If I were to give you a name for something I’m eagerly awaiting to play, it would have to be Die By The Blade – a one-hit-kill sword fighting game from Grindstone, in the style of Bushido Blade.

The anticipation for this is through the roof; having played a teaser demo a while back, it did not disappoint in terms of concept: sure as hell, you can die with one attack. Relatively hot off the press, the game has since switched back from the publisher to the developer through the re-acquisition of rights. Phew!

Die By The Blade Review: Live By The Sword? Not For Long!
Live by the sword and read a Die By The Blade review. This spiritual successor to Bushido Blade opts for instant kills instead of a haiku.

Click to read the Die By The Blade review

As Die By The Blade was not going as planned (a.k.a. creative differences), Grindstone took the helm back and shaped it based on their original vision, with feedback from the players.

This decision was hard to make and incredibly difficult to bring to life for a small indie company like Grindstone. However, we accepted the challenge, and despite the complicated and hard times in the industry we managed to get the external funding to re-acquire the Die by the Blade rights back. As a result, our creative team can now bring the game directly to our fans and unleash its true potential.Peter Nagy, CEO at Grindstone

Here’s the latest trailer confirming the release date:

It’s been a wait, but it’ll be worth it. Die By The Blade’s current release date for PC (Steam and Epic Games Store) is set for the 16th of May 2024.