-Quick Review-
Boreal Blade is a team-based melee fighting game, released on Steam in 2020, and released on the Switch in 2019. Boreal Blade was developed by the beloved Indie developer Frozenbyte known mostly for their Trine Games. Unfortunately the community is basically dead, so if you want to play this game you should anticipate picking up extra copies of the game to send to your friends.

Review Video:
If you don't like reading, or are curious about watching gameplay check out my video here:
https://youtu.be/YvlfMmqf8Nk

-Detailed breakdown review-
Gameplay: There’s not really any “story” to speak of for Boreal Blade, and seeing as I got the game for a few friends and have a total of like 7 whole rounds under my belt playing Boreal Blade, that makes me an expert now, right? …No, definitely not… but I’ll do my best to explain how to play based on what we played around with.
You adjust your weapon angle before attacking or defending against an attack. If you hold down the attack, you’ll charge the attack for more damage. You can move your weapon with a whole 360-degree circle in front of you to attack up-and-down, right-and-left, or varying degrees of diagonal. You block automatically by having your weapon or shield on the correct side, but if you press the focus block button you’ll recover some health with the block.

There’s currently 8 maps to play on with different terrain, obstacles, and theming. You can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and Free For All. The idea behind combat is you’re arguing over something… like “Hands should be shaken”, and one team will fight for “Shake hands up and down”, and the other team is fighting for “Shake hands Side to Side”. It’s an amusing and purely aesthetic detail to Boreal Blade, but the resulting win will exclaim “Hands should be shaken up and down!”

After a “debate” is concluded, you’ll gain experience to level up. When you level up you’ll unlock new weapons, armor, and character cosmetics. On steam that means I get a notification and get all excited thinking something happened, only to realize it’s just the three things I opened on the game. The groundwork was here for a really fun game, and I did enjoy playing it with my local friend group… Just a pity that’s the only experience to be had anymore playing Boreal Blade.

Conclusion: Yet another lovely game with great potential and seemingly abandoned left to collect dust by the wayside. Boreal Blade was an interesting game to play, it’s nice to have in the library if any of us want to play a melee Viking fighting game… But that’s about it, maybe we’ll go back to play it on a whim, but probably not.
But it’s pretty easy to pick up a copy of Boreal Blade on a steam sale, but just know you’ll be grabbing some extra copies of the game for any friends and family, if you want to play the game with anyone.

[u][b]-Quick Review-[/b][/u] Boreal Blade is a team-based melee fighting game, released on Steam in 2020, and released on the Switch in 2019. Boreal Blade was developed by the beloved Indie developer Frozenbyte known mostly for their Trine Games. Unfortunately the community is basically dead, so if you want to play this game you should anticipate picking up extra copies of the game to send to your friends. [u][b]Review Video:[/b][/u] If you don't like reading, or are curious about watching gameplay check out my video here: https://youtu.be/YvlfMmqf8Nk [u][b]-Detailed breakdown review-[/b][/u] [b]Gameplay:[/b] There’s not really any “story” to speak of for Boreal Blade, and seeing as I got the game for a few friends and have a total of like 7 whole rounds under my belt playing Boreal Blade, that makes me an expert now, right? …No, definitely not… but I’ll do my best to explain how to play based on what we played around with. You adjust your weapon angle before attacking or defending against an attack. If you hold down the attack, you’ll charge the attack for more damage. You can move your weapon with a whole 360-degree circle in front of you to attack up-and-down, right-and-left, or varying degrees of diagonal. You block automatically by having your weapon or shield on the correct side, but if you press the focus block button you’ll recover some health with the block. There’s currently 8 maps to play on with different terrain, obstacles, and theming. You can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and Free For All. The idea behind combat is you’re arguing over something… like “Hands should be shaken”, and one team will fight for “Shake hands up and down”, and the other team is fighting for “Shake hands Side to Side”. It’s an amusing and purely aesthetic detail to Boreal Blade, but the resulting win will exclaim “Hands should be shaken up and down!” After a “debate” is concluded, you’ll gain experience to level up. When you level up you’ll unlock new weapons, armor, and character cosmetics. On steam that means I get a notification and get all excited thinking something happened, only to realize it’s just the three things I opened on the game. The groundwork was here for a really fun game, and I did enjoy playing it with my local friend group… Just a pity that’s the only experience to be had anymore playing Boreal Blade. [b]Conclusion:[/b] Yet another lovely game with great potential and seemingly abandoned left to collect dust by the wayside. Boreal Blade was an interesting game to play, it’s nice to have in the library if any of us want to play a melee Viking fighting game… But that’s about it, maybe we’ll go back to play it on a whim, but probably not. But it’s pretty easy to pick up a copy of Boreal Blade on a steam sale, but just know you’ll be grabbing some extra copies of the game for any friends and family, if you want to play the game with anyone.