Blade and Soul is one of the most anticipated MMORPG titles set to be released this winter. Developed by NCsoft and based on a fantasy, martial arts format featuring stunning graphics and in-depth character design. While everyone else in North America is waiting for its release, you can take a peek and play the game on an international server. Here's what you need to do:
1. Create an account in https://playbns.com/.
2. Download the game.
3. Download the english patch here: https://forum.playbns.com/showthread.php?t=17095
4. Run the update and don't forget to select the correct folder where the existing game is located.
There are a few things you need to watch out for after finishing these steps. The first thing is the language settings. After patching the english version of the game, the voice language is automatically set to Chinese. You can change this by clicking the cog icon on your updater and choosing a different voice language; Chinese, Korean and Japanese is available. When you do choose a new language, it will update again and you should be ready to play afterwards.
There are a couple of quests that didn't translate very well, but if you're a seasoned veteran, you'll figure it out on your own. There are a multitude of sites that will help you with the quests so there's no shortage of support when you hit a brick wall. The game is on an international server so there's no need to fire up your VPNs for this version.
So far, the game shows a lot of promise and while the combat system is a little old school, you can move around while hacking and slashing. The game follows the usual Chinese kung fu movie format where your master dies and you hone your skills to avenge him and your fellow students. Oddly enough, I find the notion rather appealing. There are a lot of gameplay and reviews out there, so we're not going to bother doing one here. We do hope you find this guide useful and we hope you can start playing this awesome game as well. See you out there!