I have no idea how I missed this. There’s an underground rumor that the release date was pushed back to 2011. Anyway, here you go! (click the title to view the post)

I’ve been very busy and just found out the other day that NCsoft made its progress report.  The NCsoft rep. talks about projected date for CBT of “Blade & Soul” and answers questions regarding its console version.  This article is from gamemeca.com.  The translation is done by Vigevano.

NCsoft: “Blade & Soul CBT in Q4 2009 and full release in 2010″

Through the 2008 progress report and conference call on the 12th, NCsoft announced that the next-gen MMORPG “Blade & Soul” CBT will begin in the 4th quarter of 2009.

NCsoft’s plan for the 2009 year includes “Blade & Soul” CBT in 2009 Q4 and its release sometime in 2010. Taek-jin Kim representative noted, “Detailed milestones and development progress will be revealed on the NC Media day in May.”

Regarding questions about console game development, he answered, “The console game market is huge in North America and Japan compared to their online PC game market. We are developing major titles such as “Aion” with the possibility console version in mind.” He added that the studio is also developing “Blade and Soul” with flexibility in mind, but it is too early to announce anything certain.

The representative also said, “The console market and online game market came much closer. There’s no technical difficulty, or quality of games, servers, and network problems. However, there’s a vast gap between the two interface environment. This seems to be the only major problem. In order to develop console games, this interface problem must be resolved.”

….

Somehow gamemeca.com got a hold of the new unofficial video.  The following translation is done by vigevano.  Sorry for the poor quality–it was rushed.

[Original] NCsoft’s Unofficial “Blade and Soul” Video

NCsoft unveiled an unofficial video of the next-gen MMORPG “Blade and Soul.”

Mr. Bae in charge of the development of Blade and Soul released an eight-minute clip on the 13th at Yeon-Sae Digital Game Academy.

Mr. Bae was invited as a special guest to the “Culture + Industry = Game” conference.  At the event he made a surprise release of a new video which contains more detail than the one shown on the Media Day back in July.  The videos seem to be created around the same time considering a number of identical scenes.

The new video is more detailed and shows off more action.  Viewers can spot a new race and watch various boss combats.

[...]

**NOTE:
You can watch the video here.
You can get the stream–with no audio–here.

It seems like NCsoft is serious about expanding its business to the U.S. and European markets.  NCsoft tested the water with Guild Wars and Lineage series.  Now, their serious attempt is coming with Aion followed by Guild Wars 2 in 2009 and Blade & Soul in 2010.  It’s an interesting move in the big picture of NCsoft’s expansion.  By consolidating all the subsidiaries and its offices NCsoft will be able to develop, publish, and distribute more efficiently.  Here’s the announcement:

NCsoft Announces Formation of “NC West”

CEO Taek Jin Kim Promotes Chris Chung, Jeff Strain, David Reid, and Patrick Wyatt

SEOUL, Korea, Sept. 10, 2008—NCsoft ® Corporation (KSE: 036570.KS), the world’s leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), including award-winning franchises Lineage®, Guild Wars® and City of Heroes®, today announced the formation of “NC West™”. A wholly-owned subsidiary of NCsoft with operating responsibility for western regions including the US and Europe, NC West will be led by Chris Chung as CEO, Jeff Strain as president, product development, David Reid as president, publishing, and Patrick Wyatt as CTO as well as yet unannounced European executives.

NCsoft’s existing subsidiaries NC Interactive, NC Europe, NC Austin, and ArenaNet will be led as a unified organization under NC West with a dedicated focus towards becoming the world’s premier western publisher of MMOs. NC West is the tentative name for the organization, and the company expects to announce final naming and corporate structure in the near future. NC West’s headquarters is planned to be established in Seattle, WA by the end of 2008.

