I’m a big fan of games that zero in on a very specific thing, and then make their whole identity about that specific thing. I’m much less impressed by games that try to do a little bit of everything and just end up being a weird hodgepodge of ideas without excelling at any of them. Blades of Fire somehow falls into both camps.
First, a little introduction. Blades of Fire is a 3D action game developed by MercurySteam. It takes place in a medieval fantasy world that was once ruled by a race of giants called the Forgers. As you might’ve guessed, the Forgers were really damn good at forging weapons. However, when Queen Nerea came into power, she began turning steel into stone, and she needs to be stopped.
You, the player, will take control of protagonist Aran. He grew up alongside the royal prince and princess (who has now come into power), but left the palace due to personal reasons. Now, it’s Aran’s duty to take down the queen.
It’s All About the Combat
To be frank, storytelling isn’t exactly Blades of Fire‘s strong suit. It’s serviceable and a nice backdrop for whatever you’re doing, but it’s not all that compelling. Aran is dreadfully dull as our protagonist, and his sidekick Adso doesn’t fare much better either. The latter simply yaps away at you whenever you learn something new in-game, and both characters feel more like expository devices rather than actual characters.
The good news, however, is that the combat more than makes up for these shortcomings. There are a handful of weapon types to play around with, and three damage types: slash, pierce, and blunt. Every weapon in the game can be wielded in a slightly different stance, which may also change your damage type output. And of course, deciding on your damage type largely depends on what kinds of enemies you’re up against.
For example, skeletons are much more susceptible to blunt damage and pretty much invulnerable to slashing. Similarly, human enemies will take the most damage from slashing attacks, though they can also be hurt by the other types — as long as they’re not in special armor.
Combat in Blades of Fire is stamina-based, and you also have to keep a close eye on your weapon durability and sharpness. If all of this is starting to sound overwhelming, well, that’s because it can be overwhelming, especially at the beginning. There are a lot of things to keep track of in Blades of Fire, but take things slow and eventually you’ll enter sort of a zen flow state. Lock on, check your damage type, whack them, dodge or parry, sharpen your weapon, and repeat.
I particularly liked that you could hit different parts of your enemy’s body, which helped lend some depth to the combat. Each face button on the controller corresponds to four different body parts: head, torso, and the two arms. You can deal more damage based on where you’re targeting too, which makes combat feel all the more dynamic in Blades of Fire.
Hammer Time
The combat wouldn’t be complete without the weapons forging system though, and this is where Blades of Fire really shines. This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest weapons crafting systems I’ve ever seen in a video game. MercurySteam could make an entire game just about forging weapons and I’d be sold.
You start off by selecting the weapon type, then you proceed to customize each section of it. You can choose the types of metals and woods you want to use, along with the style of the blade (if applicable) and the pommel. There are so many different variations to experiment with, and Blades of Fire makes things extra special by letting you name your weapon once it’s crafted. I felt like a bona fide blacksmith each time I crafted something, even if it turned out to be complete trash later on.
Once you’ve picked out all your bells and whistles, you’ll get to actually forge the thing. This starts up a little mini-game where you have to hammer the weapon and try to get a series of bars to line up with the weapon outline. To make things trickier, you’ve only got a limited number of strikes, so you need to actually think about where you’re going to strike and keep an eye on how the heat spreads with each move you make.
It’s oddly therapeutic though, and by far my favorite part of the game. The better you do in the mini-game, the more stars you get for your weapon. This bit is crucial, because the number of stars determines the number of times you can repair your weapon. Once you’re out of repairs, the weapon will be unusable when its durability depletes.
Everything Else Is Unfortunately Middling
Sadly, this is the part of the review where I talk about what a letdown the rest of Blades of Fire is.
It’s easy to see the games that Blades of Fire is drawing inspiration from. It wants recursive level design like you’d see in a FromSoft game. It wants God of War-like camera angles and the chunkiness of that arcade-y combat. It also wants little puzzles. At times, it feels like Blades of Fire is trying so desperately to channel all these other things that it not only loses sight of its own unique qualities, but also fails at emulating its inspirations.
The levels in Blades of Fire — particularly as you progress further in — are not exactly a masterclass in design. In fact, some of them are quite bad. I appreciated the game’s attempts at crafting an experience where you have to figure everything out without any hand-holding, but that could border on frustrating at times. Some of the level designs are downright infuriating, forcing you to solve puzzles while navigating a layout with confusing turns and drops, while dealing with some of the most annoying enemy types Blades of Fire has to offer. It certainly doesn’t help that some of its puzzle offerings can be cryptic and obtuse, too.
While the combat is largely solid, there are also moments of mild frustration that come with dying, especially when you die to gravity. Movement can feel floaty at times, and I occasionally found it difficult to gauge Aran’s immediate surroundings. This has led me to take an errant backstep into a hole in a bridge more times than I care to admit.
Times like these, I so badly wish MercurySteam had just stuck to the one thing it got right: the weapons. The forging system is genuinely compelling, and being able to control so much of the combat makes it exciting.
Blades of Fire suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Had it been just a tad bit more focused, or if MercurySteam had trimmed the gameplay fat just a little, this could’ve been something really special.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PC.
