For those who are unaware David Jaloza is a producer for Bandai Namco and an upcoming MMO game coming out exclusive for the Xbox one. It’s going to be a free to play when it launches later this year. The game has an ancient greece vibe to it with gods toying around with mortals and fighting for power.
One thing that separates this MMO from others is the movement of the game. Most if not all MMOs don’t really encourage you to move around, but this one will punish you if you stand and take the hit. When playing it the game almosts feels like dark souls because it has a dodge element that is crucial to the game. Much like in dark souls. Jaloza said the reasoning behind adding that was “We want to appeal to console players, you can’t have 15 different skills all on your screen. And just sit there and tap which one it’s not very much fun. So we took inspiration from other games Monster Hunter or Dark Souls.”
Balancing was a huge part of the game. They wanted to make sure every class was strong in it’s own way. As well as making it look beautiful running off the unreal 4. Since the game is going to be free to play it will of course have microtransactions, but it won’t be any free to play transactions. “We want our game to be fair it to be balanced and for everyone to have a good time.” explained jaloza about pay to win scenarios. The microtransactions will be in the game but will focus on cosmetics, and items like an XP boost, as well as to craft items faster. To help keep the game fair and balanced.
They plan on having a level cap at either 30 or 35. But slowly as the game comes out they plan on upping the cap with updates. Since this is going to be a MMO there will be certain zones for PVP and PVE, as well as a neutral area. They plan on having battlegrounds too with a 15v15 player lobys much like World of Warcraft. Jaloza went on to explain how the game will have different factions, but might not be out on launch. But depending on what kind of player you are there will be a faction that’ll be more towards your playstyle. Depending on what you do in the game you’ll earn points for a certain faction.
The game will consist of 5 different classes to play from. One being a mage, a ranger, the berserker, the priest, and lastly the crusader. The crusader will be a balanced class with a sword and shield. The berserker will be the tank, a slow moving character that packs a punch. The ranger will be a long rage character with light amor and has speed that will be shooting with a bow and arrow. And the mage well of course has magic. He went on to explain how ever class and stand on their own. “We’re going away from the triangle of tank, healer, dps. Every class and kind of hold their own. So the classes compliment each other really well if you’re in groups. But they’re not dependent on each other”
As of right now there won’t have any kind of reward system for playing with people. But Jaloza went on to say it’ll make the game a lot easier and more fun if you decide to do so. They also plan to have a universal loot drop so one person can’t just go and steal everything before you get your hands on it. As long as you helped in the fight you’ll get loot, and something they’re working on is depending on how much damage you did will play a part in the kind of loot you get. “At the end of the day we just want to go for fairness. If you just sat there but you were in the area you probably won’t get a reward.” explain Jaloza.
Of course since this is a MMO they will have guilds. And right now they plan on having guild XP and all sorts of fun things that are yet to come out. And on how the community reacts to certain things they’ll push out certain content faster than others.
Bless plans on releasing content for as long as they can, to keep the story almost never ending. They do have a plan to keep the game fresh and new. With big updates coming every few months and even larger ones every 3 months. So needless to say they have big plans.
One of Jaloza rewarding parts is seeing people play the game. “People seem to be enjoying it and as a game developer you can’t ask for anything else.” He then goes on to share one of his favorite moments was during the beta test. During a boss fight everyone was sure to help one another out when needed. “Ya it honestly restored my faith in humanity” Jaloza jokeling said.
Be sure to keep an eye out Bless Unleashed is set to come out later this year.