Chris Chung, previously CEO of NC Interactive, has a long history with NCsoft. He began his tenure at NCsoft’s ArenaNet® studio, where he managed that studio’s business and helped launch the multi-platinum selling Guild Wars franchise. Chung later went on to become the chief publishing officer for NCsoft’s Seoul headquarters. Prior to NCsoft, Chung spent more than five years at Microsoft and later co-founded a marketing research firm. As CEO of NC West, Chung will continue to report directly to NCsoft CEO Taek Jin (TJ) Kim.

“We are confident that by combining our subsidiaries into a unified global organization under Chris Chung’s leadership, NC West will become a more powerful force to be reckoned with in the western MMO market,” said TJ Kim. “Chris has become a guiding force within our company and has been extremely successful at every position he has held with us. His detailed first-hand knowledge of all aspects of our business is invaluable and will help establish NC West as a global leader.”

Jeff Strain was formerly the president and co-founder of ArenaNet, a company he formed with Patrick Wyatt and Mike O’Brien when they left senior roles at Blizzard Entertainment in 2000. Additionally, Strain held the position of executive producer of Guild Wars 2™ prior to taking this new role. Strain will report directly to Chung and manage all NC West development studios across all existing and future products. Strain will also direct the production of NCsoft’s Asian-developed titles for NC West territories.

David Reid began with NCsoft in March 2008 as vice-president, marketing for North America. Reid came to NCsoft from Turner Broadcasting’s GameTap, where he served as vice-president, marketing. Prior to that, he worked at Microsoft as director of global platform marketing, where he launched the Xbox 360. In his new role, Reid will continue to report to Chung and will lead franchise management, marketing, public relations, sales, and customer support for NC West.

As a founder of ArenaNet, Patrick Wyatt led the development of the network and server technologies for the Guild Wars franchise, and directed the architecture and deployment of ArenaNet’s global game network infrastructure. Before co-founding ArenaNet with Strain and O’Brien, Wyatt was the vice president of research and development for Blizzard Entertainment, where he led programming for the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises. As CTO for NC West, Wyatt will report to Chung and will focus on platform technology development, network operations, and systems engineering.

“There is an unparalleled opportunity for growth in the massively multiplayer online market,” said Chris Chung. “By combining the strength of our US and European teams, NCsoft has the best global infrastructure to win in new and existing markets, and the best developer talent capable of creating blockbuster MMO franchises.”

About NC West
NC West is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, a world leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games including Lineage/Lineage II, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa®, and Aion®: The Tower of Eternity™. More information about NCsoft can be found at www.plaync.com.

NCsoft, ArenaNet, Lineage, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Tabula Rasa, Aion, The Tower of Eternity and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts:

NCsoft
Jaesung Lee, +82-2-6201-0400, jsl@ncsoft.net
Kevin Kim, +82-2-6201-2567, kwkim@ncsoft.net

NC West
David Swofford (US), 512-623-8002, dswofford@ncsoft.com
Steve Cherrier (US), 604-820-1996, steve@relatepr.com
Sabine Berekoven (EU), +44-(0)-1273-872174, sberekoven@ncsoft.com

I found this article from PlayForum.net.  The following translation is done by vigevano.

[Blade & Soul] Secrets in the Video

On the 31st NCsoft, represented by Taek-Jin Kim) released 3 games through MEDIA DAY 2008 event.  Among them, Blade & Soul produced by PD Bae received the spotlight.  PD, Bae during an interview, revealed that there are a total of 4 races and 8 classes.  And, he hinted that only 2 races were officially revealed, but “by analyzing the video frame by frame, you will find an unrevealed race and interesting details.” So, we [PlayForum] did. We did discovered something interesting things.  Also, we were able to spot the 3rd race.  In this article, we will analyze details from interviews and the video, and we will scrutinize the two races and their respective skills.

New Race and Others

If you run the video slowly, you will be able to identify an undisclosed class and see arrows and cones which serves unknown purposes.

1. The 3rd Race

PD Bae confirmed the small character who appeared in the video to be one of the undisclosed race.

Its weapons and special characteristics are still unknown, but the video showed us this new race

Also, Gon’s ability to grow horns is one of its race-specific skill, and PD Bae said he would like to give a different number of race-specific skill to each race.  When asked whether the last animaion(shown below) is also a race-specific skill, he said yes.

2. The Mysterious Pointer

If you watch the video frame by frame, you will be able to see the mysterious pointer/arrow.

In the video, the arrow appears 3 times and colored differently.  We have no clue what it does.  Since it shows up near mobs, we think it indicates certain skills are usable.

3. Cone indicator

We were also able to locate couple cone-shaed-pointers.  The cone–which appears a total of 4 times–indicates places where the characters land from jumps or the “swift jump” skill.

In the video, we noticed that characters always landed on the spot indicated by the cone after running along a wall.  This appears twice in the video.

4. Transformation?

The video also includes scene where a wolf-like character running. It’s little odd that a mob is running at full speed for no reason.  Also, the camera was fixed to the character, so we concluded that it’s a user-controlled character.

We identified all 3 races.  The screenshot above may indicaed a 4th race or one of the 3 previously mentioned races transormed.

6. The Clan System

(**NOTE: the term “clan” is not equivalent to “guild” in a typical MMORPG.  In martial-arts world, each “clan” is associated with its unique martial-arts and history.  For example Karate, Kung-Fu, Judo and Tae-Kwon-Do all belong to different “clans.”  Today this is meaningless, but it is always emphasized in the genre of martial-arts as the cause of conflict whether they be games, novels, or comics)

We were also able to spot a group of characters from one clan.  Clan is indicated as [Clan Name].

(**NOTE: they all have the same clan name, and seems to be NPCs, but maybe mobs considering that this scene takes place in a dungeon)

7. Races

Jin

(**NOTE: it seems that they are arbitrarly using the term “race” and “class.” At this point, I am going to assume Jin and Gon belong to one race.  We need a clarification on this)

The first class revealed was Jin who uses sword.  Jin has slashing, piercing, throwing, and rushing skills.  Also, there is a skill that attacks multiple opponents simultaneously and that summons swords which appears to be a race-specific skill.

There also seems to be a skill that attacks all the enemies behind the primary target.  You can see the above same damage effect of 291 on two characters.

This is the most flashy attacking skill seen in the video.  Apparently, the character was beaten to death by the mobs soon after using the skill. It’s supposed to be a finishing skill according to PD Bae.

Jin can also rush with a sword in hand.

This is a sword throwing skill.  The sword returns after giving damaging to the opponent.

Jin’s race-specific skill which summons multiple swords.  We think they are merely spirits of the sword.

Gon

The 2nd class revealed was Gon.  Gon uniqueness comes from its glove-like weapons.  There is a blocking, moving [behind the opponent], massive pounding, and mid-air combo skills.  There is a race-specific skill which grows horns from their back.  Despite its colorful effect, its purpose is unknown.

Gon blocks the enemy attack.  With a sound effect, the attacker is momentarily stunned.

This character carves a Chinese character on the ground by stomping.  It is supposed to attack enemies in front.

The female Gon pushes back the opponent with her back.  It has a stunning visual effect.

The famous pounding scene.  The skill includes face-punching, two-hand smash, and arm-breaking which casts like a combo.  It also includes a head-butt.

A move skill that allows you to move behind or to a side an enemy.  It does not do any damage, but you can quickly shift your position.

The race-skill tha grows horns.  It casts with a fantastic visual effect, but its uses is unknown.

Conclusion

As PD Bae said, we were able to find interesting little facts from the video.

It looks like the TIG’s 47 Q&A was a compilation rather than an exclusive interview with the PD and AD.  Several Korean webzines and websites wrote similar Q&A articles. However, TIG left out some interesting questions and answers. I visited about 10~15 different websites and game portals to collect the missing q&a. Also, the admin at bascentral.com discovered TIG’s video interview which contains an important detail not mentioned in the TIG’s 47 Q&A. Thanks to bascentral.com for the information, and the translation is done by vigevano.

