My colleague Lewis has some interesting takeaways from Blade & Soul, and interestingly enough, I have a very different takeaway than he does. Perhaps it’s the rain that falls endlessly in Britain that’s eating away at his ability to see the gorgeous story in Blade & Soul, but I would more than argue that I find the story to be awesome. It almost feels like sitting down and watching an anime version of a wuxia film, which is sort of like a martial artist hero type movie that often features the avenging your fallen master motif.

The point of a wuxia story is that it’s pretty lame, that’s the whole fun part of it. You don’t want to see Jackie Chan have a serious and deep meaning within the action, you want something that’s campy and kinda dumb? As I wrote before, it has all the elements of a good wuxia story, like the fact the last remaining friend you have from your school falls to the evil plague.

As for the main villains outfit? Pshaw, Bayonetta is one of the coolest and most awesome anti-hero? Hero? Person that does stuff involving mashing lots of buttons and some really awesome heels? I don’t know specifically if I would ever in my world consider that to be a bad point.

As far as the game goes, the questing is enjoyable to me, and I love the story. The combat makes questing fun, as I’m constantly kiting enemies around the map on my summoner and stacking them together to take out all at once. I find this to be super satisfying, as a matter of a fact, I can literally do it all day which is what I’ve been doing. I rarely find a game that compels to grind endlessly because the combat is so fun.

Sure there are a few questionable things about the game that I don’t like. For instance, I don’t like the fact that some buildings are instanced. This is annoying, because I have some weird lag event as I walk into them. I get that it’s for the story elements, but it’s rather annoying. I do appreciate the fact some towns are instanced, as that lets you not have the lag of all the people in that specific town.

The anti-virus stuff is annoying too. I get that cyber cafes are very popular everywhere, but where I’m at, but at the same time do I need it running? Plus the password stuff? I don’t know, I really can’t answer if I need it, but it feels dated, since I haven’t seen it in a while.

The rest of the game though, I really enjoy, so far. Like Lewis, I’m still playing the game, and it’s likely that by the time I’m done my opinion could drastically change. For right now though, I can easily say I’m addicted, and it’s one of the best MMOs to come from out east in a long time.

I will say that the game is polarizing, you either love it or hate it. There isn’t a lot of middle ground, but considering the character animations, story, combat, and questing appeal to me, then I consider myself to be on the side of happy and content so far with my experience.