Blue Fire is a dark-cute litte plattformer that stays a bit behind its potential. It does everything "okay". The plattforming is its strengh but it needs more work. It feels a bit off sometimes and not responsive as it should. Some of the plattformer-levels (called "Voids") were really frustrating because of that.

The Combat has no impact at all and its really not fun at all. The bosses are really boring and uncreative.
There are no puzzles in the Zelda-ish dungeons other than collecting keys to open doors.

I Think the Devs behind this game are just unexperienced but if they improve the flaws, they could make a really good 3D plattformer. They should focus on exploring and collecting and fun boss fights instead of putting annoying enemys all over the world.
OR they can think of a way to improve the combat and give it more impact to make it actually fun to fight stuff.

At the end of the official Grown Ups trailer, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and Kevin James are seen wallowing in a swimming pool at a water park. James’s daughter approaches and asks, “Dad, are you making a sissy? You know they have a chemical in the pool that turns urine blue.” James responds, laughingly, “No, no, no, that’s an old wives’ tale, sweetie.” After which, of course, the camera zooms back, the child screams, and we see that all five men are surrounded by dark clouds of “sissy.” End joke.

Completed on "recommended" difficulty, with all collectibles aside from the hardest voids. The debut release from indie studio Robi Games, Blue Fire overall impresses in many ways. Clearly borrowing its dark aesthetic from the superb Hollow Knight, here the core gameplay combines 3D platforming - albeit often at a much significantly difficulty than many games in the genre (once again, the Hollow Knight comparison is apt) with The Legend of Zelda-style exploration and puzzle-solving. The game world fits convincingly together, housing several Zelda-style 'dungeon' self-contained environments and a range of more exporation-based side-quests to add some variety.

While the platforming starts off fairly basic, throughout the game the protagonist acquires new abilities - some core and some coming from equipable 'spirits' (once again, think Hollow Knight here!) - to make moving through the qorld highly satisfying, particularly so after success at some of the more challenging platforming scenarios, which really are the core of the gameplay. While there is some puzzle-solving and combat throughout, these elements are fairly shallow - the puzzles don't really extend beyond flipping switches (which may then lead to some timed platforming) - and the combat moves are only limited.

Also throughout the game are 'voids', self-contained pure platforming sections similar to those of Super Mario Sunshine. These are entirely optional, but highly beneficial, awarding additional health but more importantly, extra spirit slots that allow for improved platforming abilities (wall running, a triple jump, greater range, etc.) - and start off fairly simple but become very challenging later in the game (I didn't manage to beat the last handful), catering for a range of skill. Checkpoints in the 'easy' difficulty setting bring some greater accessibility here, though that difficulty choice is locked from the start of the game.

Overall, Blue Fire is a really well-realised combination of genres that, while not quite achieving its full potential in all areas, was a fun experience that I'd congratulate the developers for. Additional free DLC and a currently in-development free level editor (via Steam) are additional feathers in its cap!

An alright platformer that offers some fun enough challenges but doesn't really do anything particularly interesting. The platforming is solid enough but the combat can be pretty messy. The void challenges are definitely the primary appeal of the game since the main quest generally just offers a lot of wandering, easy puzzles and annoying bosses. The artstyle is nice but the actual character designs are uninspired. The story is nothing to write home about and the general lack of difficulty as well as NPCs being scattered all over the place really lowers motivation to do side quests. While the game didn't wow me, I do greatly respect any indie game that takes the 3D route instead of just opting for a 2D metroidvania.

Wow, did I have fun with this game. I struggled to find something that I was as-invested-in as Hollow Knight since I first picked that game up back in 2019. This game really did it for me, and it is fantastic on so many levels. What keeps it from being great, in my opinion, are the camera mechanics and some of the bugs that have yet-to-be resolved.

Unfortunately for me, my file was corrupted on the final boss fight, which is something other players have reported experiencing on Reddit and other platforms. This was a major disappointment. Aside from that, the camera will often zoom or pivot unexpectedly, especially in some of the game's more advanced platforming, and it can definitely trick you into thinking you've missed your mark. I think these things might be more specific to the Switch release of the game, though. Regardless, I would definitely recommend it. Great story telling, awesome platforming, and a super cool adventure overall!

