But, like in Hollow Knight you can retrieve your ore if you can reach the place where you died to collect a soul. In case you do bite the dust you lose all your collected ore and return to the last visited Fire Shrine. Thankfully you have access to fire essence, which can heal you if necessary. Opponents deal quite a bit of damage and death is never far away in the opening hours. This makes Blue Fire incredibly difficult at first. In the beginning the warrior, Umbra, only has access to a dash, jump and a basic attack. The best way to describe the gameplay in Blue Fire is if Hollow Knight and A Hat in Time had a baby. These upgrades were definitely worth the price, since most give you an edge in both exploration and combat. Even late in the game I was still able to purchase upgrades and spend the countless ore I was collecting. Not only to buy weapons and items, but you also require ore to open up the Fire Shrines which function as respawn points where you can change spirits. I was surprised to find that there was always something to spend my ore on. Upgrades, spirits and items cost you ore, which can be found nearly everywhere.
These cute little fellows all have their own personalities and help you with side quests, discoveries and accepting your currency and collectibles. Speaking of the settlements, they have real charm to them thanks to the different NPC’s you meet along the way. Threatening when facing the bosses, but also calming when visiting some of the small settlements scattered throughout the world. The soundtrack, while mostly being ambient, compliments the atmosphere very well. From molten rivers of lava deep beneath the castle to the serene Abandoned Path, there is a lot of visual creativity at play here. You might expect it to be just a confusing maze of corridors and chambers and while it does start out like that at first, the locations within the castle are incredibly varied. Purely from a design aspect, the Penumbra looks incredible. When you awake, you are armed with nothing more than your dual blades and a mission to save the Penumbra. Penumbra has been forsaken due to the war between five Gods and the Black Shadow, an entity that has corrupted most of the castle. While there are some kinks in the Switch version, Blue Fire has me fired up for more.īlue Fire sees you traversing the Penumbra, a dark floating castle in the sky where you awaken as Umbra, a warrior that has been infused with both fire and shadow. Combining the exploration and combat of action focused titles like Hollow Knight and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker with 3D platforming from the likes of A Hat in Time and Super Mario Odyssey works out incredibly well for Blue Fire. Blue Fire feels like the first step towards a refinement of how 3D platformers could work in the modern age. “Remember that thing you liked?” works really well as a kickstarter pitch, but as shown with Yooka-Laylee for example, it can backfire when trying to be more than it’s inspiration. However, while these titles really did help revitalize the 3D platformer, they did not really revolutionize or improve upon its foundation. Just like at the beginning of the 2010’s when people were clamoring for a return to 2D pixel art platformers, the 3D platformers have seen a true resurgence with the likes of Yooka-Laylee, A Hat in Time and of course Super Mario Odyssey.
It’s been said that we’re living through a true 3D platformer renaissance.
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