Blades of Fire – Let the forge be with you.
2025 has been the year of action-adventure games, and guess what? We’ve already gotten the likes of South of Midnight and a possible Game of the Year contender, Split Fiction, and more. But guess what? There’s more to come. And right now, the next game in the genre is Blades of Fire.
This has been a long time coming, and many people have been waiting to get their hands on this title. Now that it’s out, thank goodness for them; they don’t have to wait any longer. Brought to you by MercurySteam, an award-winning studio that offers a new game that combines a gothic theme, role-playing, and Dark Souls elements, and it definitely seems intriguing, especially for you Dark Souls fanatics.
Now, the big question is, does Blades of Fire match the anticipation, and is it worth getting? Not to fear, I’m here to help you out with that. Now, for those of you who plan on getting this on PC, you should know that you can purchase the game on the Epic Games Store.
Blades of Fire is a tale of the Forgers, an ancient race that created the human race and bestowed them with great knowledge of developing weapons with the use of steel to rule the world. After finally claiming power, Queen Nerea had cast a curse that would transform the steel possessed by her enemies into stone. And doing so would be powerless against her defences.
In Blades of Fire, you play the role of the brave warrior, Aran De Lira, who is the firstborn of the King’s award and is on a mission to find the Queen and take her down. On his adventure, he’s accompanied by the young scholar, Adso de Zelk, who provides crucial information and suggestions during exploration, combat, and more.
Moreover, Adso takes with him a book of chronicles where he notes down his analysis of a variety of enemies and gives very useful strategies to take them down more effectively. Now, to be honest with you, when you think about it, some might think that this concept doesn’t seem interesting, appealing, and engaging, because it doesn’t really sound like it offers much else I should be expecting in terms of storytelling.
And it sounds pretty basic. A warrior going after an evil ruler sounds like a pretty generic storyline. However, Blades of Fire is one of those games that you need to play for yourself to enjoy it, because after some time playing the game, the story is actually those three mentioned above.
The progression of the story is actually pretty good and nice to playthrough. Plus, being an RPG fan like myself, I find the story and gameplay more immersive. And speaking of gameplay, it falls into a sort of mixture of an open and linear world like you’d see in the majority of Dark Souls titles.
So, you can go into a location, albeit you’d have multiple different locations within locations, you’re able to explore before proceeding. The map is actually very large so that you can travel to many different locations. As you’re completing your objectives, you’ll stumble on an array of mysterious, but grotesquely attractive places and areas.
Aran is gifted with the ultimate weapon, which is called the sacred hammer, that is able to forge his weapons from metal. I was able to craft and try out weapons, and each weapon has its unique characteristics. And because you’re having to face a variety of creatures, the undead, and of course Queen Nerea’s guards, it’s best to use different weapons to succeed.
In the Forge, you have a blackboard that allows you to design your weapons with Forge Scrolls and materials you’ve obtained in your sessions. The blackboard will provide you with an initial idea for your weapon, and you can either forge it straight away or improve it by experimenting with the options available.
There is a unique, authentic forging process in Blades of Fire that I strongly recommend you use each time you’re manufacturing a weapon. Otherwise, you’ll enter battles with extremely weak weapons. This system is where you can actually build the weapon yourself with the use of a hammer.
You have a metre that features bright and dark bars, and a white line. Your job is to bring them as close as possible to align with the shape of the initial design of the weapon. It’s crucial that you do this properly in order to obtain as many forging stars as possible. Because each star represents how many times you can repair the weapon. So, for example, during the forging, if you get three stars, you can repair the weapon three times.
While the weapon is in the glowing metal phase, you can strike the hammer on it. And while doing so, you can shape the metal. Also, keep in mind that the steel is quite fragile, so you’d have to strike the steel accordingly to achieve the best quality for the weapon. Yes, this process is pretty frustrating at times, but it’s realistic. Plus, it does feel rewarding when you achieve more stars and you can give named to your weapons.
Blades of Fire’s combat is quite exciting, and defeating bosses is rewarding, but just like in many Souls titles, for some of us, it’s very difficult. Yes, this is also the case when playing on the easiest difficulty. I’ve played on the easiest difficulty, and sometimes dodging and parrying is a pain in the backside. Even on the easiest difficulty, you need to time your parties perfectly to stun enemies temporarily.
You’re encouraged to select your weapon and combat strategies wisely. And you’ll know what to select based on the colour that’s outlining the enemies. The green outline means that your weapon and style will easily tackle the enemies and their armour.
The yellow outline means that the weapon and style can still tackle them, but not as well as the green outline. And the red outline means that your weapon and style are virtually useless, and it may also mean that you need to upgrade or repair the weapon.
What I like about Blades of Fire’s combat is that you’re able to target a body part of an enemy. You can perform actions such as hack, slash, slice, and dice, and so on, and you feel much better from taking them down after your intense battles.
Another thing I like is the active recovery system. The Breath of the Defender features you recovering your stamina almost immediately. And the left trigger allows you to do this. This system is not what I’m used to, and it’s nice that I don’t have to wait that long to restore this trait.
Blades of Fire’s visuals are the game’s biggest negative. It doesn’t look like it was. Now, don’t get me wrong; the visuals are decent; they aren’t amongst the worst I’ve seen in a modern video game, but at the same time, I still expect much better than this.
Blades of Fire has actually been a better experience than I had expected. It’s definitely something you can enjoy, and it’s at a pretty reasonable price. However, despite the fun combat, it can be painfully frustrating at times, including when you’ve run out of repair stars. Nonetheless, I would recommend this for the RPG and Souls fans. Moreover, you can try out the demo that’s also available in the Epic Games Store for yourself.
