Up until this point, the character we play has been what is a staple of the Final Fantasy lore: The Warrior of Light. The Shadowbringers expansion looks to take us in a new direction and explore the shadows, with the voice over of the trailer suggesting we will become the Warrior of Darkness, or perhaps some balanced avatar of both light and dark.

While not “officially” confirmed, game producer Naoki Yoshida did let fans know that one of the classes we will see in the new expansion is related to a weapon used in the trailer. That weapon? The Gun Blade, which is not used by any current class in the game.

The president of Square Enix himself, Yosuke Matsuda, came to the stage wearing a blue robe and wielding a staff. He officially announced the Blue Mage’s addition to the game in patch 4.5 which is coming quite soon and not as part of the Summer 2019 expansion.

A new playable race was announced alongside the news of the expansion, too. While exactly which race was not revealed, in true tradition for Yoshida the producer was wearing a T shirt with a clue. He was in a Bugs Bunny top, prompting massive speculation that the beloved and long-requested Viera from Final Fantasy XII – a humanoid race with bunny ears – are making their Eorzea debut.

Alongside all the major content announcements, other features of Shadowbringers were revealed at the Fanfest. These include; a new NPC battle assist system for story dungeons called the Trust system – allowing players to complete story-mandatory dungeons without other players, a New Game Plus system that allows players to go back and complete older story content at their current power levels, new beast tribes including the Nu Mou, new primals, 9 new dungeons, new regions, more end game raid content, and a level cap raise to 80

Overall, as a big fan of Final Fantasy XIV, I am incredibly excited to see this new direction for the plot. I want to see how we go from being a Warrior of Light to one of Darkness, and I am really looking forward to Blue Mage, which it looks like I’ll get to enjoy far sooner than everyone expected.

What do you think? Are you a subscriber who is hyped? Did you quit and does this make you want to re-sub? Have you never played before but now you want to? Do you just not care? Leave a comment below or join the discussion on the MMOByte Discord Server

Mabinogi launches it’s Re:Zero collaboration event today, and it looks like there’s going to be a hell of a lot to do in it. Prepare yourselves Best Girl (and Ram) fans, because this event is active from today, August 9th until September 6th

There’s a daily quest to help Subaru deliver items to Rem and Ram, a weekly objective that changes every week the event is active and a spin to win minigame you can participate in every day of the event.

The event rewards list is massive, so I’ll give you a link to the post that lists all of them, here  but the “big” main prizes are a puck support puppet and Sword Saint Reinhard’s Sword.

Typically speaking, I don’t care much about the cash shop in game updates, however with this collaboration, you can get your very own Rem (and the other one no one care’s about) partner cards, allowing you to summon Rem or pink less good Rem for 180 minutes every day to fight alongside you.

Sale Dates: Thursday August 9th, After Maintenance – Thursday September 6th, Before Maintenance 

Rem Partner	Ram Partner
Price: 17,900 NX	Price: 17,900 NX

Partner Details

• Rem and Ram have an inventory size of 6×10.
• Both have a summon time of 180 minutes.
• Rem has the special skill Morningstar Swing
• Ram has the special skill Healing Wind.
• Rem and Ram give the same gift boxes as Maid and Butlers.

On top of that, as if having your very own Best Girl waifu (or the crap pink version) to fight beside you wasn’t enough, you can also get your hands on the  Patrasche mount for 14,700 NX

There’s also the Re:Zero gatcha box, which can net you grand prizes of clothing sets of the Re:Zero cast, as well as a bunch of other stuff. Each gatcha box will set you back 1,500 NX.

On top of all of that, you can also grab yourself a Doll Bag Gatcha for 4,900 NX, each with a chance of netting you some Best Girl, pink copycat girl, or Puck dolls, which offer you buffs for as long as they are summoned

So far, Mabinogi’s collab event is looking to be an awesome one, with Waifus that will fight beside you, epic fashion from the Re:Zero world, events, mounts and daily freebies to earn.

I for one will be checking it out just for Best Girl Rem, but what about you? Are you an Re:Zero fan curious about Mabi? Does this Mabinogi event get you curious about Re:Zero? Do you just not care? Leave a comment below or join in the discussion on The MMOByte Discord Server.

Despite it being one of the biggest flops of 2018, Bless Online’s content releases are still chugging along, and today signals the arrival of the v2.0.0.0 update

Today’s update brings with it the Assassin class, a stealthy melee dual wielder focused on quick hits and high burst damage with their daggers which also has access to poison attacks. The races that can be assassins are, for Heiron: Habicht, Sylvan Elf and Mascu – and for Union: Amistad, Aqua Elf, Pantera and Mascu.

