Blue Fire arrived in 2021 from ROBI Studios and publisher Graffiti Games with an ambition bigger than its budget. It is a third-person action platformer with role-playing and hack-and-slash elements, set in the desolate kingdom of Penumbra, and it wants very badly to be a small Zelda. It gets partway there on the strength of its movement, and no further.
Trailer, via GOG.
Penumbra
The pitch is exploration. Penumbra is a long-forgotten land, and the game sends you through mystical temples and abandoned regions to find survivors, take on strange side quests and collect valuable items. The premise is mood more than story. The kingdom is ruined, you are small, and the temples are the reason to keep going.
Movement First
The game’s own promise is that you will “master the art of movement,” and that is the honest heart of it. The platforming is the best thing here. Leaping through deadly traps, chaining jumps and dashes and learning how far the character can really go is genuinely satisfying once it clicks. The temples are built to test exactly that, and the best of them feel like obstacle courses designed by someone who loves the form.
Combat Second
The hack-and-slash side is thinner. You slash through what the game calls daunting adversaries, and the fights are fine, but they never develop the way the platforming does. The RPG layer of quests and items adds texture without adding depth. It is a platformer with a sword, not a sword game with platforming.
Scope
Blue Fire shipped everywhere: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Windows, Stadia, iOS and Android. That breadth is impressive for a small studio and it also explains some of the compromises. The presentation is clean but plain, and the world can feel empty in the stretches between temples.
Who It Is For
Players who want a Zelda-shaped adventure will notice what is missing. Players who want a precise platformer with a bit of adventure dressing will find a lot to like. The game is at its best when it stops pretending to be the first thing and commits to the second.
The Verdict
Blue Fire is nimble, modest and occasionally inspired in its level design. It does not have the depth its premise implies, but it has the thing that matters most in a platformer, which is that it feels good to move.
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