Persona aesthetics meets Hades and Baldur's Gate tactics in this melting pot of an indie RPG

If I am being entirely honest, what initially drew me to Blade Prince Academy from developer Angel Corp was the lovely, anime-inspired art. The trailers with stylized characters unleashing powerful elemental abilities and feats of deadly weapon combat had me intrigued from the jump, but now that I've actually had a chance to play it, it's become clear there's plenty below the gorgeous surface to really sink my teeth into as well.

The basic premise of the game is largely in the name. Players control a group of Blade Princes (read: powerful warriors that are still in training) across a whole variety of missions set in the city of Abjectalia as well as the academy said Blade Princes call home. It kicks off with the academy under attack, and when the dust settles, all that's left are questions – questions you are tasked with answering.

Social side

When not on a mission, however, it's all about juggling the various characters that join your team with social relationships that can grow over time. The academy lets you prep your squads and generally determine who will be going on what missions and who will be resting and so on, but the various conversations that can be explored among a frankly shocking number of possible team members is where it's at. While they might be supernatural warriors with fantastical abilities, you're also still largely dealing with what is effectively an unruly mob of teens when not in combat.

While sometimes buggy and often clunky, the actual combat mechanics are a compelling mix of different strategy considerations reminiscent in some ways of games like Baldur's Gate. Moving into the right position, choosing the right abilities, and combining said abilities and modifiers together for even more punch is delightful, albeit sometimes fiddly. Characters don't really move as fast as you might want them to, and certain abilities can feel far more impactful than others, and don't get me started on how many times I sent my little pals in the wrong direction while clicking around.

There are, in short, ups and downs to the game's combat, but thankfully my time with Blade Prince Academy saw me make swift work of basically anyone that wasn't a boss on any given level. And for the beefier, more involved routines that bosses seem to have, a war of attrition always won out in the end with clever plans only making it faster.

The comparison to Hades is in part the mythological and fantastical underpinnings of the game – one of your first pals is kind of, sort of a vampire and another is a cat person while the main character is basically a devil/demon – and in part due to the way combat can be evolved. You can unlock different skills and swap pacts in and out that fundamentally alter the basic mechanics of various abilities in the same way that specific boons and weapons in Hades can define a run.

Because of the juggling of squad members, relationships (which offer tangible benefits between characters), upgraded skills, pacts, and positioning, combat is rarely the same twice. That's not even accounting for environmental odds and ends that can appear like shopkeepers, locked doors, exploding barrels, and more. Blade Prince Academy isn't always a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat experience, but it's never dull. If you've already played all of the games it was so clearly inspired by, and are looking for something more in the same vein, Blade Prince Academy is absolutely one to consider. It never quite reaches the same highs, but it will absolutely scratch the same RPG itches in a fairly satisfying way.

Blade Prince Academy is out now on PC via Steam. To see what other indie gems we've been enjoying so far, be sure to check out our Indie Spotlight series.