On the far east side of the show floor was SouthPeak Games' booth, home to several titles we'll be seeing in the coming months. One of those titles, X-Blades, was perhaps the biggest title SouthPeak had at PAX, and judging by the fact they had someone dressed as the game's main heroine at the booth, it seems like SouthPeak feels that way, too.
X-Blades first caught the attention of the gaming world when the first shots of its main character appeared: Ayumi, a girl noted for her three pigtails and for running around in a thong with swords. Thankfully, there's a lot more to the game than just that, though at its core, X-Blades is very much a hack-and-slash action title.
The level available at PAX saw Ayumi facing off against a swarm of different creatures, all of which had to be killed before a barrier could be broken to move on. To take down enemies, Ayumi has use of her Pistol Blades, which true to their name, are blades that have guns on them. I ended up using the blades more often as they were easier to use and seemed to be more accurate than the guns. Plus, you could create huge combo chains with the blades. There's a feeling of God of War's game play in this title, except you're not slaughtering the armies of the ancient world.
Her other source of attack are magic spells that can be used to incinerate the enemies around her. These come very much in handy when faced with a number of enemies on the screen and can be used as long as the magic energy bar has enough juice in it. Glowing red orbs and kill combos help to regenerate the magic bar. Certain enemies, too, can use magic spells, often when enough of them gather in one spot. This makes knowing what powers your enemies have and knowing which ones to take out first very important, because their magic can deal a ton of damage.
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