What seems like eons ago, a friend of mine from South Africa brought a new game to my attention that he was excited about. It's rare that one slipped past me, but dear Wolvain found one. Bless Online is a MMORPG being produced out of South Korea by NEOWIZ BLESS STUDIO. Like most games out of Asia it features over the top action and breathtaking visuals.
What makes Bless Online unique is its rare ability to be humbled by its mistakes and learn from them. In a sea of games like Star Wars Galaxies, Warhammer Online, and Tabula Rasa, mistakes can be a death sentence for a game, one misstep and your empire comes crashing down like a jenga tower. There are very few games however that do their best to learn from their mistakes and adapt to create something epic. We saw this recently in both Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV.
Bless Online released its beta to the east first and met critical response to its original combat, class, UI, and PvP systems. It was a catastrophic failure on most fronts. This is when lesser devs call it a day and look for the next thing. This was not the case for the developers behind Bless Online. They refused to quit and decided to take the game back to the drawing board. Today we discuss with Sungjin Ko, the Executive Producer at Neowiz Bless Studio, this epic comeback and what challenges the team overcame.
Hello Benjamin, I am Sungjin Ko, the Executive Producer at Neowiz Bless Studio. I just got back from the San Francisco Preview Event! The Bless Team and I are all busily preparing for the Steam version of Bless Online. Nice to meet you all.
One day in September 2009, seven of us gathered and began discussing about an MMO project. Soon afterwards teams were set-up in 2010, and after the general world and graphic style was decided upon, official development began in 2011.
The mood definitely was not good. Looking back, I think that the critical responses were a result of us being unable to fulfill our users’ big expectations for Bless Online.
After deciding that we were going to self-publish and bring Bless to western audiences through Steam, we reorganized our priorities. We gained inspiration from re-examining our eastern user’s feedback on the game, while research on the western community was carried out to try and understand what they wanted. We also finalized the items for development and their priority.
Some of the biggest changes could be found in combat and our business model. However, other more minor changes, such as the addition of a new tutorial, adjustments in growth balance, and improvement in convenience can be found in the game as well.
We did our best to eliminate elements that our players consider unfair, including game currency that cannot be obtained through gameplay. Now players can earn Lumena through gameplay, which is the cash shop currency. This way there’s an even playing field for paying and free players.
Overall, all combat related systems were changed. First, the skill system was redone so that instead of choosing separate skills, players would now be selecting stances that are made up of sets of chain combo skills. Players can have a total of 2 stances and 4 individual skills as part of their active skill set and depending on how smoothly and proficiently they are able to use combos, the skills’ effects will be strengthened.
As a result, how well a player can create combos in a given situation is an important aspect of combat.
The max number of members a guild can accept is related to the guild’s level (varying from 10-120 members). Although the game’s system does not support alliances, we have made it possible for guilds to team up when fighting over realm ownership.
Realm Ownership: refers to right of the Capital War’s winner. In the Capital War, each faction’s Lords and Governors are divided into attack and defense for battle, to determine the guardian and consul in each faction. Each faction’s Lord/Governor can challenge the guardian/consul during a predetermined period, or create alliances and help defend. Winner of the Capital War will receive realm ownership and a variety of benefits.
(The names are subject to change.)
Guilds obtain guild influence points relative to the activities carried out by their members within the Bless world. These guild influence points can be used to achieve citadel ownership within a specific period of time, and citadel owners’ are given the opportunity to compete for Realm Ownership.
Citadel Ownership: the right to govern a specific territory which is gained by being the winning bidder in an auction for territories between guilds within the same faction. Successful bidders will be named “Lord” if Hieron, and “Governor” if Union. Once a player becomes a Lord or Governor, they will be able to join the Capital War, the battle for realm ownership and determining faction guardians.
Citadel Owner: refers to leader of the guild who won the right to govern a territory. “Lord” if Hieron, and “Governor” if Union.
(The names are subject to change.)
Basically, Hieron and Union are always fighting each other in the disputed zones. However, in areas such as the Siege of Castra, arena, and the Peninsula War, there are those fighting according to predetermined rules in limited numbers and space for victory. The Siege of Castra is a battlefield where a comparatively large amount of participants compete. Victory here is determined, not so much by individual ability, than the faction’s tactics. The arena is a 3 vs. 3 small scaled battlefield where individual ability matters a lot in victory. Finally, the Peninsula War is a 15 vs. 15 battlefield where both faction tactics and individual ability are deciding factors.
Field PvP that takes place in the disputed zones can only occur between different factions. If players do not want to participate in PvP, they can use a specific item to prevent being attacked by by other players for a specific period of time. It can be purchased with in-game gold, and lasts for ten minutes at a time.
Players can choose one main crafting skill and one secondary crafting skill. There are three main crafting skills (Armorsmith, Handiwork, Alchemy), and they allow players to make equipable items. Secondary crafting skills include alchemy and cooking which allows players to create consumables. As players practice crafting they will be able to advance their skills and receive crafting benefits. For example, a small amount of combat stats will increase in the final crafting level.