Blades of Fire Review

Forged in Fire, Solid as Steel

Blades of Fire has a mightily compelling, intriguing premise: everything revolves around weapons and the steel used to forge them — the plot, character progression, exploration, combat against enemies, and even the lore all center around the hearth, anvil, and armaments. Developed by MercurySteam, the studio behind Metroid Dread and the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games, Blades of Fire is an impressive and solid action RPG that executes soundly on its foundational ethos, which lends itself extremely well to its combat and lore. Unfortunately, the game’s remarkable aspects are somewhat undermined by its scope, level design, and some janky gameplay and presentation elements.

Set in a dark, medieval fantasy world, players take on the role of Aran de Lira, a warrior who happens upon one of the seven ancient hammers used to forge the world and humanity, and which endows him with the special, rare ability to forge weapons of steel. In the world, Queen Nerea has risen to power and has cast a spell that turns her enemies’ steel into stone, paralyzing their ability to counter her army of sellswords, scoundrels, and other ruffians, who are running rampant and spreading destruction far and wide. Upon acquiring the power of steel, Aran is joined by Adso de Zelk, a young, well-learned scholar who helps him document enemies and the world while also detailing lore and providing valuable non-combat assistance. With Adso at his side, Aran ventures to kill Queen Nerea and end her reign of tyranny.

From the outset, this setup works extremely well, and the petrification of steel and its ramifications are deftly and smartly layered throughout the lore and the world. Even from the first area, players will notice evidence of Queen Nerea’s reach – ruined villages and steel monoliths petrified into cracked stone scatter the landscape. It is evident that much thought went into the lore and worldbuilding, and slaying the queen’s minions provides a wealth of interesting information from Adso’s observations. This is especially true as Adso gradually unravels the tale of humanity’s predecessors, the Forgers, and their long-standing conflict with the unscrupulous, scheming thaumaturgists.

Aran and Adso’s back-and-forth banter is enjoyable, particularly with the world’s eccentric denizens.

Additionally, Aran and Adso have a genuinely entertaining, fun, and believable dynamic that eventually grows into something special as the story progresses. On the other hand, the game and plot suffer from one key issue: the pacing. Even from the outset, moments in the game occasionally overstay their welcome at several junctures. While there are individually interesting episodes on the way to kill the Queen, and some truly well-written and intriguing characters, the prevalence of fetch quests and less interesting secondary missions causes the game’s plot to drag, notably in its early going. This is regrettable, as the game does have some fantastic standout moments and plot twists that are too scattered for their own good. Luckily, the dynamic between Aran, Adso, and the world’s denizens does enough to alleviate frustrations with the slowish plot.

The game’s level design ultimately makes the pacing worse, which is sadly a frustrating double-edged sword of a conundrum. While the details of the environmental design and architecture of locations inspire awe, navigating them is occasionally less than ideal, and players may find themselves getting lost very quickly. Fortunately, locations are littered with helpful chests containing materials or forge scrolls used to craft weapons, and fighting most enemies along the way is a joy. Regardless, the sheer intricacy and dizzying labyrinthine nature of some areas can quickly frustrate. One early-game location is very irritating to navigate due to the area boss respawning frequently and repeatedly during a concurrent escort mission. While this is a particularly egregious example, smaller annoyances with missions or objectives still sometimes appear in areas, though this decreases in frequency the further players progress into the game.

Fortunately for Blades of Fire, its other interactive elements and combat are as sharp as Aran’s blades. Being gifted with the ability to retain his steel, Aran can, from any of the game’s anvil checkpoints scattered throughout the world, visit “The Forge” to craft weapons. Players can choose from seven different categories of weapons: daggers, dual-wielding, sabers, swords, greatswords, polearms, and spears. When forging each of these, players select a design, choose types of steel formed by materials gathered throughout the world, and then engage in a neat little crafting mini-game to forge their weapons, with higher-quality forges resulting in a weapon with more stars. The materials embedded in the steel affect stats in battle – parry window, maximum stamina, dodge cost, and blocking capability — whereas each star corresponds to one weapon repair. Finally, players name their weapon before heading into the battlefield with it.

