BLADES OF TIME is the best spectacle fighter Platinum never made. Why aren't you playing this game? [+] Fantastic fluid combat. Your attack moves are distilled to the essentials you need to manage the aggressive mobs the game throws at you. That game requires some strategy to survive some of the enemy groups. Vertical attacks will launch an enemy and get you out of crowds. Dash targeting will allow you to quickly get around the arenas, eliminate distant dangerous enemies, and whittle down large groups. No Quick Time Events needed. [+] Exceptionally well-paced for the first 3 or so hours. The game does a very good job of ramping up the difficulty early on, as it explains the most important mechanics through combat challenges and brief tutorials. These first 3 hours are some of the most thrilling melee combat I've played this decade. [+] Unlimited lives with generous waypoints. Deaths are common, but you rarely lose more than a few minutes of progress when you die. [+] Very good music full of rousing orchestral tunes. [+] Art direction is quite good. [-] No Easy Mode. The action is so demanding, that most gamers may not defeat the first game's first boss. [-] Some of the enemies and puzzles may have unclear solutions. [-] The game is extremely linear. [-] The spells you learn seem to be interchangeable, in terms of effectiveness. They largely function as bonus skills to be used in specific combat situations, but aren't required. [-] Guns may be too overpowered, in some situations. [-] The very good music is mostly an indistinguishable suite of rousing orchestral tunes. [-] The story and dialogue are dumb. And not "fun" dumb, as Platinum stories sometimes are. The English voice acting is tolerable. [-] Heroine's character design may be a distraction. [-] The DLC (Dismal Swamp) is a terrible 90-minute campaign centered around a character with fewer moves, interminable wave-based mission design, and a plethora of bad "quicksand" bits.
