My first review of 2026 and my second review of a PS3 game after my review of Trinity Universe years ago. I always review games with varying levels of fan service but they don't have to be Japanese games, Sable's Grimoire and Cytus Alpha are some examples of games with fan service that aren't Japanese games, the same thing goes for X-Blades, a Russian game developed by Gaijin Entertainment released many years ago in 2009 in the west. I'll say right now that X-Blades may be the only game rated M I review that doesn't deserve its M rating to be honest, the game is rated 12+ in Europe and it got a standard mature rating in Australia...I agree with those age ratings, a T rating would have been fine for X-Blades, game with fan service or not, it doesn't deserve its M rating, its one of the tamest games rated M for Mature I've ever played...anyway, let's begin.

Story: The back of the box says that X-Blades has a ''gripping fantasy story with two possible endings''...I don't know if I'll try to get the other ending but what I do know is that the game doesn't have a ''gripping fantasy story'', without additional context, it's a very simple story that isn't good partially because of the main character herself. Sure, even for its time, what the manual says ''there were two gods, The Dark and The Light, The Dark wanted all the power for himself and The Light stopped him, but he had to banish their divine powers into 2 artifacts'' wasn't the most original thing ever but it works, I kind of like it, but none of that is really mentioned in the game itself, X-Blades has less cutscenes than many other games and it's clear that the story isn't a big focus because there isn't much story in the game, it's not a very developed story, in the end the story is just ''Ayumi finds about an ancient artifact and its location, she goes to the place where the artifact is, Ayumi gets cursed, she has to do something about the curse and she also fights against many monsters along the way, including those 2 gods'', that's pretty much everything, if it sounds too simple on paper, it is, X-Blades has very few characters and as I said, the story not being good is partially because of the main character herself, it's difficult to feel sympathy for a fictional character dealing with a bad situation when that bad situation is the fault of said character and no one else...Ayumi gets cursed but it's only her fault, The Light explicitly says ''the power it contains is fatal to humans'' and Ayumi still touches the artifact, not to mention the fact that he also said ''don't do that!'' right before Ayumi touches it, sure, he doesn't finish his sentence before Ayumi touches the artifact but it's a fact that Ayumi was warned and she didn't listen, so, Ayumi gets cursed and she is to blame. I can't deny it, Ayumi is kind of unlikable or is unlikable at times, not the worst main character of all time but I don't like her that much and I don't feel sympathy for her. I don't have much more to say for this section, the story is a 5/10 at best.

Graphics: One of the best parts of the game, X-Blades has beautiful graphics to this day, it's not the most colorful game even for its time but it makes sense because of the time of day in certain places and what not, I won't deny that the game is very orange and red at times but I still think that it looks great. Cel-shaded graphics that simply look great...really nice textures, great lighting, there are some light/particle effects...it has great graphics, X-Blades is comparable to its successor Blades of Time at least.

Sound: Another great part of the game is the soundtrack, the music in X-Blades is pretty good. Golden Despite, Who will attack me and Search for the Artifact are some examples of the good music in the game, there is some rock music and/or heavy guitars but also orchestral music and some piano even in the song Golden Despite for example, it's one of the best parts of the game, the graphics and soundtrack are the best parts of X-Blades, that's for sure. The sound effects are fitting and can be satisfying, they complement the action well. In the versions made for the american continent, X-Blades offers both English and French voices, I've only heard a little of the French voices, I mostly played it with the English voices and I can say that the voice acting is a mixed bag, sometimes it's good or at least competent and other times it's kind of bad...it's true that the voice acting is bad at times and in fact, the English voice acting is a little notorious but in my opinion, it's not as bad as some people say or may think, in my opinion it's only bad at times. I like that they credited the voice actors in different languages, not just English and French, even though the Italian voices should only be available in the PAL versions of the game but anyway. Definitely an 8/10 at best, mostly because of the soundtrack of course.

Addictive: X-Blades was released before the first Bayonetta game, X-blades came out in February 2009 in the west and before that, it was originally released in Russia in 2007, Bayonetta was initially released in October 2009 in Japan...even if one considers the fact that the first Bayonetta was released after X-Blades, it's still a game that had negative or mixed (at best) reception when it was new and the game is difficult to appreciate or enjoy a lot...a lot of aspects bring the game down. X-Blades is a hack-and-slash game with only one playable character (like Blades of Time and Bayonetta for example) but also, it only has one button to attack with your blades, the square button is the only button of close-range attacks, sure, there are some combos you can do and combinations, the jump button and attack button can let you do an attack for nearby enemies that are floating, but those button combinations don't always work. Besides the square button, there's also the R1 button to attack using guns or long-range attacks, after a while, you get different types of shots for specific enemies or situations, it does make the game slightly more interesting to play but that's not saying much, and lastly, throughout the game you'll collect souls that are used as currency, you can use those souls to get new magical abilities or heal yourself during a battle, there are some enemies which can only be injured or killed with special attacks and to use those special attacks, you need to have rage, represented with a red bar/meter which can be filled by attacking enemies or even if Ayumi is attacked. The idea of using 3 styles of gameplay/combat is good enough, having to use close-range attacks with the square buttons, guns with the R1 button (you don't need to aim) and magic works and I kind of like it, the problems are the fact that the game only has one button for close-range attacks (only one button for your blades makes the game less fun than it could be if that wasn't the case), the small enemy varity and even the design of the game itself or boss battles...that specific boss battle with the giant enemy that vaguely reminds me of butterfiles, where you have to eliminate 5 enemies in order to be able to damage the giant enemy for less than 20 seconds is definitely the worst fight in the game...the strategy never changes, the way the enemies attack is always the same throughout that battle, it's a longer battle than other fights in the game, it's kind of boring and, yes, it's bad design, what I described is not a glitch or anything, that fight is designed that way and it's bad design...we are talking about a game where the command to dodge attacks or roll is ''push the left analog stick in the same direction twice and press the jump button'', as you can imagine, it doesn't always work and it's just one of several flaws in the game, even the controls in X-Blades are bad at times or don't always work well...still, even though the game has a lot to criticize when it comes to the story, design, gameplay and characters (mostly Ayumi and I'm not talking about her design), it's still a game I enjoy playing at least to an extent, I don't regret beating X-Blades and I think that the combat, or the game itself, can be fun at times or in short sessions, it's a game with potential, and that potential was realized with Blades of Time...both games aren't amazing or anything but I enjoy X-Blades at least a little.

Depth: 2 different endings, 4 levels of difficulty (Pro difficulty is unlocked after beating the game) and many trophies to get, it's not much but it's something, X-Blades should take you 7-8 hours at most and if you want to get every trophy and get both endings (good luck with that), a few more hours at least. 6/10 is fine for this category, it has less content than other games in the genre.

Difficulty: As I said, it has 4 different difficulty levels, and if you are playing on ''Pro'' difficulty, then this category is definitely an 8 at least, I can only imagine how difficult the game is on higher difficulties, having experience with ''Easy'' and ''Normal''.

X-Blades has always been a flawed game, it wasn't a good game back then and it's not a good game now, but I can't genuinely say that it's a bad game or that X-Blades isn't worth playing, if you love hack-and-slash games and/or can get X-Blades on the cheap like me, I say it's worth it. I won't review Blades of Time, so, my next review will be of another game, but yeah, if anyone is interested in X-blades I can say that if you love action games or games that don't have turn-based combat, you might like it, at least a little.