Blade Prince Academy
Blade Prince Academy
Game
Game2022
XEL
Developer Tiny Roar
XEL is a 2022 action-adventure video game developed by Tiny Roar and published by Assemble Entertainment. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
134 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 19, 2026 · last updated Oct 21, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
37
Rotten
46 positive · 77 negative
95% range 29–46%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 46 | 77 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 1 | 2 | 8 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Negative
49 of 130 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
37% recommend · 46 yes, 79 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 125 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (145 of 302 positive).
Players find the game has a charming presentation and interesting story but is plagued by bugs. [1][2][3] Many reviewers note the gameplay is fun and reminiscent of classic Zelda titles. [4][5][6] Some players warn that game-breaking bugs near the end can prevent completion. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [1]
Xel is an entertaining puzzle oriented action-RPG and while a lot of comparisons will say it's "Zelda-like" - would generally say it is more in line with games like Hob & Toren instead. Pros - - Nice and Consistent Art Style despite being cartoony - Gameplay is simple to learn, and only moderately difficult to master (still getting back in the groove of classic dodgerolls rather than souls-like dodgerolls) - Puns, …
- [2]
Charming presentation, intruiging story and solid oldschool gameplay. Can recommend!
- [3]
Quick Overview Xel is an action-adventure jumping you into the role of Reid, a girl with no recollection of her past. Equipped with a sword and a shield, she must hack through murderous robots to ensure the safety of the Xel citizenry. While I enjoyed the puzzle-solving moments, it's plagued with numerous, unforgivable flaws that I can’t recommend it. Pros 👍 Creative gadgets to play withFun puzzle solving feature …
- [8]
I like the game and I'd wholeheartedly recommend it, but unfortunately I can't due to bugs. That is including a game-braking bug closer to the end when after certain someone reveals his masterplan you end up either stuck in a 2 meter corridor in front of a glass wall which for whatever reason refuse to break or stuck in the exact same place, but instead of a game you see a loading screen. Either one of those break …
- [16]
This game is damn near unplayable with all the bugs. You never know which save point is going to load you under the map and cause you to fall to your death forever. You're locked to a single save slot, so you can't even create multiple saves to avoid it. Don't waste even a dollar on this game.
Summarised from 34 of the 137 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
37% of the 125 Steam reviewers we collected recommend XEL. The complaint that keeps coming up: frequent bugs and glitches. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
XEL received unfavorable reviews on Metacritic. Nintendo Life said it had the potential to be a good science fiction Zelda-style game, but software bugs and performance issues made it an "ultimately unsatisfying experience". TouchArcade said it was a decent action-adventure game that Zelda fans may enjoy, but the number of technical issues they experienced made it a "mild recommendation". Nintendo World Report called the story "quite boring and lackluster" and said it is "absolutely one of the worst performing games I've seen on the Switch".
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 134 · most liked firstErf, it's another one of those games that could have been good if the devs had done some basic research on quality of life from other successful games. The player can be obscured by the environment, so you can't see anything at all. Games with this camera angle have had the whole "ghost outlines" through environment down for a while. Also the camera feels really far away, which disconnects you from the action. Vsync is forced on, and while I understand why (due to lots of game engines having…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Xel is an entertaining puzzle oriented action-RPG and while a lot of comparisons will say it's "Zelda-like" - would generally say it is more in line with games like Hob & Toren instead. Pros - - Nice and Consistent Art Style despite being cartoony - Gameplay is simple to learn, and only moderately difficult to master (still getting back in the groove of classic dodgerolls rather than souls-like dodgerolls) - Puns, all the Puns - and then add more puns... - Runs fairly smoothly even on my…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quick Overview Xel is an action-adventure jumping you into the role of Reid, a girl with no recollection of her past. Equipped with a sword and a shield, she must hack through murderous robots to ensure the safety of the Xel citizenry. While I enjoyed the puzzle-solving moments, it's plagued with numerous, unforgivable flaws that I can’t recommend it. Pros 👍 Creative gadgets to play withFun puzzle solving feature with the use of the Time CoreFunny NPC…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was enjoying this game very much despite all the criticisms listed in many of the other Steam subscriber reviews. I agree that there are many issues (which there is no need to repeat here) with the game but I found most of them fairly easy to live with. What I could not tolerate however in the game was a glitch that stopped the character Reid dead in her tracks and prevents completion of the game. Towards the end of the game, Reid enters a room and she is then frozen in her tracks on a bridge…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fast review: Don't buy it, wait 1 year and for a discount... Extended review: