{"id":313,"date":"2025-05-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hubpsotemail.net\/?p=313"},"modified":"2025-05-30T11:20:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T11:20:27","slug":"blades-of-fire-review-hammer-of-the-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hubpsotemail.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/28\/blades-of-fire-review-hammer-of-the-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"Blades Of Fire review \u2013 hammer of the gods"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Blades\t<\/div>
Blades Of Fire – not a Metroidvania (505 Games)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The makers of Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow<\/a> and Metroid Dread<\/a> return with an original game that has a very unique system for both using and creating weapons.<\/p>\n

Success in any medium can be a double-edged sword, from actors being typecast by certain roles to directors who can only get work making the same sort of films over and over again. It\u2019s even worse for video games<\/a>, with some studios, like Call Of Duty<\/a>\u2019s Infinity Ward, having been working on the same franchise, and nothing else, for over two decades.<\/p>\n

Spanish developer MercurySteam isn\u2019t quite in that position, but they have spent a significant portion of their 23 year existence making Metroidvania games, starting with the Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow series, before perfecting their art with Metroid: Samus Returns<\/a> and the excellent Metroid Dread.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unknown whether they\u2019ll return to work on a new 2D Metroid game for the Switch 2<\/a> but in the meantime, they\u2019ve made Blades Of Fire. It\u2019s not a licensed game or something based on an existing franchise but a brand new action adventure that seems to exist purely because MercurySteam wanted to make it, and not because 12 months had passed since the last one. And that alone makes it an intriguing prospect.<\/p>\n

There are multiple influences on Blades Of Fire, including MercurySteam\u2019s previous work, the recent Zelda games, the work of FromSoftware, and the modern God Of War games. The plot is straight out of Breath Of The Wild, with all the swords in the kingdom being rendered useless by an evil sorceress. You play as a warrior who gains the ability to forge your own weapons, which comes in very handy when everyone else\u2019s has turned to stone.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the plot and setting are bog standard fantasy, and while there are a few interesting wrinkles, such as the occasionally inspired bit of art design, a lot of it could have come from any game in the last decade or so. Even if the oddly proportioned human characters are reminiscent of Lords Of Shadow and the weirder monsters are when the comparisons to Dark Souls et al. seem most obvious.<\/p>\n

Being able to forge your own sword is the most unique element of the game and, thankfully, works very well. You have a magic hammer that, unlike with Thor, is actually used for the sort of things hammers were invented for. Not banging in nails but tempering molten steel into various blades and other usefully sharp and pointy bits of metal.<\/p>\n

Defeating multiple enemies of the same type eventually unlocks a blueprint for whatever weapon they were using, from spears to swords. The enemy variety is already good but because you know there\u2019s a very useful reward for beating lots of the same kind it helps greatly in avoiding problems with repetition.<\/p>\n

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