Broken Blades

Broken Blades is another addition to the rogue-like genre, that may not be a must play, but has enough good ideas to make it a worthwhile purchase for hardcore rogue-like fans.

Broken Blades is a unique roguelike adventure platformer that lets you craft your own weapon to attack your enemies. Even on easy this game is quite difficult, and the lack of a map is frustrating.

Broken Blades has a very decent idea with its sword mechanics but unfortunately, the majority of the game lies in mediocrity. For the price point, it may make for an impulse purchase to enjoy for a few hours. But with such enormous competition on the eShop for your time this doesn’t feel polished enough to stand out. Patching could certainly tidy things up but time will tell. Broken Blades is not entirely broken but it’s also nothing special.

The roguelike has certainly come into its own in this console generation, slowly moving from the fringes with a smattering of attempts in different genres to legitimacy now with a host of top-tier titles... but getting the formula right isn't always an easy task...

Broken Blades offers us a 2D platform with touches of roguelike, although it ends up being half in all aspects. Its graphic section does not stand out and its low budget is evident, as well as its high difficulty and repetitiveness. In its favor, the character improvement mechanics and combinations when creating the sword add a touch of variety.

Broken Blades is a very challenging game and while I did feel quite a bit of rage, I didn’t quit. If it weren’t so overwhelming the combat would feel really fun and often it did. The visuals and audio were great and my personal highlight of the game. I enjoyed the choices and how there was risk and reward when exploring this underground world too. There is definitely a lot to the game and different approaches to experience it. Assuming you don’t rage quit, of course, Broken Blades is a fine addition to the Metroidvania genre. I award Broken Blades the Thumb Culture Silver Award.

Broken Blades frustrated me in the early goings but did get better as the game went on. However, the biggest barrier for people newer to dungeon crawlers is that the game can be overly difficult, especially since you lose most of your progress upon death, only maintaining major upgrades. Dungeon crawling veterans looking for a challenge might want to give Broken Blades a shot, but even for only two dollars the game can be very difficult and frustrating for newcomers.