This game is in early access on Steam and currently 50% off. It's a skill based sword fighting duel (or 2v2 or FFA) game, supposed to be competitive. I thought it was interesting enough for cRPG community (or rather MELEE.org) to post. Anyone who already has this that can provide some more info? The game was a source mod originally.
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Bjord on October 15, 2013, 11:11:06 am
Looks interesting, but I am not too fond of arcade games.
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Vibe on October 15, 2013, 11:27:10 am
Not sure this would classify as an arcade game?
I've been asking around how the combat in this game is, and people say it's kind of like the Jedi Knight games. You can read more about the combat here: http://www.blade-symphony.com/guide/#section_3 The game is supposed to be competitive so it also has an official ladder with ratings: http://www.blade-symphony.com/ladder
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Bjord on October 15, 2013, 01:16:18 pm
Anything involving swords and combat has to have directional attacks and blocks, pre-defined moves for me is arcadey. Warband elitism. :lol:
Also yes I am aware it has directional combat, but you know what I meant.
But it does looks interesting.
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Vibe on October 15, 2013, 01:26:23 pm
Anything involving swords and combat has to have directional attacks and blocks, pre-defined moves for me is arcadey. Warband elitism. :lol:
Also yes I am aware it has directional combat, but you know what I meant.
But it does looks interesting.
This one does have blocks but not directional attacks ala MB. For me it's good enough, since I actually enjoyed Jedi Knight combat more than M&B - most probably due to being more arcadey/fast paced. The thing with Jedi Knight (Outcast) was that, even though it had pre-defined moves, you could "reshape"/control them by moving the mouse in a certain direction - for example in JO the heavy side swing could be extended into a thrust if you moved your mouse in the opposite direction in the middle of the swing animation. While I'm not sure such stuff is possible in Blade Symphony, the combat from youtube videos looked fast paced and with a high skill ceiling - I guess the top guy on the ladder being 100 wins/1 lose also proves that, which is enough for me. Judging by the videos I'd place the quality of combat better than Chivalry/WotR but worse than M&B/JK.
Blade Symphony doesn't strike me as the usual asian slasher video game ala Devil May Cry. I think one would get that impression at first but after viewing/reading about it for a bit it is definitely different.
Top player doing 1v2
Good video of the fastest char in the game dueling
In either case I'll be trying it when I get home as it's relatively cheap now that it's on sale.
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: rufio on October 15, 2013, 01:34:21 pm
il have to play it to see if its good
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Nessaj on October 15, 2013, 02:05:22 pm
There's no directional combat, only preset moves, where you after 1 hit can unlock another move in your stance tree (and combine it with the other trees).
You have 3 stances, Fast, Balanced, Heavy, each do their own preset moves which can be mixed.
You can hold your attacks for more damage.
Mouse 2 blocks but the feeling is very off imo, in general there's literally no feeling with any of the weapons in this game.
It's definitely heavy arcade, with a mix of hack'n'slash. You try and use your character and weapon as best as possible, e.g. if you're fast you go in fast do the hits then get out and wait for your opponent to do a move so you can start raining down combos while he's "locked" in his attack. If you're a heavy attacker you need to be able to predict your opponents moves (or know which moves his character does :p) and then place your self accordingly so you can catch him when he's done with his attack-move.
Different game, 100% arcade, Asian fast-paced button-mashing combat, personally I'm not into it and would prefer something where I have more feeling with my character and weapons.
I would definitely rank the combat much harder than WotR, but not harder than Chivalry, in Chivalry you still have to look at the weapon of your enemy and you can do a pretty serious amount of blocking moves in a group fight, plus you have much more freedom in Chivalry. Overall you can't really compare the games back2back though, they're very different.
Fun little game - and cheap.
Each to their own :wink:
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Vibe on October 15, 2013, 02:11:42 pm
Thanks for the input Nessaj, was hoping someone tried it out already :)
I was expecting it to be like you said it is, to be honest. Still going to get it and see for myself, as I have a boner for melee focused games.
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Daunt_Flockula on October 16, 2013, 05:35:47 am
I have the game but it's a real shame that they didn't implement the same directional combat as M&B. You need to press a button to transit between 3 attack modes and chain your moves in a sloppy fashion. They could also implement the classic 3-button system (jab, mid and strong) of arcade fighting games and let you improvise with them instead throwing the aforesaid way of doing things at you.
Also it doesn't give you a sense of control. Planned attacks and outsmarting your opponent are out of question as far as I've observed. It's mainly about agile button mashing (though I don't even know what that means).
Title: Re: Blade Symphony
Post by: Vibe on October 16, 2013, 07:50:49 am
Hm yes, it is mostly as Nessaj said after playing a couple of hours. I like it but it isn't anything like M&B. I'll be able to tell more once I get the hang of the combat system because now I'm just getting thrashed around :lol: There's definitely a lot of skill involved, since there's no in-game advantages you can grind/buy. However I wouldn't say it's about button mashing that much, it's a lot more about timing and using the right attacks from the right position.