What parents need to know
Blades of Fire is a souls-like action/RPG game in which you play as Aran de Lira, a warrior who wields a mysterious hammer that allows him to go to a parallel world where he can forge powerful weapons.
These weapons (maces, spears, swords, daggers and more) will come in handy, as Queen Nerea has turned all of her enemies’ steel to stone in order to secure power.
Accompanied by Adso de Zelk, a young scholar who records information on enemies for our hero, Aran must travel the world to get to the royal palace and assasinate the queen… his sister.
Blades of Fire uses a particular combat system; Each button allows you to aim at a specific part of the body. You can aim at the left flank, the right flank, the head or the legs. Some weapons also allow you to attack in different ways; For example, you can slice or sting with the spear, which will wear out different parts of the weapon in addition to being more or less effective depending on the enemy.
But the striking mechanic of this title is definitely the forging of weapons. By facing enemies who wield different weapons, we can unlock the blueprints to make our own versions. You then have to go to the forge, use the materials collected by exploring the environments, but above all, complete a forge mini-game in order to make the most resistant weapon possible.
Why is this important? Our weapons are degrading, making them less and less effective (until they are unusable). And we can only repair them a limited number of times, more or less depending on the quality of our work as blacksmiths.
Details
Level of experience required
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Evaluation
Blades of Fire is very bloody, from the start, and dismemberments are common.
Nothing to note.
The characters can have quite colorful and muscular language.
Ultimately, the hero tries to save the kingdom, but the means are violent.
Blades of Fire is a challenging game, like any souls-like game, but it’s definitely easier than most games in the genre.
Blades of Fire offers a long lifespan, the game is cheaper than most new games at release, and there is no additional paid content at the moment, nor microtransactions. It’s hard to ask for more!
Local game modes
Single-player story only.
Online Game Modes
None.
Expansions/Add-ons (DLC)
For the moment, none except the soundtrack and a digital artbook .
Our opinion
Blades of Fire is a title with interesting mechanics, but your satisfaction with this game will depend on your tolerance for weapon degradation mechanics.
Players who hate to see their favorite weapons degrade in titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won’t have fun in Blades of Fire, as the degradation mechanic is central to the gameplay loop.
On the other hand, for those who have more tolerance towards this type of mechanics will find in Blades of Fire an interesting interpretation of the souls-like genre. In an increasingly competitive genre, Blades of Fire manages to find an unexplored niche. We’ve enjoyed refining our weapons and forging more and more powerful versions of them as our adventures have progressed.
The story, however, is not particularly exciting. The quest is simple, voluntarily, but it is not the engine that will motivate our progress in the game. On the other hand, we still have to give some points at the screenplay level to the relationship between Aran and Adso. We feel the closeness developing between the two characters, full of teasing and trust.
Blades of Fire is also rather generous in terms of its difficulty, in a genre known for its arduous challenges. The title offers three difficulty levels from the start, and even at the medium level, we defeated most of the enemies without too much trouble. Let us understand each other; you have to be more careful and deliberate than with a regular action game, but the difficulty doesn’t compare to FromSoftware’s games, for example.
However, the environments are sometimes difficult to navigate and the keys to progress are sometimes cryptic (another must-have of the genre!) It’s nothing dramatic, but you shouldn’t feel bad about having a guide sometimes.
In the end, Blades of Fire is not a game that will please everyone, but the developers of Mercury Steam (Metroid Dread, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows) have managed to bring a good touch of innovation to an already well-exploited genre.
