The new MMORPG Blade & Soul 2 (Android/iOS/PC) will be released on August 26, 2021, in Korea and has already attracted over 7.4 million players. The game even breaks the previous record set by Lineage 2M. But what kind of game is it actually? We from MeinMMO summarize.
What is Blade & Soul 2? It is the new MMORPG from NCSoft and the direct successor to Blade & Soul, which has fascinated many players since 2012. However, compared to its predecessor, some things are intended to be approached differently.
The MMORPG was originally scheduled to be released in May in South Korea, but the release was postponed to August 26 and is expected to be met. Blade & Soul 2 was originally intended to be playable only on mobile devices until the developers changed their minds and also confirmed a PC version.
This PC version can be played via the Purple Client from NCSoft. It also enables crossplay between the two versions, so you can explore the continents of Blade & Soul 2 together with PC players as a mobile gamer.
What can you expect in gameplay? Blade & Soul 2 wants to adopt much from its predecessor, but there will still be some changes. Your combat style is no longer tied to a class but to a weapon. The title also offers you the following:
- An open world on 2 continents divided into several areas
- An action-packed combat system designed to function tactically
- Quests and missions
- PvP will play a significant role, as NCSoft plans to continue the e-sport success of the first part in Blade & Soul 2
- Crossplay between mobile and PC
- Group PvE content
In this video, you can see about 1.5 hours of gameplay from the PC version of Blade & Soul 2 starting at minute 36:
Player numbers break records
How great is the influx? In Korea, players have been able to register for the game for free since February. In the first 18 hours, about 2 million fans signed up. To date, over 7.46 million players are looking forward to the game and have already registered.
With this, Blade & Soul 2 breaks the record in South Korea for the most pre-registrations for an MMORPG launch. This record was previously held by the publisher NCSoft for the game Lineage2M, where 7.38 million users had registered in advance. The publisher proudly announces that they have been able to break this record with Blade & Soul 2. (via ncsoft.com)
Why is the game so popular? We can only speculate where exactly all the numbers come from. The predecessor Blade & Soul was able to establish a successful e-sports scene in South Korea. We can assume that active e-sports players want to switch to Blade & Soul 2.
To do this, however, they need to familiarize themselves with the new mechanics, which they can only do if they join early. But this applies not only to e-sports players; general fans of the first part also want to see what NCSoft can offer with the second part. This way, some parts of the community will surely return to the game, who had actually stopped playing a long time ago.
When can you play? The developers plan an international release, but this will not happen simultaneously with the Korean version. Originally, NCSoft announced that Blade & Soul 2 would also be released internationally in 2021. However, this was before the game was postponed from May to August. Therefore, we cannot assume that this statement is still reliable.
However, a release in the West in 2022 seems likely if the developers focus on it. After all, it took four years for Blade & Soul to reach us. But we do not expect them to take that long again.
What do you think of the game? Did you play Blade & Soul and are you excited about the second part? What do you think about the crossplay between PC and mobile? Feel free to leave us a comment.
Also, the MMORPG Lost Ark breaks records in South Korea – Over 240,000 players simultaneously.
