Blood Will Tell Review

We could use a transfusion.

We’ve seen many strange things over the years, but recently the oddities are

multiplying with more tenacity than rabbits popping Viagra. Dung

beetle simulators, magical

dating games, and now

Sega brings us our first paraplegic samurai warrior.

Yup, that’s right, the quirky, entertaining and hopelessly dated hack ‘n slash brawler Blood

Will Tell lets you play as a limbless swordsman. But while the character progression and leveling up add some spice, the bland gameplay leaves plenty to be desired.

What Blood

Will Tell does best is successfully immerse you in its surprisingly

engaging story, likely due to the fact that it’s adapted from the manga Dororo by

legendary manga storyteller Osamu

Tezuka (Astro

Boy). The game stars Hyakkimaru and his androgynous pal Dororo. Legend states

that a savior will come to end the suffering of Japan’s feudal period by vanquishing

the 48 Fiends, who secretly fuel the fires of dissent. So the Fiends, being

such, claimed 48 body parts from the chosen one, Hyakkimaru, upon his birth.

However, a doctor/mad scientist created wooden prosthetics

(which double as concealed weapons) for our hero, allowing him to pursue his

destiny, crush the Fiends and, most importantly, reclaim his stolen body parts.

As Hyakkimaru (and occasionally Dororo), you slice and dice your way through over 100 different enemy types, including the 48 Fiends and 60 demons. Along the way, you’ll

spend time cracking open every crate, box and barrel for hidden weapons and items

to increase your abilities and attack level.

Reclaiming your body parts from the 48 Fiends gives you additional powers or

awareness, which in turn affect the gameplay itself. When you find your left

eye, you’ll

be able to see in color. When you find your nose, detecting the stink of demons

becomes much easier, causing your controller to rumble when one is nearby.

It’s an

interesting, weird feature that gives the game its unique feel.

Your encounters with the Fiends are almost always in the form of end-level boss

battles. Some of the Fiends are not much bigger than you, while others are

towering monstrosities, ranging from nasty Tiamat

beasts to strange ghostly apparitions and ghastly multi-armed deities. Though

they can be quite imposing, pretty much every one can be beaten by learning

its patterns through trial and error. Skill takes a back seat to patience

and repetition.

Justice is meted out mostly through your various combos. These are handled relatively well, with a good number of blade attacks for our hero’s swords and his peculiar sword arms, which he brandishes by casting off his wooden prosthetic forearms. Pretty nifty!

You’ll also do damage with a growing list of powerful ranged

Spirit Attacks. Your Spirit gauge is replenished as foes are dispatched,

and cracking open the many containers scattered throughout the game will occasionally

yield additional Spirit attacks. If your attack connects, you can deal even more

damage by quickly pressing the button sequence that conveniently appears on screen,

resulting in a huge combo for major damage. These are undoubtedly the best-looking

moves in the game, with great lighting and particle effects to pump up the brutality.

Rounding out Hyakkimaru’s offensive repertoire are his knee cannon and gattling

gun arm. These are stationary attacks aided by a floating cursor for aiming.

While not the most inspiring or balletic ordinance for a samurai, these ranged

attacks do come in handy.

And so does Hyakkimaru’s eventual sidekick, Dororo. The few levels that require you to play as him/her/it feature gameplay more suited to Dororo’s agility and thievery. This is also where the game suffers the most, with incessant platform jumping and a gross lack of action. Luckily, these levels are few and far between, but they will definitely make you second guess a second run once you’ve finished the game.

In a twist, a second player can play as Dororo during the levels where the CPU

would normally be at the helm. Sadly, this turns out to be just an afterthought

since the camera only follows Hyakkimaru, making a joke out any sort of functional

co-op feature. Dororo is much more useful under the computer’s command.

Speaking of the camera, it could use a serious overhaul. You can rotate and snap the camera back to center, but the vantage point will occasionally shift, forcing you to rewire your brain as the controls may be reversed. Now forward is back, left is right, and so forth. Ugh!

Another less forgivable issue is the dated graphics engine. Blood

Will Tell looks more like a first-generation Sega Dreamcast game than one coming out at the tail end of the Playstation 2. Washed out graphics, rough edges, bad character models – it’s just