Blade & Bones

About

"Blade & Soul: Ghost Cursed Blades" is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in ancient Asia. Players can create their own unique character, mastering martial arts and swordplay as they explore the world, complete quests, and battle enemies. The game is known for its fast-paced combat and deep customization system, allowing players to choose from multiple races, classes, and skill trees as they develop their character.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

11%

Audience ScoreBased on 88 reviews

graphics11 positive mentions

gameplay10 negative mentions

The game features decent graphics and a unique art style that is visually appealing.
There are interesting mechanics, such as different stances and styles, which show potential for deeper gameplay.
The game has a lot of lore and an intriguing backstory that could engage players who enjoy exploration.

The combat system is clunky and unresponsive, with poor hit detection that often leads to frustrating gameplay.
The game lacks clear direction and guidance, making it difficult for players to understand objectives and navigate the world.
The permadeath mechanic, which deletes save files after a limited number of deaths, adds unnecessary frustration and punishes players for the game's flaws.

gameplay
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
57%
24%
The gameplay has received largely negative feedback, with many players criticizing its lack of direction, clunky mechanics, and frustrating combat reminiscent of "Dark Souls" but without the finesse. While some appreciate the exploration and unique ideas, the overall experience is marred by confusing controls, poor hitboxes, and repetitive encounters, leading to a sense of aimlessness and dissatisfaction. Despite its appealing art style and lore, the gameplay fails to deliver a compelling experience, resulting in a general recommendation against playing the game.
- “This game isn't perfect, but there were clearly a lot of ideas behind it, and the mechanics and exploration are very impressive.”
- “The lore seems really thought out, and the original mechanics like the combat style and meditation system are really well realized.”
- “The gameplay consists of exploration and combat basically; both can be fun and not very tedious.”
- “Starting out, the game gives you zero sense of direction. Sure, you have the 'press Q' for the butterflies that show you where to go, but there are zero paths or trails, and you have no clue or indication as to a boss or location's difficulty until you're getting slaughtered. For a game with a perma-death mechanic, that's just really annoying.”
- “Gameplay consists of annoying dodge-based 'Dark Souls' style fighting as you plod through an ill-explained esoteric story that's harder to get into than the game itself.”
- “The gameplay is boring 1v1 combat against robotic AI with zero flow.”
graphics
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
39%
19%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players appreciating the distinctive art style and vibrant color palette, which stand out despite technical shortcomings. While some find the visuals beautiful and intriguing, others criticize them for being mediocre, glitchy, and outdated, detracting from the overall experience. Overall, the graphics are seen as a highlight for some, but they are marred by performance issues and a lack of polish.
- “There is a distinctive art style that looks fantastic when paired with the game’s color palette.”
- “It is easily the highlight of the game for me, and goes to show that even graphics that aren’t impressive in a technical sense can still be beautiful when executed with a consistent and polished theme.”
- “I admit my expectations may have been high, but the main thing this game has going for it are its graphics and unique surreal Asian/Eastern locales.”
- “The graphics, effects, and animations all feel a decade out of place, and from a technical side, the game frequently clips into terrain and has some of the poorest collision detection I've encountered in ages.”
- “Has a lot of potential but shouldn't be at full release; it's quite buggy and unoptimized for what the graphical quality is.”
- “Poor graphics, annoying soundtrack that doesn't jive with the action, no apparent or poorly explained progression system, and so on... all this is painfully apparent in the first 20 minutes!”
story
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
53%
20%
The story in "Blade & Bones" is generally considered sparse and poorly explained, requiring players to piece together the narrative from limited NPC dialogue and snippets of lore. While the overarching objective of collecting seven swords to break an ancient curse is clear, the execution lacks depth, leaving many players feeling disconnected from the plot. Despite these shortcomings, some aspects, such as the interesting backstory and fitting music for boss battles, provide a glimmer of engagement within the otherwise esoteric narrative.
- “The story of the Orins is interesting.”
- “You have to collect seven swords to break an ancient curse; in those terms, the objective in the game story is pretty clear, but the world lore and origin is somewhat Lovecraftian, as in not unknown but unknowable.”
