Bleak Sword DX Review: Pixelated Punishment

I’ll be the first person to admit that Elden Ring was a masterpiece. Fromsoftware’s magnum opus, which was the culmination of years and years of fine-tuning and iterating on their formula, was a truly magnificent title that not only retained its trademark difficulty but also did so while opening the door up to a whole host of new players, through its implementation of an open world that allowed you to simply venture off somewhere else if one particular section of the game was proving too difficult.

This was just one of many concessions that Fromsoftware made, and while I adored it, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that it was all a touch bloated. In an effort to make something that appealed to the masses, the result was absolutely a fantastic video game, but one that I felt almost stepped too far away from the focused, more linear progression and action of the studio’s earlier work for my tastes. Bleak Sword DX, then, almost feels like an unofficial answer to those issues.

It’s a soulslike, but it takes the core pillars of the genre and removes all the baggage. Now admittedly, this is largely due to it being a title that was released originally on the Apple Arcade, designed with the limitations of the mobile platform in mind rather than an extreme attempt at bringing the genre back to its roots. Irrespective of this, it’s an absolute treat for anyone such as myself who just wants to get stuck into a title that can be sadistically difficult and leaves you with no option but to “git gud” and overcome whatever the developers decide they want to throw at you.

Generic Set-Up

There is a narrative that contextualizes the world of Bleak Sword DX. However, it’s incredibly generic and easily the worst part of the experience. Thankfully, it’s largely reduced to background noise and really only serves to give the action and gameplay some context. It’s far from the focal point, so it’s hard to knock it too much.

In short, you’ll embark on a journey across a kingdom turned to ruin following its king’s betrayal at the hands of his son. Not only was he betrayed, but he also fell to the Bleak Sword, a devastating weapon that places immense dark power in the hands of the assailant. Stepping into the boots of a nameless protagonist, you need to venture across the lands, taking out hideous creations in an effort to find several plot MacGuffins that have the power to destroy the sword, thus restoring peace to the troubled world.

As stated, it’s woefully generic stuff, but it’s really just a framework that provides context for Bleak Sword DX’s beautiful, pixelated action, which, unlike the narrative, is absolutely sublime.

Dance of Death

On paper, Bleak Sword DX is an incredibly simple game, understandably so when you consider the platform it initially launched on. You’ll be faced with a series of levels, each split into a number of stages, and simply tasked with eliminating every enemy in each locale before moving on to the next. Being a soulslike, you’ll need to master parrying, stamina consumption, and dodge rolling, as the enemies get thicker and faster as well as more unpredictable in their movement.

Eliminate every foe a stage has to offer, and it’s onto the next, with your reward being experience points that can be spent on stats such as defense and attack power upon leveling up. In certain instances, you’ll be rewarded with a piece of equipment that buffs your stats. Here’s the kicker; however, die in a stage, and you lose all your experience as well as any equipped items. The only way to get them back? Jump back into that same stage and beat it in its entirety.

It’s an incredibly addictive loop, with the game tapping into that one-more-turn mentality through the smart use of short stages that last anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. The tension that comes with having to beat an entire level to get your lost experience back, rather than just besting the enemy that killed you, also adds a unique tension I’ve not felt anywhere else in the genre. Usually, in soulslikes, regaining your experience is simply a case of carefully making your way back to your foe and carefully isolating them before dispatching them. It’s more of an illusion of risk than an actual one if you’re even semi-competent with the genre. With Bleak Sword DX, that isn’t the case, and you really have to master the game’s combat mechanics if you want to make any kind of meaningful progression.

Thankfully, you will have no problem wanting to master the combat, as it’s an absolute blast. Attacks feel snappy and responsive, and parrying feels precise, though the pixelated nature of the graphics can make the timing of the parry windows a little hard to read. For the most part, enemy attack patterns feel fair and are very readable, save for one or two instances in the later levels where the difficulty really ramps up, and the combination of enemies on screen can lead to chaos that’s a little hard to read. All stages play out in little square dioramas, using a top-down isometric perspective which gives you a great deal of visibility on the action, though, so even when things do get hectic, you usually have a good idea of what is about to attack and when. The combat, quite honestly, feels like it’s been polished to within an inch of its life, a good thing, too, given it’s pretty much the only gameplay loop, but a commendable achievement all the same.

It’s wickedly addictive stuff, the tiny stages and brevity of the encounters all coming together to create something that’s incredibly difficult to put down. The fact that Bleak Sword DX doesn’t contain any sort of exploration at all may put some people off who find the difficulty frustrating. There’s no going off in a different direction to level up, no grinding for better gear, and no NPCs that you can bring into combat to make things easier. To get on board with Bleak Sword DX is to get on board with its very singular vision. If it clicks, though, you’re in for a hell of a time.

Stripped Back Art Direction

I fear some people may dismiss Bleak Sword DX purely due to the incredibly basic, albeit charming art design. It uses a simple pixel art look, but give it time, and you may just grow to adore it as I did. It was never that I particularly loved the visuals, but I grew to love the razor-sharp focus they allow the player to place on the combat. As you’ve probably guessed reading this review by now, Bleak Sword DX is a tough-as-nails experience. If the visuals were fleshed out anymore, I genuinely think it would detract from the zen-like experience that the moment-to-moment gameplay provides when it finally clicks and make that experience more frustrating than it needs to be.

It also allows for rock-solid performance. I played largely on the Steam Deck and never noticed a single frame drop when locking my FPS to 60 using the Steam Decks built-in functionality. In a game that requires split-second reaction times and an overwhelming amount of decision-making that needs to occur within the blink of an eye, opting for functionality over style will always get my vote.

Conclusion

Bleak Sword DX is an absolute treat that takes the core pillars of the soulslike genre and distills them into a wonderfully moreish, action-packed adventure. The narrow focus, coupled with the unforgiving nature of the gameplay and progression loops, may put some off, but not every game has to be for everyone, and I commend the developers for sticking with the vision they clearly had. If, like me, you love soulslikes, but have found yourself feeling slightly alienated due to the scope that some of the genre’s heavy hitters bring, then I urge you to check out Bleak Sword DX and let it get its pixelated hooks into you.

Final Verdict: 4.5/5

Available On: PC (reviewed), Switch; Publisher; Devolver Digital; Developer; more8bit; Released: 8 June, 2023; Players: 1; MSRP: $9.99

Full Disclosure: A review code was provided by the publisher.