The MMORPG “Bright Shadow” is making its way to the Gamepot portal for North American gamers.  Personally I have not played this game yet so I don’t know what the gameplay really compares to but from what I have seen, the world is simliar to fiesta and asda story but the characters and animations are much closer to Flyff.  The global version of Bright Shadow has been very popular, but of course why port a North American version from a game that sucks – it makes sense that exports are already big in their previous territories, but I thought I’d mention it anyways.  The new version for this market is going to have all of the same characters, mobs, and maps, but will get updated storylines ands added customization systems. You should check out the official trailer on the official site (see bottom page)

Thomas Lee, Gamepot’s Director of Business and Marketing, stated “Bright Shadow lets players own their adventure – placing great emphasis on personalized experiences for them and their friends.  With a focus on creativity, finely-tuned social options and easy-to-learn gameplay, we feel it’s the perfect online entertainment experience to bring to North America as part of our growing roster of free-to-play games.”

Bright Shadow will also feature a weather system, one of the more popular additions by game engine designers that is seeing wide growth into mmos (didn’t the original Zelda havea weather system).  Questing will be a big part of the game but combat is really its core element.  The most interesting aspect of Bright showdow though is the 20 classes that is hosts, so there will be quite a bit to test out for the prospective player in order for them to find just the right class that suits them.   Also built into Bright Shadow is an innovative Monster Card system that gives a variety of abilities such as monster summons, a “Soul Power” collection system to boost skills, tailored item crafting and original pet systems all geared toward providing a truly customizable undertaking where no two players will be alike.

Bright Shadow is not quite ready for the NA market, closed beta is still over a month away and commercial release will happen in late 2009.  Overall the game looks promising for the casual gamer, but with a number of social systems and its guild system, it could interest even long term veteran players.  Like most MMORPGs of this kind, Bright Shadow is Free to Play with premium shop options.