Blades of Fire Review – FORGED OF QUALITY?

Ahhh yes… the classic fantasy tale of blades, beasts and big bad monarchs—how original. Most of these projects do not pass the vibe check. But when I found out that Mercury Steam, the minds behind 2021’s awesome-tacular Metroid Dread, were handling a new 3D action-adventure game called Blades of Fire—you can bet my interest was piqued to the nth degree.

Press the X, X, X and Y, Y, Y

Playing as Aran de Lira, a master of ze blades with a vendetta against le evil queen, he sets out alongside Adso, a young, scholarly girl… oh, wait. It’s a boy. Together, they travel on a multi-biome, Xbox 360-era quest of Double A proportions, with Aran handling the blades and Adso supplying the wisdoms.

If you’ve played any action-RPG in the last 15 years, you’ll feel right at home here—maybe too at home. It’s pretty straightforward. The four face buttons act as different directions that Aran will stab or swing, depending on which option is selected. So pressing the Cross button on PS5 will perform a low strike, Square and Circle hit left and right, and Triangle will aim overhead. Tap for a light attack and hold for a heavy. Dodge, parry and guard. Voila. Finito. No crazy combos or long-ranged business. No special, over-the-top anime limit breaks. That’s all, mate. As a whole, it’s a tad too basic for my liking, though that doesn’t mean the fighting sucks. It can still be very intense, especially when Aran squares up against said biggest of the bads. If it becomes too challenging, you can always cycle between the three difficulty options at any time as well, which is always appreciated.

To somewhat sharpen the combat, Aran will discover new forge scrolls for smithing (which I’ll talk about later), while Adso writes detailed tips and tricks about enemies, the more Aran takes a certain foe down. And while it doesn’t make the combat suddenly more interesting, these notes can encourage players to try different tactics for added freshness. Something this game could use a lot more of. Since combat is Souls-esque, enemies can quickly Kleenex away your health and stamina bars lickety-split before you reach the next rest point. So you’ll have to pay special attention to an opponent’s guard and work out where they’re exposed, but also factor in the optimal weapon type; real-time switching between piercing, slashing or blunt attacks that best suit the occasion. Did you get all that? Good! You’ll even come across enemies highlighted in red that can’t be damaged with any of your current weapons. So cue the cartoon run-away sound effect and gun it for the hills like a coward. No judgment from me, though.

Banging Metal

Thankfully, Aran can forge a whole Arsenal football club of weapons. From swords and sabres to polearms and poleaxes, there are seven types to select in Blades of Fire. However, they do end up feeling quite similar in practice. A bit of extra reach here, slightly faster swing there. Not enough to meaningfully change your approach. Apart from the greatsword and spear, which are handy-dandy for doing the pokey-pokey at range, the rest are essentially up-close-and-personal weapons that only vary in a few subtle parameters.

Don’t forget: you’ll also have to sharpen your blades on the regular and repair them. Unless you want your faves to break in the heat of battle. That’s a hard “no” from me. Not to mention, if you want access to the latest equipment, have fun blacksmithing every new scroll you come across and tinkering with all their stats like an economics nerd. Forging new gear means diving into a blacksmithing minigame that’s more chore than charm. You gotta smack your lump piece of metal into a specific shape while thin grey bars go up and down, up and down as you try to match the desired form. The closer you get to a forge scroll’s design, you’ll receive extra chances to repair said weapon before it goes kaputski. But long story short: this minigame gets old, way before the credits roll.

While this title shares a lot of the same design philosophies from Metroid Dread, the transition from 2D to 3D hasn’t been the most graceful. The open-world layout of Blades of Fire is crammed with neat hidden corridors and pathways to explore and find upgrades. Yet it does start to feel claustrophobic a couple hours in, as almost every part of the environment becomes a puzzle and particular paths forward are tucked away in the most obscure spots you could possibly think of. Like a small crack in the floor or a weak wall that looks barely any different from the rest of the area.

A Wayward Journey

Sometimes, you’ll be in the completely wrong spot altogether without much context, running around aimlessly for 10, 15, 20 minutes plus. What a ripper! When you do eventually figure out the answer, the structure will make sense in hindsight. Though you’ll be sitting there thinking “Yeah, I uhhhh, didn’t really enjoy that. Not gonna lie”. Even worse is that the game forces you to teleport back and forth between two locations at points just to grab a stupid MacGuffin. Who thought this would be fun? Do yourself a favour and chuck on the ‘Show next objective’ toggle whenever you eventually rage-pause and get stuck—thank me later.

As for the story… Well, let’s just say it exists. As you skedaddle towards the queen, things sorta just happen with barely any connecting threads in between. Major characters will preach these lofty, world-altering ambitions that are shattered faster than Usain Bolt, or the emotional beats will drop with the tremendous force of a feather. The chemistry between Aran and Adso is enjoyable to watch, I’ll give it that. Albeit, the story doesn’t offer much else. The voice acting is decent enough, and the sound effects have a solid crunchiness, but I honestly cannot remember a single piece of music from the OST. If you typed ‘generic fantasy soundtrack’ into an AI generator and pressed ‘shuffle’, this is exactly what you’d get. Luckily, the game runs well on a base PS5, with a solid 60FPS frame rate even in the thickest of battles. Mercury Steam’s technical chops haven’t dulled yet, that’s for sure.

Decision

Blades of Fire had the potential to be a blazing sleeper hit, but too often settles for a safe, lukewarm affair. This souls-inspired game features decent visuals and consistent frame rates, though it stumbles in key areas like gameplay progression and story cohesion. With moments of brilliance buried under repetitive mechanics and a maze-like biome structure, the flashes of Metroid Dread’s design quality aren’t enough to carry the same-same combat, bland forging and cumbersome progression. It’s not bad—it’s just painfully mid. And in today’s crowded action-adventure space, mid doesn’t quite cut it.

By Anthony Culinas – Reviewed on PS5

Average

It may have had the bones of something bold, but Blades of Fire often plays it far too conservatively for its own good. While there’s a certain charm in its straightforward combat and Metroidvania-ish exploration, the experience is dragged down by tedious mechanics, underwhelming progression and a story that never quite takes hold.

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by 505 Games. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.