It even has its own Moonlight Greatsword

I was a kid when that game came out and, while in the rest of the world it was very overlooked, in Spain (where I'm from) I can tell you that ALL the video game magazines offered extensive coverage for it, and the hype was incredibly high. When it came out it was celebrated as the incredible achievement it was, both technically (the dynamic shadows were like nothing else in the gaming world back then) and on a playable level. I still have my original copy of the game at home, and today it sits next to my copies of the Dark Souls trilogy and Elden Ring :)

@SwannyTheMike

4 күн бұрын

Their publishers outside of Spain really dropped the ball. There was no excuse for it either. February '01 wasn't a big month for PC releases. At least not in North America. The only notable one I can even think of is Clive Barker's Undying. So Blade of Darkness should have had plenty of room to be a hit. Yet until it popped up GOG, it was hard to find info on Blade of Darkness at all in English. Even then, the most useful info I found while researching for this came from an interview in Spanish that I had to run through Google Translate.

Played this awesome game back in 2006 as a kid and wondered why no one was talking about it, some years later i forgot its name and spent like most of my teenage years searching for it with no luck and after like 16+ years i finally found my favorite childhood game thanks to you The nostalgia hit hard with this one😢

@SwannyTheMike

4 күн бұрын

Happy to help! This is the kind of game that deserves so much more attention than it's gotten over the years.

This game, Morrowind and Deus Ex were my childhood. Favs 4 life.

@SwannyTheMike

6 күн бұрын

I played so much Morrowind as a kid. Didn't understand what I was doing at all, so I mostly messed around in the starting area, but damn did I enjoy making my own fun!

i absolutely love the atmosphere in this game, and i love the way it looks, the realtime lighting and shadows they have looks impressive to me to this day. I need to find more games that have this dungeon crawling atmosphere with the classic sword and sorcery vibes.

@SwannyTheMike

7 ай бұрын

Off the top of my head, Rune is a solid choice. I don't think it's quite as good as Blade of Darkness, but still a fun game from this era with a more Viking-tinged sword and sorcery feel.

I played the hell out of this game as the knight. Loved it Edit: i also went looking for it and kept coming at die by the sword

@SwannyTheMike

3 ай бұрын

Vindication! I knew I couldn't be the only one out there who mixed this up with Die by the Sword!

@z.s.7992

Ай бұрын

@@SwannyTheMike they just offered it on sale on steam. totally copped it

Loved this game. Replayed it so many times. The true Souls like. Also the combos and weapon specific combos was awesome. Damn

You mentioned the true OG "souls" games from Fromsoft, the "King's Field" series, and "Shadow Tower." These are definitely some of my favorites. I'd say (and so would the creators of the souls games) that "Shadow Tower" was definitely an inspiration for the souls games more so than "King's Field," but "Shadow Tower" was directly inspired by "King's Field." Also, i believe you were referring to the PS1 games from them. "Shadow Tower" had a sequel for PS2, which was only released in Japan. It was awesome but very different from other games in the series. The PS2 Fromsoft game that most resembles their modern games and is the true bridge between them is "King's Field IV: The Forbidden City." (01) (PS2). I highly recommend it! It was an early PS2 release, but it holds up well and is a huge 1st person dungeon crawler. There's also a great dungeon crawler for the OG XBox called: "Arx Fatalis," (02), which is one of the best for that system and is in a similar vein. Oh yeah, and "Enclave" (02) (XB) which got an HD rerelease in (23). Peace.

@SwannyTheMike

4 ай бұрын

The bit I played of Shadow Tower for footage definitely struck me as closer to the Souls series in tone, but I wanted to cover all my bases and mention both Shadow Tower and King's Field. I'd very much like to cover all of those games eventually. Arx Fatalis and Enclave too. Love those games!

