The Princess' back to save China.
- In the 19th year of Duke Kang's reign, a blade marked the beginning of the chaos.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade, recycled in China.
Bladed Fury is a Hack and Slash action game made by the Chinese Indie company NExT Studios, with a wuxia-themed fantasy setting which reflects the rich culture of Chinese mythology in it's graphics and backstories.
Set in China's Warring States period, the corrupt imperial court, owing to the incompetence of the Emperor Zhou, has led to tyranny, dictatorship and hostile takeovers among ruling governors. In the middle of a power struggle, the lawful Duke Kang Qi and his entire family was massacred by Emperor Zhou's Treacherous Advisor, Lord Tian, who had made a pact with demonic forces and sees the Kang family as a threat.
Princess Ji Jiang, the daughter of Duke Kang Qi, was absent during the massacre due to being on a diplomatic mission. Finding out her father dead and her sister, Kang Shu, taken by assassins, the Princess sets off on a quest to find out whom was responsible for her family's massacre, by traveling to the Chinese underworld and back again to save ancient China from being consumed by the supernatural.
The Princess to save China from the Forces of Supernatural will encounter tropes like...
- Air-Dashing: Ji Jiang can dash while in mid-jump by tapping the forward button, to dodge attacks or target enemies.
- All Myths Are True: The game is set in an alternate version of the Warring States period where ancient Chinese myths do happen, for real. For instance, the Crimson Mass sword was crafted by Hou Yi
from the flames of the nine suns he extinguished. - Animate Inanimate Object: One of the game's enemies is a possessed cabinet who somehow has human legs, and attacks either by shooting projectiles from opened drawers or trying to trample over the princess.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: Lord Tian, the main villain of the game, appears to be a weakly old man when Princess Ji Jiang confronts him (after a difficult Boss Rush), but then he decides to summon the soul of his ancestor, Tian Rangju, a fearsome, powerful demonic behemoth towering above the princess serving as the True Final Boss.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: In the final cutscene, after Princess Ji Jiang defeats Tian Rangju and confronts Lord Tian, the villain who is no longer capable of fighting decide to slit his own throat rather than be killed by the princess, denying Ji Jiang her revenge.
- BFG: Oddly enough, despite the Warring States setting... by defeating Bogu the cyborg-demon-hybrid boss, Princess Ji Jiang can summon one of Bogu's mechanical arms as a weapon, which materializes as a gigantic laser cannon larger than Ji Jiang herself. It fires a Wave-Motion Gun covering a huge chunk of the screen, damaging enemies in it's way, before dissappearing.
- Big Brother Instinct: Inverted - Princess Ji Jiang, the game's heroine, is the younger sister on a quest to save her elder sister Princess Kang Shu.
- BFS: The Crimson Mass is a huge sword, whose sprite is somehow larger than Ji Jiang the wielder. She can still run around with this weapon, somehow.
- Boss Rush: A trial Princess Ji Jiang must pass before facing Lord Tian, her main nemesis; she must fight Bogu, General Wu and Xia Zhengshu, three previous bosses, in three separate areas.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Most of the bosses, after they're beaten by Ji Jiang, will become the princess' ally. They usually serve as a summonable attack by suddenly appearing, damage onscreen enemies, and dissappear immediately.
- Defiant to the End: When the corrupt emperor of China, Zhou, gets killed in his penultimate boss fight, he spends the last few moments of his life insisting he "will not die". Doesn't do him any favor either ways.Emperor Zhou: I am the chosen one... I will not die... I... will not... die... [succumbs to his wounds]
- Dem Bones: Skeletons inhabits the World of the Dead and attacks Ji Jiang in large numbers.
- Dragged Off to Hell: The final, final fate of Tian Rangju; after you defeat him, a portal filled with infinite darkness opens behind him, with shadowy, ethereal arms grabbing and pulling him into the netherworld. Forever. Given the hell you just sat through to reach this point, it's all kinds of cathartic.
- Dual Wield:
- The Fiendbane, a pair of short, curved knives Ji Jiang wields in each hand. One of the faster weapons in-game.
- Xia Zhengshu, one of the bosses, wields a gigantic guandao single-handedly, and packs a shorter sword on another hand. He'll attack with both weapons for the entire battle.
- The Emperor: The Warring States is under the rule of Emperor Zhou, but Zhou's incompetence leads to internal power struggles, hopeless corruption, and massacre among the noble families - among them, Princess Ji Jiang's.
- Flying Face: Ghostly floating heads of ancient Chinese warriors, doomed to haunt mortals for eternity, are a recurring enemy.
- Frame-Up: Princess Ji Jiang was framed for her father's murder by the rival clan, and must prove her innocence.
