by Gamatroid
From the award-winning studio MercurySteam, comes a new action-adventure where you forge your own weapons and face fierce enemies in a unique combat system. You are Aran de Lira, firstborn of the King’s Ward. The newly crowned Queen Nerea has cast a spell that turns steel into stone. Only her army of abominations wield the divine metal against which other blades shatter.
I recently had a chance to play the demo on Xbox Series S, and I came away very impressed by what I saw and experienced.
BLADES OF FIRE
- RELEASE DATE: 5/22/25
- MSRP: $59.99
- DEVELOPER: MercurySteam
- PUBLISHER: 505 Games
- PLATFORMS: PS5, Xbox Series, and PC (Epic Games Store)
- PLAYED ON: Xbox Series S (Demo)
Blades of Fire is a new game from MercurySteam, developer of Metroid Dread, Metroid Samus Returns (3DS), and all the Castlevania Lords of Shadow games (so you could say they have a bit of experience crafting excellent game worlds).
In it, you play as a warrior who gains the power of a mystical Forge Hammer that you use to craft weapons to fight back against the evil Queen and her armies who march unchallenged across the lands.
The weapon crafting mechanic is surprisingly deep, and allows you to change various aspects of the weapons, including the blade/head, hilt, shaft, and materials used in each component. Once you make your selections you then play a minigame where you try and hone the blade as closely to the ideal outline as possible, with as few hits as possible, which gives the weapons enhanced characteristics. It's very interesting and lends a different feeling to Blades of Fire than your typical Souls-like.
The combat is also different enough from other Souls-like / GOW-like games that I thought it truly stood out. You of course have a block button and a dodge mechanic, and if you block at just the right time you trigger a parry which leaves the enemy open to counter-attacks, but your attacks come in four different forms, a left-sided attack, an overhead attack, a right-sided attack, and an uppercut-style attack. Depending on the type of weapon you have equipped, the exact attack may vary.
In addition, most weapons have at least two stances you can assume. For example, a sword has a slashing stance, where you attack with the side of the blade, or it has a stabbing stance, where you attack directly ahead by... stabbing. This matters based on the type of enemy your facing, and what kind of armor they have. Some enemies are more susceptible to stabbing attacks, and others to swinging attacks.
On top of that, your weapon blade will start to dull, so you may need to switch from stabbing to slashing, or vice versa, to take advantage of the sharper part of the blade of your weapon. Should you happen to die then you drop your weapon where you fell and you need to make your way back to that area to retrieve it.
It may sound a bit overwhelming (it was overwhelming just to type all that) but the game does a great job easing you into it.
I was also very impressed with the overall visual look and style of the game. I didn't know anything about it going in, and it immediately reminded me of the art style of Fable, but dramatically improved for current gen consoles. Honestly if the new Fable game were to look like this, I would be totally happy with that. Blades of Fire is out now and available on PC (via the Epic Games Store), PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. I played on my Series S and it looked fantastic. I believe there are also enhancements for PS5 Pro as well.
CRITICS CORNER
In looking at critic reviews and user ratings, the scores for Blades of Fire are mostly good, with the exception of IGN's strange troll score of 5/10. Seriously, what the heck are they thinking? Clearly Blades of Fire isn't a perfect game and it must have some challenges, and perhaps the full game experience isn't as smooth as the demo, but it has a lot of potential and I'm excited to play more of it.
- GamesRadar+: 4/5
- Eurogamer: 4/5
- IGN: 5/10
- PC Gamer: 74/100
- PlayStation User Rating: 3.9/5
- Xbox User Rating: 4.2/5
- Epic Games Store User Rating: 4.3/5
You can check out my demo gameplay from Blades of Fire in the YouTube video below:
I recommend you at least give the demo a try, and you should consider picking it up if any of the above sounds interested to you.