I tried to play Blades of Fire like a game I already knew, and I suffered for it. I died, over and over again in MercurySteam’s new action-adventure, the same studio behind Metroid Dread and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and it wasn’t until I began to get on board with just how pig-headedly and stubbornly different Blades of Fire is that I realised how exciting it can be.