MMORPG News: Blue Protocol Free-to-Play, PSO2 Closed Beta, TERA, Bless, Neverwinter, BnS & More!

We got a lot to talk about this week. But I feel like I say that every week. I guess that could be due to the fact that there’s always so much to talk about, I dunno.
Regardless, I’m excited about this week. You guys should be too! We got plenty of updates, new games and more all waiting to be discussed.
So let’s take a few minutes to relax, and enjoy this week’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News.

The last time I talked about TERA was when I did my dedicated video on it. Barely anything has been announced or revealed since then, but on February 11th, that changed with the new Crescent Sea update going live and bringing with it the new Elin Valkyrie and a new 5-man dungeon called the Sea of Honor.
The dungeon is targeted at level 70 players and requires you to fight field bosses and clear dungeons to obtain a Voyage Map, allowing you to set out on tackle the dungeon. See, TERA still gets content.. just.. not very much.

Love Bless or hate Bless, the reality is that Bless Unleashed is launching on March 12th with Founder’s Packs being available for purchase right now.
The Founder’s Packs in question range from $20 to $80, with the most expensive package providing a whopping 15 day head start over other players, which is 5 days more than the middle package.
Upon launch, Bless Unleashed will be free-to-play, so if you’d rather not spend any money on the game then you could go ahead and wait. Granted, with the track record of Bless.. I’d say if you really want to risk playing Unleashed, you should wait until it launches free and jump in then.

If you’re a fan of Neverwinter then this is exactly what you need. Earlier this month, a roadmap for 2020 was released, showing quite a bit of content planned for the year.
There is one module slated for 2020, Module 19 titled “Avernus,” and a Module slated for 2021 but that has an unconfirmed title. Avernus will feature 4 new episodes, each a part of “The Saga of Zariel,” with Episode 1 beginning in July and ending with Episode 4 in October.
Honestly, to get specifics, you’ll probably want to either head on over the official website or the subreddit, because there’s a lot to read through.

Okay so this is actually pertaining to the South Korean version of Blade & Soul, but let’s be real here, we get every update they get, just a little later so this is worth talking about.
So NCSoft announced that along with their Unreal Engine 4 upgrade of the graphical engine, there will be new, alternate “Frontier World” servers featuring an overhaul of character growth, a revamp of the battle system, and its third spec for the Force Master.
The Frontier World servers will exist alongside the normal servers and run concurrently, interestingly enough.

So a couple weeks ago Astellia Online had a bit of a whoopsie. See, they launched onto Steam and due to what they claim was a bug, players were unable to refund the game and instantly jumped to the conclusion that it was a scam.
I received a ton of messages to cover what was going on but by the time I even thought to write something up, the issues were resolved and positive reviews were coming in.
Weeks after the debacle, the Steam version of the game still has a thousand concurrent players, and the game itself has many more playing through their own launcher. The game itself is still doing surprisingly good and that’s honestly refreshing to see.

I don’t think I’ve ever done a video on Wild Terra 2 before, but here we are, with the Medieval sandbox MMORPG going into Closed Alpha testing until March 1st.
The game is going to be fully functional during the Alpha test offering a variety of features like hunting, crafting, fishing, mounts, PvP and more.
There’s no NDA currently in place, however I would like to note that to get into the Alpha test you’re going to have to fork over at least $125 for the cheapest package.
I definitely do not think that is worth it in any capacity but they did send Mrs Stix and I Alpha keys to test the game out so you should be on the lookout for our Wild Terra 2 video sometime in the near future.

I did a video on Saga of Lucimia recently, but this is surprising news to me. As it stands, the game looks to be going the pay-to-play route, offering players a subscription based business model, however, recently they’ve expressed interest in going another route.
They noted that while they’ve always wanted to be a sub-based MMO, they understand that a hybrid model might be a better option to pursue. Saga of Lucimia doesn’t look to be releasing this year, and next year might be a bit of a stretch as well.
Nevertheless, they’re looking to release “in a couple of years,” but knowing indie MMOs.. I doubt that.

