As a follow up, as somone who is actually playing the alpha
I've watched some recently-uploaded videos (sorted by upload date, I watched the ones that date no longer than a week ago) on YouTube of the Alpha that's apparently going on at the moment. It looks like a fairly fun game (at least as far as the combat goes, but there seems to be a fleshed-out story as well which I do appreciate in MMORPGs).
I have some questions for those of you here whom might be participating to the Alpha right now, questions that I've had no answers for by watching footage on YouTube:
1) Since the game is only scheduled to be released in 2016, and right now the NA version is apparently still only an 'alpha', then what portion(s) of the game's content is missing if any? (for example, is the game playable until the 'end' of its story? Is there end-game dungeons? Is the level cap already attainable? Or do the developers still need to implement a large portion of the game?)
I'm a fairly slow leveler to start with, and I've probably spent as much time with the character creator as I have actually playing the game. So, I've only reached level 25 as of yet. From what I understand though...when the game was released in Korea, the cap was 45. Has been raised to 50. Current cap, durning the alpha's, is 45. I believe it has all the content from the original korean release, plus some of the updated content. I know they are planning on releasing all the content, but I'm not sure if the they'll be taking it all the way to the raising the level cap expansion by the time the game is released here in jan, or if thats for further down the road.
Of course, since I haven't reached end game, I can't guarantee any of that info.
2) I see that right now it's possible to buy one of three packs (on the official web site) which allows access to betas. Does that count for the alpha that's currently happening? Or do they really mean later when it reaches beta status per se?
There were plans for 2 alpha's. Last weekend, and this weekend. Nothing next weekend, and then the beta weekends start the week after (the 30th, i think?). If you buy one of the founders packs, you are guaranteed into the beta's. The people who got into the alphas were either people who stream games, reviewers, or random people who ordered founders packs, and got a lucky draw (that's how I got in).
But, yes, if you order a founders pack, any one of them, you'll be able to play in all the beta's, guaranteed, starting in 2 weeks. I beileve there is a head start planned, you'll get in it too. If you choose to go the free to play route, you'll have to wait for the official release, which I think is scheduled for January.
3) Linked to the above question, is the game currently too bugged or unoptimized, or unpolished for it to be worth trying? Those of you who played the final Korean version perhaps can tell immediately if there's a long way to go, or if right now the game might perhaps be surprisingly "playable" already.
The actual client is fairly polished. There are cases where you run into slow downs, frame rate wise, or connection wise. Doesn't happen often though. And, when logging in, they tell you up front that they are testing stuff, so you'll run into it. It's intentional. And that it should be cleared up by release.
4) Is there any indication, so far, that the game is headed towards any shape or form of Pay2Win? I have read on another forum that supposedly "everything" can be purchased in the game, gear-wise, meaning that potentially if you have the money to burn you could literally gear-up for end-game by merely buying everything you need without any efforts on your part, is that true?
The form of "gear" is pretty different for blade and soul, than in other mmo's..plus, as mentioned, I'm only level 25, so I couldn't say with any authority of what the end game "pay to win" might be like.
You do not have armor in this game. You have weapons, and accessories. The rest is covered by costumes, which have no stats. The only thing they are good for, is changing your appearance, and some give you pvp options, thats it. From what I understand, a good part of "end game" is grinding out some of the end game costumes. A lot of what's left of end game is pvp. It's my understanding (which I'll admit, could be wrong), is that you won't spend a lot of time grinding gear at end game.
You pretty much keep the same weapons and accessories the entire game. You just upgrade them. Occasionally they "transform" into a different named weapon. To upgrade them, you feed it the random junk weapons that you'll get occasionally throughout the game. On the "5" levels (weapon levels, not your character level's), you'll need a specific item to "transform" them. You normally get those from doing quests in dungeons, whether solo or group.
At my characters current level 25, my weapon level is stuck currently at 15, and waiting on the next "transform". Not far enough in the story line to be at whatever quest nets me the transform item.
Accessory wise, I have 2 at level 5, waiting on a transform, and 1 at level 8, which I'm still feeding junk accessories, to raise to 10. At least, i think thats what the levels were. Might have been 10, 10, and 13. Pretty sure was 5, 5, and 8, though.
I did discuss, in an earlier post, on how you could consider part of what they sell in the cash shop to be pay to win. I consider it a pretty mild form of that though, if at all. Basically, the rewards for the quest, to get your "transform" feeder item, comes from a roulette box, thats given to you for clearing quests or dungeons. To open the box, you need keys. Regular and elite keys are given to you for completing daily quests, plus other random story based quests. Regular keys are pretty common ( have around 25 of those in my inventory at the moment). Elite keys are pretty rare (0 in my inventory, currently). Regular keys, when used to open the weapon boxes, gives the weapons needed to upgrade any class. So you might get what you need on the first try...or on the 30th try. My experience is that it's taken me 10+ tries to get what I need. That means running a dungeon 10 times or more.....
The elite keys are guaranteed to get your class specific weapon. So, if you have one, it only takes running the dungeon, or quest, 1 time.
Or, you can buy an elite key off the cash shop..........
Also, note - the level 5 transform weapons were tradeable. The level 10's were not. So, all the "wrong" weapons that you got could only be used as feeder weapons, and could not be given to other players, or sold on the market. You were pretty much doing the quest until you got your weapon.
Other things sold in the cash shop - of course, costumes. Items for boosting xp (which really are not needed through 25. Perhaps, when the so called xp slow down at 35 hits, it might be needed, who knows), elite keys for item boxes, gems for socketing into weapons to give more stats (you can get those in game too, and I've gotten quite a few).
There is probably more in there, but the only thing I've really looked at were the costumes. Perhaps I'll check today when i get home from work. I think this alpha ends at 10pm pacific, today (monday)