{"id":94169,"date":"2019-05-27T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/blades_of_time"},"modified":"2019-05-27T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T13:00:00","slug":"review-blades-of-time-a-wonky-action-title-that-belongs-in-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/05\/27\/review-blades-of-time-a-wonky-action-title-that-belongs-in-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Blades Of Time &#8211; A Wonky Action Title That Belongs In The Past"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/eb9453f20325d\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/eb9453f20325d\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96453\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96453\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/blades_of_time\"><strong>Blades of Time<\/strong><\/a> came out almost seven years ago, but it looks and plays like something much older. As a sequel to its so-so predecessor <strong>X-Blades<\/strong>, Russian developer Gaijin Entertainment took one very interesting mechanic \u2013 the power to manipulate time itself \u2013 and surrounded it with ideas we\u2019d seen and played ad nauseam before. The controls were a little tighter, its levels a little more diverse in design and its heroine wasn\u2019t <em>quite<\/em> so scantily clad as she was before. It was, however, still a bit of a mess, and that interesting mechanic at its heart simply wasn\u2019t enough to forgive its myriad sins.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96449\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96449\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>For reasons unbeknownst to anyone outside the walls of Gaijin Entertainment, Blades of Time has been repackaged for a new generation, with all the single-player action and co-op content included as standard. It&#8217;s based on the visually superior PC version of the game and offers Nintendo Switch adopters access to a revamped multiplayer experience that transforms its PvP component into a MOBA-style arena battle more along the lines of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/smite\"><strong>Smite<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s an oddity to say the least \u2013 more so now than ever \u2013 but is it intriguing enough to warrant a purchase?<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll spend your time in Blades of Time as the acrobatic adventuress, Ayumi. Presumably designed as a cross between Lara Croft, Dante from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/devil_may_cry\"><strong>Devil May Cry<\/strong><\/a> and a Harley Quinn cosplayer who ran out of money part way through their costume, Ayumi has travelled to a mysterious island filled with treasure and dangers alike. You start off with your basic melee moves \u2013 including a basic strike and a cartwheel kick of launching air combos \u2013 but soon you\u2019re adding ranged weaponry to your arsenal and magical spells unleashed with certain inputs. As you progress, you\u2019ll unlock more powers \u2013 such as the ability to flit between glowing plants for some quick-fire platforming moments \u2013 and while its myriad combat models don&#8217;t <em>really<\/em> gel, you rarely feel underpowered.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96448\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96448\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>While the single-player story is passable, offering enough enemy types to contend with (ranging from broadsword-swinging knight statues to poisonous bugs that keep spawning their own backup), the lacklustre platforming and the wooden delivery of Ayumi&#8217;s voice actress makes this a far cry from the fine-tuned experiences seen in the likes of Devil May Cry and <strong>God of War<\/strong>, two games Blades of Time tries as hard as possible to emulate. Only its time manipulation mechanic offers anything remotely \u2018different\u2019 to what we&#8217;ve seen before a million times already. In a similar vein to <strong>Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time<\/strong>, you can use this power to undo an untimely fall to your doom; alternatively, you can utilise your past self to activate a two-point switch for a door or double up your strikes against a boss. The frustratingly unresponsive controls rob this time-related malarkey of some of its allure, but it\u2019s a rewarding mechanic when it works.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Onslaught&#8217; mode has been reworked into a MOBA-lite model, where you\u2019ll battle other players online in a simple setup that takes the rules of the genre and simply sticks to what you\u2019re expecting. All the items you\u2019ve unlocked from the story carry over, including the gems which serve as a microtransaction-based currency for buying new gear, such as outfits for Ayumi. Matches don\u2019t do much to deviate from the standard MOBA formula, so don\u2019t expect anything with the kind of customisation and tactical nuance as Smite. It\u2019s a better use of multiplayer, but it\u2019s still hampered by Blades of Time\u2019s painfully inaccurate combat engine.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96450\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96450\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Blades of Time Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>For all its lofty ideas and good intentions, Blades of Time still struggles on a technical level. The original version failed to do its own combat system justice, with combos often failing to come together because of laggy input issues. When married with the consistent problem of slowdown, the game\u2019s original release too often stumbled over itself. Today, on Nintendo Switch, the game does run a <em>little<\/em> better (there\u2019s some slowdown, mostly caused by too many enemies being on screen at any one time, but it\u2019s not as much of an issue as before), but pulling off melee combos and unleashing spells is still largely a game of potluck. Some actions randomly don\u2019t work, such as the ability to heal and strike (arguably two very important functions in a game such as this).<\/p>\n<p>The decision to split ranged attacks off into their own stance \u2013 where you\u2019ll press the right analogue stick in to pull out a rifle and use \u2018ZL\u2019 and \u2018ZR\u2019 to aim and shoot respectively \u2013 makes for a needless disconnect between long-range and melee strikes. The only way to disengage from the aiming mode is to press the right analogue stick in again or press the jump button, so if you want to strike an enemy that\u2019s closed the gap or dashed away, you\u2019ll need to manually drop out of the stance before you can do so. It\u2019s so disarming a distinction that you\u2019ll likely die needlessly in boss fights where mixing either combat style is necessary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>As hard as it tries, Blades of Time rarely comes close to emulating the success of any of its obvious muses. Its mixture of third-person melee combat, environmental puzzles and platforming are entertaining for a while, but they lack the nuance of Capcom\u2019s long-running Devil May Cry series or Sony Santa Monica\u2019s refreshed God of War. Only the ability to control time, creating a co-operative element as you team up with your past self, offers something truly rewarding to use in battle or as part of a puzzle solution. The MOBA-style overhaul of the game&#8217;s Onslaught mode offers an improved take on multiplayer, but the wonky combat and lacklustre presentation are impossible to overlook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blades of Time came out almost seven years ago, but it looks and plays like something much older. As a sequel to its so-so predecessor X-Blades, Russian developer Gaijin Entertainment took one very interesting mechanic \u2013 the power to manipulate time itself \u2013 and surrounded it with ideas we\u2019d seen and played ad nauseam before. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}