Blades of Fire

A short while ago, I had the chance to head down to a small town in the South of England to check out AA darling MercurySteam's roaring new God of War/Souls-inspired Blades of Fire. Despite the name, I didn't quite think these blades were hot enough to impress me just yet, and I'm still not sure they are now after delving through my review copy of the game.

Blades of Fire takes place in a world where an evil witch has arisen to become queen. The first thing she does with her reign isn't raise taxes or ban fun, but instead she casts a spell that only allows those loyal to her to wield steel. The rest of the lands' weapons are made of stone, except for the blades wielded by our hero, Aran de Lira, thanks to a special fiery hammer that allows him to forge his own weapons.

The premise and world of Blades of Fire are unique enough to help it stand out from other Soulslikes we've seen over the years. Each of them needs their own USP, or they'll be all too easily found wanting when compared with the games from which they've taken inspiration. Alongside the concept of weapons being a somewhat finite resource (they'll break, but you make new ones), Blades of Fire also has a portion of the game dedicated to forging those weapons.

Using different steel, timber, and in picking the various hafts, blades, and pommels, you'll make a weapon that can feel unique to you, before hammering it out, battering the dark steel with your hammer until it matches the chalk outline of the weapon as best it can. This goes beyond a minigame, really, as it is a vital part of playing Blades of Fire, but while it remains fresh and innovative for a time, it can be difficult to tell what the different steels and timbers do besides make your numbers go up or down. Also, once you've forged a weapon once, you can just skip the forging part and make it at the exact same quality again. This does streamline the process, but it also raises a question mark above how important and fun it is to go through the process of having to make every weapon yourself.

Weapon and combat variety is a real strong point in Blades of Fire. Once you've got yourself at least one of each weapon type - which in itself can be a bit of a slog - you'll be able to see all the different combos and ways to use them thanks to there being four different attack buttons. Different enemies also require different damage types to negate the effectiveness of their armour, so you're never having to stick to one weapon, at least in theory. Where the combat doesn't quite hit the mark is in the playing of it. Inputs are very responsive, and yet there never really feels like you can get a proper rhythm going. Thanks to the stamina system and enemies recovering rapidly from any sort of hit stun, you might at best get a couple of swings in before needing to block or be faced with taking a random swing. This won't be the case for everyone's time with Blades of Fire. Reading the demo impressions is enough to see there's some satisfaction with the combat. I just couldn't find any that replicates the best of fantasy action or Soulslikes.

There seems to be a bit of a split personality when it comes to Blades of Fire, too. From the anvil rest points, the maps that allow for more paths and shortcuts the more you explore, and other factors it's clear the early Souls games inspired a lot, and yet for the rest of the game it feels more akin to something like a Black Myth: Wukong or God of War, except with that Souls flair. In FromSoftware games, if you're surrounded, that's on you and you're almost surely destine to die. In Blades of Fire, enemies are chucked at you by the boatload, but without the sense that you're badass enough to take them all at once. Perhaps this split is clearest in the story, though.

Outside of a short cutscene at the beginning of the game, the story of Blades of Fire is largely yours to discover. On the one hand, that creates a great sense of mystery around the world, allowing you to discover it piece by piece with the companion Adso. On the other hand, it can end up with the game feeling quite weightless in a narrative sense. I'm not quite sure I care to explore the next dungeon, trudge through the next wave of enemies striking me back as soon as I hit them over the head with a hammer, if I don't know why I'm doing it. Even through the dialogue with your companion, you often just get what feel like quite distanced descriptions of places or people. Even when our heroes throw in the odd bit of their opinions, it's often quite basic. Aran will comment whether he likes someone, what his next objective is.

I probably should have taken it as a sign when I immediately connected Aran's appearance to the protagonist of Ride to Hell: Retribution that I wouldn't be getting the deepest character here. I quite like a lot of the human character designs in Blades of Fire, and love the monsters, but find the characters themselves quite inconsistent. Aran is a prime example. One minute, he's the practically mute, stoic muscleman, and the next he's cracking wise in some mid-battle banter. The same is true for a lot of characters. It can feel at times like there was a battle between making the game a darker fantasy and more of a Pratchett-inspired world of whimsy. It's jarring, and the constant switch took me out of Blades of Fire just as I was beginning to enjoy one aspect of it. The voice cast do their best, but dialogue is a big sinner in Blades of Fire. Some lines just don't feel like a person would say them, and others are repeated so often as you explore a level it can drive one towards madness. I still recall the cries of a particularly annoying child from very early on.

The repeated dialogue can become especially frustrating when you're back-tracking or meandering through the game's maps, as at times the level design baffled me. The game teaches you one thing, to swap it for another. For example, very early on at the Crimson Fort, both me and another editor were stumped by the same point regarding a hidden path and a key to progress the main story. Up until that point, keys were obtainable from particularly strong soldiers, so you'd think you'd need a similar key to keep going, right? No, you need to bash through a wall behind the locked door, as that key will come later on in that level. Environments, while visually very crisp, look so similar in places it can become arduous just to carry on with the main path. It's the level design of early Souls games, but without any of the lessons learned in the decade plus since.

Despite complaints, the core of Blades of Fire remains hot, with enough individuality and fun in its boss fights to prevent it needing to be reforged. However, it's hard to shake the feeling that if a bit more focus was put on any element of the game, it could have been very good. Its hodgepodge mix of being a combat-focused, story-heavy Soulslike that relies on breaking and making weapons feels like it was an attempt to get as many keywords in as possible without polishing them enough to shine.