That was my takeaway from last week’s press preview, where NC America reps explained that it’s not exactly a progression server, but it’s not a pure classic throwback server either. Readers will remember that the game was originally marketed as Blade and Soul NEO Classic Divine Gems Classic, so we assumed NC was just doing what so many MMO studios do and chucking up the old version for nostalgia gamers (and easy money).
During the session, which was hosted by senior producer Andrew Long and community manager Andrew Gant, the team made clear that this version of the game does loop back to some of the earliest years in terms of storyline and content, but the teams have made significant upgrades and in some cases total do-overs to many of its systems. Graphics have been overhauled and remastered dramatically, with new textures and lighting. Some maps have been redone with new layouts and even buildings. The new-player experience has been gussied up and made sufficiently gutwrenching. Group content has been improved, every skill in the skillbook can be customized, and the gear upgrade system has been redone from scratch. Even exploration and group combat have seen upgrades in a way that, well, sounds a lot like Guild Wars 2 – in the best way.
Perhaps most importantly, not all of the game’s full breadth of content will be accessible at NEO’s launch, which is critical as OG BandS has seen a whopping 90 updates since its release. And yet there’s no promise that NEO will just progress chronologically through the OG’s content, either. The plan, NCsoft says, is to maintain the freedom to take the game’s story and cadence in a different direction entirely from the OG game. In other words, it’s kind of a Classic Plus server, with a bunch of new and altered systems and potentially a different storyline. It may look very little like its progenitor when all is said and done. And when you consider it that way, the term NEO actually does suddenly make sense.
The QandA was probably the most illuminating chunk of the press event; here are some of the key takeaways from the questions the developers addressed as well as the preview we saw: Parity with Korea: The western devs are working closely with the Korean team and are at least aiming for future parity with the Korean NEO content-wise, with buy BnS Classic Divine Gems the goal being synchronous launches (after the global version is caught up). The devs say they will let each region’s needs dictate deviations, but right now, the game is not overly localized; the differences between the Korean and western NEO are minor (battlepass tweaks were mentioned).
