Boreal Blade is a solo or team-based melee fighting game where you get to pit your medieval weaponry skills to the test. Whether you like the distance a pole weapons offer or the sheer damage a two-handed sword brings to the table Boreal Blade has you covered. There’s also a fair amount of customization options to customize your look so not everyone looks like the same peasant from Game of Thrones. That is if you can find someone online to play with, or don’t find it’s combat system a bit too nuanced.

Developer: Frozenbyte

Publisher: Frozenbyte

4 Hours Played // Review Copy Provided // $19.99

Boreal Blade is first and foremost an online or local wireless melee fighting game. If you have a shoddy internet connection and expect to play this online just turn around now because there’s only despair to be found here. P2P networking is absolutely terrible for shooters and pretty much any game that requires precision timing and placement of enemies. If you’re lucky enough to find an open lobby and someone to play with there is a good chance that you’ll have to deal with sword swings not connecting, warping enemies, and to put it quite simply, a crap show of a game.

A Fair Bit of Complexity

Boreal Blade takes a turn down simulation lane with its combat. It’s slow and methodical filled with swings and misses, blocks, kicks, and flying swords. It has quite a deep and fun control scheme that supports gyro aiming and movement. The combat relies on first and foremost knowing how your weapon works as each behaves quite differently. A pole weapon won’t swing in the same fashion as a one or two-handed sword will and defending with a shield is a bit different than a sword. While the combat is quite nuanced and can only be learned by playing it relies on spacing, timing, and choosing the correct weapon angle that your opponent doesn’t block. Hitting the head has a different effect than hitting an appendage so aim your attacks accordingly.

You can also block enemy attacks just by having your weapon in the correct position, the angle your enemy would hit you. Boreal Blade calls this natural blocking and is probably the easiest element of combat. There’s also focus block which when successfully performed restore the defender’s health and stun the opposing enemy. Everything in Boreal Blade requires precision aiming and a good bit of experience. So much so that pitting a new person up against someone that’s played before is likely to end in disaster.

Looks aren’t everything?

Boreal Blade looks like someone drew it with a set of chalk pastels and colored pencils. I’m not a huge fan as I feel it comes off as looking like a muddled mess. The lights and shadows in the training hall are leagues above what you’ll see in any of the levels which is a bit of a disappointment in itself since the majority of the time is spent within these levels battling others. Thankfully the background has no impact on Boreal Blade’s sword-fighting complexity other than kicking an occasional enemy off a cliff or wall.

The huge gap in Boreal Blade’s environmental detail can be made up for by the number of equipment customizations that are available. You’re able to customize the appearance and statistics of your character by acquiring pieces of equipment from leveling up. For instance, some pieces of armor will arm you with a higher level of stamina while sacrificing life-saving armor.

The only downside here is that all the weapons, armor, and accessories are locked behind the leveling system. You’ll have to play a fair amount of Boreal Blade to unlock more of the things you may expect to be unlocked by default. In its defense, it’s the only progression system in the game as the combat relies on skill rather than progression and I can agree with that. I just wish there was a tad more unlocked from the start. After four hours I still don’t have a full armor set and I’m missing gloves. The rest is a mismatched combination of light and heavy armor pieces. Just call me the hobo of Boreal Blade.

Off With Their Heads!

Boreal Blade might take the cake for my biggest letdown game of 2019 and it all comes down to the ability to actually play the game. The stars have to align to find an online match. Then cross your fingers that either you or your opponents aren’t lagging enough to make it a disaster. I also find the combat both great and appalling at the same time. I can’t decide if it’s a button-mashing mess of swings or a tactically aimed melee fighter. There are just too many situations where I didn’t understand why something worked when it doesn’t feel like it should have. It doesn’t look great but I can look past that if the gameplay excels. Boreal Blade’s unique aiming and blocking system does excel, but only when you can actually get in and play the game. I fear for the future of Boreal Blade. The Steam version was slated to be released in 2019 and we’re quickly running out of time.

Thanks for reading our review of Boreal Blade. Be sure to check out our Children of Morta review seeing as it was just awarded Nindie Nexus Golden Heart! You can also find Nindie Nexus on Discord, Twitter, and Twitch. If you’re in the mood for some more reading after that stop on by the Stranded Sails review. Or should I say Sad Sails review?