Blade Symphony

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Mixed · 69%Mixed · 69%2014

Free to play

US Steam price, checked 2 h ago

The verdict

A deep, skill-based 3D sword-duel game with a steep learning curve, but multiplayer is nearly empty and the free-to-play switch and removed Workshop items soured many. Skip it if you have no friends to play with.

Great for

Players with a few friends who want a deep, skill-based sword duel game and accept a steep learning curve

Main risk

Servers are almost empty, so you'll face bots, elite veterans, or nobody at all

What players love

Deep, skill-based combat

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews

“It's a deep, intense, and honestly well designed core (read: core) system that is highly competitive.”
Steam review · 515.5 h played ↗

“Its deep combat system, featuring different stances and character styles, offers a high skill ceiling for competitive players.”
Steam review · 69.2 h played ↗

“Neither complex moves, ten-button combos, hitbox knowledge, nor weapons decide here — only reaction, precision and the ability to adapt to your opponent's technique.”
Steam review · translated · 43.4 h played ↗

Friendly, tight-knit community

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“Exceptionally friendly and inviting in-game community”
Steam review · 10.7 h played ↗

“people here are very nice to each other and since there are so few everyone knows everyone”
Steam review · 21.1 h played ↗

Steam Workshop customization

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“I, for one, enjoy beating people with a Candy-Cane Wielding Batman every once in a while.”
Steam review · 124.8 h played ↗

“One of the best parts is that not all weapons are pointed and sharp, thanks to Steam Workshop integration.”
Steam review · 223.5 h played ↗

Fair play, cosmetics only

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews

“There are no items that could grand advantages or any pay to win mechanics.”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗

“All Katanas have the same stats and skills, all Longswords have the same stats and skills”
Steam review · 25.2 h played ↗

Great soundtrack and style

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 positive reviews

“Relaxing, contemplative soundtrack; it's the kind of soft music that helps one to focus”
Steam review · 10.7 h played ↗

“Gentlemen, I searched for this game's soundtrack for over 2 years, and today I found it.”
Steam review · translated · 84.6 h played ↗

Free and fun with friends

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 positive reviews

“Dead playerbase, but very fun with friends. For the price of free, you can't go wrong.”
Steam review · 18.3 h played ↗

“Fun if you 1v1 a friend or play with a party.”
Steam review · 2 h played ↗

What players complain about

Dead multiplayer, empty servers

Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews

“Don't buy this game, it's dead. The only community left seem to be have been playing forever”
Steam review · 40 h played ↗

“The game is already dead. There are no people at all. It's become impossible to find a duel.”
Steam review · translated · 7.2 h played ↗

“It's dead. It was a great game once but there aren't any people playing this game beside 10 dudes now”
Steam review · 6.2 h played ↗

Clunky controls, hitboxes and animation

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“The gameplay is clunky as all hell and you can't tell if an attack was supposed to hit you or not”
Steam review · 1.3 h played ↗

“False hit confirms and ghost hits for all.”
Steam review · 526.3 h played ↗

“very stiff controls. Very awkward to play.”
Steam review · 10.4 h played ↗

Workshop removed, paid cosmetics

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“What better way to ensure your game dies off by killing the few active players through removing mods and replacing them with micro-transactions?”
Steam review · 27.8 h played ↗

“Since the new update, mods are almost all gone and replaced by paid cosmetics that looks 10 times worse than the previous free mods”
Steam review · 12.3 h played ↗

“But now the workshop is empty, and all the items that existed before are no longer valid.”
Steam review · translated · 6.3 h played ↗

Hostile to newcomers, poor tutorial

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews

“Extremely hostile to new players. It's one of those games with a community that expects to get trounced until you learn to "git gud".”
Steam review · 1.1 h played ↗

“you won't get to it without investing a significant effort to learn clumsy mechanics the game does a pretty frickin' poor job of teaching you”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗

Paid owners feel burned by F2P

Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews

“came back to see it listed as free to play wtf, atleast they should have give some kind of compensation to those who bought it”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗

“they could’ve at least given some extra content to the people who paid for it, but no… they just went and made it free.”
Steam review · 11.8 h played ↗

Poor controller support

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“This game has by far the worst controller support I have seen in my entire life (for a game that openly says it supports it).”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“you cannot play this game without touching a keyboard”
Steam review · 0.5 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows Vista, 7, 8, 10

Processor3.0 Ghz P4(+), Dual Core 2.0(+) or AMD64X2(+)

Memory2 GB RAM

GraphicsDX9.0c Compatible 256MB VRAM, NVIDIA Geforce 7600 Series / ATI x1600 Series

Storage5 GB HD space

OSWindows Vista, 7, 8, 10

Processor3.0 Ghz P4(+), Dual Core 2.0(+) or AMD64X2(+)

Memory2 GB RAM

GraphicsDX9.0c Compatible 256MB VRAM, NVIDIA Geforce 7600 Series / ATI x1600 Series

Storage5 GB HD space

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