Martial arts MMO Blade & Soul launches today

It's a brave publisher that releases an MMO in the West these days, but Blade & Soul has being doing the rounds in Korea since 2012, China from 2013 and then Japan the year after. Today, it goes live in the Europe and North America—here's the site.

Blade & Soul is a mash-up of genres and NCSoft's previous games. The mad speed and leaps of City of Heroes transition into Aion's effortless gliding. Throw the combo-based (or button mashing) combat of fighting games on top of that, plus an Eastern ultimate-evil revenge narrative in three acts, and that's your MMO. For now, there are 30 dungeons and a one-on-one PvP arena you keep you occupied when you're not avenging your master.

After WildStar, I doubt we'll see many more subscription games out of NCSoft. Blade & Soul is free-to-play, using the publisher's NCoin for purchases such as boosters, cosmetics and inventory slots, and there's a secondary currency that can be earned in game for the same purpose.