From gamemeca.com’s article:

Q: In the video, a character was able to climb and run vertically(?
A: There are several skills like that(**NOTE: he’s referring to “swift jump” skill which I lamely called mid-air-dash skill).  With them, players will be able to jump from cliffs and reach the other side and run a long distance instantly.  This will in effect remove the stress of traveling in game.  There is a clear difference in creating a large world and having a lot of content.

Q: What’s the meaning behind the title “Blade & Soul”?
A: I meant it literally. In martial-arts genre, the sword is the most important component.  Blade & Soul means that the piece of iron interacts with the soul of the owner.

Q: What’s the system requirements for the game?
A: The hardware specification is important [to the success of any game]. Developers know that. Surprisingly, the requirements will be low. I bought my computer 2 years ago and haven’t upgraded yet.  It will be a while until the release of Blade & Soul, and wouldn’t gamers upgrade their machines for Starcraft 2? (smile)

From inven.co.kr’s article:

Q: Since you developed Lineage 2, what are some similarities between L2 and B&S?
A: I was the lead developer in Lineage 2 project and am currently the production director of Blade & Soul.  They are similar in genre; they are both MMORPG.  However, I want to try something different.  Combats, gears, items, and quests will be very different from that of conventional MMORPGs.

Q: The game stresses a lot of action–or PVP.  But, I highly doubt you can start PVP at level 1. Is there a level cap? And, when or at what level can players enjoy the PVP action and how much?
A: Everybody has a different experience with games.  Adjusting that cut-off line is a very delicate subject.  We can’t solve it by simply adding a tutorial so we’ll see what happens in beta tests.

From mud4u.com’s article:

Q: What’s the general storyline?
A: We’ll release more information about the world later on. Simply put, 4 races, in the post-genesis world, fight against gods to revert the world back to the state before the genesis.

Q: How important are consumable items such as potions and gears?
A: [...] We are focusing more on weapons(swords) than armors.  That’s more martial-art-like.  There will also be enchantment or strengthening options.  Instead of potions, we are looking into healing skills.  There is no specific healer class.  Status–as in HP and MP–will be maintained through different methods.

Q: Will there be mounts?
A: We planned it.  However, we have not worked out the details.  We are not going to include free flying.  Basically, we will leave [the option of traveling] up to the user. For example, if you are a low level and want to cross a river, you have to find a bridge.  However, at a higher level, you can just jump over the river. [...] This is the main difference between martial-arts and fantasy genres.

Q: Will NCsoft introduce Blade & Soul in foreign markets?
A: We are in the phase of development and never considered marketing elements. So far, the interaction among the foreign offices and the headquarter was limited to sharing what we created here(Korea). To our surprise, the game was well received in other countries.  The game is still premature, and it is too early to share it with foreign testers.  If we reach that point, we will consider it.

Here is the TIG’s video interview.  This one seems more exclusive. Most of the questions were already covered in the 47 Q&A, but some were not.

Q: Are you planning to reveal more characters?
A: There are 8 classes and 2 are revealed today(**NOTE: This is confusing.  There was no mention of any class in the video, but two races. But, he previously said there will be 4 races… huh?).  We showed you two classes: one that uses sword and another that uses fists.

Q: Is there a mage or healer class?
A: We will not follow the traditional RPG class system: tank, healer, ranged DPS, and melee DPS.  Our classes will be blends of these archetypes.

In the TIG’s 47 Q&A, PD Bae hints that a 3rd class is revealed in the video–even though not said so officially:

Q25: In the trailer, a character grew something from his back as he was casting a skill.
Bae: The Gon race’s race-specific skill triggered it.  I would like to make the race-specific skills varied and deep.  The scene–towards the end of the video–in which the girl is surrounded by flowers is also a race-specific skill. If you look closely, you will see some characters(especially a female midget) and others that are not introduced yet.

And, eVenom at aionsource.com pointed out in this thread that the third race maybe this fox-like race and its race-specific skill is transforming in to a wolf-like monster.

I was just looking at the trailer for Blade and Soul once again, and I saw that one of the confirmed races, which doesn’t have a name known to use yet, has fox ears and a tail.

Again in the trailer, we see 2 more fox-like creatures, but at first glance you might think of them being the same thing as each other; just a mob in one scene running, and in the other, just standing still. But I took a closer look and got the idea that this smaller race might just be able transform into a werewolf-type monster. Just look at these 2 pictures I screenshotted from the video:

The first could easily be a transformation of the fox-eared race, while the second could be just a simple monster/boss or an npc. This excites me a bit because I like the idea of very surprising and unique race abilities and traits. Anyone else think that this might be possible?

And, he is right! (of course, this is still a speculation, but we are 99% confident) After receiving this information, I watched the trailer three more times to see if the character makes another appearance.  He does:

Is this the 3rd race in PVP?

However, the monster in the 3rd screenshot is probably not of the 3rd race.  As eVenom pointed out, the furry lower half of the monster matches with that of those in the 2nd and 4th sceenshots, but not with the 3rd.  It is possible that the monster is a mob/boss, but I am more willing to bet that it’s an NPC.  Why? I have my a theory which, also, explains why they have that ability.  I am working on another, but small, Q&A post and it includes more specific information about the storyline.  That might give you a clue .

EDIT:

The old crappy screenshots are replaced with these new ones.  Thanks again to eVenom for hi-res pictures. He also added descriptions of the characters in interest to help us identify similarities and differences.

Also, ~Lady Kismet~, from aionsource.com, suggested the following as more evidence.

If you are copy-pasta-ing the translation, please include the source. Thank you!

Production Director of B&S Jae-Hyun Bae

Q25: In the trailer, a character grew something from his back as he was casting a skill.
Bae: The Gon race’s race-specific skill triggered it.  I would like to make the race-specific skills varied and deep.  The scene–towards the end of the video–in which the girl is surrounded by flowers is also a race-specific skill. If you look closely, you will see some characters(especially a female midget) and others that are not introduced yet.

Q26: There are a lot of components to action(PVP).  What are you focusing on the most?
Bae: The extent to which player can control in relation to the time and situation is very important.  The state(defense, parry, position) between the opponent and yourself and your interaction is also crucial.  We will develop the game with these thoughts in mind.
Kim: There’s an emphasis on feedback between characters.  We will show players a variety of actions.  Tactics matter and the combats will take your breath away.

Q27: Do characters’ body parts take different damage?
Bae: No. However, the attack angle matters.  The damage will depend on from which position you are attacking the opponent.

Q28: The video only shows one-sided attacks.  Is it filmed that way, or is the combat turn-based?
Bae: We were controlling the characters during the filming.  It’s too difficult to film when both characters are fighting.  For the purpose of the trailer, we filmed one sided attack.  The actual game scenes will be packed with intensive actions.  Players must move constantly and use skills strategically.
Kim: As I said earlier, the developers were playing against one another.  There are times when players attack each other [in game] simultaneously; the first blow might give an advantage to the player.

Q29: Skill effects are very stylish.  It seems like the combat took a long time due to the amount of animation.
Bae: You could say that. However, the trailer shows skills used in succession.  I am not sure if they are considered combos, but, definitely, more than one skill was used.  Blade & Soul have a short combat period compared to other MMOPRGs.

Q30: Regarding the attack on the opponent on ground, is that skill only available when the opponent character is in the state of “confusion”?
Bae: We are testing with different implementations.

