When I first heard of Bleak Sword DX recently, it piqued my interest, and when the opportunity came up to review it on the Switch, I couldn’t say yes please fast enough. I was not disappointed at all. Developer, More8bit, and publisher, Devolver Digital, have given us a pocket-sized action game that will give you hours of fun. The effervescent Stacey first previewed Bleak Sword DX back in February and her preview can be found here (Bleak Sword DX). If you want to know more about the story visit, the preview as the story has not changed.

When starting the game, you will have plenty of options, but most will be greyed out until you complete your first full run. Apart from the physical game types, which I’ll discuss soon, you will have options and an extras section. The options are great as they allow you to customise all the standard things like music, damage numbers, and alike, but they also allow you to switch between a performance mode and a quality mode, and lastly, all the buttons are re-mappable.

This isn’t overly necessary though, as the gameplay is not complex at all and the default settings for the buttons are good, but the option to position them is a great addition. Optimizing the controls is important because mastering the game will take a keen eye, persistence, and patience.

The Extras will give you access to the tutorial if you want to replay it after doing it at the beginning of your run. Your statistics, a bestiary of what you have killed, all the unlocked cutscenes, and the credits are also here.

When starting a new game, you will have a choice between playing Classic or DX. Classic has 12 stages of varying biomes containing 10 levels in each, culminating in a boss fight at the end of each biome. DX is the same but has 12 levels and the biomes and monsters are slightly varied, making it more challenging. Once you’ve selected a game type, you can then choose difficulty.

There is Normal, which is forgiving with monsters doing half damage and only having half health, Doom, which is a challenge for experts, and finally, Bleak, which can only be described as soul-crushing. The Bleak difficulty, along with the other game modes Randomizer, Arena, and Boss Rush, only unlock once you have finished either Classic or DX mode once. This approach has given the game a high level of replayabilty.

Randomizer is as it sounds – all the enemies and items are randomized on every stage and level, making for an exciting twist on a game you’ve already completed. Unfortunately, this mode continually crashed for me.

Arena has you at your basic stats fighting level after level against enemies until you are defeated, and lastly, Boss Rush has you at your basic stats fighting boss after boss until you are defeated or kill the final boss.

Graphically, Bleak Sword DX has a very minimalist style. The black and white pixelated characters and enemies are chromatically punctuated by red and framed beautifully in a diorama-like scene. Regardless of the lo-fi nature, the graphics are very punchy.
As for sound, I fully agree with Stacey. It compliments all aspects of the game. I only had one instance where the audio glitched on itself and started repeating the same noise over and over. The only way to fix it was to reboot the game.

Bleak Sword DX is a powerhouse of a game in such a simple package. My interest in this game did not go unrewarded. If More8bit and Devolver Digital team up again, I’ll be paying attention to what’s on offer. Apart from the one game mode not working and the audio glitch requiring a reboot I could have easily given this game a 10/10. Hopefully, that can be fixed, and it’ll earn the score it deserves.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove