Blades of Fire takes place in an age of petrified steel. An all-powerful witch queen's spell turns all the world's steel into stone, apart from that wielded by an army of brainwashed minions who once served her father. This one small technological twist changes everything for this unique fantasy world. Granted a legendary hammer, Aran de Lira is the only one who can forge new weapons and fight back, becoming an unwilling hero on an unlikely quest. MercurySteam's much-anticipated follow-up to Metroid Dread, Blades of Fire is a brand-new IP that aims to reforge the action adventure genre with strategic combat, the debut of a rich sword-and-sorcery fantasy world, and a deep weapon forging system that hopes to deliver unlimited customization. Each weapon you forge is one-of-a-kind, ready to carve out its own destiny. You don't build a character—you build an arsenal. We recently played the opening stages of Blades of Fire and spoke to the team about how they're reforging the action adventure and making players think about weapons from a fresh perspective.

Closing the circle
It was a long path to get here for Enric Alvarez, MercurySteam Co-Founder, CEO, and Game Director. Just as the age of iron and steel was preceded by 2,000 long years of the Bronze Age, Blades of Fire is the culmination of a 24-year journey, a period the Madrid-based studio spent sharpening their skills and burnishing a prestigious reputation. In 2001, the founding members of MercurySteam worked at Rebel Act. The studio only released one game: Blade of Darkness, a PC cult classic sometimes regarded as a precursor to the Souls games for its minimalist storytelling, challenging stamina-driven combat, and a dark fantasy world beyond redemption. The influence of Conan and The Lord of the Rings (pre-Peter Jackson adaptations, as The Fellowship of the Ring came out that December) was strong, pairing exhilarating sword-and-board action with epic grandeur. Perhaps too ahead of its time, Rebel Act closed its doors after Blade of Darkness failed to find a sufficient audience.

Back in 2021, award-winning development studio MercurySteam and publisher 505 Games announced an official partnership that would bring their latest title (codenamed Project Iron) to life. For several years, the talented team at MercurySteam have been hard at work forging their next adventure. The time has come to finally unveil what they've been up to behind closed doors.

FORGE YOUR LEGEND
Introducing Blades of Fire, an all-new action-adventure that takes you across a beautiful world full of uncertainty and challenge. You take on the role of Aran de Lira, firstborn of the King's Ward. The newly crowned Queen Nerea has cast a powerful spell that turns steel into stone and only her arms of abominations wield the divine metal against which other blades shatter. Get ready to forge your own weapons and put them to the test in a unique combat system, as you work towards becoming a master in forging. Develop your skills and craft weapons that suit your preferable fighting style. Remember, when facing your foes, your choice of weapon will be key to success! Only the right weapons will allow you to take down certain enemies.

From Programancer, the developer of Prison City and Dumpy & Bumpy, comes a brand new title: The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest! You're supposed to be the hero, but your spotlight was taken away! Rival Stan Helsing defeated Dracula first, now Simon Quest must embark on a journey of retribution to raise the Count from the dead piece-by-piece, slay him, and obtain the glory he deserves! Go on a perilous journey through the world of Transylvania.

Explore dark mansions, discover minigames, and collect different parts of Dracula to raise him from the dead…then kill him! The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest (TASQ) is a parody/homage platformer set in a dark 8-bit world. Reclaim your glory by resurrecting Dracula piece by piece and slaying the dark count yourself! Coming to Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Epic in 2025. Stay tuned for more platform announcements. Retroware is excited to announce this new project in development with Programancer! AND, if you're itching to get your hands on playing a preview of The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest (TASQ), YOU CAN at MAGFest 2024 at the National Harbor from January 18 to 21!

Team Cherry, the indie development outfit responsible for producing smash hit 2D platformer Hollow Knight (2017), has this week announced that the sequel - Silksong - will be missing its proposed early-ish 2023 launch window. The Australian team's publishing and marketing manager Matthew Griffin confirmed via a tweet that Hollow Knight: Silksong is still a work-in-progress project: "Hey gang, just a quick update about Silksong. We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing. We're excited by how the game is shaping up, and it's gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can."

Hollow Knight: Silksong was first revealed to the public back in 2019, with Team Cherry taking a quiet approach to the release of preview material since then. A playable demo was on show at E3 2019, but a wider internet-based public has only had access to a pair of video trailers, some screenshots and minimal written details on official sites and product pages. Silksong was initially conceived as a DLC/expansion for the base game, but the designers expanded their project's scope - thus creating a standalone and entirely new entry in the series. It seems that the development team's ambitions have grown over the years - Griffin has not confirmed a revised release date but requests that fans wait for further announcements: "Expect more details from us once we get closer to release."

Detectives, we've arrived! At long last, The Last Case of Benedict Fox is here! Go on, enter the world of limbo, and discover the reason for your father's demise. For your final preparations, watch our launch trailer (see below). Mesmerized? Hold your demon companion close, and run toward the mansion!

Before we leave, we just want to say a huge thank you to our family and friends for their support throughout our game development journey. We feel grateful for their patience and love as it allowed us the opportunity to create a game that we always dreamt of making. And we would love to thank you, our fans, for all your support and encouragement ever since our reveal last year. We had so much fun with this game, and we hope you will too.

The Penitent One awakens as Blasphemous 2 joins him once again in an endless struggle against The Miracle. Dive into a perilous new world filled with mysteries and secrets to discover, and tear your way through monstrous foes that stand between you and your quest to end the cycle one and for all. The second scripture in the Blasphemous series portends the return of The Penitent One, with a story that continues from the free Wounds of Eventide DLC for the original game, where The Heart in the sky heralded the return of The Miracle and foretold the birth of a new miracle child.

Awakened in a strange new land, and displaced from his final resting place, The Penitent One is thrust back into the endless cycle of life, death, and resurrection, with no other option than to explore this perilous new world and uncover its long-forgotten secrets. Hordes of grotesque enemies stand in your way, awaiting final judgement by the brutal hand of the Penitent One, with titanic twisted bosses also lurking in the darkness, waiting for their chance to return you to the grave from whence you came. Taking them down won't be easy, but with Blasphemous 2 offering more chances to customize and improve your skill set, along with several new unique weapons to wield with righteous zeal and unending fury, victory might just be within grasp. Ultimately, only one thing is certain… Penance Never Ends