I was fortunate to have the opportunity to play a new fighting game, Die by the Blade, developed by Grindstone and Triple Hill.
When I think of fighting games I think of flashy combos, lightning bolts, and brutal finishing moves however, Die by the Blade seems takes its inspiration from traditional samurai battles.
Variety is the spice of life
Unlike most fighting games the move sets are defined by your weapon selection rather than your character selection. You start off with a standard Katana, and as you level up you gain access to other weapons like Bo Staffs and dual Wakizashi’s that require you to master very different move sets. They are locked behind xp, but I had most of them unlocked within an hour or so. All the weapons are highly customisable. You are able to change pommels, blades, grips and even guards.
The character selection is set out the same as the weapons. You have to unlock each character by leveling up. The fighters do have stats, but I didn’t feel there was much of a difference between them, but I defiantly found a favourite. Like the weapons the fighters are fully customisable. Each fighter has different base skins, then you are able to change masks, shoulder pads, arm guards, shin guards and symbols all with an in-game currency that you get from fighting.
Ready? FIGHT!
Enough about the customisations lets talk combat. Die by the blade is a 1v1 fighting game with instant kill turned on. There is no juggling combos or fire balls, its all dodging and parrying waiting for an opening to strike your opponent dead. Each hit is fatal, there is no coming back from one wrong move. The combat is fast, my longest fight lasted no more than 10 seconds. It was frustratingly fun dancing around only to be slayed by one mis step. The only downside to this was you spend more time in menus than fighting. There is no fight again or find another fighter, its straight back to the menu. I would love to see an addition of continue fighting whether you win or lose to cut down on downtime.
Upon starting the game, it is suggested to use a controller. The combat is very simple but complex at the same time. There are 3 stances, high, mid, and low which is assigned to the right thumb stick. A light (RB) and heavy (RT) swing, a block (LB), a dodge (B), and a roll (LT). There are combos of sorts, but I couldn’t get the timing right. There is a tutorial which runs you through the basics, but I still couldn’t get it. There are also finishing moves that are achieved by linking 3 attacks together. I never got to see any finishing moves, as it’s a one hit kill so if you connect with an earlier attack its death before you get to the finisher.
I found a few inconstancies with hit boxes, like blocking a high attack and my leg comes off, or having attacks not register.
Dripping with style
The art style is an almost Modern Neo Tokyo, with stages ranging from Forests to The Neon clad back alleys. The fighters are from the same modern era, my favourite was Butterfly, she had a leather jacket, and I bought a mask of skin for her face like the Joker in “Death in the Familyâ€. The sound is just as brutal as the combat, there is little to no music, it’s just the clashing of steel and the gush of blood, brilliant.
I loved the one hit kill mechanics, but it would have been great if you could do flesh wounds or glancing stuns, but all in all I had an amazing time with Die by the Blade.
I’d like to thank both Grindstone and Triple Hill for the review code.
Die by the Blade was reviewed on PC, with the full release available on the 16th of May on PC> There will be a console release, but this won’t be until October.
