X-Blades

I played this back when it could be found on Xbox 360. I enjoyed it back then however I will admit that the fighting is lacking in some areas but if you really try hard and learn to use the spells in mid-air you can run through the pro difficulty barely using the healing pause menu option. I played through it twice scoring both endings and I would recommend it to anyone that wants a simple story with no side quest to get in the way.

curse you snaaaaaaaaaaaaail

This was a decently fun hack-n-slash. The best part is obviously the booty. I also enjoyed the music.

The game does have several clunky drawbacks. I recommend practicing the W then W + Space combo (the keyboard was easiest for me) until you can consistently fling yourself in a forward flip or you're gonna get stuck . Also, DO NOT buy or use Dark Powers or you get locked into the bad ending.

It's bad

I try to play this game with my ps5 and xbox one controller but the game is not launching

Hands down one of the worst and most shallow character action games I've ever played. From bland level visuals, bland story, characters and game play. Complete lack of player feedback, bland bosses that use the same attacks all while having infinitely spawning enemies constantly sticking to you giving no time to breath. Fights are repetitive and recycle gimmicks after the first couple of levels, drag on for way too long and amount to mindless button mashing the whole way through. Its a game that gets almost everything wrong in its execution and feels like a very poor attempt at creating a DMC like, there are far better games out there you can grab for 5 bucks. Will give some credit to the soundtrack though, main menu music being a huge black sheep of the bunch, the game has a decent soundtrack to it. Though even that is inconsistent, as multiple times though out a level, a track will end and a new one begin, instead of looping. Same with dying, you'll reload and a different track starts playing. Not Worth the 5 bucks at all

Charging for an HD upgrade? You get an automatic thumbs down.

This game isn't as bad as critics made it out to be when it came out, but I can see how someone paying $60 for it would think it was garbage. As a budget game it's actually pretty decent, and also kind of funny bad with some of its weird creative decisions. First off, the main character being put in the worst possible outfit you could give a main character. It's like right before they decided to ship the game out they realized it wouldn't sell so they just put her in a thong to get people's attention. Beyond that it's similar to Devil May Cry except you are running through ruins and each battle is basically a single room with an enemy type you need to kill to proceed. The room might be filled with several enemy types but she has to kill one specific type to lower the bar in the corner, so you are better off constantly checking to see if the bar decreases if you kill a certain enemy. She can attack with blades, fire dual pistols and use magic. There are surprisingly a lot of upgrades, and sometimes you have to use elemental magic types to defeat certain enemies. The game only spans 20 or so rooms (Once you get to the end you walk back and fight a different set of enemies) but there's a decent amount of depth to the game since there are so many different ways to dispatch enemies. You can find certain items on the map that give her more melee or gun abilities but they're kind of useless since you do just as much damage mashing the attack button. Guns work better on certain enemies like a grim reaper type that you fight constantly, and you can actually increase the damage by buying a double speed attack powerup and also using an elemental damage buff.

The only thing that makes this game challenging is the fact that some enemies are immune to certain attacks. My first time though I spent two hours grinding because I thought I needed an electrical ability to defeat a spider boss. It turns out I could damage the boss with fire, but with the stupid way the boss damage bars are designed the first attack is covered by a graphical overlay so you may deal damage but you won't see it until second or third attack. There's only really one part of the game where you should grind and it's maybe for five minutes. The game's point system for buying upgrades is all over the place. You start off getting one or two but by the end of the game you are getting like 20 million in a single fight. You don't want to buy the wrong upgrade because then you have to go grind for more points to get the upgrade you need, but there's really only about three necessary ones and the rest are just helpful. By the end you will have so many points it doesn't matter.

