BLADE CHIMERA - Switch Review

Steve Whiting -

The announcement of BLADE CHIMERA last year has excited many a metroidvania fan, myself included. After 2022’s Drainus (a side-scrolling shooter), BLADE CHIMERA marks a return to the genre, which has proved a huge hit for the developer, Team Ladybug, and their perennial publishing partner Playism. Team Ladybug’s successful metroidvania titles thus far include Touhou Luna Nights (2019) and Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (2021), so I have high hopes for BLADE CHIMERA!

The Good

BLADE CHIMERA follows the story of Shin, a demon hunter who must traverse across a dystopian version of Osaka, which has been overridden with, you guessed it, demons and other such nasties. Shin’s main companion is a Demon Sword called Lux, which acts as an appendage, a primary weapon and a key piece of traversal equipment as you explore the game world. Lux can be used to attack enemies or can also be embedded into walls and act as a platform (for example). The sprite art on Shin and Lux as they rampage their way through Osaka is beautiful, especially against the neon-signed steampunk environments. BLADE CHIMERA really is a feast on the eyes.

More on your arsenal in BLADE CHIMERA; you begin with a basic pistol-type weapon and shortly after encounter the aforementioned Lux. Thereafter, there are shotguns, explosives, underwater weapons, Lux upgrades and many other gadgets that all serve towards the dynamic combat in BLADE CHIMERA. Once you get your head around how and when it is best to use different weapons at different times, it makes for a spectacular set piece on screen as Shin and Lux move around in balletic fashion. Team Ladybug has done an amazing job of pairing souls-like combat with arcade-style Contra-type craziness. There’s so much happening on screen at times, yet BLADE CHIMERA runs smoothly throughout.

To fit in with its pixel art aesthetic, the soundtrack in BLADE CHIMERA is exactly what you’d want to hear. Lots of rousing tracks accompanying battles and boss fights, along with some groovy nu-wave retro tunes, make it all feel like a real throwback. I’ve played a few metroidvanias recently where the soundtrack is perhaps a bit too ambient, but not here; in BLADE CHIMERA, its truly bombastic, and that fits in perfectly with the gameplay experience in general.

TL;DR

  • Beautiful art-style and masterly sprite work
  • Enjoyable and chaotic carnage combat
  • Perfect soundtrack for the dynamism

The Bad

Most of my bugbears with BLADE CHIMERA come in the early game, but that’s still a concern because I almost lost patience before deciding to carry on at times. First of all, some of the areas between the focal points—by this, I mean the connecting areas of the map between objectives—are basically just a sequence of long rectangular rooms with a queue of enemies. This may sound typical on paper, but the areas lacked any kind of verticality or significant platforming obstacles. I found myself just moving from left to right (or sometimes right to left) and attacking each enemy one by one like they were just coming at me on a conveyor belt. It was quite dull and repetitive, even with the jazzy combat mechanics.

On a similar vein, some of the early exploration in BLADE CHIMERA is frustrating. For example, there’s nearly always an objective marker to follow; however, if you decide to take alternative paths to do some exploration, then you would end up coming to a dead end that was devoid of any story touchpoints or collectibles. As a result, you were left with no choice but to backtrack to the objective before returning again to the dead ends that now have characters, etc. who were previously absent. People might be reading this thinking, "Well duh, that’s what the objective marker is for,” but in nearly every metroidvania I’ve played, you’ve been free and rewarded by taking alternative routes. Whereas in BLADE CHIMERA, these temporarily empty dead ends should have been gated rather than merely left open; it just felt tantamount to good old-fashioned metroidvania exploration.

TL;DR

  • Some very drab and simple connecting areas early in the game
  • Little incentive to explore off the beaten path

Final Score: 7/10

Touhou Luna Nights is rightly regarded as one of the best metroidvanias on the Nintendo Switch, whereas Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth was received considerably less positively due to it being more linear. I would say BLADE CHIMERA sits somewhere between the two. 

BLADE CHIMERA is a solid metroidvania that looks beautiful and has some genuinely exciting combat mechanics, and whilst it isn’t quite the triumphant return to form we were all hoping for, it’s certainly worth playing if you’re a fan of Team Ladybug’s previous games.

Thank you for checking out our BLADE CHIMERA Switch review, thank you to PLAYISM for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: