Bound by Flame was released in 2014; the game received mediocre reviews and became fairly obscure due to its low rating. However, despite its low reviews, this game still has some good parts contained within… “some” being the keyword there. 

Let’s break down the good parts contained within the game.

The “Good”

Bound by Flame’s skill variety is one of the best points in the game. There are three different skill trees:

• Warrior: Swing big weapon, parry the world, regen HP.

• Ranger: Swing little weapons, dodge everything, stab people in the back because it’s easy and does a lot of damage.
• Pyromancer: Lots of fire. That’s it. That’s the entire skill tree.

Having different skill trees designed to do different things opens up a decent amount of build variety so that different playthroughs still feel fresh.

There is not much to look forward to in this game, however. A large part of the game is very stale; however, it’s not all entirely a lost cause.

The Mediocre

The game’s story feels very bland, and apart from the romance options gets very little development. The only thing that makes it standalone is that your actions actually have some effect on what outcome you get. For example, the player can get locked out of different endings based on their actions throughout the game. The combat itself is very clunky – it’s not the worst combat system, but that doesn’t earn it many points.  The game also doesn’t do much to hook in players; it just feels like a generic fantasy game, which is not what any game developer wants for their game. The game also has a crafting system, but if you want to make the mines or crossbow bolts, you’ll have to waste your upgrade materials for your weapons.

Now for the straight bad parts of the game. There’s no sugar coated/light-hearted title for it:

The Bad

The game looks very bad, and the only thing I can say is that it looks like it was released a few years before it was. (Note that all footage was caught on PS5 and not on the original PS3 version)

The game has a companion system in the game, the only issue is that the companions do almost nothing. Their damage and alternate abilities are the equivalent of throwing a pebble at them; it does something, but not anything worthwhile. 

The game also has some balancing issues. Enemies often do large amounts of damage to you, even if they’re the ones that you’re supposed to be fighting. Additionally, if your companion dies you can get targeted by a large group of enemies, practically unable to make any progress. The reason that you can’t make any progress is that you have to get lucky with when you choose to attempt an attack, and hope you don’t get interrupted by an enemy. 

Bound by Flame certainly attempted to do some things, but didn’t accomplish much. The game is not worth buying at full price…but if it’s on sale for very cheap (and if you’re bored) it could waste some time. The game, however, is definitely a Longsword out of Fire Orb. It’s alright, but there are certainly better options available to you.

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