Clockwise from top-right: Solange, Master T, Emiko (riding Shakemaru), Noko, Kawase, Curly, Liongate, Ali. Center: Lina
Fight for glory with fists of fury!
Blade Strangers is a crossover fighting game by Nicalis and Studio Saizensen for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam. It was released on August 28, 2018 outside Asia through Steam, console ports were released in Japan/Asia on August 30th, and a physical PS4 release for non-Asian markets came out on September 4th.
As a malevolent entity known as Lina devours data from across all dimensions, the sentient computers that oversees these dimensions called "motes" summon heroes from across time and space for a tournament to determine who among them is the "Blade Stranger" destined to save the day.
A crossover Puzzle Game called Crystal Crisis was developed by Nicalis as a companion piece to this one.
Playable Characters
- Code of Princess: Solange Blanchefleur de Luxe, Ali-Baba, Master T Drakkhen, Liongate
- Umihara Kawase: Kawase Umihara, Noko Yokoyama, Emiko, Summer Kawase
- Cave Story: Curly Brace, Quote
- Azure Striker Gunvolt: Gunvolt
- The Binding of Isaac: Isaac
- Shovel Knight: Shovel Knight
- 1001 Spikes: Aban Hawkins
- Doki Doki Poyacchio: Piaa
- Original Generation: Lina, Helen
Tropes:
- Abandoned Mine: The Deep Cave stage from Cave Story certainly has this going.
- Adaptational Badass:
- The Umihara Kawase cast come from a game series with no combat. Here, they're able to slug it out with any of the other cast members.
- In his own game, Isaac is constantly scared. Here, when he's introduced in the opening, he's the one donning a Badass Armfold, and, while he's still crying, they're Berserker Tears.
- In Cave Story, Quote wielded King's sword by throwing it. Here, he's a Master Swordsman who fights with a Sword and Gun fighting style.
- While Gunvolt is capable of handling himself in a fight (mostly in boss fights), his games mostly consisted of run-n-gun platforming. Here, we get to seem him show off his close-quarter combat skills.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The last battle against Lina takes place in the VR Room, a strange-looking stage that has a bunch of screens depicting a galaxy in the background. Occasionally they'll flicker to show one of the previous stages. The story mode reveals that it also simulates all the other stages, at least until Lina shows up and infects the place...
- Big Boo's Haunt: The Lich Yard from Shovel Knight makes an appearance as a stage here.
- Bizarrchitecture: The Dream Town stage certainly has this going, which is fitting considering what game it's from.
- Bowdlerized: The Toilet Humor and biblical references from the original The Binding of Isaac are nowhere to be found in this game. This is Hand Waved in Isaac's story mode by the motes saying that his file is "incomplete".
- The Cameo: Outside of the main fighters, a few other characters make minor appearances, be it as actual characters or as colour palettes.
- A couple Mandrakes appear in the background of the DeLux Castle stage.
- A few legged fish can be seen wandering about in the Dream Town stage.
- In addition, the giant tadpole boss appears in one of Kawase's supers.
- The Troupple King appears in one of Shovel Knight's supers.
- Shovel Knight's alternate colours make him resemble King Knight, Specter Knight, Plague Knight, Shield Knight, Black Knight and Polar Knight.
- The Mimigas (along with a bunch of enemies) appear in their original sprites in one of Curly's supers.
- King's spirit can occasionally manifest from Quote's sword.
- Jenka's dogs appear in the background of the Deep Cave stage.
- Mom (or rather, her leg) shows up in one of Isaac's supers.
- One of his moves has him summon a Blue Spider.
- Isaac's alternate palettes resemble ??? (AKA Blue Baby), War, Sloth, Lust, The Lost, the "Oh Crap!" transformation and Dark Judas.
- Some of Gunvolt's colour options makes him resemble Copen, Elise, Stratos, Merak and Jota
.
- The Chosen Many: The titular Blade Strangers are this, serving as Exiva's champions.
- Comeback Mechanic: Heat Up, which grants the user Super Armor and allows them to use their super and EX moves at a lower cost. To use it, the player's health has to be in the yellow and must have more than one super stock on them.
- Creepy Basement: The Basement, unsurprisingly enough.
- Eternal Engine: The Ancient Tower Interior stage has a bunch of cogs and gears in the background, giving off this impression.
- The Hero: Solange is presented as this in the opening. In fact, the five unlockable stories portray her as the canonical winner of the tournament. Too bad she fails to defeat Lina in all of them except her own...
- Improbably Female Cast: At first there were eight female fighters out of the ten man roster, with only two being male. It got somewhat better when four more male characters were introduced, evening out the ratio a bit by 8-6. This actually gets lampshaded In-Universe by Joule when she asks Gunvolt why there are so many girls fighting in the tournament.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: While the roster is small, it is primarily composed of characters from across Nicalis and Saizensen's library of games, with a few Guest Fighter entrants.
- Multi-Slot Character: Umihara Kawase get two character slots: her regular self in the base game and a version of her wearing a bikini top called "Summer Kawase", who was added in an update. Notably, the story portrays the latter as an Enemy Without who even gets to fight her original self in her story.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Characters and locations from The Binding of Isaac are rendered in Edmund McMillen's distinct style instead of getting Animesque redesigns.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Not counting the Final Boss Lina, the Blade Strangers consist of a scantily-clad princess, a thief, the captain of a monster-using Empire, an animal-loving martial artist, a wandering sushi chef, a little girl riding on a large cat, a time-traveling time cop, a Greek warrior, two Ridiculously Human Robots with way too many weapons, a knight with a shovel, a lightning-powered adept and a naked, constantly crying child who fights with his tears.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The Crumbling Ancient Castle stage.
- Skyscraper City: The Downtown stage, though you're mostly limited to fighting on a rooftop.
- Some Dexterity Required: Defied. The game goes for a more simplified control scheme akin to Super Smash Bros., consisting of four buttons: light (can be pressed three times for a small combo), heavy, skill (allows you to do character-specific special attacks depending on the direction) and unique (which allows you to do More situational attacks, like an anti-air or a jumping kick, that tend to deal considerable knockback).
- Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: Exactly half of the confirmed characters are from Code of Princess or Umihara Kawase, both of which were also developed by Saizensen. While that is the combined number, it's still saying something when all other games have only one or two representatives.
- Villainous BSoD: When Lina's story is cleared, the result is a literal blue screen of death as the in-game world crashes.
- Wutai: The Beasts of Legends Temple stage is set in such a place.
