Blade Duel

Blade Duel is a one-on-one sword fight about timing, drawn as bold black silhouettes in front of painted skies. You step forward and back on a flat stage and hold a high or a low stance. A strike is fast and comes from the stance you are in. A heavy strike is slow, but it breaks a guard held in the other stance. A feint starts a strike and pulls it back to bait the other duelist, and a dash takes you out of reach. Hold block to soak up a hit, or press it within 120 milliseconds of the blade landing to parry: the attacker staggers, everything drops into slow motion for a moment, and you get a free strike. There is no blood anywhere. A hit is a flash of light and a stagger.

The ladder is ten duelists who read like people. Taro the Woodcutter rubs his palms before every heavy swing and stands wide open afterwards. Suzu the Lantern Keeper bites on every feint. Goro the Gatekeeper swings a long blade but is slow to switch stance, and Kaze the Dune Runner dashes away after a block and gets greedy after a parry. They get sharper all the way up to Shiro the Moon Blade, who mixes every tell and habit on the ladder. Each one fights in front of a backdrop of their own, from a bamboo grove and a castle wall to a desert dune, a frozen lake, a volcano rim and a bridge under the moon. Three hits win a round, the best of five rounds wins the duel, and flawless rounds earn up to three stars.

Once you know the ladder, Endless is a gauntlet of random opponents who sharpen as you go. You get five hearts for the whole run and one back for every flawless win, and the score multiplier climbs with every duelist you put down, so every run is a shot at a new high score. Practice puts you against a straw training dummy that swings on a steady beat and shows the parry window on a timing bar, so you can see exactly how early or late you were. Rounds are quick, usually well under a minute. Play with keyboard, mouse or touch; your stars and best scores are saved in your browser.