Here’s what I think:
If you don’t like the combat, you don’t like it. And the clip with the Lvl50 Valkyrie PvP you linked “what’s going on?”, I’m sure people who actually played Valkyrie to 50, or people who have knowledge of the classes, know what’s going on.
If you don’t know what abilities does or look like, there’s no way you can understand what’s going on in games. I think that applies to a lot of games.
I don’t know what that Valkyrie is doing either. But then again, I only have about 10 hours in BDO, so I don’t expect to fully understand what classes do.
I’m guessing Blade & Soul would induce the same feeling to you as BDO does. Do I understand what’s going on there? Nope but it looks cool, and I’d love to try the game. There also seems to be a rather big demand for it in western countries. And this kind of combat seems like a common theme with Asian games.
Here’s some gameplay of Blade & Soul:
There’s ‘soft-caps’ on the level, which is 50. After that it gets harder to level, which results in more grinding, and I don’t know what changes to your character after 50 honestly. But it is a nice touch for those who want to spend lots of time grinding. It doesn’t seem to take very long to get to 50 either.
More about that is discussed here: http://black-desert.com/forums/index.php/Thread/1181-No-level-cap-can-be-a-dangerous-idea/
About micro transactions, yes there is a cash shop in the game. The items you can buy are
mainly costumes, they give some bonuses, but nothing that makes you overpowered to what I’ve noticed. They may give you bonuses to professions, experience boost, and those kinds of stuff. As long as there’s nothing game changing, like overpowered gear only attainable through cash shop, I personally see no issue with it. A lot of games have micro transactions now, its near impossible to avoid.
Though when I mentioned “renting” when me and
tr1age was in mumble, he immediately seemed to think it had to do with the cash shop. If that’s one thing you’re referring to with “major micro transactions”, do some further research, and look up contribution points; this is something you get while leveling up, and you can use it to “rent” things such as houses, some items from npcs, trade nodes, etc. These points you can get back when you decide you don’t need (for example) a house anymore.
Here’s a reddit thread about Contribution points: https://www.reddit.com/r/blackdesertonline/comments/2xrzr9/guide_to_contribution_points/
More in-depth houses, workers, nodes: https://www.reddit.com/r/blackdeser...ck_desert_online_gameplay_and_guides_housing/
I’m not forcing anyone to play the game, you decide if you play it or not. And if you don’t like the combat; there’s not much else you can do about it other than find another game. But I’m saying it’s a large world, with lots of things to experiment with, and explore. Someone with hundreds or thousands of hours in a game can surely say “no content”, but someone who just started? Sorry, no.
And honestly, to everyone here that don’t really know where they stand in regards to this game, wait for the EU/NA release. That way you’ll experience the game the way it’s meant to be experienced. Good latency, likely to be more tailored for people in your region, and better translations.
Here’s an interview with the devs, where they talk about other regions among other things: http://black-desert.com/interviews/...earl-abyss-on-the-status-quo-of-black-desert/
I’m still looking forward to the EU beta.
