In 2025, Blades of Fire and Hideo Kojima showed me I can still be surprised by a video game and that originality is essential

I americium beauteous assured successful my quality to justice video games. I've been playing them (increasingly severely implicit much caller years!) for astir 40 years and penning astir them for implicit 20, truthful it's uncommon that thing blindsides me. But that's precisely what happened with Blades of Fire, the enactment soulslike escapade from Mercury Steam. I loved the studio's Castlevania rethink, Lords of Shadow, but was so-so connected its output since, including the Nintendo-published Metroid Dread. My expectations for Blades of Fire were debased to moderate. Incredible, then, that I've not played different crippled released this twelvemonth that I enjoyed more.

Read more