Bound by Blades is a retraux-style Action-RPG Boss Game developed by Zeth, a relatively new indie company founded by Justin "Zeth" Thompson.
In the fantasy-inspired land of Ashmyr (which resembles Norse Mythology, but populated by anthropomorphic animals), once ravaged by wars where it's inhabitants battles each other for supremacy and dominance, the conflict was ultimately resolved when an Ancient Evil emerged from the netherworld. Manifested as a powerful force of nature, the evil force, called the Ilcyon, corrupted warriors and fighters whom are evil in nature, turning them into various fiends and abominations and ravaging the land.
With the Ilcyon destroying entire cities, the survivors banded together, deciding to put their differences aside - led by Eldros, a wolf-warrior, the citizens of Ashmyr managed to drive the Ilcyon back to whence they came, and victory is at hand. Ashmyr can finally enjoy an era of peace, as the once-warring tribes, now united, forms an alliance, where a child of each clan will be trained under Eldros' tribe, The Bound as keepers of harmony.
But it doesn't take long for the Ilcyon to emerge, once more, and the warriors-in-training, upon completing their studies, will embark on a quest to slay the returning monsters.
Players can choose between three of the best trainees of The Bound:
- Teo, a feline swordsman and the game's most well-balanced protagonist;
- Guren, a rabbit archer and sole playable female character;
- Kota, a bovine brawler for players who prefers hitting up close.
The entire game is a series of boss battles against increasingly stronger Ilcyons, with every stage confined to a single screen where the player's character runs circles around a massive Ilcyon monster, avoiding attacks while either using projectile moves of their own or stabbing enemies from up close. A two-player mode is available.
The game is made available for the Nintendo Switch, Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS and macOS.
Bound by Blades, and Brotherhood.
- Alliterative Name: Bound by Blades.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: After defeating Mittux, the third boss, The Bound triumphantly returns to their village to tell their mentor, Eldros, of their victory... only to realize in horror that the village is set aflame. Turns out the Ilcyon had formed a counterattack and razed the village to the ground in the heroes' absence. Cue the next stage, Fangsfate City.
- Ancient Evil: The Ilcyon is an unknown evil nature that existed since the dawn of time, and unleashes itself during Ashmyr's warring past due to being drawn by the bloodshed. After a few decades of harmony, the Ilcyon returns, this time trying to conquer the land during an era of peace.
- And the Adventure Continues:Even with their founder (Eldros) gone, the Bound's mission was still very much alive. Though the death of Magmyros dispelled the curse of the Ilcyon, many were left to slay.
From there, the Bound could begin their new mission - their true mission - to rebuild Ashmyr as a united land, free from the tyranny of the Ilcyon... - Attack Animal: The Bound can obtain Boundlings, tiny pets resembling gigantic hopping eyeballs, to serve as an Assist Character in battles against the Ilcyons. They can be leveled up as well.
- Attack Reflector: All three heroes of the Bound can deflect certain enemy attacks. There's even a Mirror Metal equipment they can use to upgrade their armor and weapons, to make deflecting easier.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Teo and Guren forgoes shoes by default, but they could obtain leather boots from the blacksmith. Kota averts this trope by being The One Who Wears Shoes.
- The Blacksmith: Every area - the village square, Fangsfate city, and son on - has a blacksmith (all of them badgers) who will upgrade your weapons and provide new equipment, provided if you have enough credits and spare parts.
- Boss Room: Basically all the levels, which have you fighting a boss inside a single square room where you'll run circles around while trading blows.
- Circling Birdies: When Ilcyon monstrosities starts suffering enough damage, stars will start circling around them.
- The Corruptor: The Ilcyon is a sinister force which taints and corrupts the minds of power-hungry, wilfully weak individuals, turning them to various monsters and forcing them to kill their own kind, and many of the monsters fought throughout the game used to be good people. After the Ilcyon war, the survivors vow to train their future generations to develop a natural immunity towards Ilcyon corruption, with warriors of The Bound being their first generation of heroes.
- Equipment Upgrade: All three heroes can boost their equipment - sword, bow, and shield - by periodically visiting the blacksmith with parts recovered from defeated Ilcyon, allowing them to level up before the next Ilcyon battle.
- Evil Is Bigger: All the Ilcyon monsters towers over the playable heroes, with the strongest of the lot, Magmyros, being so huge that the heroes can only fight his body parts at a time.
- Frog Men: The merchant in Fangsfate city is an anthropomorphic frog.
- Ghibli Hills: The environment around the village are a series of serene hills, rivers, and beautiful natural scenery, allowing you a break exploring for resources in-between fighting monsters.
- Healing Potion: Potions are the default health upgrades players can obtain, and condume in the middle of battling Ilcyons. They can be purchased from shops outside of battle, or obtained from chests.
- Nature Spirit: The Myrthos, a race of sentient rock creatures who serves as the counterparts of the vile Ilcyon. Some of them acts as protectors of the woods, while one named Torr is the Beastmaster of Fangsfate City.
- Nothing but Skulls: Lairs of Ilcyons, fought in their natural habitats, tends to have piles of bones and skulls adorning every corner, presumably belonging to their victims.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: In the game's second half, when boss fights starts becoming serious, the soundtrack will be peppered with Latin chanting as you fight the Ilcyon.
- One Riot, One Ranger: Or two ranger, if it's in two-player mode. There's no reason why only the trio from The Bound are the only ones available for their grand quest, other than just because.
- Info Dump: The opening narration that fills in the Ilcyon's backstory and the battles in Ashmyr's past takes up some two minutes and a half, and that's before players can select the hero for their quest.
- Power-Up Food: For the Boundlings, the magical pets that follows the player characters around, they can be fed magically-produced pet food from Fangsfate's stores to empower themselves. The food labels are usually quite self-explanatory: Magical Food, Energetic Food, Agile Food, Powerful Food...
- Training Dummy: In the first stage, instead of fighting the Ilcyon the player-controlled heroes instead fights scarecrows, whose sole defense is a weak projectile launcher and is meant for combat practice only.
- And so, their story would continue. With the parting words of their beloved mentor to carry them forward, the Bound must grow into the heroes they truly are.
And when the land of Ashmyr is once again free of the Ilcyon and thriving, united and wiser than the clans of ages past...
Then, and only then, will the mission of the Bound be complete.