A 3D platformer / souls-like mash-up is a match made in heaven for me. The game starts really strong but after the opening two dungeons I had to put it down. There’s a bunch of small issues in the game that start to compound once it opens up and let’s you take on 3 levels in whatever order you want. Checkpoint statues are weirdly sparse necessitating a lot of backtracking, most enemies just float in the air and shoot super fast knockback-inducing projectiles, level design is unclear at times… all these issues taken on their own are nitpicks, but over time they become more and more present to the point I was frustrated more often than not.

One of the biggest problems with the game, in my opinion, is that none of the Dark Souls-inspired mechanics fit the game. As I said before, checkpoint statues are more sparse than bonfires in any Souls game. The fact that you lose money on death doesn’t really add any tension to the gameplay because it doesn’t level you up. It’s just money. There’s no map, but they have Zelda-esque dungeons. This game wears its influences on its sleeve- and that’s fine- but I’m not sure these Souls-like design quirks fit the game they designed. They should’ve leaned closer to Zelda than Souls. A 3D Zelda game with an emphasis on platforming sounds awesome. It can just be that! Also, the elephant in the room is the comparison to Hollow Knight. I haven’t played enough HK to make an educated comparison between the two, so that’s why I’m only bringing up Zelda and Souls, two other game series this is very transparently inspired by.

Even though I put down the game before its end, I had a really fun time with its opening hours. This is a really solid first game for an indie studio. I’m excited to see what they do next!

this game is almost perfect, but has too many flaws for me to give it a higher rating
before i go further, i want to say that i do highly recommend this game and wish to support the developer, what they've made is something truly special, and despite being derivative of other things, (namely hollow knight, dark souls, a hat in time and a bit of wind waker) it truly does feel unique and special, the contrasting elements of those games do blend well and it has enough of its own flare to make it stand out. legit, play this game.

