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Blade & Soul kicks onto Western markets in January

The free-to-play martial arts MMORPG, Blade & Soul, has been a big hit in Eastern countries, but now it has an official release date for the West.

Ozzie Mejia

November 19, 2015 6:00 AM

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Blade & Soul has been available across Eastern regions since 2012, but now that it's spent some time in beta, the martial arts-based MMORPG is now set to officially release in North America and Europe. NCSoft announced this morning that Blade & Soul will help ring in the new year with a January 19 release date.

NCSoft has offered up some other details on the game's launch, noting that the game will include seven classes, 30 dungeons, and a level cap of 45. With the game revolving around martial arts and combo-based combat, PvP will also be included in the form of a 1v1 Arena mode. NCSoft has touted the popularity of the Arena mode overseas, pointing to the recent World Championship event held in Busan, Korea.

While Blade & Soul will be free-to-play, those that purchase the game's Founder's Pack will get Head Start access on January 15. Those looking to try the game out before the game's release will get another crack at it next weekend, with another closed beta set to run from November 24-30. Sign-ups are available on the Blade & Soul website.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?