XEL is a game with a good story, interesting universe, good visuals overall, good soundtrack and interesting gameplay mechanics. Should you buy it? NO. Those things are true, but are buried in a HUGE amount of game breaking glitches, bugs, bad design choices, awful balance in the difficulty of the boss fights (since there are some literaly that have to be beaten with a "luck" element), complete lack of critical…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As of 2023/3/31 there still are bugs so I would recommend this only on sale or in bundle. I liked the game and gave it a thumbsup despite it. Fingers crossed for patching. Gameplay is fun, the story/characterization is fine, and the deeper plot/theme of the XEL pretty interesting, I felt that gave a lot of depth to the whole game. The exploration is fun, but it does take some getting used to the initial mechanic that you only jump when the game has specific-looking ledges. Much of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →--Day 1 of release review-- This will be a negative review until some of these issues have been fixed. There are plenty of bugs as of right now & things they NEED to fix that I experienced after playing for 3.5 hours. 1. In the main menu, Settings, Audio - When I tried to lower the audio on any of them, instead of going down 1 at a time it went 2, and sometimes even 4 which made it hard to select the ''right'' audio settings. 2. Talking about Audio issues, the audio in general is super low,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtu.be/g5FZcItBTdY What is XEL? XEL is a classic top-down 3D action-adventure set in a sci-fi fantasy setting. Explore XEL as Reid, who has no recollection of her former life, but it is up to you to help her recall her past memories and connection to this "world". Fight countless enemies and bosses, and solve challenging puzzles. Find new tools to use to help you on your journey, upgrade your weapons and jump through time and space. My Opinion Bugs and Glitches So, I was…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the game and I'd wholeheartedly recommend it, but unfortunately I can't due to bugs. That is including a game-braking bug closer to the end when after certain someone reveals his masterplan you end up either stuck in a 2 meter corridor in front of a glass wall which for whatever reason refuse to break or stuck in the exact same place, but instead of a game you see a loading screen. Either one of those break ability to finish the game. I can tolerate quite a lot, but game-breaking bugs…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Xel is a surprisingly good sci-fi fantasy action-adventure game that gives me the impression of being inspired by the classic Zelda games. The game takes us into an adventurous and vibrant world that can be admired from above, full of mysterious creatures, strange animals, enemies and also treacherous dungeons. Check out my first 15 minutes of gameplay here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19VxL9pZ3t8 In XEL we experience the familiar Zelda gameplay where we walk through a colorful and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the voice acting, which is very good. The gameplay is Legend of Zelda style box smashing and slashing. It is bright and colorful, has great music and smooth gameplay. A couple of glitchy animations don't get in the way of a really fun experience. Syncing the speech with the animations is tricky, but I would love to see it polished up a bit to really deliver on the strength of the voice acting. https://youtu.be/cyfVOk5FVZA
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nicely presented all around, but there are far too many bugs to recommend currently. Keep it on your wish list and wait for some updates. Our protagonist Reid, has crash landed her spaceship on the world of Xel. As you come around, you are greeted by a flying mechanical ball called Chap, who becomes your companion on your journey through the many realms of Xel. Unable to remember your name or your past, you must work with the inhabitants of the planet to try and uncover the secrets…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has a ton of potential; the characters are interesting, the story is engaging, if a bit predictable. What truly brings it down is the amount of bugs, especially game-breaking ones. I've clipped through the floor multiple times. There is a whole section of one of the areas that doesn't load, so if I walk over to it, I fall off the edge of the map and die. They tried to make it so you can't get stuck with the time mechanic, but this often doesn't work, leading to you getting stuck in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tbh I really hate writing negative reviews, but XEL has the most terrible controls of all the games I ever played so far. Maybe it's playable with a controller, but don't bother if your plan was to play this with a keyboard and mouse. First of all the keybindings make no sense. Walking with WASD, then K for USE, N for inventory, and several other random buttons. Unless you have 3 hands like the developers, you'll have to remap first. No, you can't bind anything to the mouse. The mouse is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are certain bugs one can forgive. Game breaking bugs are not one of those things. I got all the way to the end of the game and now I can't go further due to two different bugs that are consistently happening. I really want to recommend this game but not until these bugs are fixed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sorry, but its a nope for me. At first, this game had a whiff of Hob about it but to be honest, that passed fairly quickly and the game became pretty mundane with nothing new or innovative to bring to the party. The fixed isometric camera angle and limited movement controls, when done well can actually add to a game's charm but in XEL it just comes across as irritating. The map is another bug bear as its available in its entirety to see from the off which makes exploration a bit of a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is damn near unplayable with all the bugs. You never know which save point is going to load you under the map and cause you to fall to your death forever. You're locked to a single save slot, so you can't even create multiple saves to avoid it. Don't waste even a dollar on this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →𝕀𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕒 𝕗𝕒𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 𝕘𝕒𝕞𝕖𝕤, 𝕘𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕘𝕒𝕞𝕖 ℕ𝕆𝕎 𝕓𝕖𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨. Xel is as good a "Link to the Past" clone as one can get... Forget about bloody Oceanhorn, this is the real deal. Xel is an action top down platformer that takes you to the land of Xel, a spherical world created then abandonned and now repopulated by humans after they ran away from some sort of cataclysm. Reid, who's your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sluggish, slow, uninteresting main character and obnoxious dialogue.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played through the first dungeon - like the idea + look & feel - pc does need more zelda-likes so recommend
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I must say that this is one of the most beautiful games I have played. I like the Cartoonish Art Style. Reid is one of the best designed ones but same can't be said about other characters in the game. They aren't really interesting. The story has some decent lore about the world you move in but It's so empty and most of time you move back and foward among biomes and It feels so repetetive while also It has some puzzles through which you can get some loot to upgrade your weapons and tools or…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tough game to like. Definitely not worth its price or your time, but I'll let you know the pros and cons... Pros: + Good quality character models with decent animations and decent voice work + Soundtrack is great. I'm happy I have the soundtrack separate to this game. + Nice premise for a kid-friendly adventure story. Cons: - Characters often have very broken animations and often you'll see some pretty derpy stuff when an NPC attacks another NPC. - Easy to get lost. Difficult to find your way…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's really slow and the maps seem way to big. You found that one item you needed for the next sword upgrade? Have fun running slowly back to the main village without any notable shortcuts.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's potential for a good game here, but it's smothered under a layer of jank. The art is good, but used poorly with difficult to read map layouts. The game is voice acted, but the acting is fairly underwhelming and the script is honestly just bad. Movement feels relatively smooth, but combat is kind of clunky and it's far too easy to get stuck in the geometry during traversal. I got stuck multiple times, and one time was unable to unstick and had to reload a save. Someone with more patience…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Charming presentation, intruiging story and solid oldschool gameplay. Can recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Update: I've love the Game. Pros: I like the design very much. Both visually (I think the style is really cool) and in terms of gameplay. Then there is the setting. This halo meets HOB - SCiFi Setting is really interesting and in my opinion well implemented. I also really like the characters. Another positive thing to mention is the Synchro, which is very good in both EN and GER. "Cons": Of course, there are still points of criticism. Yes there are a bugs! No bug was Gamebreaking but…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The camera is waaay too far back and removed from the gameplay. As such, items that are dropped by enemies or boxes are incredibly small and easy to overlook. Because of the camera's distance you'll also encounter many moments where the player is obscured by the environment completely, this also happens with enemies and it can also make progression confusing. This is a perplexing choice and easily the biggest reason I can't recommend this. Events frequently triggered too early, for example…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wish I could recommend this game, because I liked the aesthetic, but to put it bluntly: This game is a nothing burger. Generic gameplay. Terrible keyboard controls that don't allow for buttons to be mapped on mouse, for whatever reason. Boring combat that offers nothing new and is very basic. No auto-save feature, again, for whatever reason. A very mediocre game overall.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buggy for a product that has not been updated for a long while.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Too many game-breaking bugs. Even after the most recent patch. Got stuck several times and lost progress. Just a terribly buggy game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed Xel. The gameplay is good and the story is alright except for the foul language which felt out of place. But I have now had two playthroughs and both of them have not allowed me to proceed. The first play through was stopped because something I was supposed to select didn't let me select it. Because I had fun with Xel, I waited for a patch in which a fix for this bug was mentioned. It happened and I hoped I could play through the game again. I played through a second time, but after…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have been enjoying the game until I reach a place and the game always crashes on my PC and on my Steamdeck and many players as well, dev doesn't answer anything I even I emailed then to check and its been some weeks ago, nothing can fix it because its pre memory leak that crashes the game and nothing on my end, I guess don't buy for now or ever probably the devs abandoned this game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lots of bugs throughout. You have to save often (only allowed at checkpoints) or else you could run into a bug and have to lose progress. The game does not respect your time at all and makes you run throughout the map from area to area. Sometimes it's completely useless back and forth to "town" just because you have to in order to progress the story. Without fast travel, it's just a waste of time. I hit a game breaking bug over half way through the game and can no longer progress... so I guess…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Xel could be ( If it's patched ) a really nice game. Unfortunately this game suffers from a large number of rather bad game design decisions. To be fair Xel is a decent little game with nice 3D Art. Nonetheless. Here's my list of poor design decision in Xel: - No Mouse Support during gameplay. Instead of being able to attack with LMB, you have to attack with the I Key. And you cannot rebind this in Settings. - You can't Jump manually. The game Jumps for you at specific Jump locations.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It isn't a game theme, but probably something like this: m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wg1... Xel as a final boss would be mad with grief. One of those fights where you wish you could save him, but you can't.
neutral · AI labelView post →At first I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches, but after my first save went back to the game got stuck under the map reloading my game over and over again redownloading or verifying game files doesn't work. Had multiple spot that just crashes your games and you cant do anything anymore had to force close the game multiples time cause of that. The game would be somewhat decent if it wasn't for that. and as other mention not being able to teleport back to ''home" doesn't help the cause of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: Ok story/combat/exploration, but bad Performance and game breaking bugs. While the game is mostly fun, the bugs bring it down to a negative review. I mostly played on steam deck with proton experimental, but also played a bit on my PC PC specs: Ryzen 5800x, Rx 5600 xt, 32gb ram, m.2 ssd, 1080p 144hrz monitor First, the Good: I enjoyed most of the story (couldn't roll credits due to a bug) combat is similar to an isometric dark souls, but only dodge and block cost stamina you get a few…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried to give this game a shot despite the negative reviews, and I regret it. The game has a lot of positive qualities, including the good voice acting, good dialog (for the main characters), and decent metroidvania mechanics. I wanted to like this game, but unfortunately there are just too many papercuts: combat is mostly boring, there are tons of worthless treasures and uninteresting side NPCs polluting the world, and the game is pretty buggy (though rarely in a total game-breaking way, at…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite some reviews here, I liked Xel a lot. I'm a huge Zelda fan but be aware this game is not a 100% Zelda-like imo. Also don't expect a Tunic. I got more Hob vibes while playing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a buggy POS. I lost progress by getting stuck/movement locked in a corner at least three times while attempting to play it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I should start by saying this game is full of bugs and in some parts extremely unpolished, but it doesnt take away from the fact that the game can be really fun if you dont take it seriously. i have this on switch and PC and the performances are nearly the same, but again, if you dont go into it thinking its gonna be the new Wukong or Elden Ring or something, you may actually have a good time. i liked it because even though the combat was a bit simple and the controls are a bit sticky, the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Every 10 min a new gamebreaking bug. speak with a NPC = teleport under him and fall (and no, your not reset or die you need to load the game in endless falling) evade roll from a enemie = stuck in some trash that stand around and need load again because you can t move out (because the carakter can t spring so every tiny hole in the trash let you get stuck in there with no escape) o and the best of all when you load new or die you get that spezial window that tell you what you loot for every…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoyable while being unambitious, but in dire need of some bug fixing and quality of life changes. Being able to see your character behind walls would be a great help, especially considering how zoomed out the camera is. Lots of issues with animations not working (leading to “ice skating” effects,) NPCs disappearing, and some frame issues too.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →not good. very buggy. keyboard remapping doesn't work. the ui is very hard to navigate. feels unfinished. would not recommend.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Upd Ok, I was really not right in my first opinion. Game is't broken. It's a ♥♥♥♥ on the game design. Dear (not even a bit) developers. Make collectables necessarily for story progress it's not a feature, not a mechanic to force player explore...it's just a stupid thing that tells only about that you haven't any ideas what to do about exploring. Also it's stupid, coz if U use rare resources that can be obtain from chests only for upgrade you gear (surprise surprise! players use resources for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6142328/] With 1,100+ reviews, make sure to follow The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more! Your adventure of Xel begins with you crashlanding in an unknown place. That is not all, you have lost your memory and cannot remember your own name. However, you’re greeted by Chap, a flying robot who explains that you have crashed landed in The Garden on Xel. You set off with your newly found friend to explore your surroundings and find out where…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As much as I actually like this game, the puzzles are decent and the game itself is overall pretty fun, but the bugs are nearly game breaking and the travel time is horrible, i think there's a fast travel aspect i haven't unlocked yet, but until then its a ton of running, the minimap lacks information, some areas don't load until you're in them, and when a ladder you have to drop to get back up to, only appears when you enter the area by jumping off the cliff its mounted on, leaving you unable…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun trivia: The main character has a line just a few moments in which is "So much trash" Guess the dev left a little easter egg to describe the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is one good step away from being legitimately good. They should have spent more time polishing the game design, and less time bombarding you with their lore.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its fun, but it has some bugs. : )
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →XEL, developed by Tiny Roar and published by Assemble Entertainment, is a science fiction action-adventure game that wears its influences proudly. Drawing clear inspiration from classic Zelda-style gameplay, it aims to blend top-down exploration, real-time combat, and puzzle-solving with a futuristic twist. Set on a strange alien world, players take on the role of Reid, a space pilot who crash-lands with no memory of who she is or how she got there. As Reid begins to explore this unfamiliar…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I could not continue playing because the main character is so entitled that it made me annoyed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is lame,the characters are ugly, cutscenes are lazy,game is too long with how little it has and with slow main character , it has dialogue sprinkled with 2010/2018 memes that aged like spoiled milk. The best enjoyment i got from this were the puzzles,but you will have to hope that you don't come across any glitches or bugs. Edit: After 100% the game I can confirm that I wasn't wrong and in fact I somehow got lucky the first time and didn't fall trough the floor several times and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Xel is essentially a isometric dungeon crawler. It touts that it has puzzles, challenges, and so on, but it is really aimed for kids who just enter the genre. As far as indi titles who tout the same exploration and feel, get HOB. What makes this title lackluster is a hit in all of the following. Story - I'm an amnesiac protagonist that is beckoned to do a journey with all other characters saying, "rather you than me." It's not that original of a premise and none of the supporting cast has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An adventure with open places. We can go back to places we explored, but the concept is mixed. Some things remain unchanged: opened door (by button/damaged), pushed box, items dropped on the ground. But some things are reset: cut scene and talks, enemies, crates. It could be good for grinding (if needed, haven't go that far), but the cut scene is kinda weird. The cut scene should be talking about an item on the ground, it shows only ground for the second visit.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →really annoying that you can easily and inadvertently noclip yourself out of boundaries with no way back, aside from reloading game from sod knows when ago. every single map.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awful control, non-existing balancing, low quality story and braindead protagonist, what else to wish for in action runner/platformer right out of 1990?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dear Steam-Community, I definitely wanted to give this game a chance. The style and art of the game and the overall idea seemed really cool and fun. And it was fun to play this game. But yeah, ... there are bugs. I got stuck between some boxes and couldn´t get out. I fell through the world and under the map a couple of times etc. But even though that happened and the game basically almost tells you nothing (for example which direction to go) or where to find a specific character, I still…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For whatever reason I need to set the resolution to 4k at 60 fps to see a change in graphics settings. but once it is set it defaults to my monitor 1440 resolution and looks amazing with settings maxed. The game really opens up for more exploration than the original moments led to believe. The combat works well and can get fun enough. The story is actually growing on me. The world is getting really pretty I just met the recipe man and have a new quest. Keep the updates coming. I am finally able…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a very cool idea for a game, the story and world are interesting. However, as the other reviews point out, there's a lot of bugs. Even if you could look past that there are other issues. The combat is the weakest part of the game. There's a lot of running around which is kinda boring. The puzzles are simplistic too so they're easy to figure out. This is a personal issue but at launch there wasn't a way to show where to go and I closed the game without remembering. So I was completely…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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