A Solid Metroidvania
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a Metroidvania release and Blade Chimera is the next to kindly fill in the gap. This is undoubtedly a difficult field to try and stand out in, but this latest Indie certainly does its best to do just that.
Sporting some gorgeously rendered pixel art, nice animations and some robust gameplay mechanics, Blade Chimera definitely makes for an enjoyable play, and developers Team Ladybug could be onto a winner here.
The story is simple enough and ties everything together. Here you play as Shin, a demon hunter suffering from a case of amnesia. With no memory of past events, you strike up a strange partnership with a shape-shifting demon called Lux, who helps you traverse through the levels.
With an array of different powers, Lux and Shin team up to try and fight back the hordes of angry, nasty demons that threaten to overwhelm the Holy forces. However, it soon becomes apparent that there’s more going on here than first meets the eye.
As the game progresses, new story threads unravel, painting a picture of corruption and manipulation, one that spans across to a group called the Peacekeepers, who could well be the key to understanding what’s happening.
With the balance of power caught on a tenuous knife-edge, Shin soon learns the shocking truth about what’s happened to his family in the past, setting up a big showdown to close things out.
Of course, along the way you’ll have to traverse through a variety of tricky and varied terrains, each of which adopting the usual metroidvania tropes that have become synonymous with this genre.
As a quick recap here for what we mean, Metroidvanias are action-adventure platforming games that typically have a non-linear method of exploration, with various branches and paths to travel. For that reason, the map becomes a key piece of the puzzle, with exploration encouraged in order to find secrets and various pick-ups to aid you along the way.
Blade Chimera is no exception, and although the game does have markers to show where you need to go next, it’s not always clear exactly which path you need to traverse through to get there. Some of this stems from the way the map is put together. I’m not about to show it here but the “levels” are broken up into different train stations which you use to reach new areas (unless you fast-travel, more on that shortly).
While this does work to give a sense of progression and prevents the entire game turning into an interlocked messy labyrinth akin to Prince of Persia or Momodora, it can also sometimes lead to a bit of confusion over where you need to go next. Although to be fair, this only cropped up a couple of times and could just be an issue our side!
It’s clear the art team have done a thorough job in keeping things visually interesting, adding in dominant colours for each area. The general theme here centers on a futuristic cyberpunk landscape, although there’s a definite mix of old and new here, with some areas exuding a warm aura with wooden temples, shop fronts and lounges, contrasting some of the neon-lit metal and cramped high-rises.
This visual style extends out to the different boss arenas too, with each feeling unique and exciting. Whether it be a speeding train or an area dominated by water, the art style never lets up in quality and that feeds directly into the gameplay. The ensuing result is a game that aesthetically harmonizes its art with that retro feel of metroidvanias of old. This is partly why Blade Chimera works as well as it does.
The game begins with a simple gun for combat, but as you progress through the early areas you unlock an array of accompanying gear, including knives, swords, assault rifles and special moves for Lux.
Each individual section of the map has its own challenges, whether they be platforming, puzzling, monster fighting or a mixture of all three. These sections show up as different squares on the map and are broken up by doorways or passageways on either side. However, leaving an area means those enemies you’ve just defeated will respawn, so if you return again, you’ll have to fight those same monsters once more.
However, it’s not all bad as enemies do drop Experience Points, and the more EXP you gain, the higher your levels will grow. You don’t gain HP or MP from levelling, but instead you gain a “Level Point” which can be used toward kitting out Lux with extra moves or adding bonus power-ups while you play.
Some of these are straight forward, and range from a large fireball that hits everything in one direction, to a simple Knife dagger attack. One essential skill here stems from the ability to Warp around the map to any previously accessible area. It’s a very neat tool and can also be used quite strategically when entering a new area.
Blade Chimera doesn’t save your exploration progress unless you hit a save point, so it’s generally good practice to explore new areas in bite-size chunks, warping back to save points regularly while unlocking 3-4 squares at a time. This is especially useful during the later sections of the game.
Lux also has a separate few moves beyond the special skills you can unlock, which are incredibly useful in combat. She can strike down the sword into the ground, which sets up a barrier to block projectiles from hitting you. She also has simple thrust forward, and there are even platforming puzzles utilizing these skills too.
Combat is further broken down by your Primary and Secondary weapons, which can be equipped to your two slots. It’s advisable to add one Melee and one Ranged, simply because some enemies require different tactics to take out, but of course the choice is yours.
Using any of Lux’s moves consume MP, which you can gain back by either striking and killing enemies through melee or gunplay, along with replenishing it using consumables in battle.
Instead of healing “in the moment” though, Blade Chimera actually allows you pause your game and select Consumables from the menu. This does let you have a respite from the action, but similarly it has an adverse effect of cheesing some fights by just pausing before you die and restocking health quickly.
The enemies are incredibly varied and range from simple drones that hover around and shoot projectiles, to nasty snakes that will hit and do a ton of damage. The enemy designs are generally very good and borrow heavily from Japanese and Korean folklore. If you’ve played some of the Persona games, you’ll recognize a few of the designs instantly!
Where Blade Chimera adds an extra flair of imagination is in its boss designs. There are a smattering of different bosses dotted throughout the game, and they all have two-forms too. The first generally comes in the form of a large behemoth that towers over the game arena, before then reducing down to a smaller demon that has less HP but nastier attacks.
The boss fights are all really fun and some of the later monsters are certainly challenging, with some difficult move-sets to master and thwart.
There’s nothing here to the same level as Dark Souls or its brethren, especially as you can usually predict the attack patterns after 3-4 goes, but the fighting is definitely challenging, encouraging you to use all your skills to make it out the other side in one piece.
As far as platforming goes, Blade Chimera’s not bad, and the game does mix things up by introducing little mechanics like rewinding time, using Lux to create platforms and even swinging across to otherwise inaccessible areas. It all works reasonably well, although there’s never anything here to the same intricate level as one may see in something like Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
There are a few neat little puzzles in here though, and some of the imaginative areas make use of new mechanics, like being underwater where you can’t use your plasma weapons, encouraging you to find new ways to defeat (or avoid) enemies. As I said before, it’s all rather simple stuff but that’s not to say the game isn’t fun.
Blade Chimera also has a surprising amount of content beyond its main story. On top of the plot, there’s also a bunch of side quests too, along with a base of operations to buy and sell gear, equipment and weapons. To be fair, most of the Side Quests are just simple fetch quests, but they do garner good rewards in the form of money, allowing you to buy new gear in order to kit Shin out with more expensive (and powerful) equipment for the fights ahead.
We’ve seen so many metroidvanias in recent years and Blade Chimera is certainly one that does a good job standing out in the pack. There’s a great balance of platforming and combat, while the boss fights are easily the stand-out here.
While it is a bit short in length, and the story is chock full of cliches and twists you’ll see a mile off, the harmonized blend of combat, platforming and puzzling more than makes up for it. This one is definitely worth a play.
Blade Chimera releases worldwide on 16th January 2025!
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