Blade of the Wolf

Blade of the Wolf is a role-playing video game developed by Square Enix for the PlayStation 4. The game is set in a future cyberpunk dystopia where a mysterious corporation called Mythos Enterprise has taken over the world government and controls the entire planet. The game's story follows Lycus Keller, a computer engineer living in the city of Éténité who uncovered secret plans by the Mythos Corporation and leaked it in the Intra:Net. Kidnapped by bounty hunters and taken far away from the city to be killed, Lycus escapes from the bounty hunters and traveled back to Éténité to stop Mythos Enterprise from enacting their plans, meeting colorful characters and allies along the way.

Plot
In the year 2102, the corporation known as Mythos Enterprise has taken over the world by force. Every country and every planet in the Solar System is under the corporation's control. In the city of Éténité, a bustling metropolis located in Niflheim, a realm of primordial ice and cold. One of the citizens of the city is Lycus Keller, a computer engineer who uncovered a plot by the Mythos Enterprise to magnetically attract the Nine Worlds together and form one single realm where nothing exists. Leaking the plans on the Intra:Net, soldiers working for Mythos Enterprise dragged him away from his house into the outskirts of the city, where he is thrown into the Void, a vast empty space where they throw deserters and rebels who oppose Mythos Enterprise. Lycus Keller meets Verania Siegfried, the daughter of Sigurd, a legendary hero who fought against the Mythos Corporation when they began their invasion of Earth, and killed by the monstrous daemon that the rebels called Fafnir. The Mythos Enterprise uses Fafnir's greed and wrath to power their weapons and vehicles, and that if Fafnir died, so do the corporation's weapons. Verania gives Lycus Keller the Blade of the Wolf and tells him that only the blade could pierce Fafnir's heart and kill it. Hesitant at first, Lycus vouches for himself to kill Fafnir, and Verania chooses to accompany him on their trip.

As they travel to Helheim, where Fafnir lives, in their ship (which they named the Hringhorni), they encountered various characters such as the merchant Baebio Maddox, and a powerful eleven-year-old enchantress named Viridia Santana. Finally arriving at Helheim, they fought the giant wolf Garmr, before the goddess known as Hel stopped the battle just as the group was about to defeat Garmr. Hel, the goddess of the underworld, gives them her blessing to kill Fafnir and the group traveled through the river Gjöll into the Realm of Wrath, where Fafnir ruled. Battling various minions of Fafnir and armored goons from the Mythos Enterprise, they battled Fafnir and Lycus kills the dragon with the Blade of the Wolf. However, just as they were about to celebrate, the CEO of the Mythos Enterprise appeared before them. He then shapeshifts into a giant wolf and reveals his name as Fenrir, a monstrous wolf who was supposedly killed by Sigurd according to the rebel's legends. Revealing that he survived the battle, Fenrir and his army of soldiers invades Helheim, and Lycus Keller and his group was separated from each other. After Lycus gathered all of his friends, they traveled back into Helheim and battled various enemy soldiers before finally killing Fenrir, ending Mythos Enterprise forever. As the Nine Worlds celebrated, Lycus Keller became a mercenary alongside his new friends, becoming a group of mercs known as the Wolf Pack.

Gameplay
Blade of the Wolf is an open world, action role-playing game in which players assume control of Lycus Keller, a computer engineer turned hero who can perform a variety of actions related to both field exploration and combat.

There are various locations the player can explore, ranging from the metropolitan city of Éténité to the dour and dark realm of Helheim. Every world is free to be explored by the players, and players can travel to each one using the ship Hringhorni. Open world locations visited in the past can be fast-traveled to.

Players can use Silver to purchase items and equipment and accept sidequests from the NPCs they encounter. These offer additional rewards and allow for gameplay experiences that are separate from the main story. Players can choose how Lycus can interact with the various characters in cutscenes, and their choices can affect how the main story progresses.

Combat

Lycus possesses the Blade of the Wolf, a powerful weapon capable of defeating powerful beings. Blade of the Wolf uses the Active Time Battle system, in which the party member's action is input with a command in a menu once their ATB gauge fills, with up to three playable characters in a party, who can have various weapons, armor, accessories that the players can purchase in various stores around the Nine Worlds. Party members stand in a row (though their position can be altered in the menu) facing rows of enemies, which come arranged in one of many attack formations: facing them, surrounded by them, or surrounding them. The character commands include Charge, Charm, Summon, and Item Directive.

Growth

Similar to Final Fantasy VII, party members can be made more powerful and versatile through finding new abilities, weapons, armor, and accessories. After defeating powerful enemies, the party members are each rewarded with XP to the members that are alive. Each character has their own set of starting stats, which grow when the character levels up, though there are numerous other ways to boost stats.