One of the hobbies I’ve long wanted to get into has been blacksmithing, and bladesmithing in particular. Blame Robert Adams (of Horseclans fame) for putting the idea in my head back in the dim days of my youth. The idea of forging weapons and armor has a certain atavistic thrill, and far too many fantasy novels play up the “practical magic” of turning lumps of iron into creations both elegant and lethal. So when Blades of Fire was announced, with the forging of your own weapons being a major gameplay element, I was understandably intrigued. And after some time spent in the game, it’s clear that there’s a lot more hammering away than just at the forge.
Blades of Fire puts you in the shoes of Aran de Lira, a former courtier turned exile. In a realm where an enchantment makes all steel turn to stone, Aran seems to be one of the few people who can work metal and not suffer the effects of the spell. When a renowned scholar dies trying to reach him, Aran figures that it’s time to stop hiding and start working to set the kingdom right by assassinating the source of so much misery: Queen Nerea, despot and former friend to Aran when they were kids. It’s a task which will be made slightly easier by the presence of a relic which the scholar was bringing Aran, a mystical hammer tied to the ancient Forgers who shaped the world ages before. As you traverse the realm towards the Royal Palace, you’re accompanied by the scholar’s apprentice, Adso de Zelk, who provides commentary and useful information about the journey, as well as unlocking ancient puzzles and deciphering inscriptions in dead languages.
“Forge work has numbed me to cold. You?”
“Enchanted underwear.” Image credit: MercurySteam
From a visual standpoint, Blades of Fire looks quite good. Using their own in-house engine, MercurySteam has crafted a vibrant world for players to traverse, filled with detailed adversaries and distinctive styles of art and architecture to help flesh out the environments and sell players on the concept of the setting. There’s a good amount of particle effects (particularly gore when literally “disarming” an opponent), excellent lighting work, a broad variety of textures which really add weight to the environments. Plus, no weird geometry errors or texture cracking, which is a rarity these days. I know everybody drools over Unreal Engine 5, but the Mercury Engine certainly feels like it could give Epic a run for their money. Weapon designs, obviously an important component in a game where you have to make your own gear, generally feel like they are not only plausible but practical. There’s a little bit of “chunkiness” with some of the designs, particularly with the two-handed swords. Even so, they necessarily feel impractical or unrealistic. And there are details on some weapons which speak to an established system of aesthetics, design motifs which have been long established. With regards to the UI, it’s clean, informative, and doesn’t get in the player’s way. Perhaps the only possible stumbling block has to do with the forging process.
The audio elements in Blades of Fire are also well executed. As you’d expect, there’s a lot of ringing metal, battle cries, and similarly situated sounds of combat. On top of this, there’s a lot of well done environmental audio. Lots of blowing wind, crackling fire, breaking wood and stone, it really does a great job of immersing you in the environment alongside the visuals. Certain enemies who aren’t immediately visible give away their presence by guttural growls, or by the burbling of water and mud as they come up out of the ground. The soundtrack, however, has a few problems. From the execution standpoint, the music is nicely composed, battle themes coming in appropriately when you start swinging steel and going out when the threat has been eliminated. There are some pieces which have vocals included, and it’s these pieces that have a curious quality of distracting a player or eliciting a sense of confusion. You start looking for things which, from the music, seem like they should be there and don’t actually exist. They’re false music cues, and as good as they are, they’re also something of an annoyance when they pop up at the wrong times. As far as voice acting, the cast plays their roles reasonably straight without it devolving into ham-and-cheese levels of camp. Repeated lines do get a bit tiresome after hearing them for the umpteenth time, but when the dialogue is distinct and focused on informing the player, you get a good sense of the characters.
The overall gameplay for Blades of Fire is squarely in the Soulslike category. And for somebody who has historically gotten frustrated with Soulslikes and Soulsbornes, Blades of Fire is surprisingly accessible. Strikes are mapped to buttons in a logical and understandable fashion, allowing the player to figure out the best way to deal with their opponents, and the long press ensures you’re going to be wrecking weaker enemies in short order. Thankfully, getting killed doesn’t do anything more inconvenient than dropping your currently held weapon, so you’re able to keep gathering all those sweet crafting materials to build replacement weapons. That said, I am a little irked that it seems like certain weapons are universally unhelpful in dealing with enemies. Tapping the R3 button (on the Dualshock controller) will highlight a targeted enemy and give you a green/yellow/red status report of how much damage you’ll do if your weapon lands a hit. When the enemy is all red, it’s a problem. When the enemy is all red no matter what weapon you’ve got, it’s really a problem. There’s a strong and unspoken expectation that you’re going to grind for different weapon types, which are obtained by defeating certain enemies. Partially it’s to help you find what weapons fit your particular playstyle, and partially because there realistically has to be one which can best deal with a particular enemy.
