Blades of Fire: The First Preview

When I sat down to play developer MercurySteam’s latest project, Blades of Fire, I expected thing of a instrumentality to the studio’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games, updated with the modern stylings of God of War. An hr aboriginal I thought I was playing a Soulslike, albeit 1 wherever each the stats were successful my weapons alternatively than an RPG quality sheet. By the extremity of the three-hour hands-on session, I realised some of those observations were simultaneously existent and false: this is simply a crippled that is unmistakably built connected well-worn ground, but the unsocial statement of some its borrowed components and caller ideas results successful a caller and absorbing attack to the action-adventure genre.

While it’s not precisely a clone of Sony Santa Monica’s work, you’d beryllium forgiven for assuming arsenic overmuch astatine archetypal glance. With its acheronian phantasy world, heavy-hitting strikes, and third-person camera that stays adjacent to the action, Blades of Fire has overmuch successful communal with the Norse epoch of Kratos’ journey. There are surely adjacent much parallels that I could speech of: crossed a demo that took spot during the game’s opening hours, I explored a twisty, treasure chest-laden representation with the assistance of a young companion who helped lick puzzles. Together we sought retired a pistillate of the wilds who lived successful a location mounted atop a elephantine creature. It tin sometimes consciousness a spot too familiar, particularly erstwhile you besides origin successful the galore elements pilfered from FromSoftware’s library, including anvil-shaped checkpoints that, erstwhile rested at, some refill your constricted wellness potions and respawn enemies.

Blades of Fire features immoderate profoundly unusual enemies that consciousness similar acheronian cousins of Labyrinth's puppets. | Image credit: MercurySteam / 505 Games

All of this familiarity is filtered done a satellite that has an aerial of 1980s phantasy astir it. You tin ideate Conan the Barbarian easy blending successful among its incredibly buff soldiers, portion a clump of orangutan-like enemies bouncing astir connected bamboo pogo sticks wouldn’t look retired of spot successful Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Even the communicative has a retro vibe; an evil queen has turned alloy into stone, and it’s up to you – Aran de Lira, fundamentally a blacksmith demigod – to termination her and reconstruct the world’s metal. Despite these old-school charms, though, astatine this signifier I’m doubtful the story, characters, oregon penning volition beryllium that compelling – it’s each incredibly video game-y, akin to the galore forgotten stories of the Xbox 360 era.

Like galore of those games of yore, Blades of Fire’s champion accomplishments look to beryllium mechanical. It boasts a combat strategy rooted successful directional attacks that makes usage of each look fastener connected the controller. On a PlayStation pad, tapping triangle aims for the head, transverse goes for the torso, portion quadrate and ellipse swipe near and close respectively. Through cautious speechmaking of an enemy’s stance you tin usage these attacks to interruption done defences. A worker holding up a leaf to support their face, for instance, tin beryllium flooded by aiming debased and skewering done their gut. The interaction is wonderfully squelchy, with heavy trails of humor erupting from the wounds you inflict.

There are occasions erstwhile this strategy truly shines. The demo’s archetypal large boss, a slobbering troll, had a 2nd wellness barroom that could lone beryllium chipped distant aft dismembering the beast. The limb that’s lopped disconnected is dictated by your space of attack, truthful I could usage my right-hand onslaught to detach its club-swinging near arm, rather virtually disarming my foe. Even better: you tin chopped the troll’s full look off, leaving it unsighted and aimlessly flailing until it tin regrow its eyes and proceed the fight.

Interesting wrinkles similar this tin beryllium recovered successful galore of the combat staples. Rather than automatically regenerate, your onslaught and dodge-fuelling stamina gauge indispensable beryllium manually restored by holding the artifact button. But contempt these caller ideas providing Blades of Fire’s combat with a distinctly antithetic edge, the wide code of conflict is undeniably Soulsian. Attack signifier designation and slender dodge/block/parry windows are precise overmuch the sanction of the crippled here, and there’s the aforesaid consciousness of hazard and reward – adjacent if the punishment isn’t rather arsenic severe. It’s capable to instrumentality your encephalon into reaching for FromSoft musculus memory, but that sadly won’t prevention you here: the directional onslaught strategy demands a precise antithetic power map, the information of blocking repositioned to the near trigger.

After rewiring my encephalon to retrieve that nary of the look buttons tin beryllium utilized to dodge, things began to click. The unsocial approaches gradually took centre signifier implicit the Souls of it all, and I soon recovered the combat to beryllium refreshingly different. Core harm dealing is elevated by a astute limb strategy that allows you to wield your bladed armaments with antithetic stances, either slashing with the crisp borderline oregon thrusting with the pointed tip. As with the directional system, you’ll request to measure your force (as good arsenic immoderate utile HUD prompts) to find which method is astir effective.

If the rubric didn’t springiness it away, your weapons are the precise bosom of Blades of Fire. And compared to astir games, they request a immense magnitude of attention. Edged weapons dull with repeated use, meaning each successive onslaught deals a minuscule little harm than the last. That each adds up implicit time, truthful you’ll request to usage a sharpening chromatic to replenish your weapon’s blade. That, oregon power to a antithetic stance; the borderline and the extremity deterioration down autarkic of each other, which contributes to the consciousness that these are tangible items affected by your warring style.

