Blades of Fire Review – A Powerful But Rugged Blade

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In the sea of video games, “Blades of Fire” is a gem often overlooked due to limited marketing and its release between some high-profile titles. As an AA game, it’s competing with numerous new action RPGs, making it easy to be overlooked. However, despite the crowded market, “Blades of Fire” offers something unique that deserves attention in 2025. So, what sets “Blades of Fire” apart from its contemporaries?

What sets Blades of Fire apart for me is its exceptional forging feature. This game boasts an incredibly detailed smithing system that I’ve yet to encounter in any other game, with the exception perhaps of a dedicated smithing simulator. I’d venture to say that nearly half of the game’s essence revolves around its forging mechanisms. Not only do you personally craft your weapons, choosing aspects like blade shape, shaft type, and metal grade, but the process is also highly customizable and incredibly engaging.

The process of crafting begins at the board, where you select all kinds of components and metals for your creation. Some metals offer greater resilience but less potential harm, similar to how blade heads differ in their range, speed, and damage, as well as other characteristics. You have the freedom to optimize your weapons and fine-tune them to suit your needs. For those who prefer a simpler approach, each weapon type comes with an initial design, allowing you to bypass the planning stage if preferred.

You personally design and craft each weapon, choosing every detail such as the shape of the blade, the kind of shaft, and the quality of metal employed.

Once the design of your weapon is set, it’s time to dive into the blacksmithing process. I’m thoroughly captivated by how forging influences the gameplay dynamics of your weapon. Your proficiency in forging can earn you up to five ‘Forge Stars,’ which significantly affect the number of repairs your weapon can undergo before it breaks. Mastering forging not only extends the lifespan of your weapon but also doesn’t compromise its effectiveness, offering a balanced gameplay experience. The forging mini-game is another layer of depth I’ve seldom encountered in smithing minigames. Each weapon has a distinct shape that needs to be carefully followed during the forging process; this is visualized by a white line, ensuring precision in your craftsmanship.

In this game, you’re sculpting weapons from vertical dark bars, which resemble steel rods. Your objective is to hit these dark bars so they conform to the outline of a white line, achieved by adjusting the force and angle of your hammer strikes. The best part? You can personally name the weapon you’ve crafted yourself! Crafting the weapon in this mini-game is surprisingly enjoyable, but there are moments when I crave another weapon without going through all the steps – luckily, that’s possible. Previously created weapon types can be automatically forged using your past performance rating. There are still numerous button presses and small animations to skip over to bypass the crafting process, though. Given how frequently players need to create new weapons due to durability, that amounts to a lot of time clicking “skip.” I wish there was a quick template button for easier access.

Instead of hammering at the anvil on the spot, you’ll need to transport yourself to a distinct ‘Forger’s’ dimension. Generally speaking, there’s a significant wait or load time associated with forging.

In contrast to games like Zelda Breath of the Wild, the weapons in this game last for multiple battles without breaking often. I’m typically not a fan of weapon durability in action games, but it didn’t bother me here. A potential issue that could have exacerbated the scarcity of weapons is leaving your active weapon at the place where you died. However, unlike other games, you don’t lose your weapons permanently when you die; they remain at the spot you perished. This mechanism prevents what could have been a frustrating situation, as nothing else gets lost upon death except for the equipped weapon.

If you find the concept of “retrieval run-backs” reminiscent, it’s because it shares similarities with a well-known mechanic from the Dark Souls series – specifically, the Bonfire system. In this game, we can think of these bonfires as Forger’s Anvils, which perform essentially the same function throughout the map, serving as checkpoints for the game. When you engage with these anvils (i.e., rest), enemies respawn, making it a crucial aspect to consider in this game due to the limited supply of health bottles that can only be replenished when resting. Additionally, fast travel is possible at these anvils, and they reveal the occasional longer load times within the game.

I’m okay with a brief delay during anvil teleports, but it’s important to note that players need to visit anvils to craft their weapons. However, instead of crafting directly at the anvil, you have to transport to a different ‘Forger’s’ realm. This transition necessitates another load screen, similar to fast travel, and these delays are significant enough to be noticeable and add up over time due to frequent weapon crafting.

I’d prefer if forging could be done directly within the game world instead of having to go through two load screens, walking over to the anvil, and watching several scenes. However, this isn’t a major issue. Moving on to performance, the game generally runs smoothly at 60 frames per second while maintaining high visual quality. The only hiccup is when there are numerous enemies on screen simultaneously, causing some frame rate drops.

“I felt reassured in my combat abilities thanks to responsive and relatively tight controls.”

Despite being surrounded by numerous adversaries and occasional game lag, I was confident in my fighting skills due to the responsive and well-controlled handling. Unlike many third-person action games, you can pull back the camera for a good view without feeling cramped. There’s no bothersome over-the-shoulder sensation here. Character Aran has a swift dash in any direction and a speedy run.

Despite the larger turning circle, I never felt cramped in combat due to the dash and dodge roll maneuvers. However, a jumping feature was noticeably missing, which made me yearn for it throughout my gaming experience. Perhaps this is because I’m accustomed to the complete freedom of movement in Elden Ring, but I often found myself wishing for a jump mechanic. The cherry on top of the smooth control sundae is the option to instantly cancel out of dodges and attacks (except for heavy ones).

In this game, as suggested by its title, melee weapons serve as the main and exclusive means of inflicting damage on opponents. Character Aran is equipped with four attack moves that are assigned to the face buttons on a controller. These attacks correspond to the four cardinal directions, making them useful against enemies and their vulnerable spots. Some of these weak points can even lead to dismemberment.

In the game “Blades of Fire”, you can’t perform specific combo moves, but linking directional attacks creates fluid and continuous action, unless your stamina is depleted. Your stamina recovers rapidly when you hold down the block button, which is crucial as it’s also used to time parries. A successful parry not only regenerates your stamina, but also enables subsequent attacks. However, the window for parrying in this game is quite narrow, and the difficulty of pulling off a parry depends on the enemy you’re fighting.

Given that Aran exclusively uses melee weapons for attacks, it follows logically that each weapon serves distinct functions within the game. The variety spans from greatswords to daggers, all the way to polearms. Clearly, a heavy hammer doesn’t puncture enemies as efficiently as a dagger does. This results in three categories of damage in the game: piercing, slashing, and blunt.

During battles, you can change between different types of damage, but certain weapons only have one type (for instance, a club just deals blunt damage). What makes this interesting is each damage type has unique damage amounts that decrease over time as the weapon wears out. A clever way to maintain these values is by sharpening the weapon during combat, which restores its damage potential as if it were brand new, but be aware, this also reduces the weapon’s total durability.

During battle, you have the ability to change the type of damage you inflict, but certain weapons are limited to just one kind, such as a club which only delivers blunt force.

I’m not usually a fan of weapon durability in video games, but it certainly adds an interesting layer to combat strategy, whether you choose to stick with piercing or slashing weapons or switch to another entirely using hotkeys. Additionally, each enemy has its weaknesses; heavily armored foes tend to shrug off small daggers, while the speed and slash damage from daggers wreak havoc on more bestial opponents. In terms of melee combat, Blades of Fire does a commendable job at keeping the experience fresh for quite some time.

By halfway through the match, I found myself craving a distant attack method of sorts. Alternatively, I needed a means to afflict status effects or do something other than merely wield weapons. Nevertheless, despite the game being centered primarily around weapon swings, there’s an impressive amount of variety and depth, even though it might not appeal to everyone.

Absolutely, every weapon requires a specific set of resources, with some being scarcer than others. I’ve never found myself in a situation where I had to scavenge materials for survival, but I did have to gather broken weapons from time to time. Incidentally, my preferred weapon met its demise right in the midst of a challenging boss battle. Rather than making a sensible choice like swapping weapons or crafting a new one, I ventured to the location where the necessary resources were and gathered them. If you develop an affinity for a particular weapon, it’s possible to gather materials to restore it. Fortunately, the game’s user interface and map make the resource gathering process a bit more manageable.


 

“My main issues with the map are its lack of altitude and terrain distinction.”

Each spot on the map signifies resources available at that location. Additionally, it highlights notable places such as anvils and mission markers (if activated). You can even add personal markers to denote interesting spots that are slightly out of reach. However, I’ve found a few drawbacks – the map lacks clear altitude and terrain differentiation, which makes it challenging to navigate effectively. Moreover, it doesn’t distinguish between different floors in buildings, making it less helpful when navigating multi-level structures.

My frustration with the map stems primarily from the complex layout of the levels. The paths often split and twist unexpectedly, making them challenging to navigate even for someone like me who’s familiar with navigating in-game worlds. This game left me bewildered on more than one occasion due to its intricate level design.

In the region you’re referring to, it’s difficult to tell one route from another, and there aren’t many signs or directions provided. I’m not asking for something as bold as yellow paint, but perhaps a subtle visual cue would help guide me towards points of interest. Additionally, the scarcity of notable landmarks in this world can make the level design seem confusing and tangled at times, although some areas do offer impressive views that rival those from past zones, which are not very common.

Although the paths within a specific area can become predictable and similar quite fast, each individual area maintains its own distinctive and unusual character.

Although the routes within each region become repetitive and similar quite fast, each region maintains its own individual character and uniqueness. The swampy southern regions exude an authentic sense of humidity and wildness, while the Crimson Fort’s indoor maze evokes a sense of decaying nobility. However, I found that the distinct regions themselves were slightly lengthy and lacked enough variation, leading to confusing layouts at times. The design of one region is so poor that it necessitates a guide-like figure to show the way, which brings me to another issue: the need for companions during gameplay.

