When I sat down to play developer MercurySteam’s latest challenge, Blades of Fire, I anticipated one thing of a return to the studio’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow video games, up to date with the trendy stylings of God of War. An hour later I believed I used to be enjoying a Soulslike, albeit one the place all of the stats have been in my weapons moderately than an RPG character sheet. By the top of the three-hour hands-on session, I realised each of these observations have been concurrently true and false: that is a game that’s unmistakably constructed on well-worn ground, however the distinctive association of each its borrowed parts and new concepts ends in a contemporary and attention-grabbing strategy to the action-adventure style.
While it’s not precisely a clone of Sony Santa Monica’s work, you’d be forgiven for assuming as a lot at first look. With its darkish fantasy world, heavy-hitting strikes, and third-person digital camera that stays close to the action, Blades of Fire has a lot in widespread with the Norse period of Kratos’ journey. There are actually even more parallels that I might speak of: throughout a demo that occurred during the game’s opening hours, I explored a twisty, treasure chest-laden map with the help of a younger companion who helped resolve puzzles. Together we sought out a girl of the wilds who lived in a home mounted atop a big creature. It can generally really feel a bit too acquainted, particularly if you additionally issue within the many components pilfered from FromSoftware program’s library, together with anvil-shaped checkpoints that, when rested at, each refill your restricted well being potions and respawn enemies.
All of this familiarity is filtered via a world that has an air of Eighties fantasy about it. You can think about Conan the Barbarian simply mixing in amongst its extremely buff troopers, whereas a bunch of orangutan-like enemies bouncing round on bamboo pogo sticks wouldn’t look out of place in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Even the story has a retro vibe; an evil queen has turned metal into stone, and it’s up to you – Aran de Lira, primarily a blacksmith demigod – to kill her and restore the world’s metallic. Despite these old-school charms, although, at this stage I’m uncertain the story, characters, or writing will show that compelling – it’s all extremely video game-y, akin to the numerous forgotten tales of the Xbox 360 period.
Like many of these video games of yore, Blades of Fire’s finest accomplishments look like mechanical. It boasts a fight system rooted in directional assaults that makes use of each face button on the controller. On a PlayStation pad, tapping triangle goals for the top, cross goes for the torso, whereas sq. and circle swipe left and proper respectively. Through cautious studying of an enemy’s stance you should utilize these assaults to interrupt via defences. A soldier holding up a blade to guard their face, as an illustration, will be overcome by aiming low and skewering via their intestine. The influence is splendidly squelchy, with thick trails of blood erupting from the injuries you inflict.
There are events when this system actually shines. The demo’s first main boss, a slobbering troll, had a second well being bar that would solely be chipped away after dismembering the beast. The limb that’s lopped off is dictated by your angle of assault, so I might use my right-hand strike to detach its club-swinging left arm, fairly actually disarming my foe. Even higher: you may cut the troll’s whole face off, leaving it blind and aimlessly flailing till it may regrow its eyes and proceed the fight.
Interesting wrinkles like this may be discovered in lots of of the fight staples. Rather than robotically regenerate, your assault and dodge-fuelling stamina gauge should be manually restored by holding the block button. But regardless of these new concepts offering Blades of Fire’s fight with a distinctly totally different edge, the overall tone of battle is undeniably Soulsian. Attack sample recognition and slender dodge/block/parry home windows are very a lot the title of the game right here, and there’s the identical sense of risk and reward – even when the punishment isn’t fairly as extreme. It’s enough to trick your mind into reaching for FromTender muscle memory, however that sadly gained’t prevent right here: the directional assault system calls for a very totally different control map, the security of blocking repositioned to the left set off.
After rewiring my mind to keep in mind that none of the face buttons can be utilized to dodge, issues started to click on. The distinctive approaches steadily took centre stage over the Souls of all of it, and I quickly discovered the fight to be refreshingly totally different. Core injury dealing is elevated by a good weapon system that permits you to wield your bladed armaments with totally different stances, both slashing with the sharp edge or thrusting with the pointed tip. As with the directional system, you’ll need to evaluate your enemy (in addition to some helpful HUD prompts) to find out which method is best.
If the title didn’t give it away, your weapons are the very coronary heart of Blades of Fire. And in comparison with most video games, they demand a enormous quantity of consideration. Edged weapons boring with repeated use, that means every successive strike offers a minuscule much less injury than the final. That all provides up over time, so that you’ll need to make use of a sharpening stone to replenish your weapon’s blade. That, or change to a totally different stance; the sting and the tip put on down unbiased of one another, which contributes to the sense that these are tangible gadgets affected by your combating type.
