Blades of Fire Hands-On Preview: Strike While the Iron is Hot!

You might not have heard much about Blades of Fire yet, and if so, that’s not entirely surprising. Blades of Fire is one of those rare treats: a game announced only a few months prior to its anticipated release date. What’s more, publisher 505 Games and Developer MercurySteam invited me to come and see what they have been working on shortly afterward. I’m immensely glad they did.

Blades of Fire is an action RPG where you play Aran de Lira, a King’s Ward Commander who looks like a grizzled 17th-century Spanish soldier. In true epic fantasy fashion, an elder race of Giants once ruled Aran’s world, but they have long since passed away and left only their legacy: the ability to forge steel. In the present, Queen Nerea places a curse upon the land, which causes all steel weapons to turn to stone, except for those in the hands of her monstrous followers. Aran takes upon himself the task of assassinating the Queen. As luck would have it, he comes into possession of an ancient hammer that allows him to forge weapons of steel that retain their metallic form, which makes him the perfect man for the job.

A youthful academic, Adso, accompanies Aran on this quest. Visually, he makes for quite a contrast to his companion, with painted markings on his face and chest and patterned clothing that has an Aztec or Incan feel. Adso is more than a foil and has a distinct role to play in the adventure.

I played a small slice of Blades of Fire, but I gained a good sense of what we can expect from the full game during that time. One of the first things I engaged with was the Forge, which forms the molten core of Blades of Fire’s game loop. Here, you choose the type of weapon you wish to create from a list including swords, spears, and daggers. You select other parameters such as the type of hilt, length of the blade, variety of grip, and the materials used in construction. Each weapon has a series of attribute scores denoting things like damage, parrying ability, and speed, and every crafting choice you make affects these. It encourages you to experiment to find the sort of weapon that most fits your play style.

Once you are happy with your personal death-dealing device’s form, you enter a minigame where you adjust the angle and intensity of your hammer blows to match a series of bars with the shape of a curving white line on the screen. The more effectively you do this, the greater the number of stars the weapon earns, with each star allowing you to repair the weapon once. Furthermore, the fewer blows you use to create it, the stronger the weapon is. I initially found this exercise tricky to get the hang of, to the extent that I was soon laughing at my hilariously inept efforts to line everything up. I think I managed one star on my first attempt. The process can be quite lengthy too, which grated a bit when I wanted to start whacking things. However, when I returned to the Forge later in the game, I slowly began to improve. The satisfaction of turning out a quality blade that met my needs dispelled any earlier misgivings.

With weapon in hand, I was ready to face what Blades of Fire had in store for me. This turned out to be a group of the Queen’s minions intent on making Aran regret his life choices. Combat involves pressing the four face keys to strike at the head and body or from the left and right. By reading enemy movements, you can easily determine which attack works best to break their guard. You evade attacks by dodging and rolling, or you can defend, but I found that staying out of harm’s way worked best on most occasions. Smug in my newfound martial expertise, I attempted to take on a more heavily armoured foe, only to find my blows deflecting harmlessly off him, like a child attacking a tree with a stick. A helpful team member pointed out the red line surrounding the enemy and subtly asked whether I had made any other weapons recently. I swiftly switched to my newly forged masterpiece, and behold, the enemy’s outline went green, and carnage commenced anew.

You need to swap between different weapon types to succeed, but Blades of Fire also features weapon degradation, meaning that you want to use your best weapons sparingly. If your blade falls to bits mid-combat, you’ll need to head back to the Forge to create another one, or to repair what you have. Death flips you back there anyway, although you lose your weapon, which turns to stone. In a twist on the Souls formula, your blade remains in place, awaiting collection. The frequency of Forge points is relatively forgiving, and death never felt frustrating, although there is a penalty for it because enemies respawn.

Other opponents proved more challenging, such as a large troll located in one section of the map. After whittling it down for a while, I managed to chop its head off, only for it to regenerate (to my dismay). The trick here is to wait for the beast to become dazed before using “mutilation” moves, which finally put the monster down, causing me to let out an involuntary cheer before self-consciously looking around the room. This combat is fun and refined, with many options to approach it. Whether hanging back and allowing the opponent to exhaust themselves before delivering a beatdown, or using a weapon with longer range to sweep them away, it is always enjoyable. This is a good thing, as the developers assured me that this is not a short game, so the strength of these mechanics is imperative.

The music which accompanies Aren’s journey, composed by Óscar Araujo, also impresses. A distinctive theme, filled with resounding medieval and Celtic elements, is the main track in the section I played. It creates the perfect atmosphere for the fantasy destruction you unleash in Blades of Fire.

Although I only saw a few scenes between Aren and Adso, I enjoyed them all. There is a lot of play on their age dynamic, with Adso jokingly calling Aren “an old fogey,” but there is also a developing affection between them that should be enjoyable to watch unfold. Plus, it’s always entertaining when Adso comments on how surprised he is that you aren’t dead after you defeat an especially difficult enemy. Adso is your repository of knowledge, filling you in on lore and rumours, and serving as the ostensible author of bestiary entries and the like in your notebook.

From knowing very little about Blades of Fire to getting my gauntlets on the game itself, I have come away enthusiastic to see how this title turns out. With an interesting story that still has much to reveal, a compelling crafting system, and combat that felt fresh and different, I will likely be wielding my own weapons of steel in Aren’s world soon.

Blades of Fire launches on May 22nd on PC (Epic), PS5, and Xbox Series. Learn more on the game’s official website.