Bound By Flame Reviews

This game was bad in 2014 and its bad now.

Nice eurojank, you get fun for your buck. Amazing soundtrack.

cliche story, decent graphics, decent combat, uninteresting world and just feels the same game throughout

Oh boy, if there are rage inducing titles, this one is sure amongst them. It begins by naming your character, that will be addressed as Vulcan either way. As the story goes by, you figure out you're posessed and the further you progress, you decide whether to fight it or embrace it. This could be a perfect eurojank title, if and only if they wouldn't attempt to soulsify the linear narrative. This should've been a basic linear RPG for up to 4-5 hours, but instead you spend 12 due to janky souls-wannabe mechanics. I get it, Dark Souls was at its peak, the DS2 just came out (some areas are "inspired" almost verbatim), but they failed miserably. If you've bought this and planning to beat it, prepare yourself to dive into community forums first, cause balance here is utterly broken and you'll need to stick to certain tricks (that feel more like hacks) just be able to progress. All this DS inspired jank only seems to be there to slow you down and make it look longer than it is. As of mechanics, the game screams in the beginning that you're some "explosives master", implying you should use that. But honestly, it feels too cheap and overpowered, as dumb AI here just follows the straight line and always ends up being blown up. The game got an inventory and crafting system, but they really feel out of place. You convert gold to stones anywhere and craft stuff out of thin air. But there are only like 4 traders and they reside in checkpoint zones. Because you can't just take an openworld rpg mechanics and squeeze it into a narrow corridor. This leads to one final fatal flaw. The final boss is your typical dark souls boss that will annihilate you in a few hits. But if you came to the epilogue unprepared, it won't give you a chance to change your tactics and trade useless stuff. You're just save-locked to the boss lobby without any way to try something different. Following a dozen failed attempts I just hacked the HP, cause it simply isn't worth it to lose your time here. In the end, this title is very disappointing. It lures you in with its eurojank charm of cringey cutscenes only to ruin it by the broken balance. I do not recommend playing it, but if you will, make your research beforehand - it may significantly improve your experience.

pretty decent game, i actually played this decade ago when this game just release, so i understand about how unfair the final boss is. but is beatable, i beat it after 2 hours after dodging and learning its pattern, so min maxing your build is important here. by today standard the swordplay is janky, equal to skyrim janky two handed weapon. though this game still enjoyable if you use dagger, hitting and dodge is fun. even when its released this game is low budget, so only dagger is polished here. and its only possibly to be expert at one type of weapon so splitting your perk is not advised.

Bound by Flame is an action RPG with dark fantasy elements, mixing engaging combat with a choice driven story. I’m finishing it for the second time ,the story is interesting, the combat is solid, and the characters are great, though the voice acting is a bit weak. Don’t pay attention to the negative reviews, you should definitely give this game a try. 6.5/10