{"id":1480746,"date":"2026-01-30T23:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e3kiuGcsuRRb7FAA4ctHNY"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:09:00","slug":"ive-already-put-10-hours-into-this-upcoming-rpgs-demo-because-it-has-the-best-combat-ive-seen-outside-a-fromsoft-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/ive-already-put-10-hours-into-this-upcoming-rpgs-demo-because-it-has-the-best-combat-ive-seen-outside-a-fromsoft-game\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve already put 10 hours into this upcoming RPG’s demo because it has the best combat I’ve seen outside a FromSoft game"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Image credit: ForestWare)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sword Hero is a systems-heavy RPG like an Elder Scrolls or Gothic but with combat better than most action games. It’s set on a tantalizingly weird ring world populated with grimy medieval Witcher NPC types who will have daily schedules\u2060\u2014and a procedural vengeance system if you wrong them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I had to stop playing 1v1 PvP in Armored Core 6 because it was a detriment to my health: The knife’s edge, million miles an hour duels filled me with so much adrenaline I’d have trouble sleeping if I played too late in the evening. Other games\u2060\u2014and for a few minutes right after playing, real life\u2060\u2014would feel so slow I had trouble adjusting.<\/p>\n

The new demo for indie RPG Sword Hero<\/a> made me feel the same exhilaration and “nothing can compare” spoiling, but in singleplayer. Videogame combat so good, it might be a problem.<\/p>\n

To my editor reading this: I promise I got work done yesterday, but when I sat down for Sword Hero’s updated Tournament demo for “just a few rounds to see what’s new,” it became the rest of my work day and much of my evening. I broke just in time for a thing with friends, then decided I needed “just a few more rounds” before playing for two unbroken hours that felt like one. This morning, after way too little sleep? Well I had to get clips for the write-up, didn’t I?<\/p>\n

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I was already onboard for Sword Hero<\/a> after its first demo at the end of last year, a sequence of four fights that also showed glimpses of its story and world-building (rad medieval sci-fi on a Halo ring world<\/a>) and non-combat gameplay (significant and varied). This new update is all combat, though: 35 fights with set numbers and general tiers of enemies, but randomized gear in a selection of three or four different arenas.<\/p>\n

Each level of the tournament has three to seven fights to get through, you unlock better gear as you rank up, and if you die on a tier, you get kicked to the next one down for remedial Sword Heroing. It mimics a multiplayer ranked system in that way, and the roguelike progression is part of what had me saying “one more run” over and over.<\/p>\n

Divekick<\/h2>\n

The other part is some of the best melee combat from someone not named “FromSoftware” I’ve seen in I don’t know how long\u2060\u2014maybe ever<\/em>. The core of it is a hybrid of the lightsaber duel GOAT, Jedi Academy\/Outsider\u2060\u2014movement, aiming, and overall feel closer to an FPS and locked behind your shoulders\u2060\u2014with FromSoft’s signature weightiness, consequences (a single hit can be fatal), and the best-feeling Sekiro perfect block parry I’ve experienced since Sekiro.<\/p>\n

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There’s a lot of methodical circling, lunging out to test an opponent’s defenses, trying to bait out a strike you can meet with the earthshattering KA-CLANG<\/em> of a parry. It feels incredible every time it happens. Instead of quick attack mashing, Sword Hero has four attacks tied to which direction you’re moving\u2060\u2014similar to power attacks in The Elder Scrolls\u2060\u2014and each one has a brief cooldown, requiring you to string together deliberate combos when presented with an opening.<\/p>\n

That’d be enough on its own, but what really sets the combat in Sword Hero over the top is its shenanigans.<\/em> It embraces the emergent hijinks of great immersive sim games like Dark Messiah<\/a>, Prey, or Baldur’s Gate 3. Your only mana-based special ability in the demo is a backflip-dropkick that sends enemies flying, and ample spiked walls allow for easy one-hit kills with the right positioning. Elsewhere in this demo and the first, I’ve seen:<\/p>\n