Blade Symphony

[Soviet Bear]

 

Blade Symphony is a Source engine sword-fighting game, a few years in the making and gone through extensive testing in Steam's Early Access.

 

Basically, it's a mix of Bushido Blade and Jedi Outcast's multiplayer. You choose between four characters and four types of weapons, mix-matching whichever combo you prefer. The actual combat revolves around a stance-based combo system, while the weapons determine whether and how you parry, block and/or feint.

 

Modes that exist are 1vs1, 2vs2 and Free-For-All. Free for all is like this very MMO-ish lobby. You basically just hang around and challenge other people to one on one duels. Think BlazBlue's arcade lobby, only you fight in the lobby. This also means that people have created a bunch of games in free-for-all, like King of the Hill, or team duels where people duke it out on a narrow bridge.

 

There are no perks or unlockables beyond cosmetics. It also has Steam Workshop support, so you can download and use a bunch of new skins and models for both characters and weapons.

 

I got a bit less than 10 hours in right now, but my experience with it so far has been extremely positive. The combat feels right, it's tactical and the community has been quite friendly and helpful so far. You can get the game on Steam here. The fact that it's also made in the Source engine means it should run on potato hardware.

 

Also, Judgement with a Jian sword is basically Hakumen.

 

Screenshots:

 

 

 

[TAI-X]

As a fan of the lightsaber combat in the Jedi Knight series, this is very interesting to me. Unfortunately I don't own a gaming-quality PC. I hope they eventually bring it to consoles, it seems like it would adapt very well to a dual-analog controller.

[swordsman09]

Wow this game looks pretty cool! I'll have to look into this!

[Tsuki Garyuu]

Saw this one before. Looks real sick everytime I see it. Can't say I can play it until I have a new PC on me, but I'm pretty sure this game will be ported to the PS4 soon.

[Sashi]

It feels pretty silly. Animation is pretty choppy and the tutorial doesn't really explain how the game works. I played for an hour or so and still had no idea how the combat was supposed to work.