Blade Symphony is an online third-person fighting game centred around sword duels. Developed by
Puny Human Games of
Dystopia fame. Currently available in Early Access on Steam.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: Vast reaching political coups, ancient secret societies controlling the world, and a blind swordfighting technique are all in a guide by the developers on Steam but as far as the game is concerned four people are fighting it out with swords.
- Anachronism Stew: Exaggerated. You have fighters wearing armour that wouldn't be out of place in a sci-fi going melee (rather than using firearms) with everything ranging from historical swords to swords that are commonly marketed nowadays as "tactical ninja swords" to sci-fi-ish and fantasy designs, in places like: modern-day cities, shaolin-style temples and futuristic digital arenas a la Tron.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Fighting gains you Notes, which are used to unlock different swords and masks for your characters...all of which are entirely cosmetic. There are different types of sword, but you start with one example of each already unlocked.
- Dance Battler: both Ryoku and Pure make heavy use of acrobatics while attacking, with Ryoku outright performing Capoeira moves with an outstretched sword. Both are especially obnoxious to get a handle on the origins of their attacks, at first.
- Improbable Weapon User: One available weapon skin is a cardboard tube.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Neatly avoided. Although katanas are indeed one of the five sword classes available, they are actually one of the most nuanced weapons, with a somewhat unimpressive base damage, and damage output that only really shines immediately after a parry, and a defensive maneuver that doesn't actually stop attacks from hitting you.
- Mighty Glacier: Judgement is the slowest-moving of the available characters and his medium attacks are about as fast as most other characters' heavy attacks. He further has a very dangerous heavy stance, which is slower than even that, but can typically cleave off slightly more than half of the opponent's health bar with no further preparation than just attacking.
- Royal Rapier: The "foil" weapon class. The flatter the trajectory of the swing, the more damage the attack does, so it's often chosen by the showy-as-heck Phalanx, whose light attacks are very rapid and long-ranged stabs, and whose footwork keeps him very safe afterwards.
- Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Somewhat realistically done; even as Phalanx, nothing's stopping you from slashing willy-nilly with the epee, but the damage penalty IS significant. Doing so to get a parry is easier than with a thrust, though.
- The Smurfette Principle: Of the four characters present so far, only one (Pure) is female, but an iai-jutsu-practicing "Female Knight" is currently in the works.
- Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Zig-zagged. One of the available weapon skins is a bokken, in a setting where all the other weapons are steel swords (except for the cardboard tube mentioned above). It's just a katana skin, so it's no different from the other katanas in the game. However, the very idea that you can use a wooden training sword to defeat an opponent wielding a steel sword is empowering in a certain way.