The graphics and music are decent. although the music is all over the place, sometimes being electronic and other times metal. The final boss is a bit disappointing but some of the other boss fights are pretty cool. Once you beat the game you unlock new outfits for her and a "professional" difficulty which I found even easier than the normal difficulty. On professional difficulty you get a "double orb" bonus at the end of each stage but the actual orbs you are granted from killing enemies is effectively halved. Also you can buy health upgrades from the menu but sometimes the cost doubles and sometimes it doesn't. The whole orb system is totally nonsensical and makes the game way more confusing than it needs to be, but otherwise the combat is fun and addictive.

Holy f*ck everyone in the game an as*hole.
The game is fun and annoying at the same time and I like it for what it is.
I can feel like grind and you may need to modify game files if you want to one of
the two endings if you don't want to play through the entire game twice.

I would say the gameplay is simple to follow as you get to hack and slash your way through
a bunch of enemies, but you will have to deal with enemies that will need to be dealt with
like a puzzle in order to hurt them. Unfortunately you can only hurt standard mobs but not
any special enemies (including bosses) with your swords and mashing a single button and instead use
your magical powers to hurt them. I also tried to performing techniques that involve movement for a particular area where I have to avoid blades and I can't seem to do it properly consistently and end up just tanking damage by thankfully given the system to buying your health in the game's menu.

The story is where you end up being a treasure hunter finding some artifact to pay your bills
and causes you to fight hordes of monsters/guardians where you show them why you don't where
much clothing. The story is... well... okay I guess for its time? So far I simply focus on hitting enemies,
getting the combo and glade the game progression does not have a ranking to see how much time you
took taking an entire army of foes that lived int he temple.

On the bright side beating it the first time will grant you a harder difficulty, and some outfits that
make your character look more prepared (and gorgeous with the HD upgrade DLC) before entering into the temple to steal sh*t. Just don't expect to see the outfits during cutscenes.

I say when it is on a deal get it on a deal. If you want to officially own a relic of the past and
say yeah I played through it get it on GOG.

Recommend it to those that got time to kill within an appropriate amount of time to beat it twice, and experience a time capsule of game devs competing for that... OG God of war money at the time?

Sure, there's a lot of booty in this game, but have you considered that the game itself *is* booty?

But really though, this is one of the worst things I've played in a while.

Good for some empty headed fun.

As someone who's now played both of them, if you're ever given the choice between this game & Blades of Time, take Blades of Time, it's leaps & bounds better, & playing this game afterwards really shows just how far Gaijin Entertainment came with it.

What're XBlades' problems? There's quite a few.

At the end of the 3rd or 4th level, I still have no idea what's going on story wise.

Ayumi's sword attacks aren't guaranteed to hit even just a standing POT if it's too short.

You have to mash the jump button to get Ayumi to reliably double-jump.

Whatever spell you unlock the ability to purchase at the beginning of a level is really the ONLY reliable means of getting through the level.

Spells require rage to cast, which can deplete very quickly, as in, you can end up having too little right at the opportune moment to cast a spell very quickly.

some enemies are ONLY vulnerable to certain spells, & some of those enemies can phase through the walls & floor, preventing you from hitting them at all.

Bosses are some of the enemies that're only vulnerable to certain spells.

It's almost IMPOSSIBLE to avoid a bosses hard hitting attacks while hitting minions to build rage for spells because there's no dedicated dodge command.

Lock on doesn't work, often shifting to a very different target than your intended 1 at the last moment.

& on top of all that, Ayumi herself is kinda hard to deal with; I could tolerate her being a cocky, arrogant treasure hunter at the beginning because I figured that she'd probably develop as the game progressed, but not only has there only been like 2 story clips so far, not giving her the chance, but she's one of the extremely rare cases of an uncanny valley anime design; her body's pleasant enough, but the face they went with looks really off. She'd probably look a lot better if her face looked more like a traditional anime girl face. As petty as that last point is, it's still something that Gaijin Entertainment managed to do WAY better in Blades of Time.

This game is so badly designed in all these regards, I'm happy that Blades of Time is a MUCH better game because it shows that Gaijin Entertainment learned from the mistakes they made with XBlades. Support Gaijin Entertainment, but do it by buying Blades of Time, not this game.