The guide character’s behavior in this game is particularly annoying because you have to stand idle while he decides to proceed. It feels like waiting for an elderly turtle to recall the path, even though the wait time isn’t lengthy. This guide is with you throughout a region, not just as a temporary feature. However, that’s not the only instance where you escort characters; in one indoor area, you must protect an NPC who clings to your back throughout the entire zone. Enemies can knock him off or capture him, forcing you to rescue him first before continuing. To add insult to injury, this NPC cries so much that it reminds me of baby Mario from Yoshi’s Island.

“In one indoor region, you must keep a NPC safe as he clings to your back through the entire zone.”

In this game, solitary escort sections aren’t always detrimental, but there’s an issue with an abundance of common enemies clustered together, which I refer to as the ‘junk enemy’ problem. The maps are filled with these ordinary foes, and they tend to travel in packs. While this isn’t a concern in games like Dynasty Warriors that allow you to clear groups of enemies with ease, this game prioritizes more strategic combat.

However, if you select the right weapon and ensure it’s properly sharpened, you can certainly take down numerous enemies with a single strike, especially on lower difficulty levels. Yet, achieving this requires careful planning and precise timing. It’s worth noting that in a typical scenario, ‘junk enemies’ shouldn’t necessitate such flawless gameplay to eliminate them.

The frequent meetings with enemies, combined with navigation difficulties and the need to escort characters, really adds up and becomes quite annoying when all of these challenges occur simultaneously. And just to clarify, I can handle fighting these mobs a few times, but when it comes to gathering resources or recovering lost equipment, their repetitive nature quickly becomes bothersome.

Instead of criticism, the boss battles are all praiseworthy. These are the moments where enemies’ vulnerable spots and limbs get their deserved attention. In the initial region, you’ll encounter a troll boss that can regenerate its severed head, demanding quick damage to eliminate it before it recovers. Some bosses even have multiple stages, not overly dramatic or cinematic, but the shift in mechanics adds intrigue to the encounters. Despite the absence of jumping, dodging bullet hell-style projectiles is entertaining.

In the game, every boss and foe comes with a comprehensive bestiary description. To give you an idea of how thorough Adso’s journal is, even different grades of steel have their own entries!

Adso’s Chronicles abound with rich world information and detailed character sketches, presented through the eyes of your trusted ally.

As for Adso, if his chatter becomes too much for you, he can be sent off to the camp. Frankly, I find his whining a bit exhausting myself. He’s always griping, and if you happen to linger in one spot for too long, boy oh boy, will you hear about how bored he is – even when the game forces us to wait during certain parts! Yet, he does serve his purpose in the game quite effectively. He keeps track of monsters, which gives us new Forger Scrolls and eventually, new weapons.

Adso often offers fresh perspectives on every place he explores, yet his jokes can grow tiresome rapidly. The other characters, too, are inconsistent in quality. Aran encounters some incredibly peculiar individuals, such as a ghost gravedigger, and unfortunately, you’re often tasked with accompanying many of them during escort missions, which is disappointing.

While not flawless, most characters deliver strong voice performances. The volume of dialogue in the game is quite remarkable, though it’s the music that truly shines. Its ability to subtly change throughout the game ensures it remains fresh and engaging, never becoming monotonous. Even with frequent mob battles, I found the rhythmic drums accompanying these conflicts far from tiring. The instruments used are rich and diverse, harmonizing beautifully with the various environments.

“Blades of Fire really does look and sound like a AAA title despite its more AA status.”

The environments are already visually stunning without requiring additional enhancement, but boy, do they ever look fantastic! However, you might notice a touch of repetition after some time, yet the level design is nothing short of stunning. Each texture and object seems to be brimming with intricate details, not to mention all the tiny pots and furniture that can be destroyed for resources. Blades of Fire manages to deliver a AAA-quality experience despite its slightly lower status in the industry.

The in-game cutscenes clearly showcase this trait well, utilizing distinctive character models and clever camera angles for each action. However, even with the engaging cinematics and rich backstory of the game, I found myself struggling to connect emotionally with the storyline. The environment seemed a bit too barren of inhabitants for me to fully invest my emotions. Admittedly, I wanted Aran and Adso to triumph and save the world, but it felt more like a passive desire rather than an active one. I appreciate Aran as a character, finding him stoic, if a touch generic at times.

Despite finding myself not deeply attached to any character, their fate didn’t stir much emotion within me. The story’s fairy tale-like atmosphere is well-achieved, but it fails to captivate me with its enigmatic darkness or delightful quirkiness. For many readers, the adventure of Aran and Adso in their quest to vanquish the wicked queen may be an engaging premise, though for me, it barely managed to keep my interest, and perhaps that’s sufficient.

Blades of Fire” offers a distinctive twist in the realm of action RPGs, with its exceptional weapon forging system that fosters a strong bond between players and their weapons. This game manages to make durability an engaging aspect, which is impressive. Despite some flaws, it’s highly recommended if you appreciate close-quarters sword combat – a favorite among many gamers.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

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2025-05-20 21:13