Phantasy Star Online 2 recently completed their Closed Beta test for the Xbox One. While there is no Closed Beta slated for the PC currently, I do hope that the PSO2 team learn a few things from this.
The Beta test ultimately had to be extended due to various issues like too many players logging into Ship 1, authentication issues, repeated maintenance, crashes and disconnects.
This was to be expected of course – this is the first Beta they’ve had, and anyone that thinks it should’ve went smoothly clearly doesn’t participate in many Closed Beta’s. Overall I think the test went over very well and I’m excited for when, or if the Beta rolls around for PCs.

I played Temtem until I ran out of current content. I honestly didn’t think we’d be getting new content this soon but I’m pleasantly surprised. A brand new map called the “Saipark” was introduced that allowed players to seek out varying Temtem species each week.
The Temtem found within the Saipark will feature a higher chance of being a Luma and the chance of having better stats. This functions much like the Safari Zone from the Pokemon games, even offering players special “Saicards” with which to capture the Temtem within the Saipark.

If you recall, Pearl Abyss rolled out a Battle Royale game mode for Black Desert a while ago called the “Shadow Arena.” Shortly after, they removed the game mode and announced it would be receiving its own standalone version in the coming year.
Fast forward to February 2020, the Shadow Arena is actually launching its very first Closed Beta. Registration for the Beta test is available right now, with the Beta specifically taking place between February 27th and March 8th.

After a delay, Star Wars: The Old Republic released their latest update titled “Pinnacles of Power.” There were issues with the patch initially, but it ended up being rolled out on February 13th.
6.1 brought quite a few changes that honestly are easier to go through if you go on over to the official Old Republic website because otherwise it’ll just be me reading through patch notes.. something none of us really feel will be all that interesting.
I haven’t seen an update from the Star Wars MMO in a little while though so this is exciting to see!

I was shocked when I saw that Allods Online was still receiving updates in 2020, but it is! It’s receiving an entirely new expansion titled “The Soul of Darkness.”
The expansion brings with it a continuation of the storyline, a brand new dungeon called “Nihaz’s Citadel,” alterations to XP, an increase in profession levels and.. honestly this is a pretty damn decent update.
I wouldn’t call it an “expansion,” honestly, as the update specifically brings about 10 hours or less content but it is what it is. You guys should be happy that it’s still getting updated!

It looks like with the frequency of Final Fantasy XIV’s patches I’ll be talking about it somewhat often I guess. Both Mrs Stix and I actively play Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, so we’re always aware whenever new updates go live.
The latest specifically, 5.2 titled “Echoes of a Fallen Star” introduced a brand new dungeon, a new trial, an Extreme version of the very same trial, the 4 new Eden raids, Savage version of the same raids, new gear, a continuation of the story, and.. geez, it’s always so shocking to me exactly how large each and every patch is.
There’s so much content that you’ll likely found yourself highly entertained for at least the next 4 to 6 weeks.

While making my way through my third Kingdom Under Fire 2 video I noticed that there was a brand new large update in the works.
Granted, there have been several since its release back in November, but nevertheless, this one specifically, titled “Grave of Time” adds in a brand new 8-player dungeon that is targeted at level 30 players.
Like any addition of new content in the form of dungeons or raids, there’ll be new gear added and various changes made to the game overall. Additionally, if you haven’t already noticed, then the game is completely free-to-play until February 24th.
So make sure to try it out if you haven’t already.

There have been a lot of updates made to Blue Protocol recently.
Changes to gameplay mechanics like the addition of fall damage, changes to overall animation – such as running and fighting, new hairstyles, customization options, but most importantly, the game has been announced to be releasing as a free-to-play MMORPG.
No pay-to-play subscription fee, and no buy-to-play one-time purchase fee. The game will feature a Season Pass while providing cosmetic items in the cash shop such as outfits and other items that have no effect on gameplay and provide no advantages to players.
One other thing worth noting is that they confirmed there will be no PvP in-game, but instead the instanced arenas will field waves of monsters for groups of players to combat together.
The Closed Beta is currently accepting applications, so if you haven’t already, I urge you to use the link in the description and pinned comment to sign up now!