Broken Blades Review

Steam and the Nintendo Switch are full of 2D platforming games, some better than others. Is Ultimate Games offering a better title than some of the other games available on the eShop, or does Broken Blades feel like the same-old same-old?

Broken Blades has a hand-drawn look to it that reminds me of the artwork in Drawn to Life. There is no real story here; all we know is that you are playing in a cavern and you can build and craft weapons to help defeat the enemies and bosses dwelling in the caves. You start your journey with a small knife and knapsack. As you gather sword shards you can add them to your knife to make a bigger sword. The problem is if you add too many shards your sword gets heavier, and thus slower to swing. It does more damage but you have to decide if it’s worth sacrificing the speed of the swing to do so. So bigger isn’t always better in this case. The good news is if you go crazy and make it too large, you can always drop some of the shards to decrease the size of your weapon, making it more manageable again.

As soon as the game starts, you are surrounded by epic-sounding music. This is the type of soundtrack I would expect to hear in a AAA-style game so I was taken by surprise! It’s a good thing that I enjoy the music so much because I heard it over and over again. Broken Blades is a challenging title that had me dying and restarting from the beginning of the game multiple times! I assumed that a sword would easily be able to take down the little enemies coming at me. Rats, bats, and spiders don’t really seem like they would be that much of a hazard to your health, but they are very persistent and will jump and lunge at you. If you try to be sneaky and evade them by jumping over them, they will turn around and continue to pursue, even if it means walking off a platform. They just keep going!

One of the main issues I had while playing is the controls. I found that when I would try to attack an enemy my character would be facing the wrong direction and not actually hitting them, making me open to taking damage. I even tried using both the thumbstick and d-pad to see if there was a difference. It happened with both and the only thing I can think of is if you try to go down and crouch, especially with small enemies, that messes up with the main character's orientation. This can definitely get frustrating when you have limited health before you have to start the game over at the beginning.

As you explore this cave system that you are in, you find multiple other paths that you can take. Problem is your character will rebel and say, “I’d rather shit my pants than go in.” Doesn’t matter how many different “doors” you try to go in, he will refuse until you find a Miner’s Permit while exploring. Once you have this piece of paper, he’s miraculously not scared anymore and enters these sections no problem. Luckily if you die — actually when you die, because we all know it’s going to happen — you won’t lose the perks of this permit, and your character will then continue to go down most of these paths without complaining too much. Though keep in mind when your character is defeated he loses all the loot he is carrying, so if you have a stash of coins it is worthwhile to spend them to try to make your character stronger and extend your life — especially if you manage to find a shield. I never came across a merchant who sold them, so my shield bar was always sitting at zero.

When you defeat the enemies in Broken Blades they can drop coins, apples, and paper scrolls that give you the choice of two power-ups; this is the main way that your character “levels up”. There is a huge variety of upgrades that you will come across: Health Blessing, Bat Tamer, Spider Slayer, Born Swordsman, and Thick Skin are just a few. If you choose one of the slayer upgrades, it becomes easier to kill that type of enemy. They can still hurt you, but require less hits to defeat. I also enjoyed the upgrade that slowly replenishes your health, especially since apples to recover your meter are hard to come by. That was until I was in a boss battle that wouldn’t let me die. For some reason, no matter what I did, my character did no damage to the enemy. He kept hitting me and my health would go down but kept recovering. I was trapped in an endless loop that required me to turn the system off and start over.

Broken Blades is a good adventure game that people who enjoy roguelike titles will enjoy, especially at its low price point. It is quite difficult and would definitely be helped with the addition of a map; checking the same doors multiple times to figure out where you have or haven’t been gets a bit tedious at times. The weapon building mechanic is a really neat addition and it’s fun to experiment with to find the most effective weapon to use against your foes, though at times it is hard to find the sword shards you need to craft a strong weapon before you run into one of the boss battles. Walking into a boss battle with a tiny dagger will probably end in your death.