Blades of Fire Preview

It’s been a while since we last heard from legendary Spanish developers MercurySteam, whose credits include the beloved Castlevania: Lords of Shadow franchise and the spectacular, multiple award-winning Metroid Dread.

Their latest project, Blades of Fire, represents an exciting leap forward for the Madrid-based studio: it’s a brand new IP that boasts some truly inventive new gameplay mechanics, which in turn offer a fresh new spin on the tried and tested third person action-adventure formula.

We were among the first outlets in the world to have a chance to get hands-on with Blades of Fire and we’re pleased to report that there’s plenty to get excited about ahead of its release on May 22.

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Mercury Steam return with a new IP. Image Credit: 505 Games

Divine Metal

Blades of Fire sees you assuming the role of warrior Aran de Lira, firstborn of the King’s Ward. Thousands of years ago, the world was ruled by a race of mighty giants known as ‘The Forgers’, whose reign was cut short by a devastating war, prompting them to bestow their treasured legacy - the secret of Steel - upon humankind. Humanity used this knowledge to dominate the world, eventually leading to the rise of Queen Nerea - a former acquaintance of Aran’s - who has turned all steel into stone. And if that sounds like we’re simplifying things a little, that’s because you - the player - know just about as much as our characters do in real time.

Aran’s adventure opens with him coming to the aid of young Adso de Zelk, a curious scholar, following a bloody encounter in which your mutual ally, Abbot Dorin, is slain. Having saved Adso from Queen Nerea’s corrupt forces, the duo set out on a perilous journey to the Royal Palace where Aran aims to defeat her. Adso goes on to act as Aran’s guide, chronicling the duo’s journey in the game’s ‘Travel Book’, a menu of resources that players can use to garner insights around enemies, equipment and resources that they encounter throughout their journey.

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The story sets to be expansive. Image credit: 505 Games

Up Close and Personal

Enemies are equipped with different types of armor on their head, arms and torso, which affects how you take them on. Targeting enemies reveals a colored outline indicating the level of damage you’ll inflict with your chosen weapon. As you encounter different enemies and your arsenal expands, these outlines vary, with colors indicating where to attack. Green indicates that you will deal maximum damage. Orange means that an enemy’s armor will absorb some of the damage, while red cautions that your weapon will bounce off their armor, dealing no damage and reducing its effectiveness in the process.

Yes, Blades of Fire is a game where your weapons wear down with use. Every confrontation impacts your arsenal in multiple ways, with each strike against an enemy dulling your blade and making it less effective. Strikes against the environment around you will also lower a weapon’s overall durability, eventually causing it to break. The result is a combat system where every hit counts. It’s surprisingly intuitive too. We previewed Blades using a DualSense controller, with left, right, head and body attacks mapped to the Square, Circle, Triangle and X buttons respectively. It may require a slight adjustment for seasoned Soulslike fans used to fighting with trigger buttons, but there was something enormously satisfying about navigating combat once we’d figured out the best approach.

Forging Your Weapon

So what happens when weapons break? Armed with a Sacred Hammer, Aran can access the Forge of the Gods, where he is able to craft his own weapons using loot and found items. Every aspect of your weapon is customizable, with an array of blueprints available to choose from, including shortswords, claymores and polearms, with more to unlock as you progress. When crafting a sword, a longer blade will grant it greater damage but impact its overall weight, making it trickier to handle. The type of steel dictates various different characteristics in defense, durability and laceration, while the shape of the cross-section affects its cutting power.

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The forging system is incredibly unique. Image credit: 505 Games

The final stage sees you using the Sacred Hammer to shape your weapon. An outline represents the shape of the weapon and where the player needs to strike, while an adjustable balancing system indicates the tilt of the hammer and how hard the player strikes it. Hammering a shape that closely resembles this outline rewards players with a possible 4-star rating - each star represents how many times the weapon can be repaired before it breaks beyond repair.

Each strike of the hammer brings the player closer to having a viable weapon, but further away from a truly exceptional one. This proved a little fiddly to grasp in a few hours, which is to be expected given how novel the concept is. Given a few hours more, we’re confident that we’d have gotten the hang of it. Blades also offers the ability to forge a weapon at the highest star rating you’ve achieved automatically, omitting the need to craft one from scratch when you’re eager to get back to the battle quickly.

Putting It Into Practice

The initial area we explored saw us pitted against an array of enemies, all of whom have their own weaknesses. These included the Queen’s armored henchmen, claymore-wielding skeletons, quick-footed marauders armed with scythes, towering trolls and warhammer-wielding warmongers who acted as mini-bosses, of sorts. The goblins using longswords as pogo sticks were among the most interesting enemies we encountered, but the character designs across the board were gorgeously inventive.

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Enemies we fought were all unique and had great designs! Image credit: 505 Games

Players can slash, stab and blunt enemies, with weight balance determining the effort required to wield each weapon. This in turn reduces your stamina, which can be recovered through tactical, well-timed blocks. We found ourselves stumped when it came to fighting the warmongers, only to figure out through trial and error that they were impervious to slash attacks, with stabbing proving more effective. Polearms, meanwhile, became our preferred choice against smaller enemies. When Aran is slain in combat, he plants his weapon into the ground and re-spawns at the nearest forge. You will then have to retrieve said weapon, or craft a new one, which is how we found ourselves experimenting with different loadouts. When we did eventually take down an enemy with the correct weapon, it proved to be enormously satisfying and it’s going to be fascinating to see how experimentation affects our loadout decisions in a story that’s reportedly set to be between 60-80 hours long.

Untold Mysteries

We spent just over three hours with Blades of Fire and feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface of what it has to offer. We only caught a glimpse of the interplay between Aran and Adso, and while the usual kid-accompanies-hero dialogue tropes may be grating for some - think post-battle quips from Adso doubting that Aran could take down a boss, for example - they never feel forced. We’re looking forward to seeing how their journey develops.

Few things proved quite as intense as finding yourself caught in a battle you’re woefully under equipped to handle and Blades’ emphasis on experimentation and a Souls-like sense of rewarding trial and error felt hugely satisfying. The forge introduces a welcome role-playing element to proceedings, which doesn’t come at the exclusion of players who just want to get into the action. It’s a really neat touch that speaks to the broader audience that the genre has attracted in recent years. With rewarding combat and some hugely exciting new RPG mechanics to back it up, we’re excited to see how these elements come together in a few months’ time.