Nintendo Switch Critic Reviews

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.

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.