Monthly Archives: November 2025
7 Blades Review
10 Year Anniversary Review
I was hoping that I could celebrate my 10 year anniversary with a positive review but unfortunately, we don’t always get the things we want in life and we are stuck with 7 Blades to review as it is the only game I have the footage for that would be a good fit for my 10 year anniversary review. First of all, I need to point out that just like The Sword Of Etheria, Demon Chaos and Swords Of Destiny, 7 Blades is a game that never released in North America. This is actually a blessing in disguise because 7 blades is a 3D Beat Em Up released in the year 2000. Now we all know that the 2000s were a great time for 3D Beat Em Ups but it wasn’t until the release of games like Onimusha Warlords where the genre really start to find its footing and that game released in 2001. With this in mind, 7 blades’ release date is a colossal red flag and I knew what I was getting into would be one hell of a messy game.
The story can best be described as being a campy samurai film (it is loosely based on Zipang) as it is ridiculous in many ways but it doesn’t really come across as being comedic. Considering the colossal number of Samurai focused 3D Beat Em Ups out there, I wouldn’t say that the story offers anything original but there are a few moments that are just beyond absurd that may seem a little different from the usual narrative. Despite every attempt it made to try and be quirky, I didn’t feel entertained by it at all, save for a few moments like the boss fight in the basement of the manor (you’ll find out when you see it). Perhaps I have played too many of these types of games and have gotten numb to the ridiculous nature of them but I think that the biggest problem was the lack of a terrible english dub, which would have probably made a colossal difference for me. The problem is, I didn’t find myself laughing, nor did I find myself too enthralled by any profoundness from the narrative, it was just kind of there. I have no real issues with the narrative but I can’t say that it had much of an impact on me personally. Perhaps it would be a little different for others so that is something to consider but none of that matters anyway since this is after all a videogame so if the gameplay is terrible then a quirky narrative can’t save it.
Unfortunately this is where the problems start to become apparent. You see, 7 Blades is actually a musou game that feels like the prototype for what would eventually become Samurai Warriors but if it played more like Dynasty Warriors 2. If this sounds appealing to you then do not get your hopes up because the worst part about 7 Blades is not the combat itself, the combat works, barely. I can’t really fault it too much on a mechanical level, particularly for its time as the game is basically what you expect, mash buttons, occasionally mash 2 buttons at once (yeah, that’s a thing, because triangle alone wasn’t enough apparently), and then you have a musou esque special attack which charges up as you fight. If you played Dynasty Warriors before then you know what to expect with the combat of this game… well, half of it anyway. You see, there are two stories you can choose from. One of them plays like an Arcia playthrough in Chaos Legion but worse, the other one plays like Dynasty Warriors. If you pick Oyuri, you get to use guns, which auto aim enemies, just like in Chaos Legion with Arcia but you will have other guns that have ammo with them, you just have to keep your distance from enemies like you are playing a horde shooter while mashing the shoot button, there isn’t really much else to it really.
As the title of the game states, there are 7 Blades and they all have different attack patterns. The ones you’ll be using for most of the game though are the dragon slayer-like sword, the sheathed Katana and the one that you throw at enemies. The rest of them are basically just there for show or to use as a starting weapon when you have nothing else available. For most foes, the big thick dragon slayer looking sword will be your best bet since it can hit for a wider radius, which is important given the fact that the levels are flooded with enemies, much like a musou but unlike musou games, the progression feels like your standard 3D Beat Em Up, in the same way Chaos Legion feels like. Fighting enemies can sometimes give you item drops that let you heal and give you a status effect. Not all of the items are good though, some can actually be harmful and shouldn’t be consumed under any circumstance, though depending on which character you choose, some items might actually have different effects. The good news is that the game freezes time while you are eating, unlike Odin Sphere which leaves you vulnerable while eating. The praise ends there though as despite getting item drops, there isn’t much in terms of progression from killing enemies. There’s no new moves to learn and no experience or permanent stat boosts, though there is a kill counter for those who care. Ultimately in terms of the overall game mechanics, they are serviceable for the time and honestly, I could have had some mindless fun with this game if it wasn’t for the game’s horrendous levels.
Now many years ago I reviewed a game called Zone Of The Enders The Second Runner and I mentioned that the combat was not the game’s biggest problem with the game, in fact it was actually kind of fun. The problem that ultimately ruined the game for me is the same problem that ruined the gameplay experience of The Sword Of Etheria for me, the levels. All I will say is that this game feels brutally unfair and extremely frustrating in many sections, particularly the boss fights. Whoever designed the boss fights of this game really had a vendetta against the player as they are insanely difficult and not fun to fight whatsoever. It’s like the worst kind of difficult where the game doesn’t give you the proper tools to utilize but expects you to deal with bullshit difficulty regardless. Some of these bosses might have worked in a more technical 3D Beat Em Up but this is a mindless musou-like beat em up and therefore, the bosses are a frustrating ordeal that ultimately makes this game absolutely miserable to play. Some fights require the player to lean on a single weapon, like the giant armored guy who when approached and attacked, may not even stagger. This means that the boss can instantly counter you for a third of your entire life bar. This boss can basically kill you in three hits but the boss has an absurdly large health bar and the only way to safely fight him is to stay as far away from him as possible and spam the sword throw move on the sword that can be thrown, moving away every time the enemy closes in. This is so mind numbingly monotonous to do and very frustrating if you just happen to die while doing it, since it means depleting its colossal health bar all over again. There are many other bosses in this game that are just as infuriating but this one stands out as the perfect example of this game’s horrendously brutal difficulty.
On top of all this, some levels will have you escorting a particular character with a small health bar, when that character dies it is game over, so not only do you have to worry about not dying yourself but you also have to be mindful of the AI you are escorting as well, just to make the experience all the more infuriating. So many sections of this game will drive you absolutely insane with just how absurdly difficult they are and this is the game’s biggest problem, the difficulty feels cheap and infuriating throughout almost the entirety of the game. While 17 levels doesn’t seem too long, do bear in mind that both character have 17 levels, meaning that there is a total of 34 levels in this game, meaning it has more levels than Devil May Cry 2. Now if this was a fun game, having more levels would be great but the thing is that it isn’t a good game, you want to get through this ordeal before you lose your sanity and start breaking your controller or TV screen over the sheer frustration that this experience is going to present to you. There is no easy difficulty, so don’t think you can fall back on playing the game on a lower difficulty. The game is just hard by default and you have to deal with that fact, which is why I find it hard to recommend this game.
This Just Isn’t Fun
Music exists, it is a thing, what can I say about it? I found the battle grunts of the enemies to be more memorable than the music. That should tell you all you need to know about it. Visually, this game actually looks pretty decent for an early PS2 game, it’s the one and only good thing I can say about the game. Character models look really nice and despite having a ton of enemies, the enemies themselves don’t look too bad either. It’s not groundbreaking by today’s standards but for the time, there are far worse looking games out there.
So 7 Blades ends up being one of those games that I badly wanted to like but couldn’t, the worst kind of games. At least I didn’t get my hopes up this time as I knew what I was going to get myself into but my main gripes with this game all have to do with the game’s difficulty, the bosses and the levels. I just hated the experience as a whole because the game developers wanted to make everything absurdly difficult despite having very primitive gameplay mechanics which are not technical enough for such difficult gameplay. It makes the game a chore to play more than a challenge and every fight is just a button mash in the worst way possible. I don’t mind button mashers, just make the game easy enough to let me at least feel powerful enough to make up for the lack of brainpower and dexterity I am using. I sadly cannot recommend this game at all, it is just too problematic. I’m sure that some 3D Beat Em Up aficionado like myself will want to play it for the sake of playing an early 3D Beat Em Up on the more obscure side of things, if that’s you then go ahead, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You will hate this game when you beat it.
Have Fun Mashing Square, You’ll be doing it a lot.
Story/Plot: Mediocre
Visuals: Good
Gameplay: Awful
Music: Mediocre
Lifespan: Decent Length
Difficulty: Hard (the frustrating kind)
Would You Replay? No
Overall: Awful
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