Blade XLord Gameplay | New Anime RPG from Makers of CHRONO TRIGGER and STAR OCEAN

I’m going to show you a brand-new game called Blade XLord, developed by Applibot and designed by renowned gaming veterans. They were kind enough to sponsor us for this video and you can download the game using the link in the video description.

But before that, who are these veterans and what have they done to earn such praise? Are you ready? Let me just take a deep breath and here we go [inhales]: Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Chrono Trigger, Star Ocean, and Last Cloudia. That’s a pretty respectable collection, right? Besides, this isn’t the right time to tell you about this, but I’m quite excited for the studio’s next game, Nier Reincarnation. Fans of Nier Automata are probably going crazy about it right now, and I smell something special there.

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Anyway, let’s leave that one for another time and check Blade XLord, a mobile RPG with a distinct cinematic style. When you start playing, the influences that I have mentioned are hard to miss. The cast includes your brave and shiny knights and the cute and fierce girls, with tons – and I literally mean tons – of cutscenes to flesh out the story and characters. This is a story-driven RPG where you’ll spend most of the opening moments getting to know the world and characters, with a major event to get things going. When the dust settles, you get to meet the main heroes Ryde and Meryl, righteous knights who were betrayed and must fight to overthrow the shady characters driving this conspiracy. Ryde has the kind of spiked hair that probably reminds you of someone… You know, a certain guy with a huge sword?

The 3D cinematics get you immersed into the game, but it’s when the fighting begins that we get to see what Blade XLord has in store for us. The real-time battle system isn’t entirely original, but there are a few twists that make it stand apart from other games, although never to the point of breaking any new ground. There’s a strategy to combat that starts outside of the battlefield, as you pick your team of four warriors. The choices are far from easy, because everyone is likely to stick with the main duo, leaving two vacant spots to be filled. Will you focus on tank classes, or do you prefer a couple of healer classes to provide support to your big hitters? Carefully consider each hero’s attributes and affinity system to maximize your potential.

An auto-combat option is there to take care of the grind for materials, saving you the trouble. However, Blade XLord is extremely generous in a couple of regards. First of all, the story missions don’t cost stamina, so you won’t be locked out of the quests as long as you have a decent team to tackle the upcoming challenges – just check your team’s Might to keep things under control. Stamina is used for the side quests, and you can leave your heroes in a loop, hunting for materials until it is exhausted. It does recover fairly quickly, so that’s cool.

Another surprisingly aspect is the gacha, which seems to come with very generous drop rates for heroes and quality weapons. You earn lord stones during your adventures, and only a few hours in I was able to summon a few dozen times. I managed to get some decent weapons and even a cool SSR hero. At one point I was upgrading my main weapons big time, thanks to the surplus of materials that I had in my inventory.

Now let’s take a look at combat, because you’ll be doing a lot of it. Featuring a nice balance between casual and hardcore, it comes with a couple of systems that you use to keep your team on top of their game, but you can safely ignore most of it as long as you stay within the expected Might rating. Blade XLord does a great job of explaining you the basics, with the option to swipe left for items and swipe right for tactics. You can order your team to hold back, assemble, or go for a focused or individual attack.

It’s important to realize that while you can define your team’s strategy, you only control one unit directly. You start with Ryde, but you can switch your main hero and control any other team member. Do you prefer to get up close and personal, or attack from a distance? Your approach defines your favorite unit. Even if you play on auto, you must manually activate skills and ultimates, because these are crucial during the battles, especially against the resilient bosses. There are other tactics that you should master, such as going in for a sneaky back attack. You can move your unit freely in the battlefield, so make sure that you choose the best spot for your attributes.

As you can see, the combat mechanics provide just enough depth as to keep everyone enthralled, from veterans of the genre to those who are just starting with their mobile RPGs. The missions are straightforward and there is a significant number of side quests, events, and guild features to keep you going beyond the main storyline.

The great visuals round up the package nicely. The 3D models are particularly suited for the battlefield, but they also look good during the cinematics, expressing their emotions in a convincing way. The character artwork is outstanding, and I wish that it was more prominently displayed, but I guess we can’t have it both ways. The result is a game that looks the part, almost like a melting pot of influences from the team behind it.

I have enjoyed Blade XLord and I recommend every fan of mobile RPGs to give it a go. I was surprised with the generous gacha and stamina system, and the combat system is both clever and accessible. This is clearly a game made by a talented team and we’re surely going to hear a lot more from them, but until then, have fun slaying everything that comes your way with Ryde and his group of fallen knights.

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