Blade Guardian sets up its tower defences on iPhone and iPad

Last week, we brought you news of a bumper crop of Mistwalker announcements, including one about Blade Guardian. The company's intriguing tower defence title has now hit the App Store.

Blade Guardian is the second iOS release from Mistwalker, the Japanese developer headed by one Hironobu Sakaguchi - the daddy of the massive Final Fantasy franchise.

Blade Guardian is no epic RPG, though. Rather, it's a futuristic tower defence title with "attacking elements".

We've had a quick go on the game, and established that these attacking elements take the shape of the titular cutting weapons. From time to time, an odd-looking aircraft will float across the battlefield, and if you bring it down, it will release a robotic warrior to your service.

You can send these Blades on destructive rampages by tilting your iPad or iPhone to steer them towards enemy troops and spawning points. It's not quite the free-rolling Monkey Ball-like element we predicted, but it's a nice twist all the same.

We also like how bringing these Blades down on the battlefield can potentially punch a hole in your defences (you can build walls as well as turrets), so you have to be careful where you choose to release them.

Also worthy of mention is this line from the tutorial text: "Exterminating enemy's nests brings smashing victory!"

Brilliant.