Q31: How are you going to implement the controls?
Bae: That’s one of the hot topics within the development team.  We are still in discussion whether to include skill-keys or make separate keys(**NOTE: I am not sure what he’s talking about here. The description is vague).  What we definitely know is that the game will not have skill-window on the bottom of the screen like other MMORPGS.

Q32: How do you move the character? With WASD keys or mouse?
Bae: Both

Q33: There was a scene of a player using “swift jump” skill.  Can players use all the background objects?
Kim: The first thing I wanted to avoid was the wallpaper like background which you can see but not explore.  I hate the concept of players following a predetermined path.  I want the environment to be accesible and interactive with players.  We are making areas where you can only access with the “swift jump” skill.

Q34: What type of quests are in Blade & Soul?
Bae: Goals and scenario make up the quests. Many MMORPGs have “vending-machine” quests: “kill X number of mobs.”  This is boring.  Blade & Soul will resolve the problem of “I want to follow the story line, but why am I talking to this vending machine.”  I want the game to overcome that limitation.  It’s one of the topics of discussion within the team.

Q35: Would you say that there’s less emphasis on gears?
Kim: There would be a different implementation of gears, not less.

Q36: In order to be a master–an experienced martial artist–one must train.  How is this interpreted in game?
Bae: In martial-arts genre, there’s always a master–a sensei/teacher–who teaches you the skills.   I would like to recreate that experience of “learning.”  I don’t like the idea of “buying” skill books.

Q37: How about the game economy?
Bae: We never thought about it in detail.  We are, at the moment, focusing on the action and combat aspect of the game.  Game economy has a low priority in the development.  We could work on it later in the development cycle.

Q38: Is this game for solo play oriented? or party play?
Bae: There are differences among classes.  However, unlike the classic RPG class structure, I would like to overlap the archetypes for the classes in Blade & Soul.  Solo play is not always fun, there will be some parts of the game which needs party play to enjoy.

Q39: In Lineage series, siege battles were the attraction.  What features are in Blade & Soul?
Bae: I came up with the idea of siege battles and structured it.  I know the good and bad sides of it.  Blade & Soul will not have siege battles.  They tend to exclude a portion of the player base except a few.  The game must be enjoyable for everyone.

Q40: Are there a lot of cooperative content?
Bae: MMOs should involve cooperation, but Blade & Soul will emphasize an individual aspect.  The world and the game will revolve around the player.

Q41: How will potions and gears affect the game?
Bae: Blade & Soul is a MMO, thus gears are important.  But, the item system in Blade & Soul is completely different and weapon strengthening/enchanting systems are in place.  The team is working on a replacement feature for potions.

Q42: During the presentation, you said “we did everything MMORPG industry told us not to.”  What are you talking about specifically?
Bae: I am talking about everything in the trailer.  The industry said we can’t grab, push, pull, float, “swift jump”, etc. are all  big no-nos.  Developers know better.

Q43: Why do you think other games didn’t implement those features?
Bae: There’s a saying that the elephant in a circus could escape easily breaking the shackles.  Noone in the industry tried.  Developers will literally commit suicide trying to implement the combat system while maintaing the security of the game; preventing exploits and hacks.

Blade & Soul developers came this far with hard work and patience.  At the moment, the simple combat system takes more animation than any console combat games.  It’s not a coincidence the team is named Blood Lust.(smile)

Q44: Is there a special reason why you choose Unreal Engine 3?
Bae: Simply, it’s a good engine.  My motto is “produce rapidly.”  I choose the engine to rapidly develop this game.  The engine allows us to express the concepts easily.
Kim: Specifically, the engine allows us to use lighting and shading easily. It is flexible.  We made adjustments to the rendering engine.

Art Director of B&S Hyung-Taek Kim

Q45: Other game titles from NCsoft are using Unreal Engine 3, do you share your analysis, tips, and tricks?
Bae: Of course, the games are different, but we do share know-hows and information about the engine.  The engine is excellent, but there is a limit to a game written merely in scripts.  The way to success is analyzing the source and adjusting it to match the concept of the game.

Q46: There is a rumor that Blade & Soul is NCsoft’s PS3 MMO?
Bae: There’s nothing specific about the plan.  We only have 60 developers which is just enough to make the PC version.  I would like to [make a PS3 version], but some things can’t be done.  We are discussing with other platform companies as well.

Q47: When will be the release?
Bae: (smile) I really don’t know. I hope we don’t this year [closed beta].  We developed for about two years and 50% is complete.  I don’t know what the developers think.
Kim: I think only 20% is done. (smile)

end of the interview

[EDIT] I changed the weird skill name “mid-air-dash” to more accepted “swift jump”

This interview appeared on thisisgame.com and is translated by vigevano.

Kim, Hyung-Tae (Kim): the art director of Blade & Soul
Bae, Jae-Hyun (Bae): the production director of Blade & Soul

Q1: How did you decide on the concept
Kim:  From MMORPG, a player should experience a variety of concepts.  So, instead deeply developing one concept, I tried to include a several.  Also, instead of limiting the theme to the traditional martial arts genre, I added my own identity to it.

Q2: So, is this a completely new genre of MMORPG?
Kim: In Korea, the martial arts genre is heavily influenced by the Chinese culture.  However, we incorporated a lot of cultural images from different nations in Blade & Soul: Russia, Mongolia, Taiwan, etc. The current product is a combination of these and our creativity.

Q3: Many gamers voice that the art style of Blade & Soul remind them of other games, such as Magna Carta.
Kim:  I like my previous works and their style.  I did not work [on Blade & Soul] with a different style in mind; instead, I merely thought of improving the previous works.  In the case of Blade & Soul, it expresses well the ideas of the illustrator.

Q4: Lineage II received much criticism for its mature material.  Blade & Soul seems to demand a similar level of maturity from the gamers.  Would it be appropriate as a rated 15+ game?
Bae: Lineage II was talked about because of its clothings, but it was not a big issue.  As a producer, it’s a difficult position to be in, but something one should overcome.  The only nation in which we encountered problems was China.  There will be pressures in Korea, but we must endure it.  We could always change the rating or make adjustment to the contents.

Q5: Are you planning to make changes to the contents or the rating?
Bae: It depends on the situation; we should probably work on both.
Kim: We focused on certain areas because the game is in a developmental cycle.  But, because the game’s focus is in neither sexuality nor violence, it won’t be too difficult to receive 15+ rating.
Bae: There’s no guarantee that the game will succeed with emphasis on sexual contents.  No game did and we don’t plan to.

Q6: What is game representative Taek-Jin Kim’s opinion?
Bae: He suggested a removal of one character due to excessive skin exposure.  Besides that he really liked the “swift jump” skill.

Q7: To which regional market would the game appeal the most?
Bae: It’s a difficult question to answer.  The game might be well-received in Europe, but might not in Japan.  However, when we demonstrated to employees from off-shore offices, they liked it.
Kim: While following the games revealed in E3 2008, I realized that many western gamers are not used to seeing orient-themed games.  Our focus is to make a great game. We will worry about localization later.

Q8: Why oriental martial-arts MMORPG? Why now?
Bae: Because I wanted to. (smiles)

Q9: Why?
Bae: After Lineage II, I decided to stop making MMORPGs because they are massive and difficult to develop.  I wanted to try something easier, but those were just as difficult.  Eventually, I came back to making MMORPG. I like both martial-arts and science fiction. I decided work on a martial-arts game.
Kim: There are a lot of things you can do in the world of martial arts if you look behind the visuals.  I wanted to recreate the intense action from Chinese martial-arts movies which inspired me.  The allure of martial-ars world is the variety and limitlessness.

Q10: What’s your definition of the “martial-arts genre”?
Bae: I have a lot to talk about this topic.  There are a lot of novels, legends, history to draw ideas from.  Thus, there is no real “definition” of the genre.  I think the lack of games in the genre is limiting the definition of it.  I think that the genre comes down to, obviously, the component of action.

