With its high-stakes sword duels and unique samurai punk environment, Die by the Blade could be a promising addition to any fighting game fan’s collection.

Die by the Blade has announced the release date along with the latest trailer, which showcases the game’s precision swordplay and one-hit-one-kill mechanics. The game’s intricate combat system and relentless lethality are a refreshing change of pace, making the title an indie game worth keeping an eye out for when it launches.

After its debut at the Gamesradar+ Future Games Show 2020, Die by the Blade caught the attention of many fighting game fans hoping for something new.

The game went through a promising development process, reaching its complete Kickstarter goal within a month and winning the “Best games by Unreal Engine” award at the White Nights Dev Contest. As the spiritual successor to the classic PS1 sword fighting game Bushido Blade, Dy by the Blade’s main appeal is its low-key combat, where every attack is potentially lethal. Hence, players must master combos and hone their reflexes if they want to stand a chance. With a release date of November 3, players won’t have to wait long to start unleashing their inner samurai.

The Die by the Blade trailer announcing the release date shows off many of the game’s key features and the variety of characters, weapons and locations. Rather than having move sequences tied to specific characters, as in fighting games like Tekken or Mortal Kombat, Die by the Blade instead allows any character to pick up any weapon and use its fighting style. This will enable players to choose their favourite characters, each with their own backstory and customisation options. The characters are impressively varied, including a megacorp agent, a drunken samurai master, a resistance fighter, and traditional samurai.

The game’s setting can best be described as “samurai-punk”, a combination of the popular cyberpunk theme and traditional Japanese samurai culture.

Although the characters come from various backgrounds and countries, the arsenal of weapons available is limited to samurai weapons such as the two-handed nodachi, the naginata thread weapon, the wakizashi longsword, the straight-edged chokuto and, of course, the katana. Each of these weapons has clear strengths and weaknesses, and players must master the game’s system of guided parries and attacks, reminiscent of For Honor’s intuitive guided combat.

Die by the Blade features a single-player campaign that follows the story of a lone travelling swordsman while also offering VS mode with AI combat, local VS battles, tournament mode and online multiplayer with matchmaking and friend invitations. The game will be released on November 3 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X, with Nintendo Switch coming in 2023.

Source: YouTube