Also included in today’s patch is the Siege of Castra, a largescale 70 v 70 PvP map which you can join from level 25 (and be scaled up to level 45). To win, one side must defeat the other’s Lord Commander within 30 minutes.

Dominion Contracts and the Capital War also make their debut today, giving guilds a more pivotal role in the game. Dominion Contracts allow guilds to bid on control of various regions, letting the guild leader to become a baron or governor and allowing access in to the Capital War.

Capital War allows guilds to become the Protector Marshals or High Praetors, offering a large amount of rewards to the winner of the conflict (the first to destroy the opposing Guardian Stone in 45 minutes).

Other than the Assassin and the new PvP modes, today’s patch was mostly small changes and bug fixes as well as, of course, adding more things to spend money on in the cash shop.

To mark the release of the Assassin update, Bless Online is 67% off the marked price of $29 at just $9 until August 13th.

On top of that, NeoWiz have added the limited edition Celestial Executor Pack and Legendary Executioner Pack to the store until September 7th

The Bless Online: Celestial Executor Pack offers exclusive mount and pet skins, Lumena, and Premium Membership (30 days) to commemorate the Assassin update.

Bless Online: Celestial Executor Pack Includes the following benefits:
• Exclusive Mount Skin (Executioner Venom)
• Exclusive Pet Skin (Sweet Revenge Skullchid)
• Premium Membership (30 Days)
• Lumena (1,200)

The Bless Online: Legendary Executioner Pack offers mount and pet skins, Lumena, and Premium Membership (90 days) to commemorate the Assassin update.
Bless Online: Legendary Executioner Pack Includes the following benefits:

• Exclusive Costume Skin (Legendary Executioner’s costume)
• Exclusive Weapon Skin (Legendary Executioner’s weapon skin)
• Exclusive Mount Skin (Executioner Venom)
• Exclusive Pet Skin (Sweet Revenge Skullchid)
• Premium Membership (90 Days)
• Lumena (2,450)

It’s great that the Bless Online team are focused on delivering content, but I worry that they will never be able to recover from the issues of launch.

Bless Online had so much praise and hype surrounding it despite it’s failure in other regions, with NeoWiz making a great many promises regarding the western Buy to Play release (compared with the other markets F2P versions), but few of those promises were kept, and many of the changes NeoWiz had announced for the western version of the game simply were not present at launch. Couple this with a very unusual Emissary selection process which many community members objected to, and a developer trying to appeal to a western audience with a very eastern mindset, and it just went wrong.

Bless went from being the genre’s brightest beacon of hope to being one of the biggest flops of the year incredibly fast, with Steam even stepping in to ensure people got refunds issued to them even if they were above the 2 hour play time limit for refunding steam titles. The player base dropped like a rock from a top peak of almost 35,000 players to barely able to keep 2,000 concurrent log ins.

Today’s patch hasn’t bumped up the numbers much either, with only about 2,500 concurrent players showing on Steam Charts at the time of publication.

Does the Assassin update make you want to go back to the game? Do you think it’s too late to hold out hope? Do you simply not care? Either way let us know in the comments below, or join in the discussion on The MMOByte Discord Server.

In their latest announcement, Nexon have showcased the full contents of each of their founders packs, and also begun their Closed Beta pre-sale event where 20,000 Founders Packs will be sold, and no more until after the Closed Beta event.

Perhaps more importantly however, they have also revealed exactly what the MapleStory 2 “Premium Club” bonuses are.

As we covered in our previous article about the MS2 founders packs, there will be 3 tiers of founders packs to choose from.

The Explorer Package ($24.99)

The entry level founders pack will net you 30 days of their Premium Club membership, the Mark of The Founder hat, the Founder’s Regalia name plate, the Prismatic Harmony Unicorn mount, 2,000 Merets ($20 cash shop value) and CB2 guaranteed access

The Master Package ($59.99)

At the middle tier, you get everything from the Explorer package, 3,000 more Merets (for a total of 5,000) another 30 days of Premium Club (for a total of 60 days), the Gold Ribbon outfit, and the Founder’s Regalia Chat Bubble.

The Legendary Package ($99)

For the highest of rollers, the Legendary package offers another 4,000 Merets (for a grand total of 9,000, or $90 value), another 30 days of Premium Club (for a grand total of 90 days of VIP goodness), the amazingly squishy Orange Mushroom Emote, the Founder’s Insignia and the Founder’s Daily Wonders item, which will grant you a new set of goodies every day for the next 28 days after you activate it (So make sure to log in!!)

In their Founders FAQ, which has lots of info which I won’t list here, Nexon have finally revealed exactly what their Premium Club bonuses will be, and after looking at it, it doesn’t look like it will offer any huge P2W advantage, so hopefully that will soothe some worries people have had, but I’ll leave you to judge for yourselves:

Q: What are the Premium Club Membership benefits?

A: The Premium Club grants the following bonuses:

• Unlimited Rotors Walkie-Talkies
• +20% Monster Hunting EXP
• +20% Mesos from monsters
• -50% 1:1 Meso Trade Fee
• -50% Revival Fee
• -20% Black Market Item Trading Fee
• -10% Ophelia Enchant Material
• Access to the Remote Bank
• Premium Club Dungeon and Premium Club Insignia
• Party Buff Bonus
  • All party members get move speed +5% (excluding PvP)
  • All party members riding a ground mount get move speed +5%
• Daily Bonus Items
  • Special White Potion x30

Is the Premium Club Pay to Win? Have you already bought your horned sparklepony pack? Does a premium membership put you off? Do you not care? Whatever your thoughts, let us know in the comments below or join in the discussion on the MMOByte Discord Server.

In their latest producer’s blog, Nexon have revealed details on Maple Story 2’s pet taming system, as well as adjustments to the game’s gear enchanting system.

Starting from level 50, Maplers can start pet taming “Hungry” monsters. How, you might ask? With candy, of course! (and a trap).

Once a hungry monster has been found, you can feed them with candy, but it needs to be the right type, as monsters are very picky eaters.

Throw enough delicious sugary goodness at them, and you will be able to lay down a trap for them

If you succeed, these pets will assist you in combat. They can level up to become more powerful, and can offer bonuses such as auto looting and auto potions.

Pet taming is a progressive system which you level up. Levelling it unlocks more powerful and rarer monsters to capture, and there seem to be a huge amount of monsters to capture if this screenshot is anything to go by.

It’s less cute and fun than the pet taming system, but the other big thing to mention is the changes happening to enchanting.

The enchanting cap has been raised to +15, as opposed to the +9 we saw in CB1, and hats, gloves and shoes will be enchantable, too. From +10, you will need to use the same type of equipment to upgrade an equipment piece, and failing enchantment will grant charges that increase your success chance with each failure. They have also implemented an item you can craft to instantly reach +10 on an item’#s enchantment.

More controversially is the implementation of “Peachy’s Enchantment”, which guarantees success of enchant attempts.

So far according to Nexon ” you must obtain materials from adventure dungeons in order to use it, and the materials are a bit more costly. Unlike Ophelia’s Enchantment, you don’t need the same gear to enchant gear with Peachy.” – My concern however is if this gets gated, or made easier to access by way of the cash shop.

Don’t forget to check out our other Maple Story 2 coverage.

Are you looking to become the next MapleMon Master? Does pet taming excite you? Do you simply not care? Whatever your thoughts, let us know in the comments below or check out the MMOByte Discord Community to join in the discussion

In their latest producer’s blog, Nexon have showcased Maple Story 2 Mushking Royale, their take on the Battle Royale game type currently dominating the online gaming market.

To promote the new mode, during the 2nd Closed Beta Test Nexon will be giving away some of their recently revealed Founders packs to winners of the Mushking Royale matches. Unfortunately they do not specify how many packs will be up for grabs.

To be in with a chance of winning a founders pack, you will need to make sure you’re online during the event times:

“Mushking Royale will only be available for one weekend during Closed Beta 2, starting on July 20th at 8:00 AM PDT and running through July 23rd at 7:59 AM PDT. Maplers can access Mushking Royale through the MapleStory 2 in-game menu, so this mode will only be open to those selected to play in the closed beta at this time.”

Battle Royale games were made popular by Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds, and made a global sensation by Fortnite. It’s a PvP game type in which you get dropped in to an arena of ever-decreasing size with a large number of enemies, battling it out until there’s a single survivor.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is… “Really? Another game with Battle Royale?”

However, reading further in to the blog post, it seems like Nexon’s take on the Maple Story 2 Mushking Royale could be fun. They have some unique flair to the concept, including the use of power ups in the form of magic skills, stealth brush that hides you, environmental hazards and some interesting use of a super-mega-death-robot.

This is of course all in stark contrast to the cutesy style and nature of the game as a whole, which makes this a very unusual direction to go in, but I am definitely looking forward to giving Mushking Royale a go in Closed Beta 2 (which starts on July 18th!)

Does another game going the battle royale route make you cringe? Does Mushking Royale make you look forward to MS2 even more? Do you simply not care? Let us know in the comments below or check out The Official MMOByte Discord Server to join in the discussion.

