As promised, NCsoft is officially launching a whole new MMORPG here in the west: Blade & Soul Heroes. First revealed for western gamers back at Summer Game Fest in June, the game actually launched in South Korea last year, so today’s release is for North America, Europe, and the rest of Asia (no servers in South America, but you can play, obviously). The big caveat here is that this is an unapologetic gacha MMO, though the NCsoft team at the July preview stressed that the paid content is tied to convenience rather than growth-related pay-to-win (contrary to the Korean version) and characters can be purchased with in-game-earnable currency.

“A prequel to the revered Blade & Soul MMORPG series, Blade & Soul Heroes introduces new characters and delves into the backstories of familiar Blade & Soul characters while expanding the franchise with a vibrant anime visual style and uniquely robust dual combat system. Players are driven to collect uniquely powerful characters and then mix and match them to constantly re-create the ultimate team, launching with 40+ characters. Blade & Soul Heroes uses an in-game currency – which can be earned for free or purchased — for players to acquire new characters. […] Progressing through the game’s 16 chapters, Heroes learn the full-fledged turn-based combat system, which begins as PvE and later opens into PvP combat. Heroes can then ‘switch’ or engage in dual combat – adventuring through the world while fighting in real-time — and setting up auto-play in turn-based combat (watching through an in-game screen), or vice versa.”

NCsoft reminds us that it’s revamped multiple systems for the global audience, with overhauls of content pacing, tutorials, lore, movement, combat, and gearing. The Scorching Sands patch also drops next week, adding even more content to the new title.

“In the update, players will explore an expanded new region Scorching Sands, enjoy an extension of their max character level from 30 to 40, and confront the PvE Field Boss, Stalker Jiangshi (from Blade & Soul lore),” the team says. “There will be more solo and party boss fights, new turn-based challenges, more story-based gameplay and Instanced Dungeons, too!”

BNS Heroes offers full crossplatform, crossplay, and crossprogression play on Purple, Steamdeck, iOS, and Android as of today.