Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Blade Chimera is a new Metroidvania from Team Ladybug, who has previously made Touhou Luna Nights, Record of Lodoss War, and Drainus. I don't play Metroidvanias very often, but I thought Blade Chimera looked cool and I heard good things about their previous games, so I figured I'd give it a shot. And it's a pretty fun game. It's not very long (this video took me one day to complete, from start to finish), and the backtracking can be minimized because they give you the ability to warp to almost any square on the map.

That said, in order to fight the true last boss, you *do* have to collect all of the puzzle pieces in the game (56 in total), so there is a bit of busywork involved. But thanks to the quick travel ability, you can follow a guide online and grab everything you missed pretty quickly, so it's not a big deal. I had heard that you also needed to complete all of the sidequests (many of which are pointless 'kill 20 enemies in an area you already went through' type of quests), but I think you only need to complete the sidequests that have 'boss' fights. Those guys drop puzzle pieces when killed, but you should be able to safely skip all of the boring ones if you want.

The pixel art and animation is fantastic all around in this, it has a good soundtrack, and even the story is decent enough (though it is very predictable; it's nothing you haven't seen many times before). Overall difficulty is very low as well, only a few of the bosses put up a decent fight. Once you get used to the mechanics, you can fly through the game very smoothly. The movement and combat mechanics are fun to play with though, so I never got bored.

Blade Chimera is currently available on Steam and the Switch for $19.99. If you're a fan of Metroidvanias, this is one I'd recommend checking out. If you're not a fan of the genre, it's not going to change your mind, but it doesn't feel padded by tons of backtracking or junk to collect, so it can still be enjoyable. I liked it well enough.

0:00 Dark Dragon
4:19 Phoenix
6:47 Yamanba
7:34 Akuru
9:44 Majin
10:51 Leviathan
12:17 Thug
14:10 Majo (Story)
15:04 Majo
16:15 Ronaldo
17:09 Baifu
19:33 Shin
21:39 Specter
22:23 Victor
24:05 Shinigami
24:33 Jack the Ripper
25:24 Baal
29:00 Ending
34:49 Kagero
37:29 Lux (True Last Boss)
40:41 True End & Credits

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Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71