Blades of Fire

About

Blades of Fire is a single player tactical hack and slash game with fantasy, dark fantasy and violence themes. It was developed by MercurySteam and was released on May 22, 2025. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

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80%Audience ScoreBased on 164 reviews

story20 positive mentions

grinding5 negative mentions

Unique and satisfying weapon forging system that affects gameplay, praised as one of the best weapon customization experiences.
Combat is deep, impactful, and rewarding once learned, featuring directional attacks and enemy weak points.
Exploration and level design offer intricate, rewarding environments with secrets, shortcuts, and atmospheric world-building.

The Crimson Fort area is widely criticized for frustrating escort missions, confusing labyrinthine design, infinite enemy respawns, and excessive backtracking.
Some players find the combat clunky, overly punishing, with frequent attack interruptions and frustrating enemy behaviors.
Performance issues such as inconsistent framerate, poor optimization, and forced frame generation impact gameplay enjoyment for some users.

story
52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
49%
13%
The story receives mixed feedback, with many finding it moderately interesting but occasionally slow, confusing, or lacking depth in character development. Some players appreciate its straightforward, classic fantasy themes and lore, while others criticize a lengthy, frustrating escort mission and a rushed or uninspired narrative start. Overall, the story is seen as decent but not the game's strongest aspect, often overshadowed by its combat and crafting systems.
- “The graphics are crisp, voice acting is surprisingly good in the cutscenes, exploration is very similar to God of War, music is top tier and the story is very interesting.”
- “Combat is very fun, the story is fairly interesting, the interactions between the main character and the kid are funny, and the forging of weapons, with all their different parts for each, adds something that I had never found in other games.”
- “An amazing game with good combat, story and world, but the best aspect of the game is the crafting system.”
- “The best example I can give is a fairly dismal escort quest that the game plays completely straight, and which stretches the credibility of the soulslike format to its breaking point.”
- “37 hours in and I feel like the story keeps introducing characters and themes the player should already know.”
- “I have no idea who any of these characters are besides the little backstory it gives in text.”
gameplay
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
65%
9%
The gameplay is praised for its unique, rewarding combat system combined with an in-depth forging mechanic that allows significant customization, offering a fresh and engaging experience. While some find the combat clunky at first and note a learning curve along with occasional UI and mechanic issues, overall it delivers a fun, solid, and accessible gameplay loop with a strong emphasis on weapon crafting and tactical combat.
- “The forging mechanics are unique, the combat feels impactful, and the environments look amazing.”
- “The fights feel heavy and potent, it takes a minute to get used to the weight of the weapons, but once you learn the mechanics, it's incredibly rewarding.”
- “While it is soul-esque with some elements, the combat and mechanics set it apart while also adding an extensive forging system to truly fine craft your dream weapon.”
- “What is just useless as a mechanic is stamina; you have to manually recover it by blocking, which is L2... making dodge (L1 in this game) awkward to use.”
- “Takes quite some time to get into, and I recommend using easy difficulty first because some mechanics are clunky as hell.”
- “Some mechanics are left unexplained, and figuring out some riddles is hit-and-miss.”
optimization
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
73%
12%
The game generally offers good optimization with a custom engine delivering solid performance, smooth frame rates, and multiple presets to suit hardware, including Steam Deck support. However, some users report occasional stutters, unresolved issues like motion blur toggling, and a need for further performance patches to fully stabilize the experience. Overall, while optimization is commendable compared to many modern titles, there is room for improvement to address lingering performance inconsistencies.
- “The game's performance is optimized and its own engine is superb, unlike other Unreal Engine 5 games that look like games of boredom.”
- “Performance wise the game looks absolutely gorgeous at times and runs without any noticeable frame drops, stutters, or crashes.”
- “More than that, it has great optimization. Blades of Fire, made on Mercury's own engine, has zero stutters, unlike many Unreal Engine 5 games nowadays.”
- “With poor performance and janky combat, they should have just kept it on the Epic Games Store.”
- “Con 1: Performance... now I glazed the visuals but the fact I can't play a 360/PS3 game at a higher framerate on my GPD Win 4 seems criminal... the fact I have to use framegen at all shows that this game needs a few performance patches... unless the developers fix a few things, like motion blur settings and more, hard to give this a 10 out of 10.”
- “For a game that's been out for two years now, I think the performance problems are unacceptable.”
graphics
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
64%
10%
The game features crisp, visually appealing graphics with a distinctive cartoony, artsy style that draws favorable comparisons to titles like Fable and God of War. While performance is generally good, some users report inconsistent frame rates and the need for frame generation to maintain stability, indicating the engine has optimization issues that may require patches. Overall, the custom MercurySteam engine delivers impressive visuals that run well across platforms, including handheld devices, though some graphical options and motion blur settings remain problematic.
- “Bit of a throwback 3D ARPG vibe with some particularly nice visuals.”
- “It has original concepts implemented that I haven't seen in other games and amazing graphics that are very similar to Fable.”
- “Pro 1: The visuals... even on handheld this game is crisp... I only had to go down a couple levels with resolution with FSR 4 upscaling (built into the game) and with framegen (yes I know it's bad for that but given the framegen here is ok given how the combat is and more, it works well here... The visuals are crisp and I get a faux 60 fps from a locked 30 so I don't have issues with the latency.”
- “My only complaint with the game is the graphical options seem to be borderline busted and a wish to be able to sharpen the blade and tip independently.”
- “It is very much not a UE5 or CryEngine level graphics game.”
- “Con 1: Performance... now I glazed the visuals but the fact I can't play a 360/PS3 game at a higher framerate on my GPD Win 4 seems criminal... granted the 2.0 update may have helped or hindered but again... somewhat nullified by the framegen helping... but the fact I have to use framegen at all shows that this game needs a few performance patches... don't get me wrong... when it plays well... it plays well and looks good... but unless the developers fix a few things, like motion blur settings (unless in another place in the menu) and more is added, hard to give this a 10 out of 10.... 8 out of 10 though given I played games with bad framegen and worse visuals...”
music
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64%
36%
The music in the game is widely praised as outstanding, phenomenal, and beautifully composed, significantly enhancing the immersive exploration experience. Featuring a soundtrack by Oscar Araujo, known for his work on Castlevania, the music is considered top-tier and a standout aspect alongside the visuals and story.
- “The music is outstanding and adds greatly to the enjoyable exploration of the world.”
- “I have never heard better queued and keyed music in a game.”
- “The music is phenomenal and lovely!”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game offers a good mix of action, exploration, and material gathering, with logical and relatively fast farming mechanics. However, some players find certain minigames, like tempering, tedious and repetitive, and the excessive farming of specific enemies for underwhelming rewards can be frustrating.
- “This is just a big old mess wrapped under gorgeous visuals and decent ideas poorly executed (farming 30 of one specific type of enemy just to unlock daggers that barely do damage... no)”
- “The tempering minigame I found very tedious and that is still here.”
- “- neat hammering mini-game (though thank you devs for having the memory bit in there, as it can get tedious after the one type of weapon)”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's dark fantasy atmosphere, combined with brutal combat and an engaging weapon forging system, creates a deeply immersive and compelling world. The overall look and feel effectively draw players into a captivating experience.
- “The weapon forging, combat and the overall look, feel, and atmosphere of the world pulled me into a real vortex.”
- “The dark fantasy atmosphere, brutal combat, weapon forging system, and exploration feel incredibly immersive.”
- “These add to the atmosphere and the overall presentation is solid.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is well-received, with playful character interactions—especially between the main character and the kid—being highlighted as genuinely funny. Additionally, unique gameplay elements, like losing and reclaiming your named weapon upon death, add a clever and amusing twist to the experience.
- “Aran calling him a smartarse is pretty funny, and the kid isn't really annoying at all.”
- “The interactions between the main character and the kid are funny.”
- “You lose your actual beloved and named weapon upon death instead of souls, and need to reclaim it, which is a hilarious and great idea.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game’s monetization is praised for being straightforward and free of common annoyances like cosmetic DLCs, battle passes, microtransactions, or intrusive online features, allowing players to enjoy it without added expenses or distractions.
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development features unique and unconventional designs complemented by decent voice acting and strong art direction, though it is somewhat hindered by poor UI design. The gameplay elements, including combat and smithing, add depth that enhances the overall character experience.