There were undoubtedly very obvious flaws with some of the game’s mechanics during the recent Japanese closed beta. These concerns would have to be addressed for Blue Protocol to be a fun game. The good news is that Bandai Namco addressed some of the greatest issues that players experienced in the beta in a recent developer live stream, with the goal of improving the entire game experience. I’ll go over all of the significant feedback modifications they’ve made thus far.
The first thing to know is that one of the most significant improvements made by the development team has been to the elite monsters. They want to make the combat more exciting without being too annoying, therefore they’ll change the HP values and raise the attack values. I believe that this will make the combat feel much more entertaining and balanced, without making you feel like you’re wasting too much time killing monsters that are excessively difficult or feel like bullet sponges.
Another notable modification is the rise in drop rates for challenging dungeons, which was implemented in response to player complaints. It’s encouraging to see that the development team is now listening to user feedback and making modifications to the game to make it more rewarding and enjoyable. Now we can enjoy getting more drops while feeling like there is consistent progress. Based on what I’ve seen, I really like Blue Protocol’s gameplay. It bears striking similarities to other ARPGs such as Black Desert Online, however there were several major difficulties with the skills and the balance surrounding them.
Combat changes and aggro
The developers have made substantial adjustments to the fighting system. One of these modifications is that all class cooldowns will be altered in order to improve the overall combat experience. This was done because some classes had huge cooldowns on each skill, resulting in long periods of downtime where you could only auto attack. Some of the capabilities being tweaked are the Spell Weaver’s tactical abilities. Spell Weaver’s tactical talents have received damage buffs, with Blizzard receiving the most.
In addition to the Blizzard skill for the Spell Weaver, the team has made Concentration, which is effectively your manna of that class, more effective so that you’ll be able to cast skills much more frequently, but players will still need to be cautious when generating aggro to avoid being targeted during combat as the Spell Weaver is not as tanky as other classes. This is still an exciting move, because a spellcaster class like this is commonly portrayed to be played like a glass cannon that deals massive damage while lacking defensive abilities. It gives a high risk high reward play style.
Blue Protocol’s aggro mechanic has also been tweaked. Managing your aggro will actually become easier in the future, as the team has corrected an issue that was causing players to be easily targeted while creating aggro. The development team tweaked each class’s skills to improve overall balance and gameplay. For example, the Blade Warden’s aggro skill was really quite poor, especially at lower levels. As a result, the team has made it more useful and effective by including the provoke effect. The Twin Striker’s tactical skills, on the other hand, have been changed to have decreased cooldowns and boosted damage across the majority of their skills, so the Twin Strikers will be throwing out all of the techniques and hopefully putting out a more impactful amount of DPS.
The development team additionally implemented important upgrades to classes that are frequently disregarded, such as the Keen Strider and Foe Breaker. The tactical skill cooldowns of the Keen Strider have been decreased, and their healing skills have been strengthened, making them more adaptable and helpful in a team situation. The Foe Breaker, on the other hand, has had their tactical skill cooldowns reduced, making their skill sets more accessible.
Open world drop rates
Another major concern addressed was gathering in the open. The gathering missions have received a lot of bad feedback, with the major complaint being that it took ages only to get one drop that was needed. Players have noted that gathering a single drop of a given sort would take an undesirable amount of time. As a result, these tasks may take an hour or more to complete.
Changes have been made to the drop rate for rare enemy drops and general gathering to improve the gameplay experience. The original plan was to encourage players to form groups to hunt for materials, however engaging with other players was not as popular as the developers anticipated. As a result of these changes, the field play has been altered by boosting the general drop rates. Although group collecting is still the preferred method for acquiring materials, going it alone will take less time than it did previously.
Another update that has received widespread approval is that certain Gathering locations are now guaranteed to drop a specific resource. It can be rather annoying to gather from a location repeatedly without really acquiring the desired item that comes from that node, but the game developers have made sure that some locations will deliver guaranteed drops whereas others will continue to be RNG. This adjustment has received overwhelmingly good response from players, which I appreciate.
Level system changes
The second adjustment is to the leveling system, which has undoubtedly generated the most aggravation among gamers. To summarize the system, there are regular levels, but there is also an adventure ranking. You would reach a stage in the adventure rank where you were unable to level up any further unless you achieved the objectives stated on the adventure rank board. This is required to raise the gear score, which is accomplished by creating Echoes. In this game, these Echoes serve as your equipment. Due to the level cap set by the adventure rank, even if a quest was completed at that point in progression, you would not earn the XP reward for it.
The adventure board quests usually contained simple objectives such as gathering or fetching that hindered your progression to an undesirable rate. The developers planned to make this system more controllable by promoting the construction of enhanced Echoes, however this has proven to be a substantial challenge. As a result, many players were left helpless in the early game, with no way of progressing. To remedy this issue, the level cap has been removed, allowing players to level up faster and more efficiently. Players are no longer restricted by the limits of the adventure rank system, and they can progress regardless of their rank. This update has undoubtedly made the game more user-friendly and fun for both new and veteran players, and it is a significant upgrade that should address many of the game’s major faults. The adventure rank board has also been simplified by the developers, making it easy to move forward along each node.
Other information and release window
There were a few more tidbits of information from the broadcast that you should be aware of that weren’t directly related to beta input. The first is that this was Japan’s final beta test. They should announce a western beta soon. The good news is that due to the contract between Amazon Games and Bandai Namco, we can expect the game to be released during the third quarter of 2023. They also went through a variety of analytics and graphics within the stream so that you can examine player data depending on classes played, items made, and levels attained. The Sword Warden was one of the most popular classes at higher levels in the beta, with Keane Strider and Twin Striker being the most popular at lower levels.
That’s all the information we have for now. Be sure to check back for future Blue Protocol news.