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you!

The process and systems of forging a weapon are enjoyable and nicely balanced, not being too complex but requiring attention and care to get the best results. Naming weapons fosters a genuine sentimental attachment to them, and chasing down a lost weapon after dying is frantic and nerve-wracking, especially if it’s the best weapon players have. Losing them, eventually, is also sad, though they can be recycled or traded in for even better materials. Further, new weapons unlock primarily from defeating a certain number of enemies, and it takes a long time to unlock the daggers and dual-wielding options, which, regrettably, don’t perform in combat as well as their high unlocking requirements might imply.

Combat in Blades of Fire is quite simple but extraordinarily effective, intuitive, and enjoyable. Each weapon can perform both light and heavy attacks in four orientations: overhand head strikes, lower body blows, and strikes to either the left or right side of the body. Damage comes in three types — piercing, slashing, and blunt — and exploiting the right type of damage against the proper parts of enemies is key to victory. Weapons also have a momentum stat that factors into chaining attacks, which is important to consider when dodging or blocking. On the whole, enemies do enough to force using a variety of weapons, and it’s satisfying to crowd control a group of skeletons with a wide hammer swing or pierce an armored soldier with a spear.

Despite the involving nature of battles, which are paced at a deliberate, slow, and satisfying speed, some small issues are present. One intrusive inclusion is the game’s feature of highlighting enemy body parts, with green signaling full damage, yellow being reduced damage, and red indicating damage will be mostly or wholly blocked. In Blades of Fire, targeting an enemy’s weak spot is central to success in battle, and even the strongest sword will clank uselessly off of a heavily armored enemy. This visual aid’s presence undermines combat, and Blades of Fire would be stronger if it forced or at least encouraged players to intuit weak points themselves and put their weapons at greater risk through trial and error. On a final note, weapon balance is slightly disappointing, with swords underwhelming for much of the game and spears standing out as overly powerful. That said, each weapon class generally has a solid niche, and there’s nearly always good reason for players to diversify Aran’s arsenal.

The game’s vistas, like the Crimson Fort, are awe-inspiring.

Blades of Fire impresses with both its sights and sounds, but more so graphically. Visually, the game’s various environments have a grimly mythical allure and are rife with color, detail, and magnificent use of light and shadow. All of the environments are richly detailed and beautifully evoke grandiosity along with a vivid, profound sense of ruination and ancientness. Much of the strength of the game’s lore and strong tonal consistency hinges on its three-dimensional graphical brilliance and environmental detail, although Adso’s enemy sketches and various 2D animated cutscenes also enhance the game’s brash and appealing identity.

The score is quite pleasant, superbly orchestrated, and often stands out in how well it fleshes out environments. There is a handsome variety of tracks with fairly diverse instrumental choices; throaty digeridoos, mellow and soulful erhus, and ethereal vocal bits pepper the score, though individual tracks can sometimes cue or segue at odd moments in certain areas. Voice acting is effective for the most part, but it’s not perfect; many of the early interactions between the stoic Aran and eccentric Adso could have utilized a second or third take, though this issue’s prevalence decreases as their relationship grows. Further, voice lines during cutscenes suffer from a strange echo, and it often sounds like characters are speaking through a short, echoey tunnel. This is strange, as voicework in-game is crisp and clear.

All in all, Blades of Fire is a remarkable action RPG, and it executes its themes, combat, and presentation in a balanced, synergistic manner. While it hammers out its best aspects with force and confidence, it unfortunately suffers from pacing issues that hold back its endearing, attractive plot. Despite its stunning presentation and sophisticated location design, the adventure’s scale feels a bit too long for its own good sometimes. Nevertheless, if RPGamers seek fiery and engaging combat, well-designed progression systems, and an exquisitely crafted world, Blades of Fire offers an experience players will want to brush up their smithing skills for.

Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.

Methodically satisfying and engaging combat

Gorgeous panoramas and locations

Intriguing premise and lore

Pacing is rough

Some difficult-to-navigate environments 

Cutscene voice acting has subpar audio mixing