Preview: Blade and Soul, Kicking Ass Through Asian Mythology

Unlike other MMO developers, NCsoft isn’t content sitting back and watching all their monthly payments roll in. They are constantly trying to one up their previous project and the title they hope will raise the bar set by Richard Garriot’s Tabula Rasa is their upcoming martial arts MMORPG Blade and Soul. They recently released a gameplay trailer; prepare to have your mind blown.

The game is set in a stylized world inspired heavily by Korean mythology and brought to life by Magna Carta character designer Hyung Tae Kim. The visuals are absolutely breathtaking, which leaves only one real concern to seasoned MMO players, and that’s how well their PCs will be able to handle the inevitable lag.

As of right now, the game is said to include four races and eight classes, but only two races (and no specified classes) have been revealed: the sword-wielding Jin and bare-knuckled brawling Gon. Both races seem to have their aesthetic differences with the Jin appearing feminine across the board and the Gon appearing to be suffering from chronic elephantiasis.

Information is scarce as the game isn’t scheduled to be released until late 2009, and any development interviews are done in Korean, therefore us English speaking types are at the translator’s whims.

Oh well, at least the video shows promise, along with plenty of gore and skin from the impossibly curvy female characters. And did I mention that the trailer was done entirely with the in-game engine?