Developer MercurySteam is best known for its work on major franchises from other companies, be that the most modern installments in the Castlevania series or the award-winning Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread.
The recently announced Blades of Fire is therefore in a rather unique position as the studio’s first wholly original game since 2017. Having gone hands-on for an afternoon at a preview event, I’m confident that the new ideas it brings to the action game formula will be enough to pique the interest of fans of the genre even without the name of an existing franchise attached.
For the studio, the drive to create original properties is almost existential in nature. “Work for hire is very cool but I also have to say that, as an independent studio, it’s a good thing to create and develop our own IPs because this makes us partially owners of our own destiny,” explained MercurySteam CEO and Blades of Fire game director Enric Álvarez after my play session. “You can say we take more risks, which is true, but at the same time for us, more than a risk, it’s an opportunity and a challenge.”
He added that “working with your own material gives you an opportunity to keep working on the IP in the future,” which suggests that MercurySteam could have an even grander intention to grow Blades of Fire into a full-fledged franchise of its own if it’s a success.
Throwback fantasy
Blades of Fire is set in an original fantasy world, where an extinct ancient race known as The Forgers created humanity and gifted them with the secrets of steel which helped create powerful weapons to protect the human race. That was until witch queen Nerea came to power, casting a spell that turned the precious metal to stone leaving the people at the mercy of her armies.
The universe was crafted with a wide range of inspirations, including some from the very origins of MercurySteam itself. “You get inspiration from your surroundings: the stories, the films, the comic books, and the books that you like,” said Álvarez. “I always mention Excalibur from James Boorman, or Ladyhawke, for example. I mean fantasy movies from the 80s and the 90s. Also, the comics from Frank Frazetta were of great inspiration. Not only that, but we, as developers, started our careers working for Rebel Act Studios, an extinct developer, on a game called Blade of Darkness, which essentially was a dark fantasy adventure with tactical combat, pretty much like Blades of Fire.
“For us, it’s like traveling in time. This was a project that we wanted to make for a long time because we love dark fantasy settings. We love third-person action-adventure games and we wanted to revisit the genre, and we had the opportunity to do it.”
All of these influences are evident in the game’s expressive art direction, which is dominated by vibrant hues that call to mind the adventurous tone of old fantasy movies and bright worlds of early 3D role-playing games. “It’s dark fantasy, but at the same time it’s very colorful,” Álvarez explained.
He later added that the studio “wanted to present a colorful world, because for us Blades of Fire is like a fairy tale. It’s a dark fairy tale. […] Also, because we wanted to give the game an illustration feel with plenty of colors and lush, detailed vegetation.”
Molten steel
Aside from its distinct style, Blades of Fire is also quite unique because of its forging mechanics – which challenge you to collect resources from fallen foes and craft each and every new weapon with a detailed minigame that affects everything from its initial durability to overall stats.
Álverez stated that this concept “all grew from the very simple idea of steel turning into stone. If you have that as a premise, then the hero of your story has a problem because there are no weapons to fight the enemy. Next is ‘okay, I have to craft my own weapons’, and this is where the forge started to take shape in our minds four years ago. It came immediately after the premise.”
I crafted a handful of weapons in my time with the game, including multiple swords and a couple of long-ranged polearms. Each felt impressively different, even more so when I began to experiment with new components and combinations of materials.
“we’re not forcing you to use one weapon or another.”
Enric Álverez, CEO and game director
He highlighted double axes as a personal favorite but also chose to carry a spear and twin war hammers to deal with enemy types. “It honestly depends on your tastes, on the way you feel more comfortable fighting and also depends on the decisions you make in the forge,” he continued.
“It’s totally different to use one steel, for example, a light steel or a heavy steel, to build the same weapon. You might end up having totally different weapons in terms of the damage they do and how much they exhaust you when using them.”
He also clarified that “you don’t have to experiment with them all if you don’t want to,” and could instead “just find the one that suits your style and adapt it by configuring the weapon with the right steels” in the forge.
While some enemies are resistant to certain types of attacks, I found that carrying three different weapons was enough to see me through my playtime without many major obstacles. “I know people in the studio who like to play with ten weapons, and I know people that make it with three weapons,” he said, “it’s entirely up to you.”
Flying solo
Although Blades of Fire is a wholly single-player experience, you won’t be embarking on the journey alone. Early on, tough guy protagonist Aran de Lira is joined by Adso – a young scholar armed with a journal and quill rather than a sword.
According to Áłvarez, the decision to introduce a companion like this arose from “the fact that we wanted to humanize the playable characters as much as we could.” The team was also eager to confront Aran’s blunt personality “with a totally different type of character, […] a young scholar with no experience in life.”
I wasn’t immediately enamored by Aran, who honestly came across as a little bland as far as fantasy protagonists go, but his interactions with Adso were a consistently funny highlight. In addition to keeping you entertained, your companion also serves a very practical role taking notes on enemies that you defeat, highlighting potential strategies, and sometimes even revealing weaknesses you might not have discovered yet.
He is also particularly useful given the fact that Blades of Fire doesn’t feature a traditional objective system. You’re given one clear overall goal, to reach the Royal Palace and defeat the evil queen, but working out exactly how to do that is entirely on you. Often, chats with Adso will reveal the next best course of action or recap recent events, helping to guide your exploration.
If you would rather progress solo, you will be given the option to send Adso home at the press of a button though I can’t imagine why you would want to do that unless his interactions start to become a tad annoying later on. Either way, I’m certainly interested to see how Blades of Fire is received when it arrives for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC on May 22, 2025.
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dash.wood@futurenet.com (Dashiell Wood)
