Within The Blade Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · July 15, 2021

For our Within The Blade Review, we go back to 1560 A.D – Japan’s last Shogunate lost full control over the realm causing an eventual explosion into a massive civil war with other provinces of the once-mighty empire. Anarchy reigned through the country as the different clans waged an all-out bloody war for supremacy.

Within The Blade Review Pros:

Decent pixel art graphics.
535.4MB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Graphics – animated herbs, parallax, and lighting can all be turned on or off.
Action-platformer gameplay.
Three difficulties – Easy, normal, and permadeath.
Opening and ongoing tutorial pop-ups.
Fast-paced hack and slash combat.
Stealth attacks.
Levels have multiple routes, secret areas, etc.
Ninja Gaiden vibes.
Two game modes – main story and challenges.
Challenge mode is a series of special self-contained challenge rooms you unlock by playing the main mode.
Seppuku – Kill yourself and restart the level.
Many checkpoints.
The village is your main hub where you can craft items and gear, use the shop, and do inventory management along with spending skill points in the Dojo.
Collect materials and coins from enemies and chests in the level.
Excellent atmospheric soundtrack.
Each level will have optional objectives.
You can double jump, slide, wall jump, wall run, block, and dash around.
Weapons can break.
Item Hotbar for throwing weapons, health, etc.
Enemies show alerts above their head to say they are cautious, unaware, or alert.
Can see enemy health bars.
Earn EXP and level up to unlock new skills. You can see your EXP bar progress.
End of a level breakdown showing playtime, total playtime, seen, hits taken, kills, retries, no retries, not seen, total coins, and total experience. Then you can choose to replay the level, return to the village or continue.
You can run through levels.
Big boss fights.
Find and buy crafting recipes.
Massive skill tree where you can unlock things like more health, better accuracy, combo’s, assassination and so much more.
Deep rewarding game.
Hide up on trees or in the dark, behind buildings and in the long grass.
Play every level how you want and as you get more skills, the more you can do.
In-game cutscenes.
Enemies can attack, block, gang up and fall off platforms.
The mechanics make the game better as they unlock.