I mean do we really need to say anything? I mean the game was sold basically for the cover and for the protagonist alone, we know, I know, I bought it at the time for that reason too, but it's actually good? ....nah I mean there are worse game out there but it's not that great.
The story of x-blades is about ayumi a treasure hunter that after finding a ancient map that reveals an old temple on an island goes there to seeking some treasures, only to find ancients gods fighting over the supremacy of light and darkness, she gets involved and now it's your turn to eliminate the darkness and get rid of the curse you have, the story is generic, not interesting and not even well done, with a lot of plot holes that to be honest they are never addressed.
The gameplay is, how can I describe it? Ah sure gooner May cry 2, yup, it's an third person action game where you need to fight wave after wave of enemies to clear the room and proceed to the next area, here it's really that, no puzzles no platforming or other segments, it's just: wave of enemies, clear the area and get to the next room and repeat until end of the game.
Sure not every area has the same enemies you have powers and different elements to use at your disposal to eliminate them easily and sometimes you really need to learn how to do damage to those enemies, or you know, read the bestiary, that expose everything for you giving you even the weakness of that new enemy you just see for the first time, why use design when you can just tell the player what to use, unbelievable and sure, the abilities are great because, if you only have the gunblades, the game will be more boring that it actually is, no combos or heavy attacks just one whole combo, of course being a gunblade you can shoot and I do like the design of the guns, (even if unpractical) it's really powerful, that's why I said it's similar to devil may cry 2 you can shoot almost everything with those and still clear most of the arenas, it's impressive how many enemies die for that, just like dmc 2, the abilities are useful but not really original or captivating there are just the same just with different elements attached to them, they are useful but man of they are boring.
The graphics are really good the HD pack really do a lot of work in here,sure the lighting is to bright with some instances I can't see the protagonist for how bright she was, and yes the design of everything it's pretty good, sure ayumi has a late 2000 anime/ecchi design but the monster and the environment and even the music are really good.
In the end it's kinda terrible but I did beat the game for myself, it was a game I wanted to play it for a long time even tho it was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game I still wanted to experience this game for me and for myself that at the time didn't have a powerful pc to play it on. I would Recommend it? I mean it's not terrible just really really flawed that's all just get it really cheap.