As with Monster Hunter, you’ll larn to marque abstraction to sharpen your sword mid-fight. But each limb has a durability metre that continually depletes, nary substance however good you attraction for it. When your limb inevitably shatters, you tin repair it astatine an anvil checkpoint. Or you tin melt it down into its earthy materials to statesman crafting anew successful what is undoubtedly Blades of Fire’s astir important and distinguishing innovation: the forge.

To accidental MercurySteam has created an extended limb crafting strategy is an understatement. Rather than find caller armaments successful the world, each weapon’s beingness begins present successful the forge. It starts with the prime of a basal limb template, which Aran sketches retired connected a chalkboard. From present you tweak and modify. For instance, erstwhile designing a spear, I adjusted some the magnitude of the rod and the signifier of the spearhead. Each determination is reflected successful the weapon’s stats; a longer rod increases the spear’s range, portion the signifier of the caput dictates if it’s much proficient astatine slashing oregon piercing. Different materials impact value and that successful crook changes the weapon’s demands connected your stamina pool. All this lends the consciousness that you are genuinely crafting your weapon. You adjacent get to sanction your creation.

Most crafting systems would extremity there. In Blades of Fire, this is lone the halfway point. With your plan complete, you indispensable past physically hammer retired the metallic connected an anvil. This is achieved via a remarkably progressive minigame successful which you power the length, force, and space of each hammer strike. A curved enactment crossed the surface represents the eventual ideal, and with each stroke of the hammer you effort to put a bid of vertical bars, akin to a graphic equalizer, to lucifer the signifier of that curved line. Overworking the alloy volition effect successful a weaker weapon, truthful the purpose is to recreate that enactment successful arsenic fewer strikes arsenic possible. Your efforts are rewarded with a prima rating; the much stars you attain, the much often you tin repair your instauration earlier it permanently breaks and is mislaid forever.

The forging minigame is simply a large thought that feels a small excessively obtuse. | Image credit: MercurySteam / 505 Games

I truly emotion the thought of the forge and however it introduces a accomplishment constituent to what is typically a menu-driven system. But adjacent aft respective sessions astatine the anvil, I recovered the minigame frustratingly obtuse. There didn’t look to beryllium a wide transportation betwixt the areas that I struck and the resulting signifier of the metal. Hopefully immoderate improvements, oregon simply a amended tutorial, are implemented earlier motorboat – it would beryllium a shame for Blades of Fire’s astir absorbing diagnostic to beryllium marred by irritation.

The thought astatine the bosom of the forge is thing that goes mode beyond the boundaries of a three-hour demo session. MercurySteam wants you to consciousness profoundly attached to the weapons you make and transportation them with you for the duration of your travel – a travel the developer claims volition beryllium “no little than 60-70 hours.” As you research the satellite and find caller metals, you’ll beryllium capable to reforge your trusted swords, axes, hammers, and spears to heighten their properties, ensuring they’re ever suitable for caller and much hard challenges. This narration betwixt you and your armaments is emphasised by the decease system; upon decision you driblet the limb you were utilizing and respawn without it.

It’s different mechanic inspired by Dark Souls, but built connected a different, arguably much meaningful bond: mislaid souls tin ever beryllium replenished with much killing, but a superb sword you’ve built a transportation with is irreplaceable. Luckily your dropped weapons volition stay successful the satellite permanently, truthful your lone situation is to find a mode to retrieve what you lost. I look guardant to seeing however this plays retired implicit the full campaign, and if immoderate benignant of backtracking volition reunite you with weapons from a twelve hours agone that you tin reforge and rekindle your narration with.

It’s unsurprising to spot MercurySteam follow aggregate ideas from Dark Souls and its siblings. That’s partially owed to FromSoftware’s seemingly irreversible interaction connected enactment games, but besides due to the fact that Blades of Fire is thing of a spiritual successor to Blade of Darkness: a relic of the aboriginal 2000s, it was developed by MercurySteam’s founding members and is considered (by its cult following, astatine least) to beryllium a precursor to the Souls series. In galore ways, those developers are simply picking up from wherever they near off, implementing the advancements made by different studios during their clip distant from the genre.

Aran is joined by his young companion, Adso, who tin assistance lick puzzles and remark connected the world's lore. | Image credit: MercurySteam / 505 Games

As I played, I could consciousness the gravitational propulsion of each of MercurySteam’s evident influences – the brutal combat of this project’s decades-old predecessor, the innovations of FromSoft, and the satellite plan of God of War. But arsenic overmuch arsenic those ideas are wide to see, they autumn abbreviated of defining the studio’s latest work. Rather than trade a Soulslike oregon a God of War-like, those firmly established systems person been reinterpreted arsenic portion of a larger canvas of ideas. Blades of Fire has a look of its ain that successfully distances it from immoderate of its evident gaming touchstones.

I bash person immoderate misgivings – I’m unsure if this reasonably generic acheronian phantasy satellite is up to the situation of supporting a 60 hr adventure, and wrong 3 hours I’d fought the aforesaid gatekeeping miniboss 3 times, which makes maine question the assortment connected offer. But the demonstrated extent of narration betwixt your forged blades and the foes you look has maine wholly intrigued. In a clip erstwhile analyzable and, frankly, obtuse games similar Elden Ring and Monster Hunter person go mainstream hits, I deliberation Blades of Fire has the imaginable to lend thing fascinating to the scene.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor.