MercurySteam, the Spanish Developer of games like Clive Barker’s Jericho, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Metroid Dead, which won The Game Awards Action Game of the Year, just to name a few. They are bringing their new project, Blades of Fire, to Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and XBOX Series on May 22nd, 2025. Published by well-renowned 505 Games, Blades of Fire looks set to come out of the gates swinging, and at first glance, it does not disappoint. An action RPG with strategic combat has some work to do to stand out in such a demanding gaming area.

You are Aran de Lira. Adso will accompany you after a horrific circumstance in the opening minutes of gameplay. Adso is a huge resource in Blades of Fire. You can request any information he has learnt, and he will access fights and feedback on tips and tricks going forward. You can choose to return him to your base camp. The first area you are exploring is Aecide’s Domain West. The story is minimal as you learn as much as the characters at the time in the game, so no future events are shown. It is what you know at that given time, the same as the characters in the story.

The forging system is unique and in-depth. Choosing what resources to use to build your weapon with buffs and debuffs applied is a mini-game type scenario where you choose to forge within the guidelines, choosing the strength you apply to shape your weapon.

The better you remain within the guided lines, the better the star quality of your weapon. Stars you gain allow you to repair items going forward, so no quality is a one-use weapon, but the more you gain, the more repairs can be made. You can also name your weapons if you choose or randomise them. Attacking scenery lowers durability.

On death, you will be returned to the last forge you visited; you will drop all your equipment, but you can go retrieve these from the last spot of your death. A similar system to Dark Souls, but your equipment turns to stone and will remain there until collected. You will only lose equipment you decide not to retrieve, so if you have died in an overwhelming area, you can return once you feel more capable and collect.

The visuals are very well presented. The camera is over the shoulder, so you can fully rotate the camera around and take in the full three-dimensional scope. One of my favourite scenes graphically is meeting one of the gods in the forge. He overlooks you while working on your weapons, and the dark, gritty, and eerie atmosphere, in a weird way, feels beautifully made. For a small studio, they have pulled off some great work.

The audio is of amazing quality, from the beautiful soundtrack to the audio for forging and attacks. The only issue I found is that sometimes the audio is so crisp and well-recorded that it doesn’t fit the area you are located in. For example, sometimes in the base, the audio doesn’t suit the area. There is no echo or reverb effect, so it can seem like a studio setting rather than the area.

The control system is in-depth and takes a little time to get used to, as I found myself swinging instead of dodging as the four main buttons, X, Y, B, and A, attack certain enemy areas. Y is a head attack, X and B are the sides of the body, and A is the lower body. You will find you have thought ahead of fights, as the weakest enemy can finish you if you do not fight accordingly.

You can twist your weapon with RT to do more damage to certain enemies; you have a guide system with a coloured outline on the enemies. Red means you will do no penetration damage; Orange means you will do limited penetration damage, but green is full damage. This was just about clear enough for me, but at times, I did struggle as I am colour-blind with red and green, and I couldn’t find accessible options to make it more prominent to me.

Overall, the game is well crafted, beautiful, and engrossing. I would highly recommend it to RPG fans. It is a great contender in the area. It can be very difficult at times, but with patience and a steep learning curve, it becomes very rewarding.

Written by: Kevin Lal