Bless Unleashed Review: A Decent MMORPG That Lacks Polish

Bandai Namco’s Bless Unleashed is the latest MMORPG to hit consoles, but there’s a twist this time: it’s releasing on Xbox One before any other platform. And while this is potentially a great sign for the future of MMO games on consoles, Bless Unleashed isn’t exactly a home run hit right out of the gate. There’s certainly a lot to like here: deep lore, stunning graphics and a ton of varied content (especially for a free-to-play title). Still, on a technical level, Bless Unleashed is kind of a mess, including a subpar combat system that doesn’t hold a candle to other recent MMO console titles like Black Desert.

Bless Unleashed‘s main questline puts players in the shoes of the Pyreborn, an epic hero who must defeat an evil goddess and save the world. It’s not exactly an original storyline and its story beats aren’t all that fresh either. MMO games aren’t exactly known for their deep and intricate plots, though, and Bless Unleashed‘s works well enough. And what the story lacks in originality or execution it makes up for in available lore. Bandai Namco has infused the game with a ton of world building for those interested in searching for it and it all goes toward helping the world feel more lived in.

Speaking of the world, Bless Unleashed‘s graphics are impressive for a console title. Each city within the game is distinct in appearance, creating a sense of individuality and diversity that lends credibility to the fictional cultures present. This is also true of the game’s enemies, which become more ferocious in appearance as their difficulty increases. Whatever the game’s faults may be, at least the world and structures of Bless Unleashed‘s Lumios are pleasing enough to look at and experience.

Bless Unleashed naturally features different classes and races and they’re all pretty standard for an MMO game. There are warrior classes like the Crusader and Berserker, magical classes like Priest and Mage, and of course the Ranger for those who like bows. There’s nothing really here that sets the classes apart from other comparable games – it’s a tried and true class system that works nearly as well here as it has in countless games before it, and the game offers something for every kind of player.

Bless Unleashed features a leveling system where players must gain a certain amount of experience points to progress. While this is important in regards to fighting new enemies, equally important is the score associated with loot found or purchased. Some missions or in-world boss events will have a recommended gear score associated with them and trying to tackle these with a lower gear score will more than likely end in death. This is a fine system that many other successful games have implemented, but more often than not gear drop rates are so low in Bless Unleashed that getting an appropriate gear score is agonizingly slow.

Grinding for gear probably wouldn’t be such a chore if the combat in Bless Unleashed wasn’t so dreadfully unpolished. Standard combat is achieved by initiating the trigger buttons on the controller, but other button prompts will pop up depending on what sort of combo or sequence players want to pull off. This is a neat idea on paper, but in execution, there’s an indescribable clunky nature to the whole thing. Reaction times are also slightly off so that in a moment where you’d need to block an enemy attack, pushing the block button might not register until it’s too late. And with a health system that doesn’t regenerate until players use potions, food, or sit at a camp fire, precision is such a necessity in combat, making this one of the game’s biggest overall flaws.

Luckily, there’s a lot more to Bless Unleashed than endless grinding and subpar combat. There’s a deep crafting system, which is the easiest and most efficient way of acquiring better gear, assuming players have the proper materials to do so. But beyond gear crafting, there is cooking, enchanting, alchemy and a shaping station for Ranger characters. It’s easy to get lost in crafting and each has its importance in the game. For those without the gold to shell out on potions and pre-made meals, alchemy and cooking are invaluable for keeping your health at maximum while adventuring. Again, there’s nothing really unique about these systems but it’s used well here.

And there’s what most people come to MMO’s for: dungeons and other major cooperative events. While there aren’t many available at the time of release, the dungeons and arena boss battles here are quite fun, almost in spite of Bless Unleashed‘s frustrating combat system. Arena boss battles are almost exactly as they sound, but dungeons are complex multi-layered areas filled with enemies and multiple mini bosses. They don’t usually take as long as something out of World of Warcraft, but for a free-to-play title, they’re better than most would probably expect. There might not be enough in the way of endgame content to sustain players forever, but hopefully content updates are something that will come to Bless Unleashed in time.

Bless Unleashed is a decent enough free-to-play MMORPG that should keep players looking for something they don’t have to shell cash out entertained. And luckily, there isn’t anything in the cash shop that screams “pay to win,” which is something that so many other free-to-play titles have unfortunately succumbed to. There are quite a lot of technical problems, from slow loading textures to combat that really needs some tweaking. but for being one of the first MMO games to exclusively launch on Xbox One, well, it could have been a lot worse.

Bless Unleashed is available now on Xbox One as a free-to-play title. Screen Rant was provided with an Xbox One copy for the purposes of this review.

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