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This includes Soul Shields, random weapon caches, and even cosmetics which is where the real end game is. I cannot tell you the amount of time I spent in The Scorching Sands and Gloomdross Forest, not for weapons and Blade and Soul NEO Classic Divine Gems Shields, but for outfits.
Even if I wasn’t particularly interested in whatever dropped, I just wanted to add to my growing collection of cosmetics. You could say I was pulled in hook, line, and sinker, just like I was before, but it was genuinely fun grinding away with friends, even if we were waiting on timers, hoping we’d deal enough damage among the handful of other players desperate for a shot at a cool outfit. This does keep more powerful players coming back to old zones, though, so it does have some benefit.
Overall, Blade and Soul Neo is exactly as I remember Blade and Soul, just with a few minor improvements. The user interface is largely easier to get around, character traversal feels faster with the stamina bar removed, the game performs better and seems better optimized, and that’s really just about it. But it has all of the rough edges returning players will remember. A shoddy translation, shoddier voice acting, and a gacha system that can feel maddening to be at the whim of for more powerful weapons and cosmetics.
That said, I think this is the perfect time for new players to jump in and experience what I feel is a time capsule of what could have been a new step forward in the genre or at least a competitor to larger MMORPGs at the time, as Blade and Soul offered something truly unique.
Probably. It’s a way for me to relive the summer of 2014, hunkered down with my laptop, next to my partner, coordinating how to duo a boss we had no right fighting. And if I stick around long enough I might even get the chance to check out classes that were released by the time I dropped the buy BnS NEO Classic Divine Gems game. I just can’t see the revival of this MMORPG being a particularly large success for NCSOFT, even if I wish it would be.