Developer: Wise Wombat Games
Publisher: RedDeerGames
Platform: Switch (2), PC
Tested on: Switch 2
Resonant Blade – Review
Patience is a virtue. It took solo indie developer Richard Daskas, aka Wise Wombat Games, over seven years to build his 2D hack-and-slash title Resonant Blade. His journey with the game is well worth looking into, and thanks to an extensive dev log series on his YouTube channel, you can! It’s a bit of a shame that said journey ended on an anticlimactic note, as Resonant Blade seemingly hasn’t found the success it deserves. The game was outright overlooked when it debuted on Steam a year ago, with only a single review on Metacritic. We’re admittedly part of the problem, as we didn’t cover the PC version of Resonant Blade. Now that the game has come to Switch though, we’re hoping to rectify this. Despite the game having been out for about two weeks at the time of writing, the Switch release seems to have gone unnoticed as well, so you’re reading what is likely the first (but hopefully not only) review of Resonant Blade on Switch.
Story
Set in a dystopian cyberpunk future, Resonant Blade tells the story of Atlas, a former scientist. He is thrust into taking charge of the defense of the planet Terra after a robotic uprising is instigated by the Dark Synths. The threat becomes personal when Atlas’ commanding officer is obliterated right in front of his eyes. Before permanently kicking the bucket, the commander entrusts our hero with the only weapon capable of cutting through the robots’ nearly indestructible armour: a sonic-powered, resonance-based blade. After being restored in a laboratory, Atlas becomes the living embodiment of the resistance against the Dark Synths. Can he free Terra once and for all?
Graphics
What Resonant Blade’s visuals lack in originality, they make up for with sheer style. The game combines a synthwave aesthetic with a cyberpunk theme, all lovingly rendered with retro pixel art. It unapologetically leans into the tropes and clichés of dystopian 80s sci-fi. The environments in particular stand out, with towering cityscapes and dungeons filled with destructible items. A lot of care has gone into the sprite animations as well, resulting in smooth and fluid movement. That also translates into a nigh-on flawless performance, with the game keeping up a solid frame rate. The only issue we had with Resonant Blade’s visuals is that the camera can’t always keep up with fast dashing, leading to the occasional accidental fall off of an edge due to obscured vision. The screenshots really don’t do the game justice though, as it needs to be seen in motion to truly appreciate how good it looks.
Sound
The game’s title already hints at the importance of sound, and when we get to Resonant Blade’s gameplay, we’ll dig a bit deeper into that. For now, we’ll tell you that the game’s synthwave music is nothing short of fantastic. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the game’s faux-80s sci-fi visuals in the same way that Turbo Kid’s soundtrack was. Resonant Blade’s soundscape goes beyond just music, of course, and the ambient audio and environmental sound design effectively complement the setting, adding both depth and life. Voice acting is notably absent, but given just how packed Resonant Blade’s audio already is, it’s surprisingly not a huge miss.
Gameplay
At first glance, Resonant Blade appears to be just another thirteen-in-a-dozen hack-and-slash title. You navigate biomes and dungeons, fight groups of enemies and bosses, clear puzzles, gather resources, and return to a central hub city, where you shop, craft, upgrade gear, and take on side-quests. Resonant Blade’s biggest issue is probably how straightforward and familiar the core experience is, as this makes it easy to dismiss as something you’ve played dozens of times before. While the game does have a unique hook, this doesn’t really demand attention until you get to grips with it. It’s a shame too, because this is a surprisingly deep and engaging game that really comes into its own once you get a feel for its signature mechanic: the titular blade itself. Using the blade, you need to find out the frequency of your enemies by scanning them and then switch your blade’s resonance to match. Frequencies are colour-coded for your convenience, and attacking with the correct colour inflicts massive damage, whereas attacking with a non-matching colour deals nearly zero damage.
The speed with which you need to switch colours offers a high level of challenge, and really puts your reflexes to the test. You start out with the three primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and unlock their combined versions (purple, orange and green) as you progress. Defeating or parrying enemies and blocking projectiles results in them dropping coloured orbs. By collecting specific orb combinations, you can trigger heals or execute special moves. Apart from the resonance mechanics, you’ll also have to keep an eye on your stamina meter. Most of your actions, including sprinting, dashing, attacking, and parrying, consume stamina, requiring careful, tactical combat management.
It’s not just combat that is well-designed either, as Terra is filled with environmental puzzles to overcome. You’ll need to dash through coloured walls and craft bombs to break rubble, to name a few examples. The obstacles you need to overcome are implemented in a logical manner and fit with the game’s overall difficulty level. That said, the amount of backtracking required after unlocking those late-game colours, combined with the lack of in-game navigation markers, does make getting around confusing at times. In the grand scheme of things, this is a fairly minor gripe, but a gripe nonetheless.
Conclusion
By most definitions, Resonant Blade is a hidden gem. This is a game that really deserves more love and attention, if only because of the care and passion that have gone into bringing it to the masses. The fact that it’s a solid take on the genre, with a successfully implemented signature mechanic, is the icing on the cake.
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