“Let's Revenge!”
Throughout history, or at least via 12th Century French literature, it's hard to imagine Sir Lancelot dive kicking a humanoid lizard, or Arthur pulling off a juggle combo against floating skulls. Still, Blades and Battles relishes in that absurdity and leans into it through the rough hour it provides, I only wish it had more going on.
While not concerned with authenticity to its depictions of Lancelot and King Arthur, who find themselves tasked with saving Merlin from the clutches of Morgana, QUByte Interactive has delivered a quality beat'em up that feels like a long lost PlaySation One classic, given its heavily pixelated characters and basic low-poly environments that immediately bring to surface that era of early 3D brawlers.
Now, while I absolutely adore what QUByte Interactive has done here, Blades and Battles is about as deep as the bloody puddles you'll soak the ground with through its roughly 45 minute campaign. While there is a robust combat system of ground and air attacks, screen clearing specials, as well as unique moves between the two knights, Blades and Battles offers the same experience from start to finish, with nary a new weapon, attack, or skill in sight.
From Camelot to Sherwood Forest and the valleys and caverns of its extended kingdom, eight stages await you as you track down Morgana and put an end to her invasion. However, a full playthrough is not comprised of all eight levels as you'll choose to continue east or head north through a few of the game's levels, such as foregoing Sherwood Forest for the Valley of Silent Death, which to be honest, is great this time of year.
While the story itself is nothing more than a rescue quest, it does start rather strong. Or rather, starts with Arthur claiming that both him and Lancelot will slaughter their way to peace with a bold claim of “Let's Revenge!”. This was either a hilarious error in translation or an intended bit of dialogue on par with some gaming classics like “Welcome to die!” from the X-Men Arcade game. Regardless, it sets the tone and the adventure has begun.
Despite the short length, I do find that the $14.99 USD/$19.99 CAD price tag might be a small ask for people who aren't likely to replay this more than a few times. While I've played through the game about three times so far, there are no real incentives to do so, other than exploring the paths not taken. Beating the game doesn't unlock anything, such as additional characters, or colors for Arthur or Lancelot. While each character has three colors from the start, even a few new colors or a new outfit would have done wonders here.
I'm also surprised there are no additional modes such as some sort of endless survival or wave-based mode for tackling high score challenges, given there is a leaderboard. That said, I assume the leaderboard is system-based and not global, given no additional names showed up other than developer high scores during the review period.
Each level has a tracker for scores, such as how fast you've cleared the level, the score you've obtained through combat and collecting gold, to lives lost and your highest combo, which for me was 45, a feat I achieved in the final stage, the Valley of No Return. As gold is only used to add to your score, it's a shame you couldn't use it to acquire both character and weapon skins, such as a fancy skin for Excalibur.
Combat is what really makes Blades and Battles such a fun time. Arthur and Lancelot feel largely different in their arsenal, with Arthur more sword focused and Lancelot having more range with his special attacks, and some close combat melee attacks with his aforementioned dive kick. And while their attacks and special skills are great, and make for some solid combat, what you see is what you get.
As previously mentioned, Blades and Battles has zero progression or upgrades to combat. Arthur and Lancelot have their entire repertoire right from the start. Your attacks, specials, or skills do not advance from one form to the next. Now, given the length of the game, I understand why this is, but adding new combo strings or attacks as you progress would have shaken up combat dramatically, instead of the same few skills used over and over again.
Now, this simplicity does make it easy to pick up and play. But given the spectacle of what this game does offer, especially when the screen fills up with enemies, having new skills would have made repeated encounters, especially additional playthroughs, to feel fresh.
Combat flows from standard attacks, combos, dashes, air attacks, and various ground attacks, as well as a desperate attack that knocks back enemies that surround you. This can be done both while being hit or just whenever you feel the need. However, doing it while being hit consumes a small amount of health, but grants you a brief window of invincibility.
Each character has unique special attacks, such as Lancelot’s ground special, that causes pillars of stone to erupt from the ground. These attacks use mana, and while you'll start with three mana uses, you can upgrade that as you find mana books.
Additionally, you have a super special, which I always accidentally confused the button with my regular special attacks, that will clear the screen of enemies. These super attacks have three tiers, represented via how many flasks you are carrying. One flask is a modest sting to enemies, but three flasks and you'll easily eradicate anything on screen. These mana books and flasks, as with health pickups and gold, can be found in chests or breakable objects. That said, gold is simply there for your end of mission scores.
Blades and Battles is a visually pleasing title to those who love that PsOne aesthetic, especially with some solid animations to characters and enemies alike. Some bosses feel pretty lacking in making them standout from the fodder, but a few are pretty damn fun. The magical aspects of your special attacks are just flashy enough to be a spectacle, but refrain from making the action on display obscured.
The characters have that style where they were fully rendered in 3D and then their frames were used to turn those animations into pixelated sprites, as the characters don't appear to be comprised of polygons, allowing the 3D backgrounds to stand out. And, the extra pixelation to the models only makes the aesthetic look even more retro and eye-catching.
The soundtrack is equally pleasing with the exact sort of music you'd want for this sort of adventure. It leans heavily into dark fantasy and while you're not going to hum any of the tracks anytime soon, the music here is still nonetheless additive to the experience. I will say that some of the effects and audio choices here don't always mix well, with some sound balancing that still needs to be worked on.
While local co-op is certainly the best way to play this, I couldn't for the life of me get the game to recognize two joycons in tabletop mode. We could get two unique pairs of joincons, or two pro controllers, but single joycons with two players didn't seem to want to work. However, reaching out to the developer, it is simply a case of the joycons not having a full suite of buttons.
Classic beat'em up's were never long experiences, given their arcade difficulty and the need to injest quarters at a brisk pace, so I'm not turned off by the limited campaign, but rather by the lack of anything new as you explore. A lack of any progression or new weapons does make replaying the campaign to be a tough sell, unless you are really looking to achieve that high score, for whatever reason.
Blades and Battles is a solid experience despite its shortcomings. Its combat and visual charm is extremely appealing, but a lack of depth is front and center, and does make this a hard game to recommend. Still, few beat'em up’s have truly recaptured that classic feel, and QUByte has certainly nailed that era, so in the words of King Arthur, “Let’s Revenge!”.
Developer - QUByte Interactive.
Publisher - QUByte Interactive. Released - September 29th, 2026. Available On - PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/ Series X/S, Switch, PC. Rated - (E 10+) - Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch 2.
Review Access - A review code for Blades and Battles was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.