Blaze and Blade for the PC offers a unique role-playing
experience.
The stereotypical RPG today consists of prefabricated characters that
loosely follow a general storyline and only has a few different options for
each situation.
Game makers at THQ decided to take a different route with Blaze and
Blade. From the beginning of the game, just about everything is left up
to the player. Before one can even begin a quest, a cast of characters must
be created. First, a physical basis and name must be chosen for each of the
characters – there are 16 types of characters to choose from. Next, a
persona/speech type must be selected; these range from impulsive to
arbitrary, and a protective element is also picked. Finally, attributes
must be distributed among characters’ features such as physical strength,
intelligence, agility, and defense. Now a party of four must be chosen and
the game may commence. With all these options, Blaze and Blade keeps
one’s attention from the moment the game begins.
Since the game has no set schedule of events to follow your character
selection, it incorporates features of action gaming. Combat and general
game play are similar to the Super Nintendo game Secret of Mana, with
a few guilty pleasures added into the mix. The player may rotate their
perspective of the world a full 360 degrees around the party of characters
– so no hidden secret is passed up in a tense fight against evil
minions.
Blaze and Blade may not require intense focus and puzzle-solving
skills that more involved role-playing games of today do, but it does have
a certain Zelda-esque charm about it.
Requirements for play include a 200 MHz Pentium, Windows 95/98, a DirectX
compatible video card w/4 MB of VRAM, 32 MB of RAM, 50 MB of free hard disk
space, 8X CD-ROM and a 16 bit sound card. Blaze and Blade is
published by SouthPeak Interactive and is available now at a suggested
retail price of $29.95. The game offers a laid-back RPG format, combined
with action-based game playing to make a well-rounded game.
