Senesia
2004-10-26, 09:24 PM
Blood Will Tell
Developer: Sega
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre: Action-Adventure
First of all, the storyline is based on one of Osamu Tezuka's mangas, Dororo. You will be playing 2 characters throughout the game. The main character, Hyakkimura, and his sidekick, Dororo. Hyakkimura is mainly in charge of the action part, and Dororo deals with the adventure. What will you be doing in the game? Well, hunting down the 48 fiends who has stolen Hyakkimura's body.
Story
When Hyakkimura was born, his father traded him to 48 fiends for ultimate power. Though his body was stolen, he managed to survive with the help of a doctor. The doctor imparted man-made body parts for Hyakkimura, and when Hyakkimura set his heart to hunt the fiends, the doctor performed a final installment to his body - dual sword arms, rapid arm-gun and knee cannon.
During his mission, he'll defeat fiends and gain back his body parts: making him stronger, and granting him new abilities. For example, getting his voice back so that he can talk, getting his left eye back so he can see the world in colour instead of seeing it through his mind's eye.
In the beginning of the journey, a young thief Dororo will tag along and aid Hyakkimura in his quest. They will fight and travel together in Hyakkimura quest to become a true human.
Gameplay
Hyakkimura fights with his sword arms, arm-gun and knee cannon. Aside from those built-ins, there are also 34ish swords to collect. The swords have different abilities (yet they have the same moves... oh well), and have different range, special effect, etc. There are also scrolls to collect which will grant Hyakkimura a new spirit attack.
The main point of the game is to find and kill all the fiends, and some of them cannot be reached or located without having certain abilities. Some fiends will appear after certain events has happened, and it is possible to travel back anytime in between chapters.
The control is simple. There are two attack buttons, and a charged attack which allows a slice attack - delivering a combo attack by following the on screen button sequences within a given time (which is determined by the character's weapon, speed, luck, etc). A 200 hits combo can be done depends on those mentioned factors. What is the point of doing combo? Item hunting. Items such as ammo, healing items, weapons, spirit charge... and there is a near zero chance of getting items if an enemy is killed without the use of slice attack.
Talking about items, one of the commands in the game is to order Dororo to collect items from the field. Other ally commands are: Search, Fight, Stay Close. While it is not very useful, Dororo can be controlled by a second player. It can be fun in boss fight because there is a special boss camera, but in other situation it will be hard to control Dororo due to the view.
Sound
The voice acting is very well done. A lot of Japanese games do not have a good English voice acting, but Blood Will Tell is certainly an exception. The narration is also good as well (reminds me Tenchu)... and the music fits well with the ancient Japan atmosphere.
Graphic
Nothing special here.
Overall
I like Osamu Tezuka's manga... (And you'll ask me if I've played Astro Boy... Yes, I have.) and that's why I bought this game. It is worth it though. A dark and twisted story, an unique idea (I don't recall playing any game which the major quest is to gain my body back), and the impressive audio (sound tracks, sound effects, voice acting, etc) make the game worth playing.
The deduction goes to graphics, repetitive gameplay, and some of the camera angles.
Score: 8.0
Developer: Sega
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre: Action-Adventure
First of all, the storyline is based on one of Osamu Tezuka's mangas, Dororo. You will be playing 2 characters throughout the game. The main character, Hyakkimura, and his sidekick, Dororo. Hyakkimura is mainly in charge of the action part, and Dororo deals with the adventure. What will you be doing in the game? Well, hunting down the 48 fiends who has stolen Hyakkimura's body.
Story
When Hyakkimura was born, his father traded him to 48 fiends for ultimate power. Though his body was stolen, he managed to survive with the help of a doctor. The doctor imparted man-made body parts for Hyakkimura, and when Hyakkimura set his heart to hunt the fiends, the doctor performed a final installment to his body - dual sword arms, rapid arm-gun and knee cannon.
During his mission, he'll defeat fiends and gain back his body parts: making him stronger, and granting him new abilities. For example, getting his voice back so that he can talk, getting his left eye back so he can see the world in colour instead of seeing it through his mind's eye.
In the beginning of the journey, a young thief Dororo will tag along and aid Hyakkimura in his quest. They will fight and travel together in Hyakkimura quest to become a true human.
Gameplay
Hyakkimura fights with his sword arms, arm-gun and knee cannon. Aside from those built-ins, there are also 34ish swords to collect. The swords have different abilities (yet they have the same moves... oh well), and have different range, special effect, etc. There are also scrolls to collect which will grant Hyakkimura a new spirit attack.
The main point of the game is to find and kill all the fiends, and some of them cannot be reached or located without having certain abilities. Some fiends will appear after certain events has happened, and it is possible to travel back anytime in between chapters.
The control is simple. There are two attack buttons, and a charged attack which allows a slice attack - delivering a combo attack by following the on screen button sequences within a given time (which is determined by the character's weapon, speed, luck, etc). A 200 hits combo can be done depends on those mentioned factors. What is the point of doing combo? Item hunting. Items such as ammo, healing items, weapons, spirit charge... and there is a near zero chance of getting items if an enemy is killed without the use of slice attack.
Talking about items, one of the commands in the game is to order Dororo to collect items from the field. Other ally commands are: Search, Fight, Stay Close. While it is not very useful, Dororo can be controlled by a second player. It can be fun in boss fight because there is a special boss camera, but in other situation it will be hard to control Dororo due to the view.
Sound
The voice acting is very well done. A lot of Japanese games do not have a good English voice acting, but Blood Will Tell is certainly an exception. The narration is also good as well (reminds me Tenchu)... and the music fits well with the ancient Japan atmosphere.
Graphic
Nothing special here.
Overall
I like Osamu Tezuka's manga... (And you'll ask me if I've played Astro Boy... Yes, I have.) and that's why I bought this game. It is worth it though. A dark and twisted story, an unique idea (I don't recall playing any game which the major quest is to gain my body back), and the impressive audio (sound tracks, sound effects, voice acting, etc) make the game worth playing.
The deduction goes to graphics, repetitive gameplay, and some of the camera angles.
Score: 8.0