60
Boreal Blade brings a gameplay based on melee fighting to a multiplayer-only experience, both online and local. The game gets the combat right, as it works quite well and it's simple enough to learn quickly. There's also plenty of customization options and the demo shares the servers with the full game. However there's also too many connection problems and the game's online community is still small, which can end up harming the experience.
60
As a melee-focused, multiplayer experience, Boreal Blade is sure to be a divisive experience. Some players will love the nuance of its freeform combat, revelling in the joy of the moment-to-moment swordplay. Others will be turned off by the steep learning curve which comes with mastering even the simplest of weapons. However, either group won’t appreciate the connectivity and matchmaking issues that affect one too many matches. Every online game has its problems at launch, but if Frozenbyte can address them early on, Nintendo Switch has a Scandi-themed alternative to For Honor on its hands.
7
Boreal Blade is a team-based melee fighting game, released on Steam in 2020, and released on the Switch in 2019. Boreal Blade was developed by the beloved Indie developer Frozenbyte known mostly for their Trine Games. Unfortunately the community is basically dead, so if you want to play this game you should anticipate picking up extra copies of the game to send to your friends. Gameplay: There’s not really any “story” to speak of for Boreal Blade, and seeing as I got the game for a few friends and have a total of like 7 whole rounds under my belt playing Boreal Blade, that makes me an expert now, right? …No, definitely not… but I’ll do my best to explain how to play based on what we played around **** adjust your weapon angle before attacking or defending against an attack. If you hold down the attack, you’ll charge the attack for more damage. You can move your weapon with a whole 360-degree circle in front of you to attack up-and-down, right-and-left, or varying degrees of diagonal. You block automatically by having your weapon or shield on the correct side, but if you press the focus block button you’ll recover some health with the block.There’s currently 8 maps to play on with different terrain, obstacles, and theming. You can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and Free For All. The idea behind combat is you’re arguing over something… like “Hands should be shaken”, and one team will fight for “Shake hands up and down”, and the other team is fighting for “Shake hands Side to Side”. It’s an amusing and purely aesthetic detail to Boreal Blade, but the resulting win will exclaim “Hands should be shaken up and down!”After a “debate” is concluded, you’ll gain experience to level up. When you level up you’ll unlock new weapons, armor, and character cosmetics. On steam that means I get a notification and get all excited thinking something happened, only to realize it’s just the three things I opened on the game. The groundwork was here for a really fun game, and I did enjoy playing it with my local friend group… Just a pity that’s the only experience to be had anymore playing Boreal Blade. Conclusion: Yet another lovely game with great potential and seemingly abandoned left to collect dust by the wayside. Boreal Blade was an interesting game to play, it’s nice to have in the library if any of us want to play a melee Viking fighting game… But that’s about it, maybe we’ll go back to play it on a whim, but probably **** it’s pretty easy to pick up a copy of Boreal Blade on a steam sale, but just know you’ll be grabbing some extra copies of the game for any friends and family, if you want to play the game with anyone. …There's more to the review, but I'm out of Characters... If you want to know more, please check out my YouTube Video or Steam Review.
10
~ HONOR FOR ABSOLVER ~ This game is the closest thing to that style of game we have on switch. There’s just something about that medieval style hack n slash that is so damn addicting and immersive. This is a must learn!!! NOT JUST A MUST PLAY.
7
Difficult to pick up, impossible to put down. Expect to die and die then die some more before you get it's not hack and slash, pick your blow carefully. I'd give this an 8 if it wasn't for the terrible online issues, lag.. Opponents seem to warp 5yrds at a time to strike or not get struck, though this happens approx 1/3 of matches or less.
The good.. Free form combat blessing abound. Team strategy as well as personal combat strategies. Free form defence based where you physically place your chosen weapon or shields. I've only played this since it came out, fix the online issues which every game has to begin with. This may be one the best fighting game on switch. Well done frozenbyte, please sort the lag, the odd controller issues where it goes opposite, tho not often.
The combat system is really good with motion control to boot adding to full battle immersion. The level design is inspired, though art style borrowed a little from botw. The northern tribal atmosphere is sublime. I'm just left wondering if maybe 10 per team would be possible, with the the battle royale mechanism forcing you in to a smaller space to restrict wait times. Wah ha ha ha ha ha Then it'd be full on clan war
Boreal Blade
Released On:
Aug 28, 2019
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
tbd
User score
Mixed or Average
5.7
My Score
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All Platforms
Oct 10, 2019
60
Boreal Blade brings a gameplay based on melee fighting to a multiplayer-only experience, both online and local. The game gets the combat right, as it works quite well and it's simple enough to learn quickly. There's also plenty of customization options and the demo shares the servers with the full game. However there's also too many connection problems and the game's online community is still small, which can end up harming the experience.
