Blade and Soul is Getting an Unreal Engine 4 Remaster!

I didn’t think I was going to need to do a video on Blade & Soul’s upcoming Unreal Engine 4 remaster, but after releasing my Blade & Soul video yesterday, I’ve been bombarded with requests to cover it.
So even after having covered it in a news video when it was first announced back in July – here I am. Here it is.
Do let me preface this by stating that all that has been released thus far is a 38 second preview.. with gameplay compiled by the team behind the game.
Nowhere do they show actual, recorded in-game footage of the game. Therefore it’s impossible to really.. get a proper gauge on how well it’ll run until the remaster goes live.

From the very first second of new footage, it is evident that the game looks noticeably different.
Not only the scenery, the monsters, but more importantly, the characters themselves and the combat.
We’re only shown a few different characters total, and get maybe one or two semi-close ups but you can tell right away that the characters are going to look pretty different.
When this remaster goes live, I can guarantee your character is going to need a makeover. ’cause they’re gonna look a lot different.
I know what most of you are interested in though, and that’s the combat.
Judging from the comments on my last video, there are some of you that made mention of combat being basic and very ping-dependant.
While ping issues are very much a reality in this game, and will likely continue to be an issue moving forward, the combat looks less like what we’re used to and more like Black Desert Online.
This might be of more interest to you – or, at least for some of you that disliked how combat functioned.
But for those of you that enjoyed how the combat looked and felt.. this will definitely take some getting used to.

And.. that’s pretty much it.
I’ve played Blade & Soul since the day it came out years ago.
I played before the game released, even, way back when Atomix was a thing.. for those of you that remember the half-assed private server. I know people to this day that used to play on that server.
Man how time flies. I didn’t even have the channel at the time I played initially.
I still play Blade & Soul on and off on occasion, whenever new content is released to further the story or a new class is released. Like the new upcoming Archer class.
While I don’t know exactly when we’ll get the class in the West, I’m still excited to take it for a test-run.
Why? Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. Maybe there are aspects of the game that I still enjoy. Maybe it’s because I can make really, really hot characters.
I dunno. The population is at an all time low right now and that’s always disheartening. MMOs I used to play regularly, like Blade & Soul and TERA are just.. I guess, very dated by today’s standards.
This has lead to a very steep decline in popularity and active participation from the community as a whole.

I’ve had people ask me do I think this’ll make much of a difference? Will this breathe new life into the game and do I think that this could save it from its inevitable fate?
Honestly, and I don’t mean to be a pessimist here, but Blade & Soul’s ship has long since sailed.
The game in its current form, pay to win or not, is a lot of fun. But people that wanted to play the game have played it and left for a variety of reasons.
And that’s fine. It happens to every game. Updating the graphical engine to Unreal Engine 4 might bring back some players that left due to optimization issues.
It might bring back people who believed that the game looked dated or needed a visual overhaul. But for everyone else.. no, it’s doubtful they’ll care.

So no I don’t believe the Unreal Engine 4 update will do much in the way of saving the game or increasing population in the long-term.
I think it’ll be great – both to look at and to play in, but people have a very strong opinion of the game and the publisher – enough that they’ll boycott Blade & Soul all together out of mere loathing.
And I can’t blame them. NCSoft cater to whales with monthly spending budgets larger than your monthly paycheck.
I’ll keep playing the game of course. On and off. Partly because it’s my job to, and partly because I’m still curious where the game’s gonna go.
It holds a special place in my heart after all.. it was one of the very first MMOs I played on my new PC and it held the title of most watched video on our channel for over a year.

But that’s just my opinion – my first impression of the update not having played it. What do you guys think? Are you excited? Are you looking forward to eventually trying it out or do you even want to?
Let me know in the comments below and let’s talk about it!