TLaW has competition?

[aznbiggie616]

While looking through mmorpg.com's game list, I organized it into like ratings from greatest to least. While scrolling down I saw T:LaW and it was ranked pretty high! There was something above T:Law that caught my eye, and the game is called Blade and Soul. The game isn't currently out yet, but the trailer at the main site is simply amazing! The game is backed by the company that created Aion, but im thinking which game will really be the best T:LaW or Blade&Soul!

http://www.bladeandsoul.com/global/en
Here you can see the trailer and its awesomeness :P

[Delerium]

If you read the TLaW wiki, you can see how Tatsumaki is completely different than this game. One game that I think is the most similar to Tatsumaki is this (http://bladechronicle.jp/community/screenshot/index.html) one. Not exact but still looks like a good game.

[WhiteHawk]

I've read lots of info regarding Blade & Soul and I assure it has absolutely nothing to do with Tatsumaki. B&S has very nice graphics and animations, but it doesn't share any of the gameplay patterns Tlaw is trying to uphold, like "no classes", "no races" or "no levels".

When it comes to "Blade Chronicle", which I've played (I was in the Japanese Closed Beta) I'll admit it does have a lot of the same premises: there are player houses, you can craft not only weapons but also clothes and furniture, or even cook food. You can go fish by the river, mine some ore, or just cruise around, and if you want to fight your character has no "level". Only more or less proficiency with the sword he's using (so if you buy a new sword you have to start over).

Unfortunately I only had one or two other english-speakers with me so it was rather lonely (even with all the japanese folks hopping around) but the swordfighting was also rather interesting: you could dash sideways to dodge attacks, the direction of the attack was determined by how you moved your mouse, there were charged attacks and you could have some interesting swordfights, but unfortunately there was no "blocking" button, which was a true shame.

I believe Tatsumaki's combat system will be even more appropriate, from a realistic point of view, and I'm looking forward to the open world of Tlaw (as opposed to the two main factions in Blade Chronicle). I spoke to the guys at Spike, the developers of the "Way of the Samurai" games and Blade Chronicle itself, and they told me they might translate the game for an international English release if the Japanese edition is successful. So who knows?

[Delerium]

I will give it a try tomorrow. That was a crazy long patch update after downloading the client. Graphics look nice. I see they have a cash store which I am not to fond of though. Would be interesting to see it localized for U.S./Europe

[WhiteHawk]

Oh yeah, the download is huge and there's new patches getting uploaded all the time so it really took a lot of time to download (the fact that the download server is in Japan didn't help either).

Since there's not much difference between swords aside from their "unique" skill (every weapon has it's own special attack, which can be anything from a defensive buff to a high-powered strike) the cash store doesn't really have a very dramatic impact. The funny thing is almost everyone I saw after beta had at least one cash-item, usually clothes, so I'm led to believe nobody else minds investing a bit. =P

[Yagyu]

im on blade chronicle as awell, though i dont understand what im doing so i just run around killing things

[Shinobikaito]

How do you guys know what is what? It's all in Japanese. XD

[NinjaKerocker]

im on blade chronicle as awell, though i dont understand what im doing so i just run around killing things

lmao that's just funny lol rofl

lol sorry dude but that just sounds like a jackass with a sword.

[Vahn]

How do you guys know what is what? It's all in Japanese. XD

We read Japanese XD - or just run around and try to kill things, like Yagyu said. I'll check this stuff out when I'm back home in a few days.

[Delerium]

yeah the Japanese is a bit rough if you don't understand.

I got to level 15 today. It is pretty easy if you just grind on animals. The quests seem to be typical of cheap mmo's (kill 5 of these, take this here...) but I like the outdoor music and the environment is nice for a late Tokugawa era. There are many issues with water reflections on swords and the textures seem weak. Load times are fast and there is lots of stuff to kill. It is a steep learning curve if you don't speak Japanese but manageable if you just look at some of the english wiki's set up like this (http://bladechronicle.wikidot.com/) one. Overall, I think it is not too bad. I think Tatsumaki can do much better. It reminds me of Guild wars a lot or other Asian mmo's. Some fantasy yokai stuff in the early levels but not too much.

I can't get my Japanese to work when typing though, must be my keyboard settings or something. I just get question marks for katakana, kanji etc.

The indoor music is insanely annoying though. It sounds like a 1970s samurai show.

So far 6.5/10

[aznbiggie616]

I never said that the games were the same, just that Blade&Soul could be something to watch out for.

And as for Blade Chronicles, it was something new but since I never understood anything I was just running around killing things too. That got boring after like an hour lol.

[WhiteHawk]

There are many issues with water reflections on swords and the textures seem weak. (...)
The indoor music is insanely annoying though. It sounds like a 1970s samurai show.

So far 6.5/10

I'd give it at least 7 or 7.5
Gotta applaud people for trying something a bit different. =P

By the way, when it comes to graphics, I messed around with the Patching menu and the in-game options and managed to change the settings to rather high quality textures. The game was looking really good on my PC. Never got any problems with shaders or reflections.

[Sokuku Ishimaru]

I tried playing Blade Chronicle once.

It was cool from what I remember, but again its entirely in Japanese.

I always wished they would release an 'English Patch' like they did once for this game about Digimon. It was created by the community and it made the important things interesting.

As for Blade&Soul; that is a hack&slash affair that uses Fighting game style combos to do attacks and has utterly retarded pretty graphics. Like Aion I expect gorgeous graphics, animations, cool skills and a distinct lack of content or anything to do other then Korean Grind.

[Gheari]

Yeah kanji are rough. I probably understand about 75 of them. Fire and hand are the only ones I can reproduce though (so simple). Oddly enough I don't know the Japanese word for fire... Blade Chronicle looks interesting though.

[Yagyu]

Its fun despite the fact my character is illiterate lol. Wish it would come out for an english release. But id prefer more if tatsumaki would come out soon :D