i still felt like giving you some harsh critique.
however keep in mind that im just some random dude on the internet with no real credentials on the matter so take it with a grain of salt. so here goes:

if you wanna become/stay a respectable content creator you need to be consistent and honest. youre rambling on for 20 minutes in front of a camera with literally 0 effort put into editing the video, not cutting out repeated information, slip of the tongue or all the "eeer...s" as sentence starters. it can be extremely boring and tedious to watch/listen to if you dont take your time with these things.

hope you dont take this all too personal. i could be wrong you know. there are successful channels that do it your way. and maybe thats just your style and my preferences are simply incompatible with it.

the unreal engine 4 version is gonna drop soon, is it a separate download or can i download blade and soul now and just download like an upgrade when the unreal engine 4 update happens?

It won't bring back many players I think, because it's still pay2win and so expensive ...

Ah, I played this at launch. I really liked it but had a shit pc so when I got to higher content I struggled so hard to dodge stuff with lag and game freeze. :( Just ended up quitting. I have a new pc now! gonna give this another shot. Personally, I never thought this game was pay to win at all and then people just started saying it was and everyone quit. Unfortunate. Did they remove the afk dc now everyone stopped playing? I really hate when mmos dc you when afk. D:<

shut up and just play the damned game dude.. 19 minutes and not 10 seconds of gameplay

did they fixed msp 1fps? still the new system on msp or did they change it again?

Gold Medal in delusion and mental gymnastics for the game not being P2W

Nah, it’s censored garbage.

Brilliant video FatBento.

Heads up; I haven't watched through yet.

Came here to write my own little thingy based on my own personal experience.

Alts; Play through the 11 act story again or pay 60 bucks to skip the story. Multiple alts are needed if you want to even try to compete with p2w players.

Combat; Oh boy. BnS has the best combat a f2p game could ever offer, honestly. Like FatBento said that's one of biggest selling points.

Optimization issues; In raids even with a tank pc you're probably hitting 15-25 fps at best, with dungeons it's slightly better but honestly man it's garbage rn and I hope UE4 fixes it.

Now, P2W. FatBento said it wasn't really that pay to win in his opinion, while the PvP side of the game is pure bull crap because of whales. PvE isn't any better as geared players only tend to look at your attack power and nothing else. Well, with HH, SP and NS for me it was either 2k+ AP or GC9+ (Grand Celestial Stage 9 ) and for reference, FatBento has a Grand Celestial 6 in the video and he's under 2k ap, which makes it less likely for him to get into random parties, as he doesn't match most people's standards. It's just dumb. (I can't really speak for him though maybe his experience differs from mine, but just as a heads up & an example of what's likely to come). Acquiring gear in Blade & Soul is also an issue, since you can only get raid drops once a week and you need a lot of them to upgrade your gear. Also you get 900~ gold a week by completing all dailies and weeklies, which is enough to get you just one premium transformation stone (pts), with the cost of 480-550g, for reference you need was it 15 of them, to go from GC9 to TB9 (Thornbreaker). Do the math. Players can buy these with real money from the cash shop btw ;) They're not even that pricey. Now, you can also get a bundle from the cash shop that costs 30€~ the mastery bundle which FatBento completely ignored, that instantly gets you ahead of FatBento's warden XD It's honestly just pathetic and stupid. Speaking of DPS, i've reached 4,5 million in 4 months of playing the game every single day for hours, while whales can get to 20, 30 million with a few hundred bucks, so nothing's really on your side if you're F2P.

Lmao, sorry if nothing made sense i'm drunk and it's 2 am @-@

Should you still play Blade & Soul?
Absolutely. Dungeons and raids are fun with friends, the combat is top tier and the story rocks. We don't talk about the p2w ;)

TL;DR, Whales ruin the fun and if you don't got friends to play with it can get frustrating. Still worth to play though.

Blade and Soul is a great game for just the Story. I highly recommend everyone to Start playing a Character and play it to the end of the Story. And then move away from the game.

The game is highly pay2win if you want to keep up will all the other players doing the Cash Shop Events to get their gems, souls etc Upgraded.

One further downside is the insanely Bad optimization. You literally need to play in lowest graphic setting and even disable other players effects and Animations so you can get a good dps in RAIDS.

If you like hugging trees (pve) and don't mind cheaters, BnS is the right game for you!

You lost me at pay to win.

112ms ping was my best, anything more I couldn't play open world

What's the current max for hm lvl?
I haven't been on in a few years-- My character is Nagato Ishikawa-- I was a player hunter for lowbie killers-- I went by the name Naga and I have well over 5k kills if I include all alts

You need to spend Over 4 Hours just to get the pvp soul shield

In 2016 it took me 2 days of running the first dungeon just to get my weapon for upgrading,
I only loved the pvp in the game since it grew increasingly laggy for me to the point we're I couldn't run any dungeons

The amount of views you got from this video is proof that people care or have cared for this game, and want it to be good. But seeing it the way it is today breaks my heart, it's time to move the fuck on..

I didn't know Mr. Repzion played BnS.

I am just wait to get my desk top fixed some one come in my home when I was out with my mother and messed up my desktop so i can't play it and to this day I still do not know who did it

hey fatbento.... when u say UE4 does that mean that its completley new??? or u can still play with ur old character with a new engine??

imma return when the UE4 is out ..i love this game...but i cant stand the optimization issues

nice:)

the game is actually good if you're able to find 3 loyal friends to do dungeons with

I think exactly same way than you. I love bns like I would love my future boyfriend. It's not perfect but close enough to accept few mistakes. If you want to win in pve gear it's p2w, if you don't want to win in pve it's not p2w. It's about the play style. It's free mmorpg, and it's business so they need their money and there is nothing wrong with that.

I played this game on release but my shitty laptop couldn’t handle it very well so I quit. It’s such a shame what NC has done to such a beautiful game. They pulled the same shit with Aion. They are a garbage company.

I want to try this game but idk why I can't register an account lol

the moment the devs decided to give whales everything, is the day i quit blade and soul, 3 years later and i regret nothing, aside from the fact that the gameplay is by far one of the best out there, also, graphics were gorgeous and still are

Wait for ue4