Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
Publisher: Konami
Platform: PC/Mac, PS3, 360
Blades of Time – Review
Blades of Time has earned the title of spiritual successor of X-blades and has been released by Konami aswell for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Will this game do any better than it’s so called predecessor or is this franchise to be a doomed one?
Story:
The story of Blades of Time revolves around a female treasure hunter that is looking for the biggest treasure of her entire life. Before we start our actual campaign we get treated to a pretty intro clip that shows us how our female protagonist Ayumi and het partner Zero end up in a lush new world to find the treasure she’s looking for. When arriving in this so called new world, Ayumi ends up alone and is determined to find her partner back and ofcourse the treasure she would risk everything for. All of this is pretty much all the information you will get for the most part of the game. During the levels you will receive bits and pieces of information but they don’t seem to make a bigger whole than you’d expect it to become. At the beginning of your adventure you will encounter a strange altar that starts talking to you and grants you special powers that no-one else has. While this is a fun way of implementing new moves in the game you start out with hardly any information again and this will stay so for the most part of the game again.
Graphics:
Graphically the game offers us enough to keep us entertained but again it’s not the best one we’ve seen around these last few years. Ayumi has some likeable traits that will offer you some kind of bonding with her character however the characters tend to be quite expressionless and feel a little awkward at times. Your partner Zero looks quite the same (just an other haircut) than the other human males you will come across and all your enemies of the same type will always look the same, over and over again. The recycle rate of enemies might become a bother from time to time but then again this is not an uncommon trait in most adventure/puzzle games.
The environments tend to vary from level to level and are fun to look at. Sometimes the backgrounds look somewhat simple compared to the rest but they are still fun to look at and fun to explore in the extend you can actually explore them. The game will leave you with mixed feelings on how good the quality actually is.
Sound:
Overall an average job again. The music is ok but again it’s pretty much just ok and simply not that expressive. The voice acting in Blades of Time offers us a decent set of voices but again they tend to miss important intonations that are needed to make a character more likeable or not. Ayumi can make remarks during combat about the most random crap you’ve ever heard and she still talks as if she’s taking a stroll down the local park. During your playthrough you will hardly experience a quiet moment seeing your female heroin will never and I mean never shut up for more than 2 minutes. At first it seemed annoying but after some time it was reasonably fun because she provides us with details about the story that otherwise would go lost during the game.
Gameplay:
Blades of Time is a typical Adventure (hack ‘n slash) game with puzzle elements with a twist on top of both of them. Let me start with saying that Blades of Time inserts a decent amount of puzzles that actually make you think on how to solve them and this adds a decent difficulty to the game. (Overall the game is a lot harder than you’d expect – good? bad? fill in yourself if you tend to like an extra difficulty level.) Personally I find this a good thing because games nowadays tend to be too easy from time to time. But the downside however is that some of the puzzles are moronically unclear on how you would have to solve them and tend to work purely on luck rather than thinking power.
As mentioned before the game has a twist on top of it. During the game Ayumi receives a special power which can rewind time. This function is not simply rewinding time but when doing so will create a clone of her that does all the past actions she just did while she is able to do whatever she wants during the rewind time. (depends on how far you rewind) This ability will be needed to defeat several opponents that actually need 2 people to kill. For example some opponents require you to stun it with an attack when climbing on it but you will need a second attack on it’s back – for this you will need the rewind ability. Other situations require you to push 2 or more switches at the same time – this is pretty much the same story, you will need to activate 1 switch, run to the next and use your rewind ability to activate them all.
The fighting system is pretty much a typical hack ‘n slash but one that requires some tactics because Ayumi is a lot more fragile than most heroes in other games of the genre. You will need to do your fair amount of dodging and even combat from a decent range, seeing Ayumi is not only limited to her double swords but can also use a rifle/machine gun/rocket launchers, … to fill up her arsenal. (Some are permanent other are pick-up items.) All of this is expanded a little more with the option to change a limited amount of equipment, namely: ring, amulet and armor.
As most hack ‘n slash type games, Blades of Time tends to work with a combo system aswell that you can unlock and usedifferent types of moves. These moves can be unlocked at the ‘altars’ in the different levels. When killing enemies or even exploring and destroying boxes and such you will receive essence which you can donate at the local altars to be able to choose new skills or masteries. When picking a new skill the game will drop you in a little arena to test out the skill which will actually help you try it out before getting dropped in to real combat. A great way to see what you bought. Same will not be done for masteries however because most of them are only triggered when an other skill has been used.
The game length of Blades of Time is a typical adventure game – we get offered 10 levels to clear with the necessary boss fights, minions and puzzles to solve. For some reason most of the actual bossfights are easier than battles with normal minions and monsters. Most of the levels will take around an hour to finish but you are able to play them again later to explore even more just in case you missed that precious booty to fill up your arsenal of weapons and equipments.
Blades of Time offers us different modes of play except for the story mode but except for the online co-op mode (which you will hardly use aswell) you will hardly make any use of these modes. Fun attributions to stretch out the duration of the game but if you’re really a fan of the game you will probably just replay the story mode but on a harder difficulty to see how skilled you really are.
Conclusion:
Blades of Time is a decent adventure game but lacks certain details to make it one of the best in it’s genre. This does not mean the game will not provide you with several hours of good old fashioned fun.
Blades of Time - Review,
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[…] It’s the season of remasters. Blades of Time is a classic Hack ’n’ Slash action adventure from way back in 2012. The game features treasure huntress Ayumi who set out on a journey to an ancient island full of hidden treasures of a long lost civilization. Of course the island is also riddled with dark magic and Ayumi will have to fight her way through, luckily she is well equipped to do so. Ayumi has 40 unique attacks, can utilize powerful melee combos, firearms, powerful magic and even rewind time. The time-rewind ability is a key feature in the game and will be needed to kill hordes of enemies as well as solve puzzles. You can find our review of the original game right here. […]