- Giant Mook:
- Masked ghosts of ogres, where princess Ji Jiang stood up to their waistlines. They're as durable as they look, tanking slash after slash from the Crimson Mass without slowing down.
- Imperial brutes, who's absent in the first few stages (set in the mortal world). Once Ji Jiang returns to the Imperial Palace and face human-based enemies again, these giant foes then makes their debut.
- Giant Spider: The haunted brothel somehow have one as it's boss. Ji Jiang enters a multi-storied Cobweb Jungle of a room, with coccooned corpses hanging everywhere, and suddenly the monstrous arachnid drops into the area. Later stages have smaller (but still human-sized) spiders as regular mooks.
- The Great Serpent: The boss of Palace Underground, a massive serpent-demon who repeatedly tries chomping down Ji Jiang. And it can talk - it's first in troduced in a cutscene congratulating Princess Ji Jiang for surviving thus far.
- Lava Pit: Everywhere in the palace underground stage, and falling in one costs Princess Ji Jiang her life. The Serpent boss is even fought in a lava pool where the princess must jump on platforms (and the boss can even raise the lava as an attack - jump and air dash to avoid getting hurt.
- Losing Your Head: One of the enemies encountered in the palace underground is a gigantic demon carrying a shield in one hand... and it's head in another. It's lack of a cranium attached to the neck doesn't stop it from kicking ass, where the head will breath energy blasts on Ji Jiang while being positioned by the hand on where it's targeting.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Bogu, one of the bosses, is a four-armed demon who can put up quite a fight with all her limbs. It's worth noting that all her arms appears to be mechanical Artificial Limbs... so the game has a cyborg-demon?
- Night of the Living Mooks: Princess Ji Jiang fights human enemies for the first few levels, but after entering the underworld, undead-themed enemies starts showing regularly. Zombies, skeletons, ghostly flying heads and other undead infests the World of the Dead as well as the haunted brothel, but luckily Ji Jiang's weapons can harm them. They stop appearing in the Imperial Court once Ji Jiang returns to the mortal plane, though.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Lord Tian. After Princess Ji Jiang defeats all his minions, upon being confronted one last time Tian then kills himself on the spot.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: The ancient General Wu who came Back from the Dead as a monstrous demonic form of himself and guards the underworld's entrance. Ji Jiang needs to defeat him in order to access the Domain of the Dead; when she wins Wu simply leaves the scene.
- Parrying Bullets: Ji Jiang, when combining the Cicada Wings and Crimson Mass, can send projectile attacks back with some well-timed swings.
- Primary-Color Champion: Ji Jiang wears blue, with a flowing red sash, and is a noble warrior princess out to save her kingdom and her sister. None of the game's named characters wears any of these colours, for reference.
- Recurring Boss: General Wu is fought twice, once at the World of the Dead's entrance and later coming back at the exit after Ji Jiang had defeated the Ghost Chief.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Some of the larger enemy soldiers carries round, bronze shields alongside their swords, and predictably have greater defense compared to other mooks.
- Justified Save Point: Save Points are depicted as enchanted lanterns called "Soul Savers", which stores the souls of anyone that activates them before re-materializing them when needed.
- Spin Attack: The sisters enemies, a pair of Conjoined Twins whose main attack have them spinning circles on two (of their four) legs. They're invincible until they stopped spinning for a moment.
- Sword Beam: One of the bosses, General Wu, can launch red crescent beams from his sword.
- Sword Lines: Ji Jiang, when wielding enchanted weapons, will leave behind blue energy lines after each slash.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The implied dynamic between the heroine Ji Jiang and her (elder) sister, Kang Shu. The former is a Warrior Princess who spends the whole game kicking ass, the latter is demure, clad in feminine robes, and a Damsel in Distress that needs to be bailed out.
- Undead Counterpart: The human soldiers encountered regularly have undead versions, depicted as skeletons and zombies wearing the same armor type and using identical weapons.
- Undeathly Pallor: The demon bosses like General Wu, Bogu, Xia Zhengshu and Tian's summoned ancestor, Tian Rangju. They look human, but the blue-white coloring of their skin indicates they're no longer mortals.
- Warrior Princess: Ji Jiang, a Chinese princess out to save her sister and her entire kingdom from tyranny.
- Warrior Undead: The Ghost Chief boss is a skeletal knight in ancient Chinese armor, riding an undead steed, which Ji Jiang needs to defeat at the end of the World of the Dead.
- You Killed My Father: Lord Tian orders the massacre of the Kang ruling family, and kills Princess Ji Jiang's father Duke Kang-qi to complete his takeover. Princess Ji Jiang will name-drop this trope when she confronts Lord Tian.Princess Ji Jiang: You killed my father and took my sister. You shall pay with your blood!
