Blade & Soul is a Korean fantasy martial-arts massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by NCSOFT(Team Bloodlust). On September 13, 2012, NCSOFT announced that Blade & Soul would release in Western territories, which eventually happened on January 19, 2016.

Blade & Soul features a combination of martial arts inspired combat and qinggong in an open-world environment. Players create playable characters that explore around the world by completing quests assigned by various NPCs. The game uses a real-time battle system in the third person camera view and requires players to "combo" a series of attacks, much like that of fighting games. According to NCSOFT, the game also features an innovative “Downed” mechanic, allowing players to recover from the brink of death. Players begin with “player-versus environment” (PvE) but may participate in “player-versus-player” (PvP) combat later in the game.

Characters may be one of four playable races based on the Four benevolent animals:The Gon, the Jin, the Kun (Yun), or the Lyn.Blade & Soul will provide a highly customizable system.Customizations a player has access to include hair styles, facial structures, facial markings and makeup, eye color, height, and body sliders.