now then, that out of the way, this game is...
well its hard to put it
as i said above, its a mix between various games, and it doesnt try to mask it, and honestly thats fine. for one thing, its easy to know if you'll like this game, just from if you like any of the games its inspired by, and it never goes too far with its inspiration, i cant exactly call it a rip-off of dark souls, hollow knight, a hat in time or wind waker when it also has its own identity.
it helps that it also controls really well, and the more you play the game, the better movement you get. you start with just a single jump and a short dash. you have 2 upgrade (spirit) slots, 3 points of health, and a little bit of mana. simple and gets the job done. you can also attack enemies with your swords in a simple 1-2-3 hit combo, and do a little emote. but as you trek along for your quest to kill the queen, you'll earn more abilities and spirits. until you feel like your average method of traversal is just exploiting the game. first you get an air slash that can gain you extra air, then an upgrade to gain more air if you do that after a dash, then a wall run (which also lets you wall jump), then a double jump, then a triple jump, then a dash-extender which MASSIVELY extends the length of your dash, then a jump height increase, then you get yet another upgrade for your air slash that increases the air gained, then you get the ability to run, and probably other stuff im missing, the movement is the best part about this game and (aside from the wall run/jump) it all feels super good and responsive. some of these are spirits for the spirit slots, but you can have all the movement related ones equipped by the end. doing void challenges and grabbing orbs in there allows you to spend the orbs for more spirit slots (max of 10), and just finishing the void challenges nets you a free heart. you're gonna need em.
the void challenges are both one of the game's highlights and one of its flaws. they're these somewhat short areas based on pure platforming. think mario sunshine fludd-less levels, but if fludd is never taken from you, and by that i mean you retain all your upgrades thank god. that doesnt make them easier, and in fact, id say they're harder. much harder. they tell you the difficulty before you enter them, thank god. 1 star means easy, 5 stars means hard. but you'll quickly notice that most of them are 4-5 stars. i'd recommend saving those till you have absolutely everything in the game. some require late-game abilities without telling you. you can cheese it at times, i did several without even knowing i needed a double jump for it. once you understand the movement, you feel like you understand it better than the game understands it. anyway, once you get to the 5 star voids, thats when hell begins. having to wait for slow platforms, doing 180 leaps of faith jumps because you cant move the camera and jump at the same time, instakill spikes everywhere that send you all the way to the start, all while trying to get every single orb. the timing and pattern memorization can be insane, theres several levels that seem like they came right out of super meat boy, even down to the difficulty, but where SMB has very tight wall wall jumping with a very clear path.... this game doesnt. the wall running is the most jank part of the movement and sometimes when youre doing these voids, there will be so much shit in front of you that you cant tell when you should go. i could forgive it all however, if the voids didnt blind me. see, the voids are just pure white, and then theres also bloom on top of that, and all the platforms are a light grey. so i hope you like blinding white, because you cant even turn the brightness down. thankfully there aren't too many void challenges, but you will encounter them regularly as you're traversing the many levels. speaking of the levels, they kinda.... arent good
i mean they can be, but they also feel kind of half baked. im not quite sure how to put it. its fine at first, but the moment you take the elevator to the sewers, the game takes a hard dip for a while. for the next hour or 2, you feel like you're going the right way by way of the wrong platforms, thinking "this has to be the wrong way, no sane designer would do things like THIS". that thought continues as you head outside to the stoneheart city and this is when you realize the rest of the game was designed around later game movement. the part that tipped me off is when i went to the shrine in the middle of the city, saved and jumped down to a ladder just past the shrine, easy to reach, it seemed like the right way, like the game was guiding me to this direction. save point in center, new path beyond that with a giant door. but no you cant go there till later, and beyond that door is a locked gate. this is when you have to go back to the shrine and realize... you cant make the jump... you have to die (or save, quit, continue) to get back. the game feels like you should have a double jump or even a wall run by this point, but no, you dont get much movement till around 40% of the game is done, and then the game just kind of gives you one ability after another. hell i got the triple jump before the double jump, and at that point the game just starts feeling a lot better and a lot easier. it is kinda nice getting the double jump after so many other upgrades, so by the time you get it, you feel like you can effectively use it in tandem with your other tek. i know i may have contradicted myself here by saying the double jump should have been gotten earlier then praising how late you get it, but i do feel like the movement should be more evenly spread out, like maybe before entering the sewers you get the air slash. that gets you a little extra air so its like a double jump, but its one you need to charge and it only charges on the ground so you cant abuse it. though it does have one major flaw. to charge it, you first need to attack. attacks move you forward. that is a death sentence in some voids with the tiny platforms. its less of a problem by the time you get the double jump, so maybe its my fault for doing voids as soon as i see them, but i still feel like it should be improved.
i'm not done talking about the level design yet. im gonna skip some areas as to not spoil too much. but throughout the game, youre gonna notice some locked off doors and gates, or some platforms you cant reach yet. you better memorize the hell out of those locations cause the game expects you to backtrack for the rest of the game. soon as you get a special key, you need to go to a door that leads to the final boss, but it aint boss time yet, cause beyond that door is a hallway thats locked by 3 bosses-i'll get back to those-and to even fight those bosses , you need to do trivial tasks that involves you memorizing the things youve seen in the game that you couldnt interact with yet. starting with activating 4 switches in a sewer, then helping people in the last new area of the game, then activating 4 orb statues which then make you collect about a dozen orbs throughout the level... so have fun backtracking the worlds. you'll be seeing a lot of dungeon world, sewer world, stone world, forest world, ice world, dark world and lava world. dont be ashamed to look up a guide. finishing each task will then allow you to open a boss door, and the bosses you face... well all the bosses in the game are pretty much the same. survive its attacks then wail on it when it stops. even the final boss is like this, and with how few bosses there are in the game (maybe 6?), its pretty disappointing. theres not even any secret boss or a sword guy to fight. some of the later game enemies are better bosses than the actual bosses. how well you do in the fight is pretty much determinant on if you got a good enough sword to kill it faster, and maybe some spirit abilities for combat, but honestly its not worth removing your mobility spirit abilities.

look, end of the day, beyond all my criticisms lies a great game. my goal here is not to convince you to avoid this game, its to make you aware of the games flaws before you play it, maybe help you get past some of it better than i did. this is a legitimately fun game that i do recommend and maybe if we get a sequel, all of this could be fixed. heres hoping.

