Game: Broken Blades
Genre: Adventure, Platformer
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows))
Developer|Publisher: Golden Eggs Studio, West Wind Games | Ultimate Games
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Teen
Price: US $3.99 | UK £3.59 | EU € 3,99
Release Date: January 29th, 2022
Review code provided with many thanks to Golden Eggs Studio and Ultimate Games
Pick up The Pieces
Broken Blades is a 2D action platformer with roguelike elements. You play as a warrior who decides to venture into the mines looking for loot and adventure. Since the game doesn’t really give a semblance of a plot I decided to make it up myself after a few playthroughs; Teddy is a young blacksmith apprentice in his village. But he is not very well behaved. He turns up at work late and his attitude to customers is often quite hostile. To teach him a lesson his boss Bill decides to give Teddy a quest to look for all his missing sword pieces in a nearby mine. It’s a bit extreme since the mine is riddled with monsters but it just might do the trick to set Teddy on a better path.
Graphics
I created this bratty persona of Teddy in my mind because the character sprite in this game looks quite miserable. It’s unusual to play a game where the protagonist looks like he doesn’t want to be there. The graphics are pretty bland too. Simple paper-like sprites set in a standard mine like environment. Sometimes you will encounter a stone area and a boss area where you enter a library but it’s hardly memorable. Enemies also seem pretty standard from spiders to bats and the odd troll to defeat. Graphics are not everything but it’s not exactly gonna turn heads when people look this up in the shop.
Buff Your Stats
The goal of the game is to explore the mines searching for the exit. Within the levels are plenty of enemies to dispatch as well as various traps like rolling spike balls and shooting flames. The level design itself is fixed but the trap and enemy placement is random each run you make. When you defeat enemies they sometimes drop parchments to buff your stats. For odd reasons the game just names these perks like ‘rat slayer’, or ‘iron skin’ not telling you what exactly they do. Sure you can make a good guess from the name but it’s particularly odd as you can find scrolls in the levels which do tell you the exact stats they increase.
On your adventure, you will encounter three boss fights that are larger than life enemies. When you defeat them you unlock access to the next area and you repeat this until the game abruptly ends. Which came as quite a surprise to me. It took multiple runs to get there but I probably only sank in about 3 hours of playtime. You will unlock some permanent perks such as the ability to enter small doors to access new areas. These perks carry through to future playthroughs but you lose any upgrades you acquire starting from scratch.
Interesting Sword Mechanics
Controls include the usual movement and jumping. You can perform an awkward double jump and dodge roll out of the way of enemy and trap projectiles. Attacking with your sword is where things feel unique. You start out with a little stub like sword which you can only stab straight ahead of you. As you explore you can collect sword pieces to make your weapon bigger, turning your stab motion into more of a slash motion.
The bigger your sword, the more damage it does and the slower the attack motion. You can also collect sword pieces to add perks like firing projectiles, gaining health or laying a turret on the floor. If you find better pieces later you can also swap them out. Your sword will cosmetically change with each new piece which is pretty cool. This mechanic is easily the highlight of the game but attacking enemies still feels clunky lacking punch and impact.
Conclusion – Not Quite Broken
Broken Blades has a very decent idea with its sword mechanics but unfortunately, the majority of the game lies in mediocrity. For the price point, it may make for an impulse purchase to enjoy for a few hours. But with such enormous competition on the eShop for your time this doesn’t feel polished enough to stand out. Patching could certainly tidy things up but time will tell. Broken Blades is not entirely broken but it’s also nothing special.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure
