Video games in general have a surplus of weapons. It got to the point where if I had a commissioned budget, I would have someone calculate it. Just give me a coarse running total for the industry as a whole, so that every time a gleaming-eyed manufacturer regales me with the prospect of Enchanted Lapis Lazuli Rapiers at a pre-event, I can calmly ask how many Enchanted Lapis Lazuli Rapiers we’re talking about, then open my laptop and generate a scrolling image similar to these Stars and planets comparison pages – a cosmic mountain of spearheads and warheads, with the modern game’s armory forming a pixel-wide foothills in the lower left corner. “Isn’t there enough enchanted lapis lazuli rapiers?” I ask politely, the producer sobbing into my shoulder.
In the absence of some art-form-wide disarmament project in which embarrassed RPG adventurers hand over their runic souvenirs to local policemen, games could at least teach their players to think more about each individual weapon: its design and history, how it works fits into some ongoing history. Bladesong seems to be helpful on this front. It’s a blacksmithing game where you make swords to play out the story of a mighty fortress, described as “one of the last bastions of humanity left after the gods were banished.”
This is not the case Look very similar to blacksmithing, remember. It’s a spot-lit model-editing workshop full of icons, fields, and sliders like “distal taper” and “extravagance.” From what I can see, the hammering is minimal. No singing, despite the title. I have the impression that there are probably non-fantasy blacksmiths who sing along to their creations, but I guess it’s mainly to regulate the rhythm of their strokes. Still, I think you can sing to the interface if it helps with APM.
If you don’t like creating screens in video games, this is probably your worst nightmare. But I already like both the quirky extravagance of the options and the accompanying requirement to meet specific buyer demands that drive the narrative mentioned above. Someone needs a lightweight training sword – perhaps it’s a youthful Chosen One going on their first rat hunt in the tutorial. Someone else wants a blade that is sturdy and not too long so that they can cut with it in tight spaces – perhaps that particular person is a city guard who patrols many narrow streets. Someone else just wants a lot of pretentious, shiny seals. He’s probably a witcher.
It would be nice if we had the option to intentionally fail orders and saddle people we don’t like with minimally tempered or heat-treated swords. A few days later, a story appeared in the newspapers about a nobleman trying to collect taxes by smashing his jeweled katana against a peasant’s scythe.
Unfortunately, the Steam page doesn’t give much information about the story and how much control you have over it. The trailer snippets I’ve dug up suggest there’s a lot of text, but it’s kept concise. This makes sense – there is no room for roundabout adjectives when ordering weapons. It’s like making a rapier out of lapis lazuli. By the way, lapis lazuli is a tectosilicate mineral often used in painting. I’m not speaking from any experience, but you probably shouldn’t try to make a sword out of this material.
Bladesong will have a public test from December 4-13. You can register on the Steam website. In the shorter term, I’d welcome any recommendations for other games where you’re largely just crafting weapons for people. I know there are several.
