X-Blades Review - An Okay Hack and Slash Game from 2009

X-Blades is a rather standard hack-n-slash that was released for the Playstation 3, the Xbox 360, Windows and Mac. The main character is the severely under-dressed anime babe Ayumi who happens to be a narcissistic socio... a strong-willed treasure hunter with the possession of an ancient map that promises vast fortunes. This review is based on the PC version currently distributed via Steam.

(The game was originally released as Oniblade in 2007.)

The Story of X-Blades

Ayumi travels to forgotten island and she starts fighting her way to get said fortunes. Trouble emerges as she tricks one of the main guardians: she unleashes a force that threatens to take over the world. She is then teleported to another part of the island where can starts to for something else now: redemption.

Some areas are really, really pretty.

Structure

If you're looking for a complex story, look somewhere else: three more lines and the synopsis is done.  (However, the game offers two different endings.) X-Blades consists of short, atmoshperic levels where you have to slay multiple waves of enemies. Every 2 or 3 section is a boss level, most of them can be defeated by some trick.

Weapons and Combat

Ayumi's weapons are a pair of gunblades. As she progresses through the levels, she gets more and more sword combos, abilities, shooting styles and spells that can be utilized against the hordes of brainless enemies. You can buy these upgrades by collecting “souls” that can be earned from items and enemies.

Combat feels good in this game. Ayumi handles herself well, she's fast and powerful. The new abilities are mostly useful, and the controller-centered controls are nicely adapted to PC. Performing different spells is easy: there are 4 buttons for which you have to assign your magical skills. During combat sometimes it's necessary to reconfigure the selection of used spells. This may sound awkward but it actually helped me a lot.

See, the game becomes repetitive sometimes. Once you figure out the key to take down a type of enemy and you learn to prioritize your foes, you pretty much do the same combos for over and over again during the sections. Shoot, fall back, reload, shoot some more. It doesn't help that you've got to do two circles around the island.

Combat felt okay for my uninitiated skill level.

A tad too much effects at some points, though.

Some good stuff

But these aren't really big problems if you can enjoy the redeeming factors: visuals are pretty, the music is catchy, handling is good as I mentioned and the short sections give you a feeling of progress. Organizing your spells gives you a small breath of fresh air during the semi-mindless button smashing, too.

Summary

Even though it's mostly considered as a mediocre title, I really-really liked it. It looks nice and has a great atmoshpere with decent enough gameplay: if you're a hardcore fan of the genre, you can find deeper titles but if you're just a casual like me, you may as well enjoy it within its limits. I don't like it's full price but if you can get it on a sale, it could probably worth it.

Atmosphere and enviromental design is awesome.