BDO Land of the Morning Light succeeds most of what it delivers us for a magical journey which gives Pearl Abyss’mmo a new dimension. The Korean inspirates and the story we live give us what we expect : pleasure and fun.
BDO: Land of the Morning Light delivers an immersive experience based on traditional Korean folklore that are hard to see in any MMORPG. Its heavily focused story driven gameplay unlike the original game feels fresh enough to expect more about the world of Black Desert in the future.
This is arguably the only Korean-made game that has improved by leaps and bounds since its initial release in the West.
PearlAbyss was a small developer with a mere 10 million US$ budget back when it started developing Black Desert in Korea in 2010 and people don't realise how amazing a feat it was to develop such an intricate and complex character creation system back in the early 2010s with such a meagre budget. PearlAbyss' head of studio, Kim Dae-il, was an award-winning game director and game designer [he received multiple awards even before BDO was released and received the Presidential Award by the Korean government in 2017 for his contribution to the propagation of Korean culture in the global scene through Black Desert] before he founded PearlAbyss. Kim's dream since he was a child was to create games, and his aspiration is to create a title, as a Korean, that will one day win the Game of The Year Award.
Unfortunately, due to the financial circumstances of PearlAbyss at the time of its founding, Kim was unable to publish Black Desert on their own so they signed a publishing contract with the infamous and unscrupulous KakaoGames, who was called Daum Games back then.
Some of the P2W elements that were in the game when BDO was initially released in the West were an inevitable result of having to work with KakaoGames, and PearlAbyss knew that in order to realise its aspirations, it had to become independent. That's why in 2019, when the contract with KakaoGames finally ended, PearlAbyss, against most industrial speculations, made the decision to not renew the contract and publish Black Desert globally on its own, even though BDO was already immensely popular worldwide at that time.
It was a risky decision, because PearlAbyss had no publishing experience back then, but with great risks, come great rewards.
PearlAbyss' independence has given it almost limitless freedom in removing and improving old systems, reducing P2W elements [which, to a small extent, still exists within the game], and its tireless efforts over the years to make Black Desert into the game that it deserves to be is clear as day.
PearlAbyss is the only game company that, against common expectations, created a traditional Korea-culture based massive expansion for its flagship game title even though the majority of its users are not Koreans.
The dedication to doing what the studio has aspired to do since its creation is, in itself, inspiring.
Perhaps many non-Korean users might not be able to fully understand the idiosyncrasies of the ancient Korean culture depicted in the new Land of the Morning Light region but this is merely the first step in a multi-decade effort to improve the understanding of traditional Korean culture around the world.
As a non-Korean living in Korea, and who has witnessed countless money-grabbing Korean companies doing the exact reverse of what PearlAbyss has been doing over the years, I would like to sincerely applaud this effort by PearlAbyss because it touched me, even as a non-Korean, which is also why I am sharing this little-known history of PearlAbyss with the rest of the world.
Land of the Morning Light is a perfect way to enter the vast world of Black Desert and also, a great excuse to anyone that wants to return to the MMORPG.
Land of the Morning Light is a change of pace for Black Desert, but it works pretty well. The folklore stories are beautiful and set players up for the endgame-system, although new players don't learn a lot about combat. The new area is also beautiful, with traditional Korean architecture and gorgeous sceneries. And the expansion is free for all players.
Land of the Morning Light is a gorgeous and engaging love song to ancient Korea. However, it suffers from the same problems as genre rivals. You don’t just catch up with almost nine years of previous history, and the amount of data to process is almost intimidating.
Black Desert: Land Of The Morning Light is a classic refreshed installment. It draws from folk narratives from various parts of Asia and generates entertaining stories. It proposes an ancient traditional world that coexists with interesting, much more robotic effects: it is a particular installment. The mechanics are maintained, as is the splendor of its punctual character customization.
This isn’t going to fully replace the normal Black Desert grind, but Pearl Abyss delivered in creating a gorgeous new place to quest in for new and returning players alike. It’s a good expansion, and a good direction for potential content in the future.
Amazing graphics, fluid gameplay but sadly terrible monetization, if you wanna be casual this is the place for you, but competitive scene is highly pay2win.
Great combat, huge improvements have been made in the past year and it's much more new player friendly. That's the extent of the praise I can sing for this game. This game is just cancer to play. Enhancing is clearly rigged, streamers seem have boosted "RNG" to make the game look good while the vast majority of normal players can fail 86 times consecutively. It feels at times that my account has a secret restriction applied preventing any kind of success. Statistically my rate of failure in enhancing is near impossible. The community overall is good until you meet the 700+ GS players. They are probably the most egotistically and toxic people I have met, more so than LoL players. It's not wrong to say they ruin the casual players experience. It is not even worth reporting them as they never get action taken against them even though they constantly violate ToS. Regardless of what they do it is always "Black Desert Online is a competitive game and we consider PvP encounters as part of it.". I am beginning to believe player reports are not read and it is all automated.Enhancing and Veteran players abusing "pvp" are the two largest issues with the game currently. And those two alone make the game a horrible experience for everyone. If you don't like dealing with endless failure, toxic players and having a second job just life skill. It's boring but at least its peaceful and guaranteed to be consistent in your gains.
Imagine an MMORPG whose goal is to improve the strength of equipment and characters, but in which most pvp activities have a huge limits on the level of equipment, and those that do not have are consistently killed by developers. That's what bdo is at the moment.
SummaryThe Land of the Morning Light Edition is now available in Black Desert!
Embark on exciting new adventures in the Land of the Morning Light, an upcoming expansion celebrated with the Land of the Morning Light Edition.