Blood Will Tell is an interesting game, only to be held back by some frustrating problems.
- Lengthy and interesting story
- Some of the gameplay parts are fun at first
- Good voice acting and music
- Environments look decent enough
- Some bosses are fun ….
Negative
- … others are just frustrating
- Poor camera can make fights annoying
- Can't defend or use items
Blood Will Tell is a third-person hack-and-slash action adventure which is a worth one to take but unfortunately has too many problems to make it a purchase. While the story is interesting and some of the gameplay ideas are excellent, the rather awful camera and boss fights diminish the fun.
The game starts with sort of practice area which is in black & white. Basic moves are cool like attacking and other things. You follow Hyakkimaru in his adventure to kill the 48 fiends who at his birth took his body parts. Being raised by a man, who took really care of him, now it's time to do what he was born for, defeat these fiends. Along the way Hyakkimaru will meet Dororo, another playable character. These are basically the tow but you can't choose which one you use. With Hyakkimaru you fight and Dororo's are more sneaking around. The story evolves in a very interesting way.
Each time Hyakki defeat a fiend he gain a new body part. At first the game is all the black and white until he gets his eyes. The more body parts he gets, the stronger he becomes and more skills are available. While Hyakki is more of a honored man, Dororo says that he's the world most famous thief, and you'll know that he's a trouble maker.
The gameplay is really fun at first. Fast hack-and-slash action with smooth moves. An interesting feature is that Hyakki can use his legs to shot ammo. Using certain button, Hyakkimaru can shoot a cannon ball and bullets. These can become unavailable if you equip other swords. Since Hyakki is almost wood made, at first he uses his sword hand, but later in the game when he starts gaining body parts, he becomes stronger and faster.
One major problem is the camera. Fortunately it shouldn't be a problem in boss fights since you can make the camera on the boss. That's ok. But camera issues still remain since it's fixed. Can cause a lot of problems in combat and the controls aren't much better so that leads to a lot of frustration when fighting, though you can run from enemies, normally. There are also some platforming which are a shame. Some of them take some time to do and the camera renders things difficult for no reason.
The bosses can be fun and entertaining, and also a bit too frustrating. Most of the bosses are big fiends, but there are small enemies as well. When fighting a human opponent, Hyakkimaru can't kill humans so he uses the other side of his blade. It deals less damage, can't use spirit attacks and Dororo can't fight beside him. By attacking from behind more damage is dealt. The fiend bosses are annoying since most of the time you run around them waiting for an opening. You give some hits and back off since they deal quite some damage and at first in the game you won't have air recovery which doesn't always work. After finishing a chapter you can visit previous chapters to defeat the remaining fiends. This can't be done in the middle of a chapter. By collecting green orbs in the game, you have the chance of fighting again after being killed. But you require a lot of them.
If Hyakki dies, it's game over. Dororo helps in battles and if he falls and returns unlike the player you use. He's not much of a help anyway but better than nothing. This doesn't look a great game technically, but character design is great and so is the enemy design. While some environments look better than other, mostly the game looks good. Sound is pretty average. Some good voice acting and sound effects but not all of it is on the impressive side. The cutscenes are pretty good, and interesting.
With a bit more effort and more focus on camera problems, Blood Will Tell would have been great. Though this game is very entertaining at first, the fun starts diminishing after a short while will all sort of problems, if not one, another. But if you really want to enjoy the game's story, you'll have to crawl your way through some tedious or fun bosses, a camera which is irritating at times, and the gameplay which is lacking the finishing touch.
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Graphics = 8.1
Level design is not the same in all places but the character and monster designs are excellent. Bosses and fiends are more than just good. Really great designs. But nothing special technically.
Sound = 7.7
There's a lot of voice acting in the game which is good, even though Dororo's voice is somewhat strange. Good selection of environment music. Great bosses music.
Presentation = 8.5
The cutscenes look great and the load times shouldn't be so long.
Gameplay = 7.0
Interesting gameplay is tossed away but some imprecise controls and camera. The jumping sequence are a mess and the bosses are quite fun but some of them are maddeningly frustrating. Combat gets repetitive and could have been better.
Camera = 6.1
It can be plain irritating when it comes to platforming. Luckily when fighting bosses the camera is locked on the boss.
Story = 8.8
An interesting story. Finding Hyakkimaru's body parts might seem dull but the story is good enough to make some people crawl through the frustrations of the game. Storytelling is excellent and it's even more helped with great cutscenes.
Difficulty = Medium
Other than the boss battles, the game isn't hard. The problems make the game more difficult leading to useless frustration.
OVERALL SCORE = 75 / 100
Blood Will Tell is worth playing for more than just the story because most of the game is really entertaining. Unfortunately some frustrations prevent this game for being better. But it's still worth renting for a short while especially if you're interested in the hack-and-slash genre.