Chinese development outfit ECool Games is working on Blade (or Sharp Blade in Mandarin), which is a high-impact, survival hack-and-slash game themed around hardcore swordplay. Players will have to acquire resources, avoid bandits, armor up, and focus on utilizing deadly attacks to take down foes with the precision of a single strike.

The title recently entered into Early Access over on the Steam store for $18.99.

The game features what ECool describes as “next-generation” independent action-fighting. This is because it takes some of the core concepts of classic games like Bushido Blade, and then incorporates some survival game elements and large open-worlds within that concept.

Players will take on the role of either a Chinese soldier, a Japanese warrior, or a Western mercenary during the end of the Ming dynasty, where chaos and destruction rules the land, and only the strong survive.

You can check out some of the gameplay in the video below.

As you can see, this is not a casual game at all. And to make matters even more intense, once you die your body and all the items you’ve collected are up for the taking. So basically it has permadeath elements, like the original DayZ.

If you survive a fight but are gravely wounded, you’ll need to scavenge for bandages and healing supplies.

You’ll also need to account for bone fractures, weapon poisoning, and other long term debilitating effects that can affect your character.

The Unreal Engine 4-powered title is basically being scheduled to receive updates regularly, with new content drops each week. The developers have plans on keeping Blade in Early access for anywhere between six and nine months. This is in addition to the two years the team already put into the project.

You can keep track of the game by hitting up the Steam store page or you can follow along the development with the updates from the developers.