Quick Review: Blacksmith

You’re not the hero here. But you’re nonetheless one of the most vital services a hero needs on their journey! Hey, not every world is Skyrim, some people just don’t have the magic touch in making tools, weapons and armor.

Become the best, make items that will
become the stuff of legend.

Blacksmith, a creation of Fire Cycle Games released to Steam on January 11th, 2019, is about… well… a blacksmith. Fresh in the business, newly arrived in a decrepit town that’s seen better days; several buildings are in dire need of repairs, the local economy isn’t great, and there are bandits on every road. So – the usual RPG town. You’ll always be working, you’re an essential service to the town. Everybody needs new scissors or a better pan. And of course, the heroes going on adventures will always need new weapons and armor, as those get weak over time.

The townspeople always need something.
Can't they just make it themselves?
....Oh, right, I'm the blacksmith here.

And, thankfully, not “five strikes and they break like twigs” weak, no, they can dish out a couple dozen hits before having to be replaced or repaired. Every game that uses breakable weapons as a mechanic should take notes! As the heroes get stronger, they go on tougher adventures, which means they need stronger equipment, which you can offer as you get better materials (from copper to bronze to iron, and so on) and learn to make new types of weapons and armor. And so the cycle continues.

Sheesh, this village is a dump.
Let's improve it.

And, meanwhile, you can also contribute to restoring this RPG town to its former glory by helping the other townspeople. In particular, you can help the mason and add new housing and repair the damaged amenities. Hey, just because you’re not the Hero™ doesn’t mean you’re doing nothing! That makes you 700% more interesting than regular town NPCs. There’s an element of management in here as you must make sure you’ve got enough materials to build/repair gear, and also enough money to buy whatever other items you might need, which the other villagers may sell you. But beware – there are rumors that the dark lord is still around, and might go not only after the heroes, but after their purveyor…

You also choose which hero your first
heroic customer will be.

Methinks somebody's gonna need a
brand new lance soon.

What originally didn’t interest me about this one was the art design; the characters are 2D in a 3D world, something akin to Paper Mario, and charcoal-drawn, which is an interesting idea for style, even if the character designs aren’t the most appealing as a result. It ties in, ever so slightly, to the game’s theme since charcoal can be used to craft alloys. It even looks like it was done cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was more complex than I originally thought. Don’t judge a book by its cover and all that. The music, however, has few tracks and gets very repetitive after a moment.

Strike the metal into the desired shape.

One clever idea here is that you can direct the adventurers on quests, but you have very limited input on the outcome – you can change some of their gear before they leave for battle and activate their special abilities, but then you can only let it roll (or ask them to retreat if things get too dire). However, as far as I’ve seen, the smithing mini-games themselves are basic and somewhat repetitive, as they involve clicking into circles at the right timing and then stopping a meter close to the end to temper the hot metal (stopping it too early creates a low-quality item, not stopping it at all ruins the product). The latter mini-game is identical when smelting ore into usable alloys.

Obviously, you won't get back all of the alloys
you used on crafting an item. This iss mithing,
not magic.

Overall, not bad at all, and if you’re interested by the concept, go give that one a try. I’ll be the first to admit that the art style may be a turn-off, but there’s something decent (if unpolished and a bit repetitive) to be played here.

Blacksmith is available for 9.99$ US.