Blades of Fire Review – Deep Systems, Smart Combat, and a Familiar World

Blades of Fire Review

Blades of Fire is a brand new third person action IP by developer MercurySteam. If you don’t know the developer by name, you probably know MercurySteam’s games. Their first major title was Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which is a top 5 PS3 generation game of mine. They also developed the last two side scrolling Metroid games: Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid: Dread. When I heard they had a brand new triple A game coming out, I was very excited, and asked to get the review.

Then after getting the review assignment, I was told Blades of Fire is a Soulslike, which is a genre I don’t like. There are lots of elements of Souls games I want to like: the dark fantasy theme, the connected world, and cryptic storytelling all appeal to me. I’m good with a challenge too. I just find the combat so clunky, and the UI completely turns me off. I want to warn readers: Blades of Fire is a Soulslike getting reviewed by someone who doesn’t enjoy them. But there are aspects of Blades of Fire that makes it stand out from the Souls games and their sea of copycats.

Unique Narrative Presentation

Blades of Fire’s story is presented in a very interesting way. There are lots of cutscenes. They’re very well-directed, and have excellent voice acting. Fans of Uncharted and God of War should feel very at home with the story presentation. The narrative is also drip fed in a cryptic, Soulslike way, in the sense that not a lot of information is given right off the bat. The player-controlled protagonist is Aran, a person who appears to be made of fire and steel. He speaks to godlike giants in a smith-like other world, but travels with a young scholar on a quest to kill a queen. The player isn’t told their backstory and motivations at first, just their end goal. It’s an okay story, told in a very unique way.

I normally hate Souls combat, but I loved the combat in Blades of Fire. I think a major influence on this game was the PS1 JRPG Vagrant Story, because targeting different parts of enemies’ bodies is key to victory. Attacks are mapped to the face buttons: square attacks the left arm, circle the right arm, triangle the head, and X the body. Different enemies have different parts that are weaker than others. Aran also uses multiple weapon types: swords, hammers, and spears, which are also effective against different enemies. Holding R2 allows the player to cycle through equipped weapons,. Having the right weapon, striking the right part of the body, at the right time feels phenomenal. This system gave nuance to the deliberate combat style found in Souls games, and I loved it!

Don’t Call Him Samus

Aran also has a stamina meter that depletes when he blocks. He can also dodge with a shoulder button single tap, and roll with a double tap. Pressing the right joystick locks on to an enemy, and flicking it switches to the closest enemy. I really liked the feeling of Aran’s movement. I didn’t find it clunky, the way I have with FromSoftware games. The dodges are quick, and precise. The timing of the powerful block felt right, but the stamina meter kept it from being overpowered. Something else that sets Blades of Fire apart from the Souls games is it has difficulty options, making it a great genre point of entry. I felt like normal difficulty gave me a really good challenge. Soulslike sickos can always select hard if they want more of a challenge.

A lot of the gameplay ideas revolve around the idea that Aran is a super blacksmith. He fights with multiple weapons. Forges new weapons, and repairs old ones. Blades of Fire takes a few cues from Breath of the Wild, where weapons take damage and can be lost. Players collect materials to forge weapons, and when forging there’s a minigame to find out how many times the weapon can be repaired. Whenever Aran dies in combat, he respawns at a save anvil, with his healing items refilled, but he has to go back to where he died in order to get that weapon back. All of these subsystems felt unique and important. They all fit the blacksmith theme well. Although some aspects are a little silly, like why there are anvils randomly scattered throughout the world.

Full of Detail

Blades of Fire is a gorgeous game. The graphics are top-notch, and the cutscenes are of film quality. What I appreciated most is that every environment felt very lovingly crafted. There’s always lots of stuff on tables, or critters scattering in the wild. Topography has lots of levels to it. The whole world feels fleshed out, and full of detail. The music has a bombastic Hollywood fantasy feel to it. It’s very Game of Thrones-esque. While the music sets the stage for the fantasy vibes, it also comes across as a little generic.  Everything looks and sounds great, but the aesthetics don’t have much identity of their own.

Perhaps mislabeled as a Soulslike, Blades of Fire is a third-person fantasy action game with RPG elements. Its combat is exemplary. Finding the right weapon and the right place to strike each enemy is a well-thought-out system that feels great. While story is a bit bland, it’s told through an impressive blend of cinematic cutscenes, and a cryptic info drip. I loved the amount of detail in the environments. Like its title, Blades of Fire suffers from aspects that are kind of generic. The visual design and musical score emulate Hollywood fantasy to a fault, and the gameplay is excellent. Fans of action RPGs can safely ignore the Souslike label and enjoy this very accessible game.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher***