Naraka: Bladepoint is a unique take on the battle royale genre, combining several elements of many games. It has the vibe and combat of games like Nioh and Sekiro, it has the layout and abilities of battle royale games like Apex Legends, and it has parkour that could give more recent Assassin's Creed games a run for its money. It is both a melting pot, a perfect game for non-BR fans, and its own unique vision.
As it stands, it seems Naraka: Bladepoint has a bright future ahead of itself, and the successful beta is proof of that. Game ZXC spoke to the Marketing Manager of the game, Raylan Kwan, over the weekend, and we find ourself mostly drawn to what the game will look like come launch. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What has the team’s reaction to the beta been so far?
Right now, the whole team is very excited because you see we broke some record numbers for beta games. It proved that there are a lot of players joining our game, and it says a lot. In our previous betas, some players would say that battle royale wasn't their thing, but they wanted to try a battle royale game. So, those who have never tried to battle royale games would be attracted [to Naraka] after watching our trailers and join our beta. After joining it, they really did like it.
We read some great comments that said like, "wow, I've never tried battle royale before, but I really like Naraka. I think Naraka would be my first battle royale game." It seems we've succeeded in making something unique and refreshing in the market. I would like to quote, "Unchained multiplayer combat." This combat has successfully combined with battle royale has made something unique and different that the players have been enjoying so far. I believe it also gives us some confidence in our summer launch that we will achieve even more.
One thing that stands out to me, because I do play quite a few battle royales, is the melee combat. It was mentioned that a lot of players get drawn toward that, but with there only being three melee weapons now, we will be seeing more at launch or after launch?
Right, we only have 3 melee weapons now. I think both the dev team and the player would expect more. We definitely have more melee weapons planned, and I can say that the next melee weapons will be really surprising.
Of course, as a battle royale game, will players be seeing a traditional seasonal format or will there be some new approaches there as well?
I think we have seen a lot of success in the battle royale genre, using the seasonal settings for the game. I think, if it works, we shouldn't fix it.
There seems to be a lot more character customization and progress systems like with glyphs. It's a bit more than most battle royales, so how did y'all come about deciding this extra level of progress in the game?
Well, that's a good question. Because the concept of our game is "unchained battle royale." With "unchained," we don't want to give any restriction to the players, but in fact, we are trying to give as much freedom to our players as possible. So, first, we let them customize their whole face to make whatever faces they want. During the development, we thought we needed to give more freedom to players to customize and develop their own playstyle.
Apart from in-game systems like SoulJades and weapons, different level of weapons, we were thinking we could give them a unique meta in our game. This can also allow them to develop something different. Our goal is, in one match with 60 players, each player will have their own playstyle with the help of the talents system and in-game SoulJades system.
All in all, our system is to provide more freedom to our players to develop their own playstyles. To be unchained.
So, with characters and their abilities, we can see three that were locked during the beta. They'll come along later, so is adding more characters something the team is looking at doing?
Yeah, definitely. We will have more characters, and you can see the three characters right now in our hero tab. But, well, actually, we have more than three characters in development. I can guarantee you there will be more incoming, and these characters will be fantastic and fascinating.
Is there anything for our readers you'd like to say about moving Naraka forward?
I would like to say I appreciate the players that have joined our beta, and for those who haven't participated in our beta...you can join the next beta, which will also be coming soon, I think.
Naraka: Bladepoint releases Q2 2021 for PC.