As a fan of fighting games and crossovers, when I heard of
Blade Strangers, I thought this would be right up my alley. While many of the
characters were ones I didn’t recognized, there were a few that I did recognize,
and I was curious to see how they would play in this game. Would it be a fun
time even if you don’t know every character in it?
Let’s look at Blade Strangers.
STORY
Some fighting games especially some of the recent ones, like
Injustice, Guilty Gear, and the latest Mortal Kombat games, have included
engaging story modes, the best of which feel like long-form movies where
players get to play through some of the fight scenes.
This is not one of those games.
From what could be gathered, a group of sentient computer
beings called the Motes are watching the universe, a cybernetic being called
Lina wants to eat worlds or powerful fighters for reasons that can’t be
determined (or may not really exist), and the Motes transport warriors from
several different dimensions to theirs under the guise of a fighting tournament
to see which one of them will become the Blade Stranger, a warrior destined to
defeat Lina and save the world/universe.
The story of this game is a bit of a mess. It doesn’t
clearly explain who is doing what or why they are doing it. Some of the
characters’ dialogue even seems to contradict statements made earlier. While it
is implied what the main villain of the story is capable of, we never get to
see it in action. Several questions are left unanswered by the time the story
wraps up and clearing the game as multiple characters doesn’t seem to help the
issue as most of the characters have basically the same storyline, apart from a
few differences in dialogue. And as said before, the story and dialogue kind of
flip-flop with just what is at stake. Does the Blade Stranger need to save the
world or the universe? If the world, then what world? Does Lina want to eat the
world or the fighters? If the world, then, again, what world? If the fighters,
then what does she mean by that?
On second thought, that last one doesn’t need to be answered.
Crossover fighting games don’t necessarily need to have a
story. The developers could have easily just banked on having so many
recognizable characters together in a fighting game and left it at that, but
they tried to wrap a story around it and it shows how poorly executed it was.
CHARACTERS
This game only has 14 playable characters, most of them
coming from two games, Code of Princess EX and Umihara Kawase. The roster also
includes a few characters from some better-known indie titles and even some
original characters as well.
(Personally, I went into this only knowing a couple of these
characters (Shovel Knight and Gunvolt) and simply being familiar with a few
more (Quote, Curly, and Isaac). Everyone else was completely new to me.)
The game doesn’t do a good job of explaining who these
characters are. There isn’t much lead-up or explanation of what they want, how
they act, or even what they can do, either in the story mode or even as they go
into battle. It’s almost as if the game expects you to know who these people
are already before you begin playing.
A similar case seems to take place in the game’s story mode.
One of the characters, Noko from Umihara Kawase, states that she is a Time Cop
looking for a criminal hidden among the cast of characters. We as the audience don’t know for sure why
she thinks that (though it’s implied the Motes have something to do with this)
and she makes a fool of herself in her search. The same case goes for Helen,
one of the game’s original characters, who is out for avenge her people for
something we never find out about and she makes a fool of herself while doing
it. This both raises more unanswered questions and turns characters that should
have serious plotlines into walking punchlines.
VISUALS AND AUDIO
The characters are all drawn in an anime art style, which
looks nice and shows off the characters’ detailed looks. With most of the
characters being normal or semi-normal proportioned humans that look like they
stepped off the set of an anime, characters like Shovel Knight and Quote are
sized-up a bit to fit with the rest of the cast, though Isaac is just left as
the short character in the cast. While the artwork outside the fights looks
nice and detailed, the graphics in the fights themselves are a little bit
fuzzy, especially on the character models. Not enough to take away from the
gameplay, but it’s noticeable.
The characters moves are filled with references to their
original games, which is sure to please fans, and the same attention is payed
to their stages and, while the references might go over the head of an
unfamiliar player, fans of these series are sure to find a few things to spot.
The soundtrack contains some generic rock music that, while not that memorable,
serves its purpose and isn’t bad to listen to.
GAMEPLAY
The game’s controls are smooth and easy to understand. While
there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to pulling off special moves
and combos, as with any fighting game, it doesn’t seem as high as other
fighters. While this might be good for casual players just looking for some
quick action, there may not be enough depth to satisfy competitive players
long-term.
Playing through story mode, the opponent AI seems pretty
simple on Normal difficulty. If they really wanted to, a player could win a
match just with leg sweeping attacks an entire round. Even against the final
boss Lina, players could make their way through with no damage. This changes on
high difficulty, but on normal, it seems more like Easy mode.
FINAL VERDICT
Blade Strangers is a decent 2D fighter that serves its job
well enough for fighting game fans. The hiccups in the storytelling and lack of depth
in the gameplay may keep some from staying long term, but seeing these
different characters duking it out is clearly the focus of this game, and the
developers handled it relatively fine.
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