Aug 30, 2019
60
As a melee-focused, multiplayer experience, Boreal Blade is sure to be a divisive experience. Some players will love the nuance of its freeform combat, revelling in the joy of the moment-to-moment swordplay. Others will be turned off by the steep learning curve which comes with mastering even the simplest of weapons. However, either group won’t appreciate the connectivity and matchmaking issues that affect one too many matches. Every online game has its problems at launch, but if Frozenbyte can address them early on, Nintendo Switch has a Scandi-themed alternative to For Honor on its hands.
User score
Mixed or Average
33% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
33% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
33% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Sep 1, 2019
10
~ HONOR FOR ABSOLVER ~ This game is the closest thing to that style of game we have on switch. There’s just something about that medieval style hack n slash that is so damn addicting and immersive. This is a must learn!!! NOT JUST A MUST PLAY.
Dec 16, 2024
7
Boreal Blade is a team-based melee fighting game, released on Steam in 2020, and released on the Switch in 2019. Boreal Blade was developed by the beloved Indie developer Frozenbyte known mostly for their Trine Games. Unfortunately the community is basically dead, so if you want to play this game you should anticipate picking up extra copies of the game to send to your friends. Gameplay: There’s not really any “story” to speak of for Boreal Blade, and seeing as I got the game for a few friends and have a total of like 7 whole rounds under my belt playing Boreal Blade, that makes me an expert now, right? …No, definitely not… but I’ll do my best to explain how to play based on what we played around **** adjust your weapon angle before attacking or defending against an attack. If you hold down the attack, you’ll charge the attack for more damage. You can move your weapon with a whole 360-degree circle in front of you to attack up-and-down, right-and-left, or varying degrees of diagonal. You block automatically by having your weapon or shield on the correct side, but if you press the focus block button you’ll recover some health with the block.There’s currently 8 maps to play on with different terrain, obstacles, and theming. You can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and Free For All. The idea behind combat is you’re arguing over something… like “Hands should be shaken”, and one team will fight for “Shake hands up and down”, and the other team is fighting for “Shake hands Side to Side”. It’s an amusing and purely aesthetic detail to Boreal Blade, but the resulting win will exclaim “Hands should be shaken up and down!”After a “debate” is concluded, you’ll gain experience to level up. When you level up you’ll unlock new weapons, armor, and character cosmetics. On steam that means I get a notification and get all excited thinking something happened, only to realize it’s just the three things I opened on the game. The groundwork was here for a really fun game, and I did enjoy playing it with my local friend group… Just a pity that’s the only experience to be had anymore playing Boreal Blade. Conclusion: Yet another lovely game with great potential and seemingly abandoned left to collect dust by the wayside. Boreal Blade was an interesting game to play, it’s nice to have in the library if any of us want to play a melee Viking fighting game… But that’s about it, maybe we’ll go back to play it on a whim, but probably **** it’s pretty easy to pick up a copy of Boreal Blade on a steam sale, but just know you’ll be grabbing some extra copies of the game for any friends and family, if you want to play the game with anyone. …There's more to the review, but I'm out of Characters... If you want to know more, please check out my YouTube Video or Steam Review.
Aug 30, 2019
7
Difficult to pick up, impossible to put down. Expect to die and die then die some more before you get it's not hack and slash, pick your blow carefully. I'd give this an 8 if it wasn't for the terrible online issues, lag.. Opponents seem to warp 5yrds at a time to strike or not get struck, though this happens approx 1/3 of matches or less.
The good.. Free form combat blessing abound. Team strategy as well as personal combat strategies. Free form defence based where you physically place your chosen weapon or shields. I've only played this since it came out, fix the online issues which every game has to begin with. This may be one the best fighting game on switch. Well done frozenbyte, please sort the lag, the odd controller issues where it goes opposite, tho not often.
The combat system is really good with motion control to boot adding to full battle immersion. The level design is inspired, though art style borrowed a little from botw. The northern tribal atmosphere is sublime. I'm just left wondering if maybe 10 per team would be possible, with the the battle royale mechanism forcing you in to a smaller space to restrict wait times. Wah ha ha ha ha ha Then it'd be full on clan war
SummaryBoreal Blade is a team-based melee fighting game with a focus on player vs player combat, combining reactionary and tactical gameplay with extraordinary freedom to variate your attacks and develop your unique fighting style.
Rated Mfor Mature
Platforms:
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
Initial Release Date:Aug 28, 2019
Developer:
Publisher:
