Blades of Fire is an interesting concept. It has the heart of a Soulslike but brings many of its own ideas to the table, such as losing weapons on death, a combat system that relies on targeting body parts, and a complex weapon crafting system.
MercurySteam, the developers best known forMetroid DreadandCastlevania: Lords of Shadow, are the team behind this latest Soulslike. Blades of Fire is a style of game they have never done before, and it’s a valiant effort for the most part.
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There was a lot I enjoyed about Blades of Fire, but the more I progressed through its lengthy story, the more its issues started to reveal themselves.It’s not perfect by any means, but by managing to look past the negatives, I came away pleased with my experience.
So, is Blades of Fire the game for you? Is it worth spending 40 to 60 hours on an adventure that isn’t perfect? Learn more about the game in this review.
Slicing Off Body Parts
Blades of Fire’s combat isentirely unique from other titlesin the genre. Players will spend their time reading their opponent’s attack patterns, a typical Soulslike trait, but there’s an extra layer here not found anywhere else.
Instead of attacking freely,Blades of Fire forces the player to target specific body partsand use certain weapons to overcome their foes.
Swinging at the incorrect body part will lead to your weapon taking more damage, which will eventually result in it breaking
The game does this through color indicators, where green represents that the equipped weapon deals the highest damage, yellow deals medium damage, and red indicates a weapon that will do almost zero damage.
This combat system makes it so that the player must constantly switch between the weapons in order to defeat each enemy.
There are some instances where specific body parts are highlighted in green, like the arms for example, and the rest of the target’s body is red. In this case, it would be wise to swing for its arms, which can be done through the D-pad.
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Pressing Triangle will swing towards the head, Square is the left arm, Circle is the right arm, and the X button aims for the enemy’s torso. This mechanic, mixed with the color indicator system, is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a video game. It adds a layer of strategy that keeps combat encounters fresh throughout the game’s lengthy runtime.
Some of the later enemies and bosses change their color patterns as the fight goes on, forcing the player to adjust their swings and aim for different body parts. Swinging at the incorrect body part will lead to your weapon taking more damage, which will eventually result in it breaking. More on that in the next section.
Crafting and Losing Weapons
As mentioned before, Blades of Fire hasthe heart of a Soulslike, but it brings its own ideas to the table that help it have its own identity. One prime example is how dying works. Players don’t lose any resources upon death, but instead lose the weapon that they forged themselves.
This can be a huge problem, especially if you have forged a weapon with high stats that requires a ton of resources to make. The urgency to get back to where you died and collect that weapon so it’s not lost forever is reminiscent of losing a hefty amount of Runes inElden Ring.
The developers clearly want players to feel attached to their weapon in this regard, through crafting and having to reclaim the weapon if dying, but it ultimately falls flat.
However, it becomes less urgent the further players progress in the game. Due to the overwhelming amount of crafting materials players receive by killing enemies and exploring the world, losing a weapon doesn’t feel all that bad since you can just go to the forge and craft another one.
Unfortunately, this diminishes the cool idea, and it slowly becomes more of a gimmick, as I only felt worried about losing my weapons early on in my playthrough.
Weapons are crafted at the Forge, which can be accessed anytime via an Anvil, the game’s version of Bonfires. Instead of simply pressing a button to craft weapons like other games, Blades of Fire has the player complete a forging minigame.
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Depending on how well you do inthe crafting minigamewill determine the number of times the weapon can be repaired at an Anvil. This is done on a 4-star system, where if you do very well at crafting, you’ll be allowed to repair your weapon up to 4 times. Each star represents a repair.
While I liked the idea of forging my own weapon to determine how efficient it becomes, I didn’t enjoy this crafting minigame at all.It seems way too complex, with minimal tutorials available, and it never clicked to the point where I was looking forward to doing it. It’s just unnecessary.
Fortunately, Blades of Fire allows you to skip this minigame and use your previous results if the weapon you’re crafting is in the same weapon category. This way, if the player scores 4 stars on one craft, then they can make the same weapon with 4 stars with a press of a button.
It’s a nice touch, but I still can’t shake the feeling that the minigame shouldn’t be there altogether. The developers clearly want players to feel attached to their weapon in this regard, through crafting and having to reclaim the weapon if dying, but it ultimately falls flat.
Exploring The Large Map
Theexploration in Blades of Fire has its ups and downs. On the good side of things, the levels are well-designed, have branching pathways, and overlap with each other to create one large map. The map design can feel like Dark Souls at times, as it has a labyrinth-like structure with independent dungeons.
However, there’s nothing really exciting to see while exploring the map of Blades of Fire. The only reason to ever go off the beaten path is to search for upgrades, such as Health and Stamina trinkets, or logs for the small skill tree, but never to really discover any secrets.
While these findings are definitely beneficial and can greatly improve your character, it would have been nice to discover something more interesting, especially consideringthe size of the map. Still, it always felt super satisfying to find a hidden chest with an upgrade.
There are times when navigation can be a real issue and can cause the player to get lost. There were a couple of levels in particular that I spent hours on just trying to find a way to progress the main story. The reason for this is the lack of waypoints in the game and the color palette of the levels.
That last point is especially a concern, wherecolors don’t have enough diversity and everything begins to look “samey.“This can feel disorientating and can prevent players from differentiating from one location to the next, resulting in having to constantly check the map.
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This may not be a problem for all players, but if you’re anything like me and need subtle indicators of where to go, then you’ll have trouble in Blades of Fire.
Lastly, and arguably the most frustrating part of exploration, the NPCs that join players on their travels areincredibly annoying. They won’t stop talking, they repeat the same dialogue constantly, and they love to get in the way.
For example, there was one ghost NPC that repeated the same joke five times in the span of 30 minutes. Having characters talk a lot is one thing, but to have them speak nonsense with no real substance or interesting dialogue is another.
Perhaps even more annoying is when you have to carry another NPC on your back, and he falls off whenever you encounter an enemy. Wait too long to pick him back up, and you have to then travel all the way back to where you found him.
Closing Thoughts:
Blades of Fire has unique mechanics that are refreshing in a genre that seems to be oversaturated as of late. Having to switch between weapons on the fly and target the correct body part adds a layer of strategy to each encounter, making combat more exciting, especially during big boss fights. This is where Blades of Fire shines the most and is the reason to play the game. Unfortunately, too many design decisions left me frustrated. The weapon-forging minigame is a slog, NPCs are overly annoying, and losing weapons upon death isn’t nearly as impactful as I had hoped. It’s clear that MercurySteam has a good concept on its hands, but the execution could have been better in some parts. Perhaps these ideas will be better executed in a sequel.
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Blades of Fire
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