Q11: In any MMORPG the storyline is crucial.  What percentage of the game content covers the story?
Bae: We are focusing mostly on combats(PVP) and quests.  You could say that these two make up Blade & Soul. It’s about half and half. The story would be narrrated through quests.

Q12: Could you elaborate on the storyline which is based on the Korean genesis.
Bae: Not only the Korean genesis, but a number of legends and anecdotes from Mongolia, Cambodia, Japan, and China are included in the story.

Q13: According to a source, the game will include characters from Korean legends?
Bae: Only one race will follow Korean legends.

Q14: In the story, players will be against gods, how will you narrate this? Also, how will you connect with the notion of clans in the martial arts realm?
Bae: Guilds and kingdoms fit more with the Middle Age fantasy genre.  For the genre of martial arts, individuals and heroes are more fitting.  Unlike the gods in Greek mythology, the gods in Blade & Soul would be closer beings [to humans] such as mountain gods or dragon king.

Q15: Is there an ending to the storyline?
Bae: Yes.

Q16: Is the trailer video made out of in-game footage?
Bae: Yes. The only editing done to the video is the slow-motion effect during “swift jump” and the removal of version stamp.  Of course, for demonstration purposes, some characters were standing still not fighting back.  Besides those, the video is a 100% compilation of in-game footages.
Kim: Currently, developers are playing pre-alpha version of the game. The trailer you saw today was a footage of their actual in-game play.

Q17: If developers are playing the game, up-to how many players can play simultaneously?
Kim: 30~40 players tested on one map.

Q18: I am curious whether the world is seamless or instanced.
Bae: It is not seamless, but it uses streaming method. Gamers will experience the same gameplay as if they were in a seamless world.
Kim: There won’t be much loading because the maps are huge.

Q19: In the trailer, there is a scene where a character attacks multiple mobs with one skill. Will it be a good skill to aggro mobs?
Bae: It’s not a typical skill, but there are time when it is needed; for example, in order to save team members by sacrificing yourself. You can think of it as a finishing skill.  We used the skill purposely to show off the capabilities of Blade & Soul. The character of the developer who used the skill died soon after. (smile)

Q20: Are cooking and resource gathering a major part of the game?
Bae: There are a few, but with an oriental twist.  Players will be able to make wine or pottery.

Q21: Could you tell us more about the two races Jin and Gon?
Kim: Jin is the closest to the mankind.  Culturally, they are similar to us, and use the most tools. Gon is about 2.3m(7.5ft) and is physically stronger.

Q22: There were midgets in the video; are they a playable race?
Bae: They are part of a race and we will release more information regarding the races later.

Q23: Some of the raindrops landed on the camera; how does weather affect the game play?
Bae: Rain changes the environmental setting, spawning more monsters, etc.
Kim: The rain drops on the screen is from an in-game footage.  We are also planning to let weather influence quests.

Q24: One character wore glasses; to what extent is character customizing possible?
Bae: Middle-Age fantasy genres emphasizes armor and weapon stats.  However, martial-arts games focus on individual and weapon(sword) development.  Development of weapon(**NOTE:as in proficiency of the character or the weapon itself gaining experience) will be crucial in the early game.  Based on this concept, we are developing the character customization.

end of part 1

continue to part 2

[EDIT] I changed the weird skill name “mid-air-dash” to more accepted “swift jump”

On July 31st during NCMedia Day, NCsoft–a major game company based in South Korea–revealed three new games under development.  One of which is Blade & Soul previously known as Project [M].

Blade & Soul is an oriental martial arts MMORPG.  The project started in 2006 under production director Jae-Hyun Bae, famous for Lineage II, and art director Hyung-Taek Kim, artist of Magna Carta.

You can access the all the released screenshots and gameplay video here.