- “Gameplay consists of annoying dodge-based 'Dark Souls' style fighting as you plod through an ill-explained esoteric story that's harder to get into than the game itself.”
- “Story-wise, Blade & Bones is fairly sparse, with most of the storytelling coming from a handful of NPCs.”
- “There isn’t much of the plot that is explicitly told to you; you are instead forced to piece the story together from the small snippets of dialogue you hear.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and unbalanced, often feeling that difficulty is artificially inflated rather than skill-based. The need to grind for resources, such as shards to repair rare swords, adds to the frustration, while the overall combat and exploration can feel slow and unengaging. Despite some effort from the developers, many reviewers felt that the grinding detracted significantly from the enjoyment of the game.
- “The gameplay consists of exploration and combat, both of which can be fun and not very tedious.”
- “In some way or another, the combat is much slower than expected and feels standoffish if not tedious.”
- “It feels like they tried to make it hard for the sake of making it hard (not to mention tedious) without properly thinking it through and having it make sense or be at least skill-based.”
- “I'm sorry, it's just not fun; I honestly gave up after a little over an hour of playing because it's overall tedious and not all that rewarding.”
- “The fact that the common swords do very little while the rare swords break fairly easily causes you to grind for shards to repair them, which is tedious.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
20%
20%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews; while some players appreciate its fittingness to boss battles and overall enjoyment, others criticize it as annoying and poorly aligned with the game's action. Overall, the soundtrack seems to have potential but may not resonate with all players.
- “I enjoyed the music in the game as a whole.”
- “The music for the boss battles was fitted to the story of the boss and complemented it.”
- “The developer has also added music to the game, which I've heard is very good.”
- “Poor graphics, annoying soundtrack that doesn't jive with the action, no apparent or poorly explained progression system and so on... all this is painfully apparent in the first 20 minutes!”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including numerous bugs and glitches that hinder gameplay, particularly in combat and level progression. While it shows potential, many players feel it is not ready for full release due to these persistent problems, which detract from the overall experience.
- “As it stands now, this is a game with a lot of wasted potential that isn’t worth playing unless you don’t mind buggy combat and want to play an indie version of Dark Souls.”
- “In a game where lives are 'limited' and when you die seven times the game ends, you really need to iron out glitches that trap you.”
- “Has a lot of potential but shouldn't be at full release; it's quite buggy and unoptimized for what the graphical quality is.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The atmosphere of the game receives mixed reviews; while some players appreciate its immersive qualities and engaging lore, others feel that the sound design and overall ambiance fall short, detracting from the experience.
- “I would recommend it to all, for its lore, journey, immersive atmosphere, gameplay, sound; man, I could go on for hours about how amazing this game is.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
150%
The game's optimization is mixed; while some users report good graphics and performance on mid-range hardware, others experience high GPU usage, indicating potential optimization issues.
- “Graphics and performance have been good for me; I run a GTX 970 with 8GB RAM and an i5 4690K.”
- “The game is maxing out my GPU, which means it is poorly optimized.”
- “I experience frequent frame drops and stuttering, indicating a lack of proper optimization.”
- “The loading times are excessively long, suggesting that the game hasn't been optimized for performance.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The character development is praised for its appealing design, striking a balance between being visually attractive and slightly unsettling, contributing positively to the overall experience.
- “Character design is nice and hits a lovely spot between scary and aesthetically pleasing.”
- “Good character design.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The humor in the game is derived from the frustrating experience of missed hits, where players find it amusing that their attacks frequently fail to register while the AI seems to hit consistently. This ironic twist adds a comedic element to the gameplay, highlighting the absurdity of the situation.
- “The humor in this game is top-notch, with clever writing that keeps you laughing throughout.”
- “I love how the game pokes fun at classic tropes while still being engaging and entertaining.”
- “The quirky characters and their hilarious dialogue make every interaction a joy.”