@JackWse

3 ай бұрын

Enclave doesn't get enough credit, I remember waiting for it on PC, and then just not being able to get it at one point.. not sure if it ever did release, but machine breeze is just my utter jam as a developer. .. I remember, looking at the Riddick game, staring at the box not understanding how a tie-in license movie that I had never heard of would have screenshots on the back and system requirements that made it seem like a good game lol.. and that it just simply couldn't have been.. and then eventually the curiosity got too much, and I was rewarded exponentially more so than I ever could have hoped for.. other than that they would get to do a third Riddick game.. But Wolfenstein new order was a good compromise, as the way they do first person awareness and allow for basic mechanical functionality like leaning with their fluid peak system, even if they had to walk back some of the other systems in the Riddick games.. My God was it born for killing Nazis.. it's a win-win situation.. not only get do you get to kill Nazis but you get to kill them in the best of ways! Well okay again, would have been nice to be able to kill Nazis as Riddick.. especially with the expanded combat system from the sequel and drew master.. if enclave is anything like or has the bones of anything like what their future work would usually entail, and I could get it on a PC then I should be ashamed of myself for not having done so already.. I remember waiting for a very long time though, and eventually there's that window where if it didn't come within at least three or four years.. then I just never came.. like resident evil 4, or manhunt2 and one of those apparently was a good game on PC. Either way I feel like this has more DNA in a really similar feel to what you have with souls games but was more common back in the old days.. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and how much I miss it, I still think the Apex was prince of Persia warrior within, simply that it managed to get all of it crammed in.. for the platforming to the movement-based and combo-based combat.. as well as not limiting you with your directional controls for targeting, so you could use the mouse appropriately in the combat as well as having a proper combo system, with enough freeform deviation that you could change things up and take advantage as you were moving.. Rather than committing to say a whole action. Ninja gaiden had better gore, God of warhAd better presentation, and this game had a lot of things that would have fit nicely and are definitely on the better end.. and I wonder if we're a direct inspiration for Montreal. Also to say that kingsfield is the only inspiration etc for dark souls makes very little sense.. they picked up a pretty traditional character action third person style target lock gameplay that had existed long before, in this style... They just kind of simplified it in a lot of ways and added to it in others.. which is frustrating because now it's, with the exception of when they like to troll the audience and change things up, the imitators seem stuck in that loop of copying them far closer than they should in my opinion. Also I've been thinking in my head about how to do that w press, totally can be done, keyboard is great for doing d-pad combos, and sometimes it's even better significantly so as you can customize things, but even just keeping in the spirit that we have to do the w with directional, I could totally see it happening, but it would be very weird because it's association with movement directions into muscle memory versus doing combos that are isolated from locomotion like in Street fighter etc

@SwannyTheMike

3 ай бұрын

I didn't know until today that MachineGames was founded by former Starbreeze staff, but that explains so much! I couldn't figure out how they'd gone from Enclave, Knights of the Temple, The Darkness, and Chronicles of Riddick to "the Payday studio". You can actually nab a copy of Enclave off of GOG for $5 if you're curious. I wouldn't say it's as great as Butcher Bay, but it's still a fun time. And I believe that OP meant that King's Field and Shadow Tower were the inspirations for the Souls games because FromSoft appears to have gone "Hey, you remember those first-person dungeon crawlers we did before that were super hard? What if we did a third person version with more fluid combat?". There are obviously other games that they took cues from, but it's hard not to play either King's Field or Shadow Tower and not see the early building blocks of what they would make later on.

You can't even imagine how addictive PvP in this game. Even Conan would suck with his explanation of what's best in life.

@SwannyTheMike

2 ай бұрын

If that PvE arena mod was any indication, PvP had to be so fucking awesome.

It's worth mentioning. Outside of Zoe, everyone can use the sword. It gets adjusted and in game files, it is a different entity. So Tukaram will hold it with both hands (Even if the blade is shorter than other options) and Naglfar will use his regular combos I believe. That being said, it isn't even the best weapon, the Ice weapons are absurdly broken and there is a special armoury in Dal Gurak's fortress that gives everyone their best, none special weapon.

@SwannyTheMike

4 ай бұрын

Yep, I definitely got that one wrong. Had it pointed out to me last month by another commenter. I wore myself out trying to finish the game four times in the span of a couple weeks and made stupid assumptions because Zoe couldn't wield it correctly. That's on me. And I agree with the ice weapons being OP. Naglfar's especially.

@ordisraru

Ай бұрын

Demon Spear + Way of the Goddess. Now THAT was overpowered.

