X-Blades features a special combination of cinematic style, beautiful animation, and relentless,
high speed gameplay. Players assume the role of Ayumi, a stunningly seductive yet tenacious heroine who battles enemies with her pistol blades, acrobatic ability, and magic
spells. With full
anime cut scenes, the story unfolds revealing demonic powers and spectacular landscapes, all ripe for exploration and battles.
June 16, 2008 - The folks at
Russian development studio Gaijin Interactive are big fans of Japanese anime, and they chose to work that passion into their next game, X-Blades (called Oniblade in Europe), a hack-and-slash action title for PC and consoles.
X-Blades main character, Ayumi, has a definite anime look with wide, expressive eyes and penchant for getting into tangles with legions of monsters. A treasure huntress by trade, Ayumi begins the game searching for a mysterious artifact among some ancient ruins. As you guide her through the crumbling
temple, you'll pick up the basics of X-Blades' gameplay through a standard tutorial system.
Ayumi's main weapons are twin gunblades, which can be imbued with elemental powers. She can either attack at range with the guns or melee with the blades, and both are useful in different situations. She'll also have use of spells, which can be purchased at any time.
Souls are the currency in X-Blades, and you'll gather them by killing foes and breaking open containers. The more you gain, the more health, spells and items you can buy from a store that's always accessible from a menu. Gathering souls serves a dual purpose, as Ayumi is searching for one of her own.
Without spoiling the story, let's just say that Ayumi is presented as a bit of an antihero in X-Blades. After an encounter with a giant werewolf named The Light, she wakes up in an altered state with some serious decisions to make. Will she continue her self-serving ways? The story in X-Blades is told via
traditional cut-scenes, which have an illustrated, cel-shaded look. But the game itself takes place in a standard 3-D environment with a more traditional appearance.
Controlling Ayumi is fairly straightforward. We played X-Blades on an Xbox 360, using the analog sticks to move our character and the camera. Face buttons control melee attacks, spells (which can be mapped to your liking) and jumps, and the triggers a lock-on to enemies and fire your gunblades.
SouthPeak Interactive, which is publishing X-Blades in the U.S., told us the game is about 65 percent complete. From the short demo we played, it seemed the controls still needed a bit of tweaking, as Ayumi (who moves very quickly) can sometimes be difficult to maneuver in tight spaces.
Speaking of which, Ayumi may just take the crown for the tightest outfit in female videogame character history. We're not kidding when we say her outfit (which we've taken to calling the Battle Thong) looks like it was painted onto her body with an airbrush.
X-Blades is a standard hack-and-slash third-person action game that looks like it will follow the genre's conventions fairly closely. Graphically, what we've seen so far hasn't been revolutionary, but the game ran smoothly at a solid framerate.
SouthPeak is aiming for an October release date for X-Blades on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
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