Ayuni must travel through the Dragonland island in search of her lost partner, Zero. Along the way she will discover a lush land overrun by the creatures of chaos, but can she uncover what has happened here, before she is overwhelmed...

Blades of Time was originally released for the PS3 in 2012, it has now been remastered and released for the Nintendo Switch. Even for such an old RPG the game holds up quite well, though it is not without its issues.

You play as Ayuni, a semi-clad young lady who looks not unlike Laura Croft. Even though the game is touted as a hack and slash, and you will be doing a lot of that, Ayuni also comes equipped with a gun. As the game progresses you can also learn to use magic.

The game has you traversing each game area, killing everything in sight and solving problems to access the next area. Helping you along the way is the spirit of the dragon and the pedestal. Killing creatures gains you their chi, which you can trade with the pedestal for upgraded power moves. There are also chests to find rings, amulets and weapons which allow you to customise your build. You can also pick up journal notes which expands the lore.

The dragon spirit gives you the ability to rewind time for a short period. This becomes the defining mechanism which separates the game from similar competitors. It allows you to create clones of yourself, useful for being able to stand in two places for some of the puzzles. Also, it can increase your fire power with both you and your clone shooting at the same time. Lastly it can allow you to sneak past enemies which are too strong. This works well, but I found that I didn’t really get on with the mechanic, its use was not intuitive and often I would be creating clones or trying to stand in two places at once and it became very frustrating to use.

In most areas the controls are responsive, except for the R button finishing move. There appears to be a delay in pressing the button and the system responding. This means there are too many times when you want to execute a killing move, only for the enemy to move out of range and eliminate your opportunity.

There was much to enjoy. Switching between your blades and the third person shooter was interesting and added something special to the game. There are elements of platforming which work well. Given its age it is not going to compare to more modern fare. That said the environments hold up well and the overall look is very pleasing.

On the downside the game's story and vocal work do little to engage you. Ayuni talks to herself all the time, I mean she doesn’t stop and I’m sure a lot of this is to give the player hints of what to do next, but it quickly becomes old. The biggest issue it has is that the lag suggests that the game isn’t working as smoothly as it should. It ends up as an occasionally frustrating experience.

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Charles Packer