However, like most NCSOFT games of its era, the translation and voice acting are less than stellar. Blade and Soul NEO Classic Divine Gems keeps the original voice acting and script, so nothing has changed here. Which is a shame, because the narrative of Blade and Soul is at least moderately compelling and unlike whatever else is on the market, so it could keep players interested as I played the Japanese version of the game long enough to compare notes, back in the day. It feels like a huge missed opportunity with the Western market’s interest in traditional Chinese storytelling.

But that is largely my biggest complaint with Blade and Soul Neo, outside of NCSOFT’s continued issue with bots and gold sellers on their servers. This isn’t unique to Blade and Soul Neo, as it’s also a persistent issue with Throne and Liberty, and was at one point so infamous in Lineage II that it was even reported on in GameInformer in the mid-00’s. 

This problem has followed NCSOFT through its multiple new releases, and is still one in Blade and Soul Neo. General and Trade chats are drowned out by gold sellers, bots populate areas, interfering with the idea of existing with others in a shared digital space. At the very least, I can say that this was true to the launch experience of Blade and Soul in North America and Europe. Which I have a Founder’s Pack of, thanks to my partner, who at one point let me use his Chinese ID to register for a QQ account and play in 2014 after it was released in that region. (As you can probably tell, I was really into Blade and Soul. At the very least, the idea of it.)

Blade and Soul Neo is more or less the starting experience veteran players would have had on release. There are only a handful of classes, each limited to specific races the Gon, Jin, Yun, and Lyn, each based on the Four Guardians in Chinese folklore. I wouldn’t say any race has any specific advantage, outside of what classes they have access to. This impacts your cosmetics above anything else, and how little clothing you want to wear. 

My first foray had me playing a Jin, and I genuinely loved dressing her up. The character creator in Blade and Soul still remains a head above the rest, and hasn’t changed in Neo. You can change the broadness of your shoulders, the size of your feet, hands, and because the game relies on sex appeal, even the breasts of your character. It’s a game that boasts designs from Korean concept artist and studio lead Hyung-tae Kim of MagnaCarta, now Stellar Blade, fame. This isn’t a knock against the cheap BnS Classic Divine Gems game. It knows what it wants to be, and I applaud it for sticking to its guns. Sometimes you want to be sexy and kick ass, and Blade and Soul has always fulfilled this fantasy.