As with Monster Hunter, you’ll be taught to make space to sharpen your sword mid-fight. But each weapon has a sturdiness meter that frequently depletes, no matter how properly you take care of it. When your weapon inevitably shatters, you may restore it at an anvil checkpoint. Or you may soften it down into its uncooked supplies to start crafting anew in what’s undoubtedly Blades of Fire’s most vital and distinguishing innovation: the forge.
To say MercurySteam has created an intensive weapon crafting system is an understatement. Rather than discover new armaments on this planet, each weapon’s life begins right here within the forge. It begins with the selection of a primary weapon template, which Aran sketches out on a chalkboard. From right here you tweak and modify. For occasion, when designing a spear, I adjusted each the size of the pole and the form of the spearhead. Each resolution is mirrored within the weapon’s stats; a longer pole will increase the spear’s vary, whereas the form of the top dictates if it’s more proficient at slashing or piercing. Different supplies have an effect on weight and that in flip modifications the weapon’s calls for in your stamina pool. All this lends the sense that you’re genuinely crafting your weapon. You even get to call your creation.
Most crafting techniques would finish there. In Blades of Fire, that is solely the midway level. With your design full, you could then bodily hammer out the metallic on an anvil. This is achieved through a remarkably concerned minigame wherein you control the size, power, and angle of each hammer strike. A curved line throughout the display screen represents the last word splendid, and with every blow of the hammer you try to rearrange a collection of vertical bars, akin to a graphic equalizer, to match the form of that curved line. Overworking the metal will lead to a weaker weapon, so the purpose is to recreate that line in as few strikes as potential. Your efforts are rewarded with a star ranking; the more stars you attain, the more typically you may restore your creation earlier than it completely breaks and is misplaced eternally.
I actually love the concept of the forge and how it introduces a talent ingredient to what’s sometimes a menu-driven system. But even after a number of periods on the anvil, I discovered the minigame frustratingly obtuse. There didn’t appear to be a clear connection between the areas that I struck and the ensuing form of the metallic. Hopefully some enhancements, or just a higher tutorial, are carried out earlier than launch – it could be a disgrace for Blades of Fire’s most attention-grabbing function to be marred by irritation.
The thought on the coronary heart of the forge is one thing that goes approach past the boundaries of a three-hour demo session. MercurySteam desires you to really feel deeply hooked up to the weapons you create and carry them with you for the length of your journey – a journey the developer claims might be “no less than 60-70 hours.” As you discover the world and discover new metals, you’ll be capable of reforge your trusted swords, axes, hammers, and spears to boost their properties, guaranteeing they’re all the time appropriate for brand spanking new and more troublesome challenges. This relationship between you and your armaments is emphasised by the dying system; upon defeat you drop the weapon you have been utilizing and respawn with out it.
It’s one other mechanic impressed by Dark Souls, however constructed on a totally different, arguably more significant bond: misplaced souls can all the time be replenished with more killing, however a sensible sword you’ve constructed a reference to is irreplaceable. Luckily your dropped weapons will stay on this planet completely, so your solely problem is to search out a strategy to get better what you misplaced. I stay up for seeing how this plays out over your entire marketing campaign, and if any variety of backtracking will reunite you with weapons from a dozen hours in the past that you may reforge and rekindle your relationship with.
It’s unsurprising to see MercurySteam undertake a number of concepts from Dark Souls and its siblings. That’s partly as a result of FromSoftware program’s seemingly irreversible influence on action video games, but additionally as a result of Blades of Fire is one thing of a non secular successor to Blade of Darkness: a relic of the early 2000s, it was developed by MercurySteam’s founding members and is taken into account (by its cult following, a minimum of) to be a precursor to the Souls collection. In some ways, these builders are merely choosing up from the place they left off, implementing the developments made by different studios during their time away from the style.
As I performed, I might really feel the gravitational pull of all of MercurySteam’s obvious influences – the brutal fight of this challenge’s decades-old predecessor, the improvements of FromTender, and the world design of God of War. But as a lot as these concepts are clear to see, they fall short of defining the studio’s latest work. Rather than craft a Soulslike or a God of War-like, these firmly established techniques have been reinterpreted as half of a bigger canvas of concepts. Blades of Fire has a recipe of its own that efficiently distances it from any of its apparent gaming touchstones.
I do have some misgivings – I’m not sure if this pretty generic darkish fantasy world is up to the problem of supporting a 60 hour journey, and inside three hours I’d fought the identical gatekeeping miniboss 3 times, which makes me query the variability on offer. But the demonstrated depth of relationship between your cast blades and the foes you face has me completely intrigued. In a time when complicated and, frankly, obtuse video games like Elden Ring and Monster Hunter have turn out to be mainstream hits, I believe Blades of Fire has the potential to contribute one thing fascinating to the scene.
Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor.