https://www.astellia-mmo.com/shop/package
The game is being released as a buy-to-play game in the west. These packages are available only for a limited time (pre-order) with the most expensive package offering access to the first two CBT’s and a weeks worth of head start along with some other virtual goods including a special mount, cosmetic weapon skin, extra character slot vouchers and warehouse (storage) expansions. The goodies are scaled down for the other two lower priced options (using the carrot on a stick approach).
As far as my opinion goes, they are overpricing the base game by a huge margin (if you extrapolate and rip out the rest of the items in the $39.99 basic package, the base game license price they are likely looking at post-launch will be around the $29 range). While there are some changes being made for the western market (including un-gender locking classes and removing the most blatant “p2w” items from the cash shop), I don’t believe this particular game is worth more than $20 retail considering the state of the game in Korea.
The game in Korea is pretty much de-populated just several months after its launch into OBT in late 2018 (about the same timeframe that Lost Ark launched into OBT). Probably the biggest issue will be “slicing and dicing” the content in the existing Korean release so that it can be stretched out for the western version. Players will naturally compare this to Bless Online; as far as the blatant cash grab comparison, they are nowhere close (Neowiz pushed the envelope early on by overpricing the top end of their packages). Notice I said “blatant”. As far as it being a cash grab, ALL Korean MMO’s that have eventually been published to other regions are viewed as revenue generating opportunities by the development studios and is no different for Barunson (thus it still is a cash grab to some extent; just not as blatant as Bless Online).
The base game itself doesn’t have the huge underlying technical issues that plagued Bless though. However, it does seem to utilize the same base MMO building template which can make the game systems feel somewhat the same as Bless Online. I don’t know how fleshed out the Astelle (combat pet) system is but that is pretty much something that needs to play out right since it is a key part of the games design.
For myself, the Korean version still needs work and polish (and that has ramifications for the western version). The value proposition of this package pricing isn’t there at this time where I feel compelled enough that it is worth supporting at those prices.