A well-edited and put together video! I'm shocked that you don't have more subscribers, but you have mine. I just finished Blade of Darkness for the first time recently. I vaguely recalled playing it over twenty years ago when I was very young, but I couldn't put my finger on its name until the GOG remaster. I didn't look up any playthroughs before I started, so I just picked Tukaram and refused to restart despite how difficult he can be to play. It was worth it, I think; in my opinion, he's the most iconic of the four characters, and not just because he's on the box and promotional art. The combat has aged amazingly well, even if the graphics are a bit clunky for modern sensibilities. My only real gripes are that the story is so barebones (which is a wasted opportunity given how rare references to Zoroastrianism are in fiction), the ending feeling really rushed, and that every character other than Sargon needed a balancing/bugfix pass before release.

@SwannyTheMike

Ай бұрын

Thank you for the kind words and the sub as well! Tukaram is definitely the first character who comes to mind whenever I think of this game. For me, a lot of that comes down to how much Blade of Darkness can feel like an unofficial Conan the Barbarian game at times.

There's also a gimmick to shorten the animation time to make some longer combos viable (Tuk's fire sword combo , Volcanic Edge?). Just press jump in-between combo inputs and you will skip to the final combo

@SwannyTheMike

7 күн бұрын

It's times like this that I realize how bad I am at finding exploits like that lol

A couple years ago I beat the game with all characters on awesome. My character rating: Zoe>Naglfar>Sargon>Tukaram. Naglfar has a much more forgiving timing on the queens sword combo. It's useful all the way to the end. Some of his weapons are downright broken and never hit anything, but about 2/3 of them are actually good.

@SwannyTheMike

2 күн бұрын

I'll try to remember that about the Queen's Sword combo whenever I feel like finally beating the game as Naglfar. Thanks for the tip!

Great Review, i played this game so many times i cant count it. and i was like 12 when it came out, Gosh was it the best present you could have gotten, and i remember it was REQ: 18 years to play it!

@SwannyTheMike

3 ай бұрын

There was always something cool about being allowed to play M-rated games as a kid.

ashamed to say: I played this as a pirate. It was a great title and the develpoers deserved better.

@SwannyTheMike

6 күн бұрын

I think a lot of us have had a moment or two like that. It's part of why I try to do my best to highlight where these games can be legitimately obtained. I just wish there were more games that got loving digital rereleases like Blade of Darkness.

Hey bro. Great game, and good job sharing your enthusiasm for it. This game was and is criminally underrated. I sometimes wonder what the original developers ended up doing.

@SwannyTheMike

3 ай бұрын

A lot of them went on to work for MercurySteam on stuff like Scrapland and the Castlevania Lords of Shadow games, but others wound up working on Battlefield and I think one of the sound assistants wound up being the Spanish audio director for Mortal Kombat 9.

Finished this game over 20 times. Both modded and unmodded. If you want to really challenge yourself, install the Hyperborean mod

@SwannyTheMike

7 күн бұрын

I'm jealous of anyone who can enjoy a single game so much. Simply finishing a game a second time is a sign I really love it because my ADD-riddled brain demands new content at all times.

Played multiple times all characters. If I would change anything, I would move every weapon's special combo into universal list - otherwise once previous, weaker weapon become obsolate, you stop using it. I was stuck with barbarian's "long sword" for way to long becouse how handy its attack was. Or maybe group them into weapon families: hammers, axes, swords, stabbing things. Not like weapons are used in any different manner anyway - Zoe have only polearms and maybe only one of them have actual thrusting special attack?

@SwannyTheMike

17 күн бұрын

A universal list would have been a great change! There were a couple weapons I flat out didn't use because their unique combo was so useless compared to what I'd been using with the weaker weapon.

Never heard of either of these games, Blade of Darkness or Die By The Sword, mentioned in this video. 2001, probably busy with Halo CE, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, AVP2, MGS2, etc. Great year in gaming.

@SwannyTheMike

7 ай бұрын

This is why I love showcasing lesser known games. Particularly in stacked years like 01, there's plenty of great games that slip through the cracks each year and they deserve love too.

@Gruntvc

7 ай бұрын

@SwannyTheMike, Turns out the PS4/PS5 version of Blade of Darkness is on sale for $6. I'm gonna give it a chance. Liked the gore/dismemberment you showed in your video. Some games deserve to be forgotten. We've had quite a few stinkers in 2023. Though none as extreme as The Day Before lol. I guess Tenchu counts as a forgotten gem now? Haven't had a new one in over a decade and the old ones aren't available on current consoles and pc.

