Swordbreaker The Game

About

"Swordbreaker The Game" is a fantasy-themed, interactive fiction game where players become the titular hero and face challenges through a choose-your-own-adventure style format. Navigate treacherous lands, make crucial decisions, and engage in combat using swords and spells to uncover the truth about your destiny. The game features multiple endings based on your choices.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

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

72%

Audience ScoreBased on 87 reviews

story19 positive mentions

gameplay3 negative mentions

The artwork is fantastic, with over 300 unique scenes that enhance the visual experience.
The game offers a fun and humorous choose-your-own-adventure experience with multiple endings and ways to die.
High replayability due to the numerous choices and outcomes, making it enjoyable for fans of interactive fiction.

The writing and translation from Russian to English are often poor, leading to confusing and juvenile dialogue.
Gameplay heavily relies on trial and error, with many choices resulting in instant death without clear logic.
The user interface is clunky, requiring excessive scrolling and clicking, which detracts from the overall experience.

story
60 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
63%
5%
The story of the game is a mixed bag, with some players enjoying its entertaining twists and choose-your-own-adventure format, while others criticize it for being generic and poorly translated. Many reviews highlight the intricate branching paths and replayability, but also note that the narrative can feel disjointed and lacks depth. Overall, while the artwork is praised, the story's execution leaves much to be desired, making it a hit or miss depending on player expectations.
- “I enjoyed the story very much—so much so that I played through several times to get all the achievements.”
- “A few surprising and entertaining twists in the story.”
- “Incredible artwork and a fun story with multiple endings and methods to reach them make this a game well worth its asking price.”
- “There isn't any real story here, just a series of dead ends (literally, you die) until you figure out the random sequence to make it to one of the game's three endings.”
- “The hero's name is 'the hero' and most characters' names are 'blacksmith', 'cook', 'mystery man', etc., so the story feels uninspired and quite generic.”
- “I would suggest for developers to get a better screenwriter, because this game has big potential that is wasted on a crappy story.”
graphics
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
24%
9%
The graphics of the game have received widespread acclaim for their unique and stunning artwork, often compared to high-quality comic books, with some users highlighting the blend of beauty and horror in the visuals. While the overall art style is praised, a few reviews mention inconsistencies in quality, and the user interface could use improvement. Overall, the artwork is considered a major highlight that significantly enhances the gaming experience, contributing to its replay value and engaging storytelling.
- “The artwork is beautiful and horrifying at the same time.”
- “Incredible artwork and a fun story with multiple endings and methods to reach them make this a game well worth its asking price.”
- “Visually, Swordbreaker looks wonderful with a really nice art style that is, drum roll please, not anime or manga-inspired which is a breath of fresh air considering that most of the visual novels that I've read to date on Steam have been.”
- “I did not see it, but after playing around with the graphics settings, it was determined that the computer's setting has to be 1280x800 (older game).”
- “One playthrough doesn’t take that long, and as to be expected, the scenes repeat themselves after some time, but the graphics are well done, and the music is okay too.”
- “But, this game’s true saving grace is the artwork.”
music
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
35%
18%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the soundtrack as decent and fitting, while others find it inappropriate or unmemorable, suggesting it detracts from the medieval theme. The "death music" is noted for being both humorous and frustrating, adding a unique element to the gameplay experience. Overall, while the soundtrack has its fans, many players recommend supplementing it with external music for a better experience.
- “The artwork is stellar, while accompanied with some pretty good music.”
- “Cool game, and I really like the soundtrack.”
- “If you liked reading choose your own adventure books or know this style of gameplay, Swordbreaker's art, music, and writing are all entertaining and often result in ridiculous death panels of your character being brutally mauled by some denizen of the castle whether on land, sea, or air.”
- “The music is decent, I guess, though some extra music tracks would have helped it.”
- “I also suggest muting the game, as it has rather loud, obnoxious rock music that doesn't lend itself to a medieval theme.”
- “You'll soon learn to hate the death scene music that always plays half a second before the story text loads.”
humor
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in "Swordbreaker" is characterized by its blend of dark comedy and parody, often manifesting through absurd choices and hilarious death scenes that evoke both laughter and frustration. Players appreciate the game's unique style, which combines simple yet effective humor with a "choose your own adventure" format, making for an entertaining experience despite its trial-and-error gameplay. Overall, the humor adds a memorable layer to the game's narrative, encouraging multiple playthroughs to explore its various endings.
- “Swordbreaker is a hilarious 'choose your own adventure' style visual novel game in which you are presented conundrum after conundrum, ranging from simple tasks such as choosing the left, middle, or right hallway to venture down, to more tension-fraught decisions including whether to ask an apparition a question or smack it on its ass.”
- “Swordbreaker the game's 'death music' is both hilarious and frustrating to see as you choose the wrong option, only to see your character being eviscerated in the next panel.”
- “One of the endings had me laughing so hard.”
gameplay
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
50%
30%
The gameplay of Swordbreaker is characterized by its trial-and-error mechanics and branching paths, reminiscent of choose-your-own-adventure books, which can lead to humorous and often brutal character deaths. While the innovative three lives and single save system adds tension and encourages exploration, some players may find the lack of linear progression and the juvenile writing detracting from the overall experience. Despite its flaws, the game offers a unique and entertaining journey that invites multiple playthroughs.
- “If you liked reading choose your own adventure books or know this style of gameplay, Swordbreaker's art, music, and writing are all entertaining and often result in ridiculous death panels of your character being brutally mauled by some denizen of the castle, whether on land, sea, or air.”
- “I initially liked the three lives and single save mechanic, as it prevented save scumming, added tension to your life and death choices, and yet still gave you a little flexibility to explore your choices.”
- “Though the trial and error gameplay here won't appeal to everyone, seeing how many branching panels and possible endings there are has me excited to go through the game several more times, laughing as I hear the 'death music' and seeing what ridiculous reason there is for my choice being the incorrect one once again.”
- “The greatest issue of the Swordbreaker is its trial-and-error gameplay.”
- “I wouldn't really classify this as a visual novel; there is no linear progression in the traditional sense and gameplay makes it difficult to create a fluid experience.”
replayability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
14%
29%
The game offers high replayability due to its multitude of choices, various outcomes, and alternate paths, encouraging players to explore different decisions. Users appreciate the user-friendly interface and the engaging nature of the gameplay, which enhances the overall replay value despite some frustrations during challenging moments.
- “There are also many different choices that you can make throughout the game, giving it some nice replayability.”
- “A multitude of choices and a fast, user-friendly interface make the replayability a great feature.”
- “The replayability is quite high as there are a number of outcomes and death sequences to discover as you take alternate paths and make different decisions throughout the castle walls.”
- “Apart from its random story and breathtaking visuals, it’s hard to believe how much replay value Swordbreaker contains.”
- “It can be pretty aggravating at times, especially when the game cheats you during a climactic boss fight, but with Swordbreaker’s endless amount of replayability, I’d say that makes up for it.”