Swordcery is a game with swords everywhere and enemies coming at us from all directions. There are also plenty of magical attacks to throw around, which is a great incentive to find not necessarily better, but different swords, learn what they can do, and use them to survive increasingly difficult encounters.
Cutting Through the Chaos
When it comes to combat, we can chain light attacks together. Heavy attacks become useful against enemies that can’t be interrupted by regular strikes. Some enemies ignore both, forcing us to use Swordcery—which is basically the game’s term for the magical abilities attached to its weapons. That’s where the swords start getting much more interesting.
There’s an impressive arsenal of them, covering short and longswords, dual swords, katanas, rapiers, daggers, greatswords, and titan swords. They don’t just look different, either. Their attacks and combos vary depending on the Sword Class, and their Swordcery abilities can completely change how a fight is approached.
One sword is stuck in a boulder and behaves more like a hammer than a blade. Its special ability lets you use it like a magical machine gun, firing glowing projectiles at enemies. Another sword can be swung upward and sent back like a boomerang. There is also a bow-like sword that creates a huge mystical violin; hitting it produces damaging notes that fly toward enemies.
These attacks can be ridiculous, but watching them unfold is fun enough. There is a real sense of experimentation in finding a new sword and immediately wanting to see what its special ability does.
Forging the Ultimate Build
Some altars also let us unlock additional abilities such as orbital slashes, crosscuts, and other attacks that can be combined with the weapons we are carrying. Finding the right combination can make a big difference when the number of enemies starts getting out of hand.
Speaking of enemies, some rush straight toward us and stay close. The cowardly ones keep their distance and attack from afar. There are also enemies that can’t be interrupted by our regular attacks, so simply charging into every fight isn’t going to work. Once several different types are attacking at the same time, it’s important to pay attention to where everything is coming from and decide what to deal with first.
Standing Your Ground
This is also one of the rare action games where we actually used blocking.
In most games like this, we tend to dodge almost everything. Swordcery made us change that habit. Some attacks are better handled with a block because dodging can leave us recovering just as the enemy is ready to attack again. In those situations, blocking lets us stay where we are and respond immediately.
Positioning matters too. Enemies don’t wait for us to finish an attack before starting theirs. We often found ourselves dodging, getting a few hits in, blocking another attack, switching swords, and then using a Swordcery ability when we had the right opening.
It can get hectic when several enemies are on screen, but that is also where the combat is at its best. We have to recognize attack patterns, keep an eye on our surroundings, and decide which weapon and ability make the most sense at that moment.
The Loop of Progress
The roguelite structure gives us plenty of opportunities to experiment with this system. During a run, we collect Divinium, which can be used to rebuild shops, unlock permanent upgrades, and make new swords available for future runs. We can also find relics and other temporary upgrades during individual runs.
There is a lot of progression here, although not all of it is as interesting as the swords themselves.
Many of the permanent upgrades are simple statistical improvements. We can increase our health and attack power, improve critical-hit chances, get better loot, reduce damage, or shorten cooldowns. These upgrades are useful and give us a reason to keep playing after a failed run, but we often wished for something that would have a bigger effect on how we played.
The swords already do so much to change combat that we would have liked to see the permanent progression take a similar approach. Instead of mostly making us stronger, some upgrades could have changed how certain weapons or Swordcery abilities worked.
A World Still Waiting for Its Spark
Swordcery has an interesting narrative setup where a giant sword has fallen into the world of Armorial, smaller enchanted swords are raining from the sky, and the planet is apparently being drained by a celestial force. We play as Colt, who has gained the ability to use these fallen swords against the force behind it all. There’s enough here for an interesting story, but the game doesn’t currently do much with it.
Most of our time is spent going from one fight to the next. We didn’t get enough interaction with the world or its characters to make us care about what was happening beyond the next encounter. That made it difficult to become invested in Armorial, even though the setting itself has some interesting ideas.
This is an Early Access game, and the devs have stated that more story content, NPC interactions, and additional areas are planned. The current version has three of the four planned levels, with another level and final boss still to come. Based on what is available now, though, the story feels more like something that is waiting to be developed than something that ties the existing content together.
The music has a similar problem. It tries to make every fight feel important with big, dramatic sounds, but there isn’t enough variety. Tracks repeat often, and after spending enough time in the game, the music starts to blend into the same collection of loud, generic droning.
Final Thoughts
For the time being, finding a new sword is the most exciting aspect because we aren’t just checking whether its damage number is higher. We want to know what it does, what its Swordcery looks like, and whether it can fit into whatever build we’ve started putting together. It all fits well with the challenging combat.
The rest of the game isn’t at the same level yet. The permanent upgrades could be more interesting, the music needs more variety, and the story needs to give us a reason to care about the world beyond the next fight. If the remaining content can build on that core combat with a stronger story and richer progression, Swordcery can turn into a truly sharp and magical experience.
And if you like the game, make sure you check our interview with the devs as well!
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