Bloodless Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: N/A

You know that feeling of when everything flows so well with a game and everything just seems near perfect? Well, I have found it yet again with Bloodless. Bloodless is a 2D action/adventure game developed by Point N’ Sheep and published by 3D Realms. The game has a counter-based brawling system and it is quite addicting and unique. Dark Souls (DS) gamers will definitely find something to enjoy with this one since it carries over a lot of the mechanics from that game, but it’s far from a DS clone. Just like DS the game has a learning curve to it that is both challenging and satisfying. Bloodless is easily one of the best indie games that I have played this year.

Players take on the role of Tomoe, a samurai with a troubled past that has sworn not to kill again. She fights with gauntlets and disarms her enemies. The Shogun Akechi army rule over the land with a reign of violence and Tomoe seeks to bring an end to it without bloodshed. If you’ve ever watched/read the anime/manga Rurouni Kenshin, the game’s main character is similar to a female version of Kenshin.

Your main attack is a dashing disarm attack. Tomoe will rush toward an enemy and disarm them with her gauntlets as they attack. Unlike most games, you must counter all your enemies. Wait for them to attack then watch for their weapon to turn white and that is the time in which Tomoe can disarm her enemy. Red attacks cannot be disarmed. For the most part, you are countering enemies all the way through the game.

Only countering enemies would get old after a while since you’d be too limited in a way to fight back. To keep the fighting fresh, Tomoe can also use ki attacks to drain her enemy’s stamina. Ki attacks slowly drain the stamina bar and eventually lead to the enemy getting stunned. Once the enemy is stunned, Tomoe can instantly disarm the enemy with her disarm attack. Throughout the game, you’ll be unlocking new skills and disarm techniques. Tomoe is eventually able to ki attack multiple enemies. You also gain access to upgrades that help with your stamina and health. While fighting enemies, you’ll also be gaining coins that you can be used to buy upgrades.

Just like I mentioned, this game has a bunch of Dark Souls mechanics. You’ll carry around a gourd that you can drink from in order to replenish health and stamina. Your game can be saved at bonfires. Tomoe can also be upgraded and you can change skills at save points as well. Unlike Dark Souls, enemies do not respawn after saving your game. The game plays a lot like an RPG with scripted battles and random battles based on where you are in its world. The world has hidden areas to explore for extra items and you can also engage in challenging arena battles to gain extra items.

Bloodless takes place on a 2D plane much like a Zelda game. The presentation to this game is amazing – it has a very retro look. It used a limited color palette with a lot of white, black and limited other colors. For the most part, the background is black and characters are all white. Whenever blood is shed due to a death, the game will suddenly highlight most of the surroundings in red. It helps to highlight Tomoe’s regret of seeing blood.

Like a Dark Souls game, this game is hard. It has a steep learning curve from the beginning. The learning curve mainly comes from a different style of combat however. All of your attacks are counters, so all attacks are about timing. You can go into battles and use ki attacks as a sort of direct attack but you are limited with ki attacks. Disarming is unlimited, but you can only perform disarms with timing or when an enemy is stunned from a ki attack.

The game can get quite tough at times. Eventually, the game will start to throw several variations of enemies at you all at once and you’ll have to run and counter their attacks as they attack at around the same time. There is a rhythm that you have to keep up and a timing that you have to look out for during battles. Enemies can back you into corners where you MUST rely on timing because all forms of escape are suddenly gone. To make up for the difficulty there is save point before nearly every battle in the game. The game is quite fair with saving so even people without patience can still enjoy Bloodless.

I greatly enjoyed my time with Bloodless. It’s got some incredibly interesting visuals and everything about the game just works so well. It’s near perfection. The only real problem I have with the game is that battles can sometimes get a bit too intense once you get crowded into a corner. Thankfully, save points are everywhere, so every skill level can eventually work their way through tough battles. I highly recommend this game to fans of Dark Souls and someone that just wants a good samurai action experience. Players that like an artistic-style game will find plenty to enjoy with Bloodless as well!

The Good:
+ Overall presentation is so beautiful
+ Unique (and satisfying) combat
+ Good overall sound

The Bad:
- The game definitely has a learning curve that may not appeal to some