Blade & Bones Reviews

This is not so fun, when your character permanently dies after 7 tries. The game is too boring for souls fans and too unfriendly for newcomers. And the pretty visuals doesn't help in that case.

I was intrigued by this game's graphical style and I'm a fan of the "Souls" series, so I thought I was set to be blown away. I have tried the similarly priced / designed Malebolgia on Steam. I admit my expectations may have been high, but the main thing this game has going for it are its graphics and unique surreal Asian / Eastern locales. However, in motion the animations and gameplay can be quite clunky. The game itself is obviously an homage of sorts to the Souls games, however all of those (and arguably Malebolgia) are more polished than this game. It has some interesting ideas in place, including approaching enemies and NPCs in various stances / states of mind (i.e. Aggressive, Pacifist, etc..) but the game does very little (akin to Dark Souls) to explain any of these subsystems. Certain moments look awesome, and the game functions for the most part (it is free from bugs etc..) but what is presented becomes plodding and bland. I was hoping to be interested in the locales enough to want to progress through in spite of any less than stellar gameplay, however I have to say for me that is not the case. Unless this appears at a heavily discounted price, your money would be better spent on a Souls game on sale or perhaps even on the comparable title Malebolgia, although to give the developers of this game some credit, many more people were present on the Souls team. With more time and variation to this game to become more polished it could be awesome, but as-is I will not be playing it anymore and wouldn't recommend others seek it out.

At this stage, the game is confusing and boring, combat is slow and clunky. The only block you get is dodge. If you die 7 times your save is DELETED and you start at the very beging with nothing but your bamboo sword again. Not worth the $17

I decided to pick this game up after playing the Dark Souls games, thinking it would be shorter and with a bit less variety. I'm shocked at how unpolished many systems are. The general world and lore seem decent, but the lack of compelling gameplay stopped me from experiencing any meaningful part of it. The game uses a souls-like stamina bar, with light and heavy attacks and a dodge button. But the thing is, unless we unlock different stances and swords, we're stuck with the same animations for any weapon we try. I picked up at least 7 swords, all of them with different names and slightly different models, but exactly the same stats. The fights usually consist in baiting an enemy, hoping you're just outside their attack range, then going in for a couple hits. Although this may sound like a Souls game, the lack of fluidity and variety makes everything dull and ultimately a test of patience. Some things feel REALLY out of place, like activating a beacon which says something along the lines of "Rebirth Point Activated". At least Souls-games make it a bonfire and have some reason to it... Lastly, they decided it would be cool if you completely lost your save file after losing all your lives. You start with 7 purity points (iirc) on the top left of the screen. As you die, you lose them. You can regain them by finding them scattered across the world, but if you happen to lose all of them by some sort of accident, you have to start from scratch.

As this game is right now, I would recommend against a purchase. I had thought that the complaints of the poor hit detection were a bit exaggerated, though they were not. My attacks on the first two enemies encountered, even at point blank range, would not connect. This game feels as though it should be an early access title instead of a full release.

A game that seems like it will good after you play it long enough. Clunky controls and boring mechanics kill what could have been a mediocre game.

Every aspect of this game is almost acceptable. The combat has great ideas, but fails to be fun or consistent. The art is appealing in its own way, but reeks of amatuer. The world is enormous, and empty of anything that makes me want to keep playing. Would play more for a better review, but sadly I would rather get my 2 bucks back.

This game isn't perfect but there was clearly a lot of ideas behind it and the mechanics and exploration are very impressive. I wouldn't recommend this game at full price but on a sale, yeah grab it. Just don't go into this game with expectations of Dark Souls because not all developers have a couple hundred grand to spend. A damn good effort went into this and it deserves some love. I just wish they polished the combat system a bit before abandoning the game, it would have made all the difference. EDIT: Even after recommending this game previously, I feel I still didn't give it the credit it deserves. The lore is all there if that's what you're into, the boss fights are clever, the secrets are great and genuinely rewarding. And mechanics that are completely unique. Great game

There's nothing that's good in this game except the art direction. Also my refund request got denied even though I have less than an hour on record.

The world is beautiful, the lore is interesting, but the combat is clunky. Fix this and the game will be worth buying. Otherwise, it's too frustrating to play.