Bless Unleashed After 20 Hours: The Good AND the Bad

As the title would imply, I’ve invested over 20 hours into Bless Unleashed up until this point.
I did that because I wanted to give this game a chance. Many people know my thoughts on the company behind the game, but this is going to be my opinion, my experience of the Unleashed title specifically, disregarding the franchises’ history, disregarding the company behind it.
And before you complain that I’ve “changed my stance on the game,” or that I “haven’t given it enough time,” if after 20 hours, I’m unable to say I either enjoy or don’t enjoy aspects of the game, then you might need to reassess what having an opinion entails. Or close out of the video.
Because this is going to trigger ardent defenders of the game and avid haters of it as well.

Now before going any further, I’d like to note: These are my 100% honest, unsponsored opinions. I was not paid anything to play the game, nor am I financially incentivized to withhold my opinion in any capacity.
Not that there’s anything wrong with taking a Bless sponsor, but I felt as though it would be in the community’s best interest if I were to tackle this with absolutely no bias, no incentive and no ulterior motives.
And honestly… I’ll preface everything by stating, right now, that while Bless Unleashed is in no way a great game, it was far from as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Now, once again, I’ve put over 20 hours into Bless Unleashed since it launched. I opted to stream my first deeper dive into the game so our community could get a feel for it without having to necessarily waste time themselves.
Over those 20 hours, I experienced quite a bit of the game. I managed to make it to level 20. I got to try dungeons. I got to try world boss fights. I.. well, admittedly I didn’t get to participate in any types of PvP but the PvE aspect of Bless Unleashed is honestly a lot of fun.

After having recently played through Elyon as well as Bless Unleashed, I can say with certainty that this has a much better leveling experience.
The questing, specifically, the main story that pushes you forward to new areas, unlocks new features is handled very smoothly.
You move from area to area, pick up both main story quests and side-quests alike. The quests aren’t very difficult and are of your typical MMO variety. From what I could tell, leveling–and more specifically the quests themselves weren’t gated behind the need to arduously grind like you had to in Elyon.
There was variety in the quests you’d take, variety in the monster types, variety in the types of dungeons. Honestly, while the first hour or two of the game is an absolute snore to get through, much like most MMOs, the game picks up after around 5 or 6 hours and genuinely becomes much more interesting around the 10 hour mark.
You begin to encounter much more difficult monsters. You begin to be able to actively participate in world boss fights.

Speaking of world boss fights… well, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume these were world boss fights, because if they weren’t, then I don’t know what to expect from the actual fights themselves.
But from what I perceived to be world boss fights, I think I had more fun attempting to learn boss mechanics than I’ve had in recent memory.
These bosses would 1 to 2 shot me. Not just me. Everyone around me. Players would be downed every other second, and you know what would happen? We’d have people run over to them to begin ressing them.
Yeah, the community in Bless Unleashed, while absolutely filled with bots spamming real money trading websites, is actually much nicer, much more wholesome than I would’ve otherwise imagined it to be.
I.. okay, I’ll admit, I died probably more times than I have in an MMO outside of Guild Wars 2, and every time, someone would run up and begin aiding me. This was entirely unexpected. I typically leave people face-down because I don’t care, but some of these players did.
And that’s not only the makings of a great community, but also an integral part of clearing these encounters in a timely manner. Because let’s face it: While it’s all well and good to ignore one another and leave your allies down on the ground, if they were DPSing as well.. the boss fight would go exponentially faster.
And these boss fights were so much fun. Learning what to dodge, watching the boss for small little triggers – warnings that would alert me to whether I’d have to gain distance, or I was able to run in and DPS like the idiot DPS I am.