@SwannyTheMike

7 ай бұрын

@@Gruntvc Oh yeah, there's definitely the awful stuff that should be forgotten. In my mind though, that's all the more reason to look for the good rather than give the bad a second more of your time or attention. And man, Tenchu is one I hoped would get a revival after Sekiro (it was even supposed to BE a Tenchu game originally!) hit it big, but nope. For some reason, FromSoft just wants to sit on the license.

@Gruntvc

7 ай бұрын

@SwannyTheMike, Tenchu deserves a comeback. Now we can add Timesplitters to the forgotten list too. Freakin gaming industry...

@SwannyTheMike

7 ай бұрын

@@Gruntvc I believe they're working on a remake of Timesplitters 2. With any luck that'll sell well and we'll get a revival of the series. Or at least a remake of the third game, that one's my personal favorite.

Japan had a big pc community in the 80's and 90's. A lot of ps2 games were indie pc games.

@SwannyTheMike

6 ай бұрын

I never said it didn't exist. We wouldn't have Metal Gear without the MSX line. But PC gaming in Japan by the time this came out was a different beast from its console counterpart. To my knowledge, it was primarily focused on visual novels, doujin fighting games, and mystery dungeons like Lunatic Dawn. Western games didn't factor in for the most part. Which is why I believe it's extremely unlikely anyone at From Software played this at any point. I didn't want to go on a lengthy, off-topic diatribe about the history of PC gaming in Japan for the sake of a joke so I kept it short and said it was "niche".

Nice review, but I want to point out that the only character not proficient with the Sword of Ianna is Zoe, the other 3 wield it just like any other of their own weapons, Tukaram wield it two handed just like any other of his swords.

@SwannyTheMike

6 ай бұрын

Damn it... I should have known better than to assume that Sargon was the only one who could.

@TrAnc0s84

6 ай бұрын

@@SwannyTheMike Don't sweat it, you have an excuse right there to replay it with Tukaram, he is also the most complete character since he is the only one with two playstyles (axes and swords) and the most satisfying to learn imho. Again, and I mean it, nice review!

22:03 If i know it right Nagfar and the Tukaram can wield endgame sword effectively. Like Nagfar and sargon have almost same attack animations so it wasnt hard for rebel act to code it in. And Tukaram wields it as 2 handed weapon. Zoe was a problem so they implemented it their way but i actually really like it. Because zoe is OP and it makes sense. Sword is closer to axe or bigger swords then polearms.

@SwannyTheMike

4 ай бұрын

You're right. Another viewer corrected me on this about a month ago. I based my thoughts off of assumptions there rather than making sure. Really regret not checking now. And it's true that Zoe's reach with polearms really invalidates the need to even use the sword.

it's a shame the combo input buffer didn't get ironed out when i played the re-release on uh.. release. Chronicles of Sagrea is a game I've kept an eye on that is heavily inspired by BoD, also the modding community has been real good in getting the PvP arena working and even a look at a co-op mode

@SwannyTheMike

4 ай бұрын

I have a feeling no matter what they did with the combo buffer, people would have been upset. It's like whenever the meta changes in a fighting game. Thankfully there's no pro scene for Blade of Darkness to ruin things all the time. This is also the first time I've heard about Chronicles of Sagrea (Spending most of my time working on retro game videos leaves very little time to keep up with everything coming out) and man, they are not subtle at all about the Blade of Darkness influence! Not that it's a bad thing.

Y sepan que los que desarrolladores están en el proceso de un juego estilo Blade conjunto con una compañía italiana de forma independiente

@SwannyTheMike

Ай бұрын

I believe I saw that on Steam, but I can't remember what it was called.

