Blades of Fire Review . Heavy is the Hammer That Forges the Future
In Blades of Fire, the clang of steel echoes not just through cavernous ruins and twilight battlefields, but it forges the path of history itself. Every corner you turn feels like stepping through the memories of forgotten legends, one where the bones of fallen titans litter the ground and where castles don’t crumble — they brood. The air is thick with dust, and the skies loom heavy , watching your every move. From the first swing of your weapon to the last echo of your bone crunching and echoing though a ruined fortress, Blades of Fire thrusts you in a world as tragic as it is grand, where glory and tragedy go hand in hand — and only few can forge a path forward.
What is Blades of Fire?
Blades of Fire is the new game from MercurySteam, the studio behind Metroid Dread and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. This 3D action-RPG adventure borrows from the Souls-like playbook, tough enemies, limited healing, and respawning foes when you rest , Yet it manages to bring a new world that feel distinct, largely thanks to the colorful locales and a weapon crafting system that is central to both gameplay and story.
Long ago, the world was ruled by a race of mighty giants known as the Forgers. In an age of wonder and magnificence, they shaped civilization through strength and wisdom. But their reign was not eternal — a devastating war shattered their empire, and ruin followed.
Facing extinction, the Forgers passed on their legacy to humanity. They created mankind in their image and gifted them their most sacred secret: the power of The Steel. With this knowledge, humanity rose to dominance, forging weapons, empires, and a new world.
Now, thousands of years later, that legacy became myth and its intents warped and twisted. Queen Nerea — once a beloved heir to that power — has cast a curse that turns steel to stone, weaponizing the Forgers’ gift against the very people it was meant to uplift.
You play as Aran, a former commoner, armor smith and childhood friend of the Queen, now tasked with ending her reign. Armed with a legendary hammer, and with the help of young erudite Adso , Aran must re-forge the steel that built the world and restore what remains of it.
Gameplay: Directional Depth and Forging Finesse
At first glance, Blades of Fire appears to tread familiar ground. Explore the world, approaching unknowns with trepidation and planned strategy. Enemies hit hard, and are relentless, stamina governs every swing and dodge. Don't button mash as it is a sure way to end up out of breath exposing your weak side. The game offers a flask-based healing system that restores health but their use is limited. Resting in camp or at the Anvils spread sporadically across the map resets those , but also the enemy forces. So far all this will probably sound very familiar to anyone who ever dipped their toes in a souls game or souls like. However, Blades of Fire worked in a few mechanics that change the gameplay and give their own spin on the genre. First thing is combat, specifically directional attacks.
Each face button on your controller ( X, Y ,B,A) corresponds to a strike aimed at a specific body part — top, left, right, or bottom. Hitting the right spot can bypass armor and exploit weak points. A quick click of the right stick and your target enemy shows a colored outline indicating if your swing will effective. This is also depending on what kind of weapon you use, blunt, slashing or piercing. It is a clever approach to give you more control of the way you attack an enemy.
And then there is the crafting system which MercurySteam developed to be an integral game mechanic You see weapons in the game will break over time, you can repair them a number of times after which they will be junk forever. Melt them down and make something new, hopefully something better. Defeating enough of a particular enemy type, earns you their weapon blueprint as well as resources needed to create the weapon . Kill 60 skeletons? You unlock their massive claymore. Take down a handful of spearmen? You get access to their polearms. You get the picture.
Collected enough and you find yourself an anvil and hit it with your magical hammer to visit the mystical forge. Here, you don’t just press a button and craft an item. You shape it, literally. Pick your resources and then with your hammer you choose different angles, hit strength and width you adjust blade length, hilt size, pommels, and balance. With limited strikes available, you strike the heated metal until the weapon reaches its final form. The mechanic is hard to explain, you hit one place and somewhere else pins come up , and vice versa, which does not seem sensible, but after a few trues it is actually pretty intuitive. Before you know it you get the hang of it. The better you do the higher star value your weapon gets all the way up to five. Once you have unlocked a grade you can use it to quick create the next weapon in that category if you want to speed things up.
