Swords of Legends Goes Soulslike, and So Far, So Good | IGN Preview

It's 2026, and the soulslike subgenre continues to grow, with caller contenders each aiming precocious to beryllium the adjacent large hit. It's an appealing genre, to beryllium sure, but to genuinely marque an impact, you request not lone a large hook, but besides stellar combat fundamentals that tally deep. That's wherever the upcoming Swords of Legends is looking to enactment its champion ft forward, arsenic developer Aurogon Shanghai reinvigorates the long-running Chinese RPG bid into a faster, much fierce enactment crippled that'll propulsion players to maestro its wuxia-inspired martial arts.

Swords of Legends precocious near an content astatine Summer Game Fest 2026, and we've yet got implicit an hr of hands-on clip to get a consciousness for its slick warring systems and the visually stunning and tense brag encounters. It's a benignant of soulslike that embraces the travel of a mythical leader successful the making with its heightened action-focused jaunt done Chinese mythology. So far, Swords of Legends plays similar a promising caller soulslike that has maine anxious to spot wherever this expansive spectacle volition spell next.

A Mythical Saga Reborn

For galore Western players, this whitethorn beryllium the archetypal clip you've heard astir Swords of Legends, which is really portion of a larger bid of role-playing games and a live-action TV amusement based connected the Chinese cross-media bid Gujian. Swords of Legends is simply a reboot of sorts that takes the bid into the realm of soulslike action, bringing the wuxia-inspired spectacle – the marrying of Chinese-influenced high-fantasy and martial arts enactment – into an action-RPG that's each astir taking retired foes with benignant and a definite level of grace that's befitting of a mythical hero.

Taking connected the relation of Sipan, a fallen swordsman turned cause of the underworld, he's tasked with traveling to the mortal realm to look disconnected with ruthless demons and mysterious rivals rampaging done the lands. This besides includes the added task of claiming arsenic galore souls arsenic imaginable from slain enemies, and utilizing them to augment his expanding arsenal of weapons and artifacts that greatly change his warring style.

One of my favourite bosses was the Tri-Tail boss, who turns from a wholesome feline into a wholly ripped feline that pummeled maine to bits.“

My hands-on clip with Swords of Legends focused connected a demo-specific bid of tutorials and isolated missions that ran maine done immoderate of the larger environments to explore, specified arsenic the dreamlike, ethereal scenery of the mythical realm and isolated mountain-top communities overrun by demons successful the mortal realm. The signature brag battles capped disconnected each segment, which were not lone a large dive into slick martial arts action, but besides amazingly tricky encounters that had maine pulling retired each instrumentality I could usage to support up with them. One of my favourite bosses – which besides shows the code that Swords of Legends goes for – was the Tri-Tail boss, who turns from a wholesome feline into a wholly ripped feline that pummeled maine to bits.

Swords of Legends does instrumentality adjacent to that Souls-like structure, and it is an admittedly well-established setup, particularly successful the aftermath of caller standouts similar Black Myth: Wukong and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. Still, I was impressed with however good Swords of Legends presents its combat fundamentals. It, of course, sticks with the tried-and-true travel of picking your moments cautiously to spell successful for strikes against some communal enemies and immoderate of the much ruthless foes. But it handles that peculiar creation of navigating combat encounters wherever you'll evade, parry, and dodge attacks to onslaught astatine the close clip arsenic precisely that – a creation of wills and wits.

I was peculiarly impressed with however these battles person specified flair to them – which is simply a bully opposition from different soulslikes that thin to support the code of battles subdued and mostly serious. With the wuxia influence, it truly homes successful connected the code of a mythical, martial arts fable. There's a dance-like prime to the travel of these fights, wherever you're dishing retired combo attacks and reacting to force attacks successful a mode that was truly breathtaking to ticker arsenic it was to instrumentality portion in. It made for a much amusive benignant of engagement that I don't often consciousness from soulslike games. Still, determination were plentifulness of moments wherever the enemies truly decked maine erstwhile I recovered myself getting excessively comfortable.

That aforesaid consciousness of restitution erstwhile taking retired a peculiarly ruthless force – and aboriginal connected erstwhile again with easiness – is contiguous successful Swords of Legends. I got a large footwear retired of successfully parrying galore force strikes from a pass, past sneaking successful a captious deed to sound them into a stagger. When it comes to fundamentals, Swords of Legends – portion precise acquainted – hits astir of the close notes erstwhile it comes to matching that compelling, yet inactive stressful soulslike flow. Unfortunately, 1 downside of the demo I played was immoderate unfortunate method hiccups that disrupted the travel and made landing immoderate parries a spot difficult. This tin beryllium a precise troublesome snag for a soulslike successful the making, truthful hopefully the developers volition beryllium capable to robust them retired anterior to launch.

Upgrading a Mythical Adventure

Where Swords of Legends truly makes its large swings distant from acquainted soulslike trends is with Sipan's arsenal of weapons and skills. Along with a myriad of weapons similar glaives and two-handed swords, there's besides a slate of limb artifacts that outfit Sipan with antithetic combat abilities. His basal Cosmic Mirror artifact allows him to summon glyphs that tin bash radical damage, oregon much importantly, artifact and parry strikes from force combatants. I spent astir of my hands-on clip sticking with this 1 for its antiaircraft qualities, arsenic it was incredibly satisfying to successfully smack distant attacks similar I was successful Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Another amusive artifact was the Thunder Banner, which added lightning harm to my halfway attacks and a speedy lightning dodge that came successful useful during the fiercer fights.

Another amusive twist with Swords of Legends is the quality to telephone successful an assistance from defeated foes. One of the aboriginal bosses I defeated successful the tutorial was the hammer-wielding Ox-Head, who past offered his services to Sipan successful aboriginal battles. In summation to summoning him for quick, powered-up strikes, you tin adjacent person him articulation successful cardinal battles against signifier bosses, giving you a spouse to combat alongside you and adjacent execute cinematic Link Attacks, with Sipan and his companion teaming up to woody captious harm connected a staggered boss. This particularly came successful useful during immoderate of the much aggravated brag battles, which truly sold the much stylized and wuxia-spectacle moments of Swords of Legends.

The demo's astir challenging combat was against a powered-up Ox-Head, who truly dished retired immoderate superior pain. Even with a powered-up Sipan's caller weapons and cogwheel – specified arsenic a shrine guardian armor acceptable covered successful talismans – I inactive had to fastener successful and find those moments to interruption done his defenses, and adjacent then, it took maine galore tries to yet instrumentality him out. It was a large capper to the demo, and I was impressed with however good Sipan's abilities tin germinate done the run – which is ever amusive to spot successful a soulslike.

What makes Swords of Legends specified a neat rotation connected a soulslike is that it focuses connected players steadily gathering up a mythical leader – and that's an intriguing hook for an action-RPG. Still, overmuch similar the sub-genre itself, determination is simply a definite situation that comes with creating a soulslike that not galore developers tin afloat grasp and crook into a compelling game. But truthful far, Swords of Legends and its mythical hero's travel bash person the makings of a stylish and invigorating enactment crippled that makes its badass quality moments count.

Alessandro Fillari is simply a longtime games media professional. Talk video games with him connected BlueSky astatine @afillari.bsky.social.