As you’re exploring, you’ll come across certain totems which correspond to a specific weapon type. If you present that type of weapon to the totem, you’ll unlock new options for the forge to create potentially more effective weapons. Sometimes, the grind is mercifully short. Other times, not so much. Some weapon types might have a small number of enemies required to learn the pattern, but those enemies might be big, dangerous, or require some very elaborate efforts to reach them. Add into that the grind for materials to keep you in fresh weapons, and the pacing sometimes bogs down, particularly if you approach an area in a hasty or careless fashion. Beyond this, exploration has some spots where it is not always intuitive or obvious where you need to go next. There’s something to be said for poking around, finding different nooks and crannies. But at the same time, the amount of spots blocked off by requirements you haven’t met yet and don’t know how to meet becomes incredibly tiresome. At least getting a brief idea of where to go next based on your current position instead of the overall summation of your present circumstances would have been a big help.
I mentioned earlier there was something of a small problem I had with the forging component. The short version: when forging a weapon, you want to fill in as much area below a given white line which evokes the general shape of the blade. I can appreciate that MercurySteam was trying to simulate the process of drawing out a billet in a fashion which was both easy to pick up and didn’t rely on rhythm game mechanics. It’s not a bad idea in theory. But in execution, using the “graphic equalizer” approach isn’t quite as intuitive as advertised. Certain weapon types feel more challenging to forge than others, and not in a way which is particularly satisfying. Yeah, you can recycle the weapon if you feel like it didn’t turn out great, but it’s a friction point which tends to sap some of the fun. I will say that being able to duplicate a good forging just by using the option does help, though there’s always those who will want to get the best possible result when forging a weapon. And since the number of repairs you can make on a weapon is tied to how well you forge it, there’s something of a risk/reward element which feels skewed more towards the “risk” side of the equation.
Narratively, Blades of Fire certainly feels like it’s got an interesting spin on the typical “swords and sorcery” themes in most Soulslikes. As you progress, you’ll uncover more about the history of the realm and how things got so badly screwed up that you have to do your own product testing on endless hordes of mooks. Defeating enemies nets you more information and, after a while, a good likeness in the record book. There are understandably less opportunities to flesh out the world via weapons (since you’re always the one making them) and armor (since there isn’t any). Though, in compensation, you can unlock a mechanic which adds reputation to a given weapon, which in turn can be exchanged for rare materials to make even more wondrous arms. Aran and Adso quickly establish a good relationship, given that Aran’s talents lie primarily in swordplay and bladesmithing while Adso covers everything except those two disciplines.
However, there are spots where the story gets held up by mechanics which are not at all explained. During one section, for example, you’re tasked with escorting an undead child through the ruins of his ancestral palace. The kid can be snatched by certain enemies, which means you have to go rescue him. But defeating the enemy standing guard over him doesn’t automatically bring him back to a state where he follows you. Nope, you’ve got to walk over him to get him to follow you again. It’s something which is never explained, there are no contextual clues, nothing. I probably burned a good hour trying to figure out what I needed to do next. Hiccups like this tend to kill the narrative flow pretty hard.
Ultimately, Blades of Fire is a good solid game in a space which is all too often filled with either From Software’s latest opus or the also-rans trying to catch a trend. The production values are high and the overall barrier to entry is not nearly as punishing as other titles in the genre. The mechanics for forging and maintaining weapons can be picked up, though figuring out the optimal time to replace an existing weapon is one of those things that is going to have to be picked up with trial and error. Still, it’s an interesting journey with a potentially rewarding personal touch to the sometimes esoteric conventions of the genre. Take a few swings at it and see for yourself.
Axel reviewed Blades of Fire on PlayStation 5 with a provided review copy.