Death is not too punishing but will cause a setback as your save/checkpoint might be a bit away and all enemies will respawn. Any weapon you were using at the time petrifies in the place where you died and you will have to find your way back to retrieve it again.
Presentation: Big On Style, Rough On the edges.
This is a high fantasy setting steeped in melancholy and mystery. Aran’s journey is shaped by loss, loyalty, and the weight of legacy. You aren’t just saving the kingdom you’re trying to understand it and as a player we are there each step of the way.
Despite a new world with an interesting angle the lore is not overwhelming, along the way you wonder about the history of commoner Aran, and Queen Nerea, though the pay off at the end is not as strong as it could have been and might be considered a weaker part of the game. But as they say it is about the journey, not the destination.
Adso, your scholarly companion, fills in the gaps with enemy intel, puzzle-solving, and magical insight. He’s smart, loyal, and mostly manages to avoid the "annoying sidekick" trope, though he does have a tendency to repeat his lines when you linger too long. But if he gets on your nerves a little you can just send him to basecamp and get him back when you need him.
It’s not trying to be the most photorealistic game out there but still manages to have some great visuals as you can see in the screenshots in this article. Perhaps it is the game engine used, which is the same as in the studio's previous titles, but the vibes feel like those early 2000's games in terms of art direction that leans into bold, dramatic silhouettes and high-contrast lighting, and color which fits the mythic tone.
Character designs tend to lean into exaggerated fantasy bulk But it works. Some of them. Like more realistic Mark of Kri Characters full of personality.
The audio team deserves some serious credit here as well. Every clang, scrape, and hammer strike has weight, especially when a blow lands well. and the soundtrack swells appropriately during boss fights or emotional beats. Voice acting is overall solid across the board, though some background NPCs sound like they were phoning it in from the tavern.
Menu systems are easy enough to navigate and the upgrade system is very light weight and easy to use. However a low point for me was the map system. It’s bad. Not “kind of confusing” bad but actively detrimental to the experience. The world is full of all kinds of pathways and secrets that gets you turned around at times. With elevated places and maze like secrets. The map offers no help with elevation, no clear indicators for explored areas, and sometimes misleads you entirely. I spend an entire night looking for a lost NPC I needed for my quest, I had a general idea where to go, but just could not get there for the longest time. It was very frustrating. You can place markers that appear in-world, which helps a little, but it’s a band-aid on a gaping wound. Add the fact that you also can’t jump or climb freely unless prompted, making exploration often feels more restrictive than it should.
Parental Advisory
Blades of Fire carries a Mature rating, for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language.You will find frequent, stylized violence with gore (limb mutilations are a regular thing) Grim, somber narrative themes around war, betrayal, and death, Occasional swearing and suggestive designs and a pretty steep game difficulty. The game does not have any Multiplayer or online interactions to worry about, It’s a purely single-player game with no microtransactions, loot boxes, or online entanglements.
Final Thoughts
There’s no denying that Blades of Fire has some rough edges. Combat is functional but perhaps limited for souls veterans, Enemies can be tricky and seeing them over and over again might get old when exploring and there is only limited help in terms of tutorial, meaning a lot of learning from your mistakes. On top of the navigation system will make you want to scream into the void at least once per session.
But then you take the forge system, craft a weapon. You name it. You take it into battle and carve your way through enemies that once crushed you. You retrieve it when it breaks. You improve it. You learn its quirks. And when it’s time to retire it, you feel that loss. I cannot believe the game took a mechanic that ruined parts of Zelda for me and made me invested in it.
That’s the brilliance of Blades of Fire. It makes you care about your tools, your progress, and your world. And in doing so, it turns a game about breaking things into one that quietly builds something memorable.
I don’t typically enjoy games where my hard-earned weapons break. It often feels like punishment for investing time into something cool. But Blades of Fire changed that. Here, the act of forging is the point. The wear and tear aren’t just mechanics — they’re metaphors. And by making every blade personal, every repair a ritual, Blades of Fire made me appreciate a system I usually dread. Despite a clunky map and some design missteps, this is a game made me care and come back for more. I might be a flawed gem, but one worth uncovering.
