Free-to-Play MMORPG Bless Unleashed actually starts with a pretty solid story

I had a few hours free last night, and I've been jones-ing to dip my toes into a new MMORPG for several weeks. I didn't want to spend any real-world cash, so I dug through the Free-to-Play section of the PlayStation Store, browsing around before finally settling on Bless Unleashed - the console reboot of Bless Online, released last October on PlayStation. I was intrigued by Bless Unleashed's Bandai Namco pedigree, and after watching a few trailers, decided that I liked the idea of playing as an Ippin - one of the little bunny people that exist in Blessed Unleashed's world.

To be fair, I'm only about three hours into the game, one of which was spent refining my Ippin Hexur into the unholy freak that it is. Here, I took a screenshot to share with readers:

Any game that allows me to create a character that looks this crazy can't be all bad.

Being this early in the game, I have only the vaguest idea about things like the combat and inventory system. I barely understand what happens when I advance a level. I just figured out to press L1 to use my face button powers, for example. I've only recently gone into a shop and started clearing out my starter equipment, because I was running out of inventory slots. It's extremely early days in MMO terms, and I'm still just putting the very tips of my big toes into the game. But I was immediately impressed with was the opening story for my Ippin priest. Why was this particular storyline impressive, you ask? Well, because Bless Unleashed is an MMORPG, and I paid attention enough that I know what is going on.

I don't know about you, but my eyes usually just glaze over during story moments at the beginning of MMOs. I just steel myself for five to ten hours of not knowing what's going on, and blaze forward, moving from goal to goal until I have a grip on the game. But I found myself actually charmed by the opening of Bless Unleashed, and was surprised by the way it felt like the opening to a Final Fantasy game, or a similarly well-written RPG.

"Hey guys, you wanna play? You wanna? Huh? Do ya?"

My little Ippin Hexur struggles through a bad dream - where the game teaches the player the very basics of its combat system - before waking up in a charming island village. It's festival day, so Hexur and all of its little friends are excited to get out there and watch some of the performers and dork around with fair food and balloons and such. The opening sequence is a sunny, fun tour through the nicely-detailed island town, with your Ippin stopping to perform a few basic tasks while on the way to meet high-priestess lady to check in. High Priestess lady is entertaining General guy, who is hanging out on the island during the festival for reasons that I didn't quite catch.

But evil stuff is brewing, and a pile of baddies - known as "The Faceless" - are planning an attack on the peaceful island while the fair has them all distracted. Hexur gets wind of the attack, but is too innocent to understand the implications of what is about to happen. Still, the Ippin dutifully makes their way to fill in the high-priestess lady about what they overheard. High Priestess lady absolutely groks what is about to go down, and sends the Ippin to warn the fair-goers. But its too late.

The Faceless attack, in a surprisingly brutal and bloody sequence. High Priestess lady gets shanked, and then its just murder, murder, murder, blood, blood, blood. Just as the Ippin is about to be slaughtered, General guy swoops down from the sky on a Griffin, snatching them up and whisking them off to safety. The Ippin wakes up on a farm, dazed but otherwise unharmed, and the story continues. It's a pretty solid hook to bring the player into the story.

Just a couple of fancy-pants buddies, hanging out in the plaza.

No, it's not the greatest fantasy story-telling of all time, but it is a surprisingly engaging start to an MMO, giving your character roots, a history, and motivation to get started on their quest. These opening moments feel well-scripted, and the production values are shockingly high. This very much felt like something one would play through at the beginning of an epic big-budget RPG. This is more than I can say for a lot of other free-to-play MMOs, which typically start by introducing the player to their fine selection of microtransactions. This little story is definitely enough to pull me back into Bless Unleashed for another session, which is precisely what the game designers want to achieve.

I'll probably dip into Bless Unleashed at least one more time to see if it really gets its hooks in me. But for now, I'm not mad that I spent an evening playing through the opening story. I may use Bless Unleashed to introduce my daughter to MMORPGs. With its well-written quests, and my cute blue weirdo character, there are certainly many worse options out there - putting Bless Unleashed towards the top of the Free-to-Play heap in my current estimation. 

Bless Unleashed is currently available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A PC version is scheduled to be released sometime in 2021.