Nexon have revealed their plans for the Maple Story 2 Founders Packs in their latest Producer’s Blog, and they look pretty good.

There will be three tiers, the Explorer Package at $24.99, the Master Package at $59.99 and the Legendary Package at $99.99

There will be a limited “pre-sale” event for the maple story 2 founders packs from July 17th and Nexon say that “These pre-sale packs will have the same contents as the Founder’s Packs that will be sold before Official Launch, but as a special additional bonus all of the pre-sale packs will also come with guaranteed access to Closed Beta 2.”

I’m quite impressed that the lowest tier package includes the mount as with most founders packs for games, you need to go a few tiers above the basic to get anything particularly significant.

And what a glorious mount it looks to be, too. A proud and prancy Prismatic Harmony Unicorn

Step up to the Master tier and you’ll be able to strut your stuff in style with the Golden Ribbon outfit

And for the truly Legendary among you, enjoy this fabulously squishy orange mushroom emote

The maple story 2 founders packs aren’t finalised yet, but Nexon say they’ll have the full details for us when they go live for the limited pre-sale event on July 17th.

I’m pretty hyped to own a unicorn, but I’m not sure how I feel about another game with a “premium” subscription option. What are your thoughts? Are you looking forward to MS2’s second closed beta? Will you be proudly riding your Prismatic Harmony Unicorn in to battle? Do you not care? Leave a comment below or check out The MMOByte Discord Server to join in the discussion.

We don’t usually care about social media drama here, but this has gained so much traction in the Guild Wars 2 community in the past 24 hours, I felt it needed some coverage.

In a twitter thread originally discussing the flaws of the Player Character in Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet developer Jessica Price responded to an oposing viewpoint by engaging in a sexist attack against Guild Wars 2 content creator Deroir Gaming, who made the initial reply that “set things off”.

Really interesting thread to read! ?
However, allow me to disagree *slightly*. I dont believe the issue lies in the MMORPG genre itself (as your wording seemingly suggest). I believe the issue lies in the contraints of the Living Story’s narrative design; (1 of 3)

— Deroir (@DeroirGaming) July 3, 2018

This simple disagreement and offer of an opinion is all that was said to cause the developer to shoot back with claims of sexism. The full extent of the drama is showcased in the video linked above.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first incident of this developer showing a nasty side. A mere day before this particular event, she attacked another prominent GW2 content creator, MMOINKS, for offering his opinion to her, as well.

This incident has become the focal point of every aspect of GW2 social media, including twitter, the Guild Wars 2 subreddit discord community, and has become one of the GW2 subreddit’s most upvoted posts of all time.

The developer defended her sexist remarks by stating that she was using her personal twitter account, but given the public nature of her statements and her clear and obvious ties to ArenaNet through her social media posts, I don’t think that carries much weight. Many employers now take personal social media in to account with regards to employee discipline, as they still represent the company by association.

As of this article being published there has been no official response from ArenaNet, Guild Wars 2’s developer, regarding the incident. Should there be any official response, we will update this article

[[Update]] President of ArenaNet Mike O’Brien has given a response on the GW2 official forums

After keeping us waiting for a date since my last MS2 article confirming a second CB test phase almost 3 weeks ago, Nexon have finally revealed the date for the MapleStory 2 Second Closed Beta test.

The CB will start at 10am PDT on July 18th and run for 2 weeks until August 1st at 10am. For a full rundown of the date and time as well as time zone conversions, check out the Official Article on the MS2 website

With the MapleStory 2 second Closed Beta comes more content, including new dungeons and a raid, the “world” quest system – essentially side quests from what I can tell – and some bug fixes as well as implementation of the Meret Market – MapleStory 2’s cash shop system.

All players who got accepted in to the first Closed Beta will automatically get accepted for CB2, but if you want to have a chance of getting in, don’t forget to make sure you Sign Up For The Beta.

Nexon will be selling their MapleStory 2 founder packs from the start of CB2, which come with automatic entrance in to the MapleStory 2 second closed beta test as well as other perks and contents to be revealed in the near future. They will also be giving away beta access keys through social media giveaways and other partnerships, so keep your eyes peeled for those!

I personally had a lot of fun with the first CB for MapleStory 2, and I’m really looking forward to jumping back in with everyone. The game has a large amount of interesting social systems, and the housing system is pretty robust, too. As a fashion cash shopper I’m very eager to see their cash shop outfits and the price tag they come with, too.

Are you looking forward to the MapleStory 2 second closed beta? Did you participate in the first one? What did you like? What did you hate? Do you just not care? leave a comment below or check out our Discord community to join the discussion.