Blades of Fire developer MercurySteam has a fascinating trajectory. Amidst excellent releases in the Castlevania and Metroid franchises, MercurySteam interrupted its strong run with a few disappointing releases. All of that is to say, its output has been inconsistent. Blades of Fire, sadly, falls on the lower end of the spectrum of its games, but it is not completely without merit. Excellent art direction, technical proficiency, impressive animation, and a unique combat system are all in its favor, but so many design decisions and ideas drove me absolutely crazy over the course of the game that I lived in a perpetual state of frustration while playing. A positive first impression and desire to get to know its protagonists eventually fell aside for an experience that is entirely too long, full of unearned twists, and needlessly challenging.
Among the positives, Blades of Fire’s world and setup invite exploration. Protagonist Aran is a soft-spoken, but imposing hermit who works with steel and seems to only want to do good. He saves a young monk named Adso and is given one of the seven hammers used to create the world. It means he (and the player) can create his own weapons, and he decides to use this new power to say flatly, “I am going to kill the queen,” inviting his new ward Adso to join him. I liked that opening moment and wanted to see why he was so resolute in his quest, but the resulting revelations mostly fall flat. It’s also a narrative that frequently puts you inches from the queen, only to inexplicably introduce a new supervillain that takes hours and hours to defeat. I constantly felt like I was gearing up for the final confrontation, only to be pushed further away.
Combat is different than most sword action games and takes some getting used to. The four face buttons dictate which direction Aran swings his weapon. Enemies display their weak points, meaning encounters are often a matter of figuring out which direction to attack. For example, if their head is the weak point, you attack from above. It never gets much deeper than that, though, and by the end of the game, the weapon I was using was a stronger factor than how I was attacking enemies. But the way weapons and progress work, there is little incentive to engage in combat.
Aran makes his weapons, which involves collecting materials and playing a smithing minigame. If you are enamored with a particular blade and successfully built it once before, you can thankfully skip the minigame. I quickly found the process of creating or rebuilding weapons annoying, especially early on, when I would go through myriad weapons when stuck on bosses. Since the only incentive to kill enemies is more materials to make more gear, and engaging enemies only brings your weapons closer to destruction, I often ran from objective to objective without fighting in order to save my favorite swords.
The running between objectives is where the game most frustrated me. Navigating nearly every location in the game is a nightmare. There is a map and a menu option to show your next objective, but it helps only about half the time. I spent the other half running around avoiding enemies, just trying to find a door I missed, or a secret entrance – anything. And to make matters worse, extended sections hamper you even further. One area involves carrying a small skeletal child who can fall off and be kidnapped if you get attacked. I spent hours trying to ensure the child stayed on my back while searching for the exit and dodging enemies. In another area, a slow-witted ghost follows you, and in order to progress, you have to wait for them to remember where a switch used to be, or something comparable. I found these sections baffling, but the other, more straightforward locations were equally confusing. I rarely felt the reward of figuring something out. More often, I just angrily shouted at the TV, “How was I supposed to find that?” after stumbling across a climbing rope or an elevator hidden behind a statue.
Finally figuring out where to go or what to do is the bad kind of surprise Blades of Fire is so adept at delivering, but there are good surprises, too. The larger narrative didn’t grab me, but I like the dynamic of Aran and Adso. I also like that it is very easy to send Adso away if he gets annoying, which is a smart way to mirror the narrative nature of their relationship through gameplay. Blades of Fire also delivers big, epic moments that showcase its dense fantasy world and character and creature design well. Giant monsters and impressive vistas live up to the high standard MercurySteam has set for itself with its past games. I liked looking at Blades of Fire, even if playing it was arduous.
I consider myself a MercurySteam fan, and even after gleefully closing the game when I saw credits (and deciding the lengthy, extended final quest for the true ending was not for me), I remain a fan. Blades of Fire feels a bit like the developer’s attempt at bringing something new to what has now become the overpopulated Souls-inspired genre. It was unsuccessful in this instance, but some of its ideas around combat and the world it created are exciting. They just couldn’t overcome the parts that made me want to give up on the game.
