Hey all I’m back with a free to play MMORPG for review. It’s Bless Unleashed!
Plot: The plot is pretty standard Fantasy stuff, evil’s rising and you the plucky hero get to go galivanting across the world to do various tasks and strengthen yourself in order to combat said evil.
Honestly, it’s pretty cliched, and not that original. However if you are going to do something unoriginal you can’t go wrong with imitating the classics. So while I wasn’t a fan of the story, because I’ve seen it thousands upon thousands of times already, at least it made sense unlike something like Sword and Fairy 6 which was a huge mess.
Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty different from the two big MMOs that I’m familiar with which is Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, while FFXIV has a combo system for it’s melee classes it’s really not that complex compared to Bless Unleashed. In Bless you have standard Action RPG combos that you can use to hit targets, for example I played a Mage and was throwing out various “Force Bolts” along with Fire blasts and Frost explosions in my combos.
I tended to use Fire Blasts as my go to, since they applied a damage over time effect to enemies that helped bring them down quicker, but sometimes it was faster to just run through my Force spell combo, which had a couple extra steps compared to my Fire one, but did more damage. And then there were your extra skills you could use based on what “Divine Blessing” you were using at the time.
For example some of my mage skills had the ability to blink around as one of the spells with a fire pillar and frost pillar as well. Others had me aiming lightning bolts at enemies. It’s pretty decent and allows for some customization, although I have no doubt that there is a meta gaming skill set that is set above the rest for any given situation.
However this is also a free to play MMORPG, and that means it’s grindy. Leveling takes hours upon hours of work to do after the first few levels in addition to doing the main story questline, and while there are experience boosters available, you do need to buy them for real money and not just in game money. It’s a legitimate, if very disdained business practice and that may sour your experience with the game. That being said if you are interested in just playing the game it’s completely free to download and load up.
As for classes there are only five, Crusader (the standard sword and board tank), Berserker (the melee DPS), Ranger (the non-spell casting ranged DPS), Mage (The Spell Casting DPS), and Priest (the Healer) and they do have limitations for you in regards to the races each class can become. For example the Varg are the bestial race and are limited to Berserkers, no other race can become that class. Rangers are limited to the Elves and Ippin, which are the short race that seems to be standard in any MMO, can become either Priest or a Crusader. Humans can be Mages, as well as Crusaders and the Elves can also become Priests.
Art: The art is okay, it’s not as good as other MMOs I’ve played recently like Final Fantasy XIV, but it is a step up from the original World of Warcraft’s graphics so there is that.
Music: It’s fitting for the game, although there was a really odd bit in the beginning area that sounded like I was in a Disney theme park for the weird background music that occasionally played. It was very much out of place and was just odd to hear. Thankfully I didn’t run into any other situations where that happened but I’ll admit I didn’t bother checking other areas all that closely, so it may pop up elsewhere.
Overall: Not the best MMORPG on the market, but it’s free to play and if you enjoy a more combo oriented combat system, Bless Unleashed might just be something you’ll enjoy playing. And because it’s free, you really have nothing to lose by checking it out on the platform of your choice.
For those who like: MMOs, Very Grindy Games, Combo-centric Combat.
Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.
Developers: Neowiz Games, Round 8 Studios
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Steam, Xbox One