Blades of Fire Review Summary

Unique forging and engaging combat are let down by fragile weapons and confusing navigation, while beautiful visuals suffer from persistent FPS drops.

Forging system praised as unique: The forging and weapon customization system is widely praised as a unique, well-thought-out, and enjoyable mini-game that adds depth to combat and progression. Players appreciate the variety, the reputation system, and the need to craft the right weapon for each enemy.

Combat engaging and skill-based: Combat is generally considered engaging, skill-based, and satisfying, especially with directional attacks, weak points, and diverse enemy behaviors. The weighty feel and targeting system help control fights, though some find it merely OK early on.

Visuals beautiful and well-crafted: The game's visuals are consistently described as beautiful, with great graphics, landscapes, and top-notch weapon design. The own engine provides good animation and physics, though a few note graphics are only OK.

Early game highly enjoyable: Many players found the early hours (first 8-38 hours) highly enjoyable, with rewarding exploration and fair combat. Initial excitement from forging variety and the demo's promise contributed to a strong start.

Story and characters engaging: The story is considered neat and interesting, with decent voice acting, dialogue, and well-made cut scenes. Unique characters and rich soundtrack enhance the narrative experience.

Weapon durability too fragile: Weapons break too quickly, even at full durability, and strong enemies can destroy them mid-battle. This makes players hesitant to use crafted weapons and leads to frustration.

Navigation is confusing: Navigation is difficult due to confusing, cramped, and labyrinthine level design with many locked doors and no clear pathfinding. This makes finding the way annoying.

Weapon types unbalanced: Weapon types feel pointless and are extremely unbalanced, forcing constant weapon switching per enemy without meaningful variety.

Enemies respawn too often: Enemies respawn after death or rest, disrupting exploration and making progression feel tedious. This discourages thorough exploration of areas.

Enemy weak point system: Enemies have specific weak points and weapon type weaknesses, including directional attacks and armor weak points. Players must use the correct damage type (slashing, piercing, bludgeoning) and attack direction to be effective.

Child companion mechanic: The player character carries a child on their back, with interactions between Alan and Adso. This companion mechanic is a unique narrative element.

Exploration rewards and collectibles: Exploration rewards include collectibles like orbs and cryptexes, field bosses, and areas with hidden items. This encourages thorough exploration.

Navigation and difficulty issues: Pathfinding and scene recognition are poor, with confusing navigation and difficulty that feels intensity-based rather than skill-based. This leads to frustration.

Companion NPC interactions: A companion NPC (the boy) accompanies the player, with character interactions. This adds narrative depth but may affect gameplay.

Severe FPS drops persist: Many players report severe FPS drops, often from 60-70 down to 40-50 or even 5-30 FPS, with no improvement from lowering graphics settings. Some experience drops after 5-10 minutes of play, while others see fluctuations between 25-55 FPS.

FPS drops worsen over time: Players note that FPS drops occur after a few minutes of gameplay, suggesting a memory leak or thermal throttling issue. Some report drops from 100+ FPS to 5 FPS, indicating instability.

Strongly not recommended: A large number of players strongly advise against buying the game, citing it as a waste of money and time. Many have requested refunds or expressed regret over their purchase.

Not worth full price: Many players feel the game is overpriced and not worth its full price. Some suggest waiting for a deep sale, while others say even a 50% discount is too much.

Frustrating game mechanics: Players complain about frustrating mechanics, janky controls, confusing map design, and a chore-like feel. These issues make the game hard to enjoy.

Demo is better than full: Multiple reviews suggest trying the demo first, as it may be the only worthwhile part. Some recommend only the forging minigame or the demo itself.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $40.00.

Game completion: 42.0h.

Story completion: 27.0h.

Endgame: 15.0h.

The game hooks players with its combat and forging mechanics, but becomes repetitive and tedious after many hours, especially for completionists.

Friction: learning curve for combat; repetitive combat; tedious busywork for true ending; janky controls; difficulty for non-soulslike players.

Unlock drivers: using a controller; learning directional attack system; patience to get the hang of it; understanding forging progression.

Explorer-Seeker: Thoroughly explores every area, seeks hidden paths and secrets, backtracks often, and enjoys non-linear progression without hand-holding. Motivation: Joy of discovery and the satisfaction of uncovering hidden areas and upgrades. Stance: buy.

Weapon-Smith Artisan: Experiments with different materials and weapon parts to craft personalized weapons, optimizes for specific playstyles, and enjoys the depth of the forging system. Motivation: Deep weapon customization and the realistic, immersive forging mechanics. Stance: buy.

Soulslike Challenger: Learns enemy patterns, uses precise timing and positioning, builds for damage or defense, and seeks high difficulty and mastery of combat. Motivation: Mastering challenging combat and the satisfaction of overcoming tough enemies and bosses. Stance: buy.

Performance is generally positive across most hardware tiers, with the 12-15GB VRAM cohort showing mixed results due to a roughly equal split of positive and negative reports.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: mixed. Players report a roughly even split between good performance and significant issues like low FPS, crashes, and stuttering.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. Most players report playable performance after adjusting settings, though some experience stuttering and CPU-bound framerate limitations.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Players with lower VRAM cards generally report smooth performance with occasional minor stutter, and few serious issues.

Steam Deck: The game runs natively on Steam Deck with a dedicated preset, offering solid performance and good battery life. Accessibility options are well-suited for the small screen. However, a few input bugs (especially a fatal keyboard/mouse progression blocker) and minor controller sluggishness prevent a perfect seamless experience. Overall, it works out of the box for most users.

Linux and Proton: The game runs on Linux/Proton with no major blockers. One user on Bazzite (Linux) with Nvidia reports performance instability (fps bouncing, low utilization) but is able to play and expects future optimization. Steam Deck reviews are overwhelmingly positive, showing good performance and optimization. No anti-cheat, DRM, or launch issues are reported. The game works well out of the box with minor performance quirks on Nvidia Linux.

External guides: The primary complaints fall under navigation difficulties and a critical bug, indicating dependence on external data for spatial orientation and troubleshooting.

Menu clarity hotfix added: The developers have released a hotfix to improve menu clarity, and there is also a config file workaround available for players who need it.