Let’s be real. Blue Protocol is literally the corona virus for MMO’s. Anywhere you go, whatever discord you’re in. The topic of Blue Protocol is somewhere in the chat. Especially in the Anime-Inspired MMO genre. From Aura Kingdom all the way to Kurtzpel, players are excited for the upcoming Bandai Namco title. Most can attribute this hype with the theory that the current MMO’s on the market is failing to deliver on player expectations. Today I’m joined with the Kurtzpel Discord Moderator Surreality to take a deeper dive into the state of what was one of the most hyped anime-inspired MMO’s, Kurtzpel. During its launch Kurtzpel was well-received as one of the most hyped Anime-MMO’s on the market, beating out AAA-MMOs like Astellia & Soul Worker in terms of population, however, things began to take turns for the worse with numerous players stating pay to win methods and gated content.
Zuko: So let’s not shy away from the topic, what is the current state of Kurtzpel? A lot of the “outside” community is hearing really disgusting rumors to the point that Kurtzpel is a meme. Accusations such as gated content, heavy pay 2 win, and a lack of dev communication and community involvement from the GMs are just a number of examples.
Surreality: The current state of kurtzpel is a very barren one. I think many players know this to be true. Even after almost a year of development, there isn’t much for a player to do in the game. There are four gamemodes: first, practice mode, having little impact on a player since you can only play the gamemode a couple times before you stop getting rewards from it. Second, survival mode, which is actually a really fun gamemode but it takes too long to queue up for such little reward, and so people aren’t queuing for it anymore. Third, duel mode, the gamemode everyone has to go through, and everyone hates, you can get 3v3 and 5v5 fiestas where nobody knows what’s going on or what to do. The game, in my opinion, was never really designed to be played 3v3 let alone 5v5. Challenge mode is the old 2v2 Kurtzpel essentially, but even still, with some of the changes made to the game, the most significant being the January 15th patch, things just aren’t the same. The game in its current state rewards passive play and running. Stats are now more important then ever before, and now their COMPLETELY RANDOM, and you must roll magic stones in hopes you get the stats you want. Of course, you could pay for a guaranteed chance at a higher rarity stat, which is where the pay2win aspect comes from. It’s like they are trying to add mmo elements to a game that was never really meant to be an mmo. It’s an arena fighter, and I already don’t like stats being in a fighting game, but at least before the January 15th patch we got to choose directly what we wanted.
Zuko: Based on your opinion do you think Kurtzpel will implement the changes desired by the community in terms of a more laid-back cash shop and total overhaul on balancing the game in general?
Surreality: Balance wise, I think that they may be able to tailor towards the players and make suitable decisions. Though I will note, they don’t really like listening to top players it seems like, and though I understand that elite player opinions shouldn’t be valued more than new players, knowing the division between certain groups of players in your community is beneficial towards making the right steps in balancing. In terms of the cash shop and pay2win elements, I’m finding it hard to believe they would make drastic overhauls in that area. However, I could see both areas, balance and the cash shop, becoming worse instead of better, as that’s happened before.
Zuko: So I’m pretty sure you’re aware of Blue Protocol, the hyped MMO from Bandai Namco. Do you think Blue Protocol is going to affect Kurtzpel in some way?
Surreality: Yes and no. For many including myself, one of the greatest aspects of Kurtzpel was its anime aesthetic. This couldn’t really be found in any other free2play pc game. However as Blue Protocol was announced and we found out that the game has a good chance of coming overseas, it is very likely that the people who enjoy Kurtzpel for the visuals will move onto Blue Protocol. However, there is one thing that Kurtzpel offers that blue protocol, as of now, doesn’t, arena style pvp. Regardless of how good it is right now and will be in the future, Kurtzpel offers anime style pvp fighting that Blue Protocol doesn’t and I think for many players, that may still pull them back to Kurtzpel.
Zuko: What are your thoughts on Blue Protocol, do you think it’s worth the hype? Would you leave Kurtzpel for it?
Surreality: Is it worth the hype? Maybe, though I do think people are blowing the hype out of proportions and are leaving themselves open to disappointment on a potentially great mmo. I myself, am simply anticipating the release of Blue Protocol rather then being insanely overhyped about it. Would I leave Kurtzpel for Blue Protocol? Depends, I would definitely play Blue Protocol, perhaps a lot depending on how I like it, but if Kurtzpel does improve then I would probably just play Blue Protocol as my anime mmo and Kurtzpel as my anime arena fighter, since again both games offer something completely different from each other. Though if Kurtzpel were to remain the same of get worse, I could imagine myself leaving Kurtzpel for quite a while.
Zuko: In your opinion, would you recommend Kurtzpel to newcomers in its current state?
Surreality: No, with the current state of Kurtzpel I would highly not recommend newcomers to the scene. Yes, the game may seem fun, but the game itself has a very brief tutorial that teaches you practically nothing about the game before it drops you off in the lobby as if to say, “Alright, you’re on your own now.” I’ve actually been messaged before by new players asking me what to do after the tutorial since the game offers no guidance to new players at all. Kurtzpel is somehow managing to be in a state where it’s both not friendly to newcomers and not friendly to returning players.
Well shit, you heard it here first boiz. My personal opinion on the matter is that judging by the conversations going on in other discords. Blue Protocol is wide-spread and I wouldn’t be surprised that after CBT-1 with more video footage out there in the public, hype for the game is just going to generate.
