Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo review:
Ammo is limited, so you can't get too trigger happy.If you can't already tell - weak pun not intended - we quite like Blood Will Tell. It has bags of character, plenty of quirks and the environments are varied enough to keep you playing until the end. Probably beyond that, in fact - some stages have been designed in such a way that you won't be able to see everything the first time round.
Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo review:
Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo, a third-person action adventure, combines all of the samurai-style fighting of Onimusha with the combo-linking and high-flying action of Devil May Cry, throwing a few role-playing game elements and storytelling on top as a garnish. Being a borrower rather than an inventor, though, the game is taking a risk in the sense that it brings little to nothing new to the market, and has, ultimately, fallen into such a trap.Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo is set on Earth during a war-ravaged period, the people under attack by overpowering and vicious demons and the gods of darkness, the Fiends. One day, the violence still as abundant as ever, two suns rose, one bright and one dark, the Fiends claiming that they foretold the imminent birth of a child who would cripple their destructive campaign. Believing they could corrupt the child's birth father, they offered him intense power and authority in return for his unborn son and, after some reluctance, he agreed. The moment the child was born it was enveloped in shadows, forty-eight of its body parts slowly stripped from its undeveloped body. Days later, the child was found abandoned by a jack of all trades known as Jyukai, who decided to feed the tampered being. Seeing it was still as healthy as ever, Jyukai decided to raise the child and discovered it had special abilities when it began to speak into his mind and even run around as a normal child despite bearing no eyes. Jyukai decided to operate on the child and attempted to give it everything it was missing, from eyes to ears, and named it Hyakkimaru. Despite his artificial body, Hyakkimaru continued to grow and eventually discovered that the demons - who still abused the entire world - had stolen his body parts. Determined to end the war and retrieve what was rightfully his, Hyakkimaru, now a developed Samurai, set out to destroy the forty-eight fiends, once and for all, before doing so having Jyukai fit his body with an arsenal of weapons.While the game's story is - without a doubt - strange, it's well-told through an abundance of cut scenes, character interaction and dialogue. Character development is also present, though more physically rather than emotionally; as you progress through the game and obtain more and more of Hyakkimaru's body parts, he'll grow stronger and more developed.GameplayNot long into the game you'll come across a young child and supposed "master thief", Dororo. Admittedly, seeing and hearing the kid's ponytail and high-pitched voice respectively led me to believe - for a good hour or so - that Dororo was a girl, but is apparently male according to the in-game dialogue. Anyway, Dororo will tag along behind you - without permission, as every curious and adventure-hungry young boy would - after your first encounter with him, and Hyakkimaru - despite having the ability to lop off the kid's head with ease - accepts the fact that Dororo isn't going to leave and therefore allows him to become his sidekick, and an annoying one at that.Throughout the course of the game's first chapter, Dororo moulds into the storyline - not directly, but as a supporting character. You're soon able to command him while venturing across the game's oriental-inspired environments, giving him one of four commands at any one time using the Circle button: attack nearby enemies; search for conspicuous objects; collect dropped items; or regroup. These commands prove to be fairly useful despite the fact that Dororo is fairly useless in battle, and it's always nice to have him collecting power ups while you're busy slamming demons into the ground.Soon after this feature is enabled you'll find yourself thrown into the first of many sequences in which you must control Dororo as he goes on lone missions - usually involving thievery or stealth - into places Hyakkimaru cannot or is not suited to. While this may sound like a great addition to the game, adding depth and variety, it often is not. The areas you enter as Dororo are usually unimaginative and bland, requiring you to - in a harsh contrast to the otherwise enjoyable fighting and action Hyakkimaru is immersed in - explore dull areas collecting keys and other objects, taking part in frustrating platform-jumping and attempting to knock down demons by throwing feeble stones. Making the latter two even more painful is the fact that Dororo handles much more erratically than Hyakkimaru, moving very jerkily and landing unpredictably after jumps. Without having to play as Dororo, Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo would've been stronger gameplay wise and better held together; as it is, it feels like the game has become tangled among a retro, kiddy adventure game.The child thief aside, playing as Hyakkimaru is enjoyable albeit repetitive. Devil May Cry style, he's able to perform double jumps and various attacks and combos with his weapons, more of which you'll uncover as you progress through the game. As well as the swords built into each of his arms, Hyakkimaru's body is fitted with a machine gun and even a bazooka in his leg. Couple with his bodily arsenal the various swords and the like that you'll collect throughout the game and you've got quite a bit to play with. The Square and Triangle buttons are used to attack, and various combinations of both initiate different combos, while holding down and releasing the Triangle button alone sees an interesting button sequence attack begin that'll take out an enemy in seconds. As you progressively hit and kill enemies, resulting in splashes of blood, your Spirit Meter will gather energy. Once full, a simultaneous tap of the Square and Triangle buttons will unleash a flurry of sword spins and rotations, dealing sufficient damage or taking down groups of demons depending on the context.The forty-eight Fiends who have stolen Hyakkimaru's body parts are woven into the game's story at various points, the catalysts of boss battles that are very enjoyable if often difficult and slightly aged in terms of gameplay, many of them being giant demons with specific attack patterns to memorise reminiscent of some of those seen in games such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. After you kill each Fiend you'll acquire one of Hyakkimaru's forty-eight body parts, be that, for example, an esophagus or a lung. Most of these body parts give Hyakkimaru new abilities and strengthen his statistics overall, these as well as combos and body parts obtained available for view in the game's status screen. One of the more creative events involving Hyakkimaru's body parts involves his vision; the game begins, initially, in black and white monotones. After ten minutes or so of play, though, you'll receive Hyakkimaru's left eye, allowing him - and therefore yourself - to see the world in colour. Many of the Fiends - and, on that note, other characters and demons - are very uniquely designed, bringing some fresh new entries to the otherwise samey monsters in other games out there today.GraphicsFeaturing little to no employment of special effects or lighting, some blocky character models, terrible lip-synch and a whole lot of flat, messy textures, Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo is rarely anything special in terms of graphics. On the plus side, Hyakkimaru and Dororo themselves are well-animated and decently textured, with fairly realistic looking faces and the like especially noticeable during cut scenes where they're presented from all angles.SoundA lot of the game's music is fresh and original, largely oriental but not so much so that it sounds the same as that in other games of a similar subject matter. It alters in order to pick up pace during battles, but abruptly cuts back to a slower pace afterwards rather than fading out gently. Most of the voice acting is great, Dororo standing out in particular, though the sound effects are often of average quality and nothing special at all.OverallBlood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo's unique storyline is interesting and there's some fun to be had striving to collect all of Hyakkimaru's body parts, but its many flaws pull it too far down for it to surpass its inspiration, that being Onimusha and Devil May Cry. Hardcore fans of the latter will squeeze some enjoyment from Hyakkimaru's long adventure, but casual gamers most likely will not.Thumbs Up Unique storyline Excellent demon designThumbs DownPoor graphicsRepetitive gameplayDororo's sequences don't fit in full size >>
Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo review: