The core innovation that Blade & Soul brings to the MMO genre is its timing-based combat system.

To the small but vocal community in the States who have been waiting for Blade & Soul to arrive, that announcement alone is, well, a blessing. Since then, it’s expanded its reach to China, Japan, and Taiwan and is currently in the midst of technical alphas and betas, which have gone surprisingly well enough to have the developers refine its initial Q1 2016 release date to now January 19, 2016.

Chances are you haven’t heard of Blade & Soul, despite it being an MMO by NCSoft that was released more than three years ago in June 2012.