One of the really fun things of working in covering video games is the occasional surprise that crops up. Indie developers are regularly working on surprisingly great projects that sort of come out of nowhere, and when I saw the offer to check out Bladesong, which describes itself as ‘the ultimate swordmaking game’, my curiosity was piqued!
More Than a Virtual Forge
The first surprise Bladesong had in store for me is that it is a lot more than a virtual forge, where I get to play dress-up Blacksmith. The game is split across both a campaign mode and a creative mode. And within that campaign, there’s actually a surprisingly engaging RPG-sim here, where you take on the role of a master swordsmith.
In Bladesong, the game begins with you rescued by a mysterious figure when you’re at the brink of death. You awake on the outskirts of the city of Eren Keep, in a makeshift camp. To start, you’ll take on various commissions, either repairing or designing swords for supplies and food in order to survive. Through levelling up and progressing the story, you’ll unlock more skills, resources and abilities to make an increasingly dizzying array of virtual weaponry for your potential customers.
As you progress, you’ll level up your skills, unlocking more sword-smithing abilities, in addition to progress the games story. It’s told through still images, atmospheric sound and primarily text, allowing to select conversation options, and take on certain challenges. It’s well written, and surprisingly engaging. I became pretty invested in the various survivors in the camp outside the city of Eren Keep, and there are plenty of mysteries to investigate. Why is the Keep protected by a seemingly magical barrier? What is the lost city, and how dangerous is it truly to explore alone at night? And how exactly will I earn my passage into the city itself, instead of being jeered at by the guards that patrol the city ramparts?
A New Day Has Dawned
As each day begins, you have a specific number of action points. Each commission you take on will use up a select number of those points, as will salvaging scrap, should the need arise. Each new blade forged will pay you in resources, be it coin, reputation and other supplies. Some characters have a story as to why they want a sword in the first place, from desperate villagers looking to protect themselves, to perhaps more unsavoury types who are probably out to loot and murder. You can choose which type of customer you want to take on.
When you’ve run out of action points, you’re often able to end the day and explore a location on the world map. Initially, these different locales will be limited to the camp outside Eren Keep, and as you progress, the Outer Gate and the ruins of the Lost City. These sections progress the story, and are delivered in written text that will occasionally offer you choices on how to proceed.
I actually became pretty invested in connecting and following-up with certain characters, and in the prologue’s initial goal of getting into Eren Keep itself. There are a number of events you can pursue, places to explore and choices to take a chance on – all of which can yeild some pretty interesting outcomes – but I don’t want to spoil that side of things too much!
Making Swords
Beyond the story, the meat and potatoes here is of course, making swords in your forge. In creative mode, you’ve got all the tools at your disposal, and the game does away with the hammer and anvil approach, effectively allowing for speed to manipulate the steel with your mouse and make all sorts of different blades.
You can make insane Final Fantasy-style broadsword blades that Cloud would be happy to wield, to exquisite looking rapiers, scimitars, and everything in between. It’s a remarkably powerful toolset, but it doesn’t come with a particularly great set of tutorials, and I think there’s a lot more tinkering and mistake making ahead of me before I can make anything close to some of the more elaborate blades already on display from the developers and broader community.
In the campaign mode, you’re given the hammer with which to manipulate your steel, with timed strikes yeilding faster results as you lengthen and widen the steel, before focusing on the keen edge of the blade. Different commissions from your customers provide specific requirements, based on elements like blade length, sharpness, a one or two-handed blade, and so on. This requirements become increasingly complex, and as you earn XP, you’ll level up your skillset to unlock attributes like curved blades, engraving skills and more. It’s sometimes a little tricky to know exactly what to do at times, with some requirements seemingly at odds with each other, but it’s nothing a little experimentation can’t overcome. The process of making, refining and naming each blade you create becomes pretty addictive, and in some ways meditative, as you enter a zen-like state of master swordsmith composure.
Early Access and Beyond
Bladesong is out today in Early Access on Steam, and the developers plan on having all the major features for your swordmaking dreams available across 2026 before launching 1.0 at some point in 2027. This of course also includes expanding upon that existing story, which at this point in time only includes the prologue and first chapter of your blacksmith’s tale. The developer wants to work with the community to hone all these tools, so if you’re interested in checking it out, you can head to Steam right here and get to sword making!
Early Access Code was provided by the publisher
