Tried jumping back in to FF14 for a bit but nothing really compels me to want to log back in. Every time I think about it my mind rebukes me. I’m not saying I wont try again later but for now it just doesn’t do it for me.
So I jumped in to Blade and Soul and THAT feels very different compared to wow. The combat is fast paced like wow but with a mix of action combat. And the world is different enough that it cleanses the palate of that generic MMO flavor that others tend to have that I’ve tried in the past, which is mostly do to the combat and how you move around in the world.
Blade and Soul is nice to try on the side if you’re looking for something different and have an interest kungfuing the hell out of stuff, but not completely foreign to the mmo genre.
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BnS is one of those MMOs that passes under the radar because everyone seems more focused on western MMOs and popular eastern IPs like FF. Anything else eastern, people would just ignore or generalize under “Korean grinds” without giving each a fair shot.
I had started the game not too long ago and I’m currently admiring the visual differences with the UE4 upgrade.
I love the character customization - the depth is along the lines of BDO.
The combat does have a bit of action that makes it feel more technical - offensive abilities work as a chain vs a “priority rotation” while having active dodging, countering, and evading. I have more fun playing the KungFu class vs WoW’s monk, especially the “flavor” stuff like when my character tackles someone to the ground and continues beating on them. 
Lastly, the mobility of air gliding and wall running makes it feel fun.
Hey, if it is true it is true.
At one point eastern MMOs were entirely like that. There are still some active ones that are still like that, like Ragnarok Online (2002), but WoW is credited to providing the experience of quest-based leveling style to the genre, and most eastern MMOs I’ve played so far since WoW’s release has leaned towards the same leveling style.
The worst experience I’ve had to date is that handful of titles where you’ve finished all the quests in your current zone but you’re still too low level to pick up the next wave of quests, so you’d have to grind some mobs for a few levels. Perfect World was notorious for that the last time I played… 
I honestly didn’t mind BDO too much, it had some nice ideas in it.
I was, however, very much against their entire pay-for-fashion cash shop.
I am not a fan of pay-for-fashion, not a big fan of microtransactions in general.
I have come to terms with the fact that I can not avoid microtransactions in online games though, so for me it have come to judging whether the money earned from the cash shop is spent on the game or not, and the quality of the cash shop items compared to in game items (Especially if it is also a sub-based MMORPG).
Quite frankly, BDO was so high up in terrible cash shop that it just made me bugger off quickly. I got a character to max level, tamed a horse, did a little bit of breeding but not too much, and I could never shake off the feeling that my character would be forever be dressed ugly because I did not buy any cash shop related items… which is pretty much true.
I do not expect most other games coming out of korea to be much different, tbh. I would love to be proven wrong though, playing video games is kinda my hobby, afterall 
I can understand where you’re coming from; I have played a few that are just like that out of KR. I’m currently playing BDO, though I’ve haven’t reached that wall yet.
I don’t mind microtransaction games too much but it really depends how much progression I can make without spending a dime. When it comes to pay-for-fashion games, my purchases really depends how much time I’m willing to invest into a game/the developer, and whether additional means of acquiring those fashion are possible.
One example of a game I enjoyed out of KR is Tera. I LOVED the combat, the Castanics, and the outfits in the game, and I actively played it between release (2012) to 2020. That game has mogs you purchase out of the store. However, the outfits were BoE, so it was sellable on the AH for anyone to buy with the gold you make just by playing, which is what I mainly did.