Blades of Fire is an addictive blacksmithing and fighting adventure that I couldn’t put down

From the outset, Blades of Fire feels unashamedly old-school. It opens with a cutscene that makes little to no sense, and the game takes an awfully long time to bring its memorable, interesting storyline to bear. 

That’s not really what Blades of Fire is about though, and the axe-swinging tutorial also reminded me of the clunkier, chunkier action RPGs of days gone by — initially causing me to hunker down for, what I thought, might be a grim few hours.

Fast forward to the end of two days of almost continuous play, though, and Blades of Fire has galvanised itself as one of my favourite experiences in this genre. Combat here is clever and varied, with all four face buttons used to launch different attacks, a couple of different styles available for each weapon (such as slashing and stabbing) and many unlockable weapons linked to a crafting system. This, alongside an emergent storyline that has many fun little distractions, makes Blades of Fire a surprisingly good experience.

The main feature is without doubt the weapon crafting system. As revealed early in the game, our main character ,Aran De Lira, is a Forger. Forgers are uncommon in this world and there’s some nonsense about the properties of metal and how only the Queen (who is evil) can use it to equip her minions. This means that Aran is inherently opposed to her, and whilst we don’t see her during the early game, we quickly learn that her minions rarely act on the behalf of the subjects of the Queen’s realm.

With his ability to forge, Aran can stop at anvils placed around the game world — and these act a lot like the campfires in any Souls game. Aran can heal there (refilling his health and stocking up his healing charges) while also respawning all enemies in the game world. More interestingly, he can also visit the forge — which is where Blades of Fire’s most compelling minigame takes place.

In the forge, Aran can use the blueprints he has learned by fighting enemies equipped with a particular kind of weapon. From early in the game Aran is accompanied by Adso, a scholarly youngster who observes, draws and chronicles Arans’ adventurers and battles, eventually resulting in him either providing a glossary update or a new blueprint. It’s fair to say that Adso’s updates are fairly frequent, but by far the most impactful of them are the new weapon blueprints, and I was always encouraged when I fought my 60th (or more) of the same bad guy and learned that I’d unlocked a new type of polearm, longsword or battle axe.

The forge itself is much more than just a way to convert the many different kinds of resources Aran gathers into new weapons. Rather, with a blueprint in mind (and drawn in chalk on his desk) Aran will choose the materials to craft each part of a new weapon. This might include the pommel, the handle, the guard, the blade and the tip for a sword, or the head, the shaft and the handle for a polearm. 

Each material (beginning with basic metals, then noble ones and so on) adds its own properties to the weapon, as does the type of component you choose. A warhammer with a large head and a very long shaft will feel very different in battle to one with a short handle and lightweight head. The speed, damage, durability and other stats will all be displayed as you make these choices, so while there’s a bit of statistical overload to start with, you soon get used to it.

But, that’s still not the end of weapon crafting in Blades of Fire, and perhaps my favourite part of the whole game (at least conceptually, if not always in practice) is what comes next. With all the key decisions made, Aran must now craft his weapon — and the player takes full control of this via a forging minigame. Using hammer blows of varying width, direction, angle and strength, the player now hammers the blade of the weapon from the raw metal to a finished article.

This takes the form of a quite unrushed, meticulous process that I enjoyed more than I thought I would. Most weapons begin with a maximum potential of four stars — meaning that they may potentially have the durability to be repaired up to four times (which is a lot in this game). As each blow comes down, a strike will be removed from the rightmost star, whilst some level of quality will be filled in the leftmost. The idea here is to fill stars from left to right using minimal strokes, potentially filling up the fourth star before you run out of strikes.

There’s a classic “simple to do, difficult to master” concept here, and as the player attempts to beat bands of grey metal either up or down to match the white chalk line of Aran’s drawing, the challenge will begin to dawn upon you. Two or even three stars can be achieved with a 60-75% alignment to the plan, but four stars or the extremely elusive five (only available with better material) is much, much harder to achieve. 

In gameplay, Blades of Fire links combat and crafting seamlessly. Weapons that you craft feel more or less exactly as they should, and thanks partly to the effort you spend in crafting, the combat system here begins to feel better and better. All weapons have weight and impact here, but there’s an added dimension to this when you actually know where that weight came from. One of my favourite weapons is the spear thanks to its speed, but I also like the way that large warhammers offer an almost unstoppable heavy strike against armoured foes as long as you can hit them first.

There’s more to say on this as well. As I mentioned, weapons have durability and must be repaired at certain points — but you can only do this a handful of times. You can never become too reliant on a single weapon in Blades of Fire, and yet at the same time, they have a lot more permanence than weapons in games like Breath of the Wild, where breaks occur far too frequently and each weapon is, as a result, meaningless. It also asks players to name their weapons and, after a certain point in the game, each weapon begins to accrue renown that can be traded in for rare materials when that weapon breaks for the final, irreparable time. 

Actual combat in Blades of Fire is well done. I’ve already talked about the weight of combat, but let’s cover more about how it feels. Most enemies are dangerous — albeit not quite to the extent of a Souls game unless you play on the hardest difficulty. A single skeleton can hit you hard, but the chances of that blow being landed are quite slim. Swarms of dwarves hit much more gently, but the numbers of them keep you on your toes. Rank and file soldiers are all-rounders and can easily set you back if you don’t stay alert. Oh, and did I mention yet that if you die, you drop your current weapon wherever Aran fell, adding another interesting dimension to a well-used mechanic.

Over the time I spent with Blades of Fire I was continuously surprised by it. With low expectations at the outset this might not seem difficult, but actually builds and builds with each new area you find and each new challenge you face. The weapon crafting is superb, the combat is very good (certainly in terms of weight and how it feels) and the enemies are fairly varied and challenging to fight against. Bosses are tough and exciting, whilst there’s a feeling of frequent discovery and progression — whether that be from new maps or new weapons.

Blades of Fire is a robust entry into the Souls-like action RPG genre, and it’s better than about 90% of the similar games that I’ve played. It’s a little bit easier and more forgiving, yet it still offers the same high points either through creation of a superb weapon or because you made progress past a seemingly unassailable foe. It offers rewards in various forms and keeps you compelled to push forwards, even when some areas require multiple tries. For me, Blades of Fire is a massive success and a game that any combat or action game fan should try. 

Blades of Fire is available on Xbox, PS5 and PC via the Epic Games Store.