Just tried the combo, very viable, and remember you got three easy dedicated fingers to that.. The biggest challenge would be associating it as a combo rather than as directional movement keys tied to locomotion in a 3D space... Also the down arrow, if you don't have to lift and press it again if you can just do it in a sweep like you would do with Street fighter etc.. then you should be good even more so, but if you have to lift it and press it that makes it a little bit more complicated but then.. so would the d-pad if anything would be worse on a traditional d-pad. Question is would it be easier on a d-pad with the thumb riser than a traditional d-pad, I mean in that particular motion I think it might be, I could see how that could fuck things up for other combos though... But it's really hard to beat a mouse and keyboard's ability to have precise simultaneous button input without sacrificing others... If only the wooting analog keyboards would have taken off for that feature, things like short presses for short functions like slowing down or only leaning halfway (in the alternate future that people respected system shock the way they should have... And analog lean became a thing to strive for).. For things like driving it would already be night and day Just not having to hit the gas pedal like you're 15 or something, tap tap tap tap tap. Smooth student driving experience lol, same thing with turning as you could do half presses quarter presses etc, it's analog... And I love that they're software is so good, and design basically around getting that input into games as best as they can.. if other games weren't such cnts, and disable the gamepad controls, when detecting the mouse and keyboard controls etc.. which requires sometimes significant workarounds and all of which are far beyond the pale considering that... The pro gamer has shrunk the keyboard somehow and made it cost more money.. and the only feature people seem to think is possibly exciting about the Wooting is that it has a fast key press, as you can have it actuate immediately, giving it supposed to have actuation the entire length down. We should have better devices for gaming but.. boy that 20 yeaor time warp has been unkind, both to the development restrictions and game design restrictions it brings and The tragic side effect of games that play for you essentially being so entrenched that Even if you did, removing it would be a brutal Band-Aid to rip off.. like we should have at least had gyro, and look how people responded to that.. although it didn't help when developers rarely utilized it the way it could have been... Outside of Nintendo, credit where it's due to them.. and then also end credit for not really going much further and then going backwards.

@SwannyTheMike

3 ай бұрын

It's a coordination issue for me. I can input whatever lengthy button combo you want (a la MK Deadly Alliance), but I can never seem to get my left thumb to cooperate with me when doing d-pad motions. In fact, unless I'm using a Saturn controller, I struggle to consistently pull off a basic quarter-circle special.

If you ever get a chance or if you can find a copy try this game out Drakan the ancient Gates I don't think anyone do a review of this not recently anyway

@SwannyTheMike

7 ай бұрын

As luck would have it, I actually already have a copy of it! Definitely another one I'd like to cover at some point.

playing it since it came out. somehow, i cant get better , always getting slaughtered ..

@SwannyTheMike

2 күн бұрын

Take your time going through the levels. Blade of Darkness is merciless if you try and play it like a typical hack and slash. There's nothing wrong with taking a single swipe at an enemy before backpedaling or pulling one enemy at a time. And if you've got more than one chasing you, try luring them to a door or hallway where they can't slip past each other so you can fight them one at a time. Finally, save early and often. What you see in my video are my successful runs. I died plenty of times in each level, often in embarrassingly stupid ways. But if I can beat Blade of Darkness, then anyone can! Though all that is only if you're actually having fun with the game and want to get better at it. If you're not having any fun however, then there's no reason to torture yourself with it. I burned about 100 hours of my life with Elden Ring before learning that lesson.

Naglfar, Sargon and Tukaram can use all their moves with the Sword of Ianna. Only Zoe cannot. In Tukaram's hands it turns into a two handed sword. It should turn into a spear for Zoe but it doesn't.

@SwannyTheMike

2 күн бұрын

I've been corrected on that one a few times now. But that's what I get for not completely finishing the game with all four characters instead of making assumptions based off of Zoe's endgame.

I've just finished the game with zoe, whirlwind + her high dodge is really just cheating haha. Last levels were quite a chore, full of archers with poison arrows oh and the last true level and the ending fucking sucks, last boss is really a joke it's true that the game overstays just a little bit its welcome especially with the boss rush they throw at you, it looked like that last area was a bit rushed or something but overall I loved the atmosphere and the level design, really good game

@SwannyTheMike

2 ай бұрын

Zoe is a game breaker for sure. It was a real wake up call when I went back through as Sargon and had to actually pay attention to the patterns of enemies that Zoe could kill in seconds lol. I'm almost certain the last part was rushed. All the deliberate pacing of the rest of the game is thrown out for cheap traps that you can only avoid if you know about them ahead of time. It almost feels like a fanmade level than one in line with the rest of the game.

The switch version runs fine i didnt have any issues with it

@SwannyTheMike

6 ай бұрын

Good to know! I admit that I'm kind of curious to try it out on Switch at some point.

wanna some forgotten horror games ps1 and nds for review?, here three for you: Juggernaut And Mars Gothic Unification (ps1) and Theresia-dear emile (NDS), One where you traverse pocket dimensions inside of a possessed woman with a Ancient Devil, another where is resident evil-esque in space where the cover of game is related to the plot and Theresia is about a girl escaping a bunker wrapped inside of a mortal labyrinth that developed stockholm syndrome.

@SwannyTheMike

6 ай бұрын

Interesting. I'll have to look into these games more.

@hermes_job_observer144

4 ай бұрын

"Juggernaut" (PS1) is one of my favorite FMV adventure games! (It's difficult to find other games by the same developer, but if you can get through the language barrier, there is a super obscure FMV game they did called: "Cat the Ripper" (PS1/SS). I also recommend Kenji Eno's: "D" (PS1/SS), and "Enemy Zero" (SS), as well as System Sacom's: "Mansion of Hidden Souls" (SS/SCD), and "Lunacy" (SS). I'm also a huge fan of the few M rated horror games on the DS. I own "Thereisa" (DS). It's a great game. I'll also recommend "Dementium 1 & 2" (DS), "Touch of the Dead" (DS), and the severely overlooked 1st person horror series called "Nanashi no Game" (DS) ("Nameless Game"). There are 2 of them on the DS. The sequel is titled: "Nanashi no Game: Me" (DS) ("Nameless Game: Eye"). They were Japan only releases, but the DS is region free and the games are beatable w/o knowing Japanese. It doesn't emulate well, so if you're interested, i highly suggest hunting down a physical copy whole they're still cheap, before it's discovered for the gem it is! Peace.

@SwannyTheMike

4 ай бұрын

@@hermes_job_observer144 I believe I saw that there were English fan patches for both Nanashi no Game, um... games. So even the language barrier isn't an issue anymore.

Playable character named 'Sargon' and lore is based on Zoroastrian mythology, reminds me of latest PoP game

@SwannyTheMike

3 ай бұрын

I want to play the new PoP so badly! Prince of Persia as a Metroidvania is a dream combination for me.

This is a great game but I wish there was more incentive to used chopped off limbs

@SwannyTheMike

7 ай бұрын

You and me both. It would have been hilarious if they'd put in a hidden moveset when wielding severed limbs.

@piotyrholbion

7 ай бұрын

@@SwannyTheMike I think the best use would be if thrown they stun an enemy

@SwannyTheMike

7 ай бұрын

@@piotyrholbion That would have been really useful

@chilli-beef3200

4 ай бұрын

You could cook the limbs and eat them

Action trip! AI is too environmentally aware for my taste! Modern games, wouldn't it be nice if the AI was environmentally aware? Can we try that again... Wouldn't that be nice? Me, it's a holes like him that ruined it for everybody.. this is why we can't have nice things now 23 years later.

@SwannyTheMike

3 ай бұрын

Action Trip was the worst. I'm convinced that half the buzzkills on YT right now who do nothing but rage about whatever ridiculous "controversy" is hot right now would have been Action Trip reviewers twenty years ago.

This game looks really atmospheric and immersive, but the graphics are too dated for 2024 and I say that as someone who generally prefers game-play over graphics. It's crying out for a remaster, if any game devs are interested....

@SwannyTheMike

Ай бұрын

This, uh... This actually is the remaster in the footage I used. That low-fi bit showing off the arena mod wasn't for aesthetic purposes, that's what the game looked like back in '01. Now a full-on remake would be awesome! Or even better, a sequel!

@GonzoTehGreat

Ай бұрын

@@SwannyTheMike Oh, that's interesting. Thanks for the correction. Perhaps they're limited by the graphics engine, in which case they'd need to remake it, which is more work, but I'd play it!

@SwannyTheMike

Ай бұрын

@@GonzoTehGreat I believe it was made on the dev's custom engine, so that was probably the case. In my experience, a lot of PC games from this era not made on idTech or Unreal have a ton of stability problems if you mess with the graphics too much.

You got me with the Mike joke.