But… that was pretty much where my enjoyment of the game ended.
One major part of every MMO is its combat. If your combat is unenjoyable, then that makes the game a chore to play. Bless Unleashed’s combat wasn’t terrible, don’t get me wrong. I think, honestly, it has better combat than New World had during its last Beta test.
But I feel like the combat is just so much slower, so much clunkier than its competition. Elyon, PSO2 New Genesis, Swords of Legends Online. 3 MMOs that launched within the last 3 months that all have better combat than Bless does.
Maybe it was the class I chose. Maybe it was my inability to adequately play a melee class in this game. But to me, personally, I found that everything just felt so slow. Like I’d be waiting between every slash, every click of my mouse or keyboard for the animation to finish and the next to begin.
When I’m used to action combat systems akin to Black Desert, TERA, Vindictus and Blade & Soul – all of which have absolutely incredible combat, and I’m presented with something that feels so sluggish in comparison, I end up bored.
Bless doesn’t have terrible combat, once again. Its combat isn’t honestly bad. It’s just worse than pretty much all of its competition, and given that the majority of the game involves engaging in combat, that is something I’d just never be capable of getting used to.

Then comes the graphics. On the one hand, Bless Unleashed looks quite a bit better than Bless Online. So that’s a significant improvement. However, on the other hand, I’ve seen mobile games that actually look similar to what we’re given in Bless.
Which lead me to repeatedly express my opinion that this game.. looks kind of mobile-esque. Not only the aesthetics of the game, but if you take a look at the UI, both the main UI and even when opening your inventory, opening your skills page.. and don’t even get me started on the chat.
I know this is ported on over from the console game. I do. If this were built specifically for PC I’m sure this could’ve looked so much better. But it wasn’t, and looking at the chat reminds me of my time in V4. And V4 was a mobile game.
The UI is absolutely horrific. It doesn’t matter if you love or hate the game. This UI should never have made it into the final version of the PC iteration of Bless Unleashed, and it’s honestly embarrassing that it did.
And given this is a South Korean MMO, I would’ve expected there to be a lot more customization options for your character. While my character turned out alright, everyone just looks so.. basic. So generic. Not something I’ve come to expect from Korean MMOs.

From what I’ve gathered, there’s some story to the game. A narrative that I probably should’ve followed more closely. This isn’t a negative. Honestly, the story seemed pretty straightforward and fairly traditional.
The voice acting in all of these new games though, holy… I used to think Blade & Soul had bad voice acting. Then I heard the voice acting in all of the MMOs that came out this year and it made me want to congratulate NCSoft on their professional dub of the game.

And honestly… that’s pretty much it.
There are people needlessly hating on the game, projecting their hate for Bless Online or Neowiz–or both, actually, onto Bless Unleashed. And rightfully so. They have their reasons to dislike the game, just like some of you have your reasons to like it.

The game has a large world filled with quests, players, and things to do.

The leveling process is traditional, which makes it feel comfortable and easy to enjoy.

Some of the boss fights you encounter out in the world are an absolute blast. Some of the most fun I’ve had in recent memory.

The community seems alot better than in both Swords of Legends and Elyon. They genuinely try to help you out and seem fairly active.

The combat was very slow and clunky. It felt poorly optimized and fluidity was very off.

The game looks very dated, and it just launched.

The UI looks like a mobile game, which makes me shy away from opening or even chatting whenever possible.

The voice acting is absolutely atrocious.

A lot of people claim that the game is pay-to-win. This bodes poorly for the games potential future.

It has a worse publisher for PC than for console.

And that’s it. After 20 hours, those are my general thoughts on the game. I had some fun in it, I’m not gonna lie. More fun than I thought I would have been capable of having.
I’m also not against admitting when I’m wrong. I was wrong in the past when I said Bless Unleashed was a terrible game. My sentiment regarding the developer Neowiz and Round8 remain ever the same, but this isn’t about them.
Bless Unleashed turned out to be a better game than I gave it credit for. And I’m glad to see players having fun in it, however long that lasts.
Do I think it’s a great game? No. But at the same time I don’t think Elyon is either. Or Swords of Legends Online. Or PSO2 New Genesis. They’re all passable, maybe even good games, but none of them are great games.
Bless Unleashed is free though. And this is just my opinion. My thoughts, experiences and overall opinion hold no more weight than yours, or anyone else’s.
Don’t listen to the masses – if this game looks interesting to you, go download it. Go play it. If it doesn’t, then don’t. Just pass on it and move along.
Formulate your own opinion, make your own choice. Don’t let the sentiments of others form your opinion for you – that’s how we end up with people smack talking games without having ever tried them out.