Platforming defined much of our childhood gaming experiences. Whether you had an NES growing up or an N64, it’s sad they don’t get as much love as they used to, outside the odd Super Mario game. Between games like A Hat in Time and Yooka-Laylee, Indie developers have done much to keep the genre alive, bringing us a mini-revival in the last few years. Now we’ve got Blue Fire from Argentinian developers ROBI Studios, a significantly tougher experience that aims to challenge us via precision platforming.
Zelda meets Dark Souls is the best way to describe Blue Fire. The art style looks like something out of Zelda: The Wind Waker but mixed with the darker tones of a Dark Souls game. It features Zelda-style dungeons and progression, while also having tough as nails enemy encounters and death mechanics ripped straight from Dark Souls.
Blue Fire is an action-adventure game, but at the core, Blue Fire is a 3D platformer. The majority of gameplay involves running, jumping, dashing, and scaling walls around the world to find secrets, earn power-ups, and journey to the stories’ end. Blue Fire also has enemies and bosses that are fought using a system strongly based on the style of early 3D Zelda games, such as Ocarina of Time. The game adds in all its platforming moves to create a unique flavor. For more hardcore platforming, there are platforming-specific challenges in the game called Voids.
Voids are designed to test you, advising how difficult they’ll be on a 1/5-star scale beforehand, and each holds 30 collectable void souls’ players can craft into spirit slots, which we’ll come back to. Between endless pits, spiked floors, small platforms that break apart, tight corners and more, be prepared for a tough ride. The Warrior gains an extra heart of health upon completion, but some trials feel a little too precise, leaving no room for error. If you fail, there aren’t any checkpoints, meaning you have to restart and that gets frustrating fast.
Both the Zelda and Dark Souls games are known for being high quality, highly polished work, but the same can't be said for Blue Fire. Blue Fire suffers from long load times on the Nintendo Switch, and there are things about the game that make these load times especially aggravating. For instance, there are many cases where players will see a door leading to a new area, but upon going through that door, discover that they can do absolutely nothing on the other side. This means sitting through a long load screen to go through the door, and then sitting through it again to return to the previous area.
Blue Fire uses a very similar system of combat to that found in legacy 3D action titles—in particular, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and its successors. There is a simple lock-on system that fixes on a single target from a fixed, over-the-shoulder point of view. Umbra only has one style of weapon and way of fighting, although there are several upgraded versions to find within the game world. Blue Fire adds its own flavor to the formula by allowing all modifications to movement that players can add through spirits or discovered treasure. Umbra can run and bounce off walls, escape off a platform edge only to jump back, and he can stay afloat above the enemy through various combinations of moves.
If you’re seeking a more challenge experience, Blue Fire is worth a look, but it is a game which will test your patience. It’s only truly let down by the Void trials, and while there’s nothing wrong with a tougher experience, they stop being fun after just missing that platform for a fifth time in a row. Those willing to put that aside will find a game with plenty of depth, offering a solid visual presentation, enjoyable dungeons, and intriguing story which comes recommended.
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