Blue Fire is the sort of game that makes you think of other games you'd rather be playing. it invokes its inspirations openly, not even hiding its clear admiration for Wind Waker and other Nintendo games. thing is, it doesn't do anything with those inspirations. there is no meaningful design to be found in this game. pointless systems (crafting, sidequests) overlap and exist for seemingly no real purpose. movement is stiff, not very satisfying; the same can be said for the combat. three hours in, nothing about it stood out. no areas, no characters, no music, no story, no gameplay - nothing. instead, Blue Fire is the sort of game where you hit a switch to do an annoyingly timed puzzle that isn't difficult in the slightest but is frustrating due to your movement and collision. there is absolutely nothing exceptional to be found in Blue Fire. it is deeply, direly unessential.

i really, really hate being so harsh on an indie game. these devs clearly do have a lot of talent, this game just isn't inspiring or thoughtful in any way, be it narrative or design. there's nothing about Blue Fire that i walk away with. there's nothing memorable, nothing exciting. it's a pastiche of better games melted into a bland soup of a game. also why do so many indie games have protagonists that are just little blobby guys with a white helmet

Blue Fire does a few things well but nothing particularly great. I think the movement & combat feel great and have the greatest potential. The voids (think Shrines in Breath of the Wild) are the best part. Pure platforming challenge and super satisfying to complete. Really enjoyed those, I honestly would take a level based game with just these voids. The temples are pretty enjoyable as well (way fewer of those, only 4 or 5 I think). But rest of the game leaves a lot to be desired. Enemies are pretty bland and easy to beat, even the few bosses I beat. The world design is okay but it almost requires a map to navigate. I got lost a couple time either from not knowing where I was or just not knowing where I was supposed to go. NPCs are bland and don't have much to offer. There's multiple tunics and weapons but they all felt the same to me. It all adds up to a game that, while not a disaster or offensive, just doesn't stand out.

I went into this game expecting Hollow Knight but 3D, so I was a little disappointed at first. But once I got towards the end of this game and realized what it really was, I loved it. It's really a 3d platformer at it's core, but just done in a Metroidvania format instead of level-based. When you look at it that way, this has to be one of the best indie 3d platformers I've ever played, probably only behind A Hat in Time imo. The pure platforming in this game, in the rifts in the main game, plus the post-game DLC, is some of the best out there. The combat and movement both feel a little jank at first but once I got used to it, it was pretty good. Navigating is a bit of a hassle at first because it's not really clear where you're supposed to go, but once you get further, lots of shortcuts open and you learn your way around. The postgame DLC was such good platforming I debated bumping this up to 5 stars, but I decided against it bc the shortcomings of the early game (combat and movement not feeling great before unlocking more moves, and navigation being unintuitive) plus the game's visuals and music not being that good or noteworthy held it back from a perfect score

a cozy platformer that gets compared to Dark Souls but actually has very little in common with it. in reality, it's somewhere in between a 3d zelda and a 3d mario game.

the art design is probably this game's biggest strength, it just oozes charm and personality.

the platforming is ok - it's a bit floaty and not as tight as other platformers, but i didn't have any trouble completing challenges due to the controls.

it has zelda/MV-style abilities that you can earn, but they rarely open up interesting opportunities for exploration, and certainly it never had any non-linearity to it.

the combat is fine, but certainly easy - i never died once until the final boss.

the world and the story have the hallmarks of a Souls-like game, but without any of the enigma - almost everything is explained to you via long, boring lore dumps.

so like i said, this is a cozy game, and is easily digestible for someone who is craving an experience in this genre. but i wouldn't say it's a must-play or anything close to that.