MercurySteam's Blades of Fire takes influence from great 80s fantasy

Recently, we got the chance to sit down and play a few hours of Blades of Fire, the upcoming fantasy action game from MercurySteam. If you want to read our thoughts, you can do so here, but alongside our gameplay session, we also got to sit down with game director Enric Alvarez.

In our interview, we asked if there were any major influences for the story of Blades of Fire, to which Alvarez said: "It was all ours. The seed that gave birth to everything, narrative and gameplay, was the steel turning into stone. That was the origin of everything. So I'd like to say that we are 50% game developers and 50% storytellers."

The game's story takes place in a world where a witch gains the power to turn steel into stone, and uses the power to make herself queen as well as ruin the weapons of her enemies.

"In the case of Blades of Fire, both the narrative and the gameplay grew up together because the seed was a common thing. It was the steel turned to stone," Alvarez continued. "So we created the story, we wrote the story based on that and we developed the gameplay in the forge, of course, based on that...Of course, I mean, you always are influenced by the books you read and the movies you saw. In that aspect, I always mention Excalibur from John Boorman as one of the movies I like to mention. Believe it or not, Ladyhawke is another one. The fantasy movies from the 80s, possibly 80s and 90s, were a source of inspiration for us."

While Ladyhawke might not be remembered as the best of 80s fantasy, it's interesting to hear which films and worlds gave Alvarez and his team some ideas for the game. Even with all these inspirations, though, Blades of Fire remains unique, and you can find out more about its world in our full interview below: