Hands-on with Blades of Fire

I can vividly remember back in 2009, watching trailers from E3 of that year, by downloading trailers from the Xbox Live marketplace … yep, we had to download trailers believe it or not. And I can remember this, seeing the gameplay reveal of Mercurysteam’s Castlevania reboot. I was astonished, and since then, I’ve been quite a fan of the developer. I am always keen to see what they would do, and what fantasy epic they will bring, and in 2025 we get their interpretation of a Souls-Like, with the upcoming title, Blades of Fire. Which mixes fantasy adventure, intense action, meaningful progression, and blacksmithing.

505 Games invited me to try Blades of Fire at an actual Blacksmiths! I was lucky enough to play the game for a few hours, and after leaving my hands-on with the game, was thrilled at what I played.


What is Blades of Fire?

Blades of Fire is the latest fantasy epic from developer Mercurysteam, where players are taken on a journey to stop the evil Queen Nerea, who has turned all steel into brittle stone. This act has created a power vacuum which she controls, leaving anyone capable of facing her, defenceless. You play as Aran de Lira, firstborn of the King’s Ward, once a renowned master forger, but now an old man who lives in solitude in the woods. He is trying to live a quiet life, until a faithful day brings him back into the action, as aligns him on a new quest to stop Queen Nerea.

Aran, a former forger of steel and might, is given the power to craft once again with a magical hammer handed over by a dying friend. With his new companion by his side, Adso will guide Aran through the kingdom, traversing ancient ruins, shrouded villages, palaces and dungeons, to make their way to defeating Queen Nerea.

From this basic rundown of a plot, it’s easy to take one look and be like “Er, okay, sounds very generic doesn’t it?”. And to be fair, yeah, the plot is not the most compelling, but it is simple, and straight to the point, and the gameplay mechanics matter the most. I came to think of Blades of Fire as a sort of class Xbox 360 gem, that was locked away for about 16 years and made it’s debut not in 2008, but in 2025.

And honestly, I’m fine with that. Because I love games from around that time, and also the gameplay is what captivated me the most.

Blades of Fire is about hacking, slashing, wondering a beautiful fantasy world, and having a slightly irritating boy sidekick, but adds a vast engaging, deeply enriching experience when it comes to your arsenal. As Aran is a master forger by trade, he is able to craft, shape, and use powerful weapons with the aid of his newly acquired hammer. And even more powerful in this concept, is the layers to the craft itself seen on screen.

You will gather resources, and blueprints for weapons, researching new ways to improve those weapons, then forging them, shaping the metal from the blazing hot furnace with mighty strikes of the hammer, and using them in battle. And that’s only the start!

I played 3.5 hours of Blade of Fire, and I had only scratched the surface. Upon my end of the demo came new subsystems that required more time to explore, but I was able to thoroughly grasp the world, weidling weapons and making them.


By the power of my fiery furnace ….

So, I know a blacksmith, and when asking him if Skyrim got it right with the smithing stuff, he said, “Weirdly yes!” and he even looks like he’s been plucked from a fantasy game.

When it comes to actually doing the smithing seen in these games, we don’t tend to do the job ourselves that much. A recent example is Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, which allows you to do all the bits, such as melting the ore, heating the steel, hammering it, cooling it off, and sharpening the blade in a grounded manner.

And Blade of Fire pretty much pushes the same experience, with some neat touches that flesh it out overall.

How it works is Aran has access to a forge, located in an unknown place, watched over by a colossal being, with all the tools, and a bright fiery furnace at his disposal. While in the world Aran can gather resources such as timber, ores, and other items to bring back to the forge and thus he can craft and create his weapons. You’ll be doing the planning, drawing out a chalk outline of your brand new weapon, then altering the design with a whole heap of customisable options, from hilts, length of the blade, type of blade end, what material you’ll use for each part of the weapon, quality of wood, steel, and any extra features you wish to add depending on your resources. Then forging the metal by heating it, and then hammering it into shape.

You will do the hammering, and it’s a compelling mechanic, as a mini-game is played showing you visually altering the most lethal component of the weapon as it’s white-hot from the furnace. Striking the steel while it’s hot will show a meter that flips in height, and it’s your job to even out the meter as much as possible. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, and it took me a few attempts to get the hang of it, and I did thankfully. There is no risk funnily enough, but rather evening the steel out as much as possible, rewards you with free repairs of that weapon, to maintain it’s use in the world.

That’s the core of the forging, and it’s good enough. But what amazed me in the three hours of play was just how much there was to alter. From the two or three dozen metals (all of which I had or have to find across the world map), the different woods for handles, and shafts, the kinds of blade tips, hammerheads, sword lengths, and other features which change nature of the very weapon in magnificent detail.

This was quite something, and I had only just begun my exploration of crafting weapons in my image, as I only found 5 of the 30 weapon types, 4 of the three dozen metals, and even when making a weapon, there are other subsystems at play to make the nature of arsenal even more enthralling. Towards the end of my time with the game, a “renowned system” popped up after a main quest, which meant using a single weapon for a long duration of time, would allow me to have a blessing given to it, and thus enhance the weapon to a more powerful status.

I was utterly fascinated and gobsmacked at the sheer depth I saw in the smithing/forging alone, and the new systems coming into play that made me want to invest even more into the short time I had with the game. The need for finding more materials, blueprints, and raw resources, pushed me further into exploration, and choosing what I crafted became a methodical, and deep process that I vastly enjoyed.

I do hope that later in the game, with more weapons the process might change a bit when forging, adding in new layers, and mini-games to spice things up for the more exotic weapons.


Blood, steel, and chopping off an arm or two

Right away, I got Castlevania: Lords of Shadows vibes from the chunky character designs, the beautiful level of detail in the world crafting, and the surrealistically weird and wonderful denizens of the fantasy world before me.

While the core narrative and plot don’t seem all that revolutionary, the world-building was quite tremendous from my short time within, and the hands-on left me wanting to do so much more exploring, traversing those beautiful vistas, sliding through those hidden cracks in the walls, making the odd leap of faith into the unknown, and seeing what was around each new corner.

The world was dense, quite literally around every corner was something new. At times it felt like there was little, or very little breathing room just to take in the world and get your bearings. But I went further out, things did open up a little more, and those calmer places where my mind could wander a tat bit more were there. But the game is provoking a certain intensity, a sense of wonder that keeps pushing you to go forward, but with caution.

I did love this world, and while many components felt familiar, at times a little much so, I was thrilled at seeing the weirder and wilder touches only Mercury-Steam could provide. From the frogs with seashells on their backs hopping around, to the insanely creepy beings made of water that shift into nothing, and wear the armour of people they’ve killed, and just the grandness, and immense stature of fantasy décor that adds so much lovely flare to the whole thing.

Okay, I hear you asking…

What is the gameplay loop of Blades of Fire, what is Blades of Fire!? Okay, what we have is Mercury-Steam’s version of a Souls-Like, one that is highly approachable, and focuses on intense weapon customisation, and word building.

Aran is our main man, and he can fight, he can make weapons, and he can die just like that! When he does die, you don’t drop XP or items, but the weapon you have on you at the time. If you die without picking up the weapon on your next run, it is gone forever. Sounds like a lesser penalty than other Souls-Like, but I admire the change of concept and theory, as I always hated the fact that XP can be so easily lost, and at times unjustly. But losing your weapon can still hurt, especially in the later game where new sub-systems come into play enhancing your weapons and making them even more vital to your survival chances.

Plus, you have to put a fair amount of resources into making them too, especially the bigger, stronger, and better weapons.

What is quite interesting is there are multiple difficulties at play. I tried the Iron/Normal as the hands-on was for a few hours, and I eventually grasped the combat loop, where I die, learn, and gradually get better at my swing. I would say that playing this on a harder difficulty would be a given, and when I play this again, the hard mode is the way to go. So dying does have a profound impact, as you are losing something close to you, as you can always earn XP, but losing something you made, had to craft from resources collected, and even put the time to enhance and make it even more powerful can have the same gut punch as loosing your best teammate in a death match, or your favourite horse in RDR2.

I found the process of death and resurrection without my trusted weapon enthralling, and I do find it would only be much more brutal and rewarding on the hardest difficulty. But having the option to tone it down, is highly welcomed.

As for combat, the core combat loop felt tight, methodical and intense as each strike and sys system at play kept me on my toes constantly, even when fighting the same enemy type I had killed numerous times before.

The four buttons each represent an area you will hit – Triangle – head, Square – left side, Cross – lower/legs – and Circle – right side. Enemies who might wear helmets might be weaker on their sides or front. All of these attributes of enemy strengths and weak points are highlighted in a nicely accessible way, through highlighting in different colours. The weapon you are holding will trigger the feedback when you lock onto an enemy and if they’re green, the weapon is good for the job. Yellow means the weapon will do okay, but not as powerful as another kind of weapon. And red means you have no luck!

So a sword or spear might be perfect for one enemy, but the next might need a hammer or something more agile. This encourages weapon swapping, making different weapons and experimenting as much as possible. This was all stellar stuff, plus other factors like armour, groups of varied enemies, and mini-bosses all culminate into making each combat encounter feel structured and acquiring your full attention.

One of the best moments in my playthrough was fighting one mini-boss, a troll that escapes from a cage. As I landed strikes, I managed to cut off a hand and thought I had the upper hand (haha!). But the hand grew back, and I realised I needed to be faster the next time this happened. The next time, I chopped off its head! The troll was swinging like mad, aimlessly but brutally trying to get me. I finished it off and was so thrilled at what I did. This was all down to the directional system of attacks, and I hope these moments happen more in the full game, with other enemies, as usually, a blow like this on normal enemies, just meant death.

My only gripes during the time with Blades of Fire, were few, and hopefully, they will be ironed out in the full game. While the variety of enemies was outstanding, with all sorts of ghouls and goblins being present (my favourite were the groups of poison skeletons that die in one hit), there was a lack of variety in the early game mini-bosses. The troll was a standout example, and I wanted more. But for 4 fights, I fought the same looking heavy dude, who became a dull obstacle by the 4th encounter.

The other letdown was the lack of interesting puzzles or lateral moments. For my whole 3 bit hours, I had a couple of moments where I just needed to pick up a crank, or component, and place it somewhere to open a gate or create a bridge. It’s a shame as Mercury-Steam has shown us they can make great puzzles, with the likes of the Castlevania games.

These were minor gripes I had, and this is the early game. Looking at the rest of the map much more was locked off, and I had only seen 20% and not even in full detail. So my hopes are high and full of promise for more variety in bosses, mini-bosses, and potential puzzles in the full game.


Overall?

How I would summarise my time with Blades of Fire is “greater than the sum of its parts”. When I saw that first trailer, it piqued my interest, but reading the plot and getting a feel for the world didn’t initially excite me.  It was only when I started playing, that I would forge my weapons, maintain them, nurture them, improve, gather resources, and build better arms I could slash my foes with. This deep, enriching principle of treating your weapons like your children is a fascinating one, and while many games give you cool weapons, very few allow you to do what I did here in Blades of Fire.

Not only that, but the weird charm, immensely dense world, intricate combat, and the bloody glorious dismember system all amount to an action-adventure game full of promise, that feels like a loving mashup to create a Castlevania-Souls-Like.

I feel a great sense of promise with Blades of Fire, and it won’t be long until the full game is out on May 22nd.