Blades of Fire from Mercury Steam was quite an eagerly anticipated title that I had my eye on because of their previous games. The headline titles of course being Konami’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Nintendo’s Metroid Dread.
So does Blades of Fire live up to the expectations the developer’s previous games have set or does it fall flat ? Let’s find out shall we?
Blades of Fire
In Blades of Fire players will take on the role of an adventurer named Aran. Aran is a blacksmith who suddenly comes into possession of one of the seven great hammers that forged the world. This happens after he takes on a set of bandits and one his mentors is murdered in front of him.
Without a lot of story to go on at first, Aran basically saves a young monk named Adso from certain death while an old man that he knows is sword slashed by a bandit. He slowly bleeds out and dies in front of you and you and Adso seek shelter in a barn. In the barn, Adso hands you a package and when you unwrap it, you see that it’s actually a sacred hammer. Aran dismisses Adso and upon grabbing the hammer is transported to a different world where a God-like being instructs you to use the hammer to forge a weapon.
It’s at this forge where a lot of Blades of Fire’s more creative gameplay comes into effect. Players will use the forge throughout the game to forge new weapons by selecting parts and resources and playing a small forging mini-game to beat their weapon into shape. Forge properly and you can gain additional chances to repair your weapon. It’s quite creative and I really like how Mercury Steam handled this.
Back in the real world, Aran approachs Adso and tells him that he’s going out to “Kill the queen” and your journey begins in earnest from here on out. Blades of Fire is unfortunately very light on the story elements that onboard you and you’re basically just thrown into an adventure with the hope that everything falls into place storywise along the way.
This usually works out for some games in this genre but it really is quite lacklustre in Blades of Fire. Players are expected to converse with Adso to learn more about the game world as they progress through levels. So you’ll press a button to talk to Adso while you’re just doing some checkbox stuff here and there and it feels rather bland to be honest since the combat will take centre stage over the talking most of the time.
You can also send Adso back to the Forge and you yourself can repair and recycle weapons at the Forge whenever you encounter Forge Anvils out in the game world. Quite formulaic standard stuff really and nothing groundbreaking. Other games have done this way better too.
This unfortunately isn’t the only issue I had with Blades of Fire. The gameplay itself is a mixture of hack and slashy combat with some Souls-like elements thrown into the fray. Controlling Aran, you’ll use the face buttons to attack enemies in each respective direction the face buttons are located in. And this is where the disappointment sets in quite hard. Fighting enemies in Blades of Fire can often be a guessing game where you need to figure out which direction to attack from.
The enemies in this game also all feel very similar to each other and there’s no real sense of achievement from defeating them unless you see a gory attack animation. However, since they are quite samey, this gets old quite quickly.
Once you’ve got the hang of the combat system, it’s all smooth sailing here though and the lack of variety is noticeable a few hours in. Even more so when you gain access to new weapons which are far more effective against certain enemies. You can also change your stance and block but for the most part, the gameplay is rather straightforward and simple. I will say that it’s very rhythmic and very rewarding at first though if you have the patience to counter enemy attacks from the right direction since the animations and effects are great.
Blades of Fire is quite long coming in at around 50 hours and probably more if you get lost along the way or spend more time fighting enemies than needed. A lot of this length felt like padding though while you converse with characters to learn about the game world. The game’s level design also leaves a lot to be desired with a lot of backtracking and a severe lack of anything stand out.
A redeeming factor for the game lies with the fact that the graphics are actually beautiful throughout. Character models look appealing and the environments were great. The game also ran fine without any crashing and the soundtrack did its job with plenty of fantasy orchestral themes that suited the game well. The voice acting was a bit of a mixed bag though and tastes will vary when it comes to this. Aran’s voice acting was fine but I felt like Adso’s was a bit out of place considering he’s a scholar and a monk. Again though, tastes will vary when it comes to this.
Final Verdict
Overall, Blades of Fire is a serviceable action RPG from Mercury Steam. It isn’t going to win any awards but it has a certain janky charm to it that did keep me entertained. The core gameplay loop of defeating enemies, obtaining resources crafting and using different weapons would have really benefited from a much better overarching story to go with it. Instead the game just felt like it was doing the bare minimum with frustrating level design that seemingly padded its length.
Give this game a try but only when it’s discounted. You will still have fun but I think it’s best played in bite sized chunks so as to not feel the fatigue set in.
Blades of Fire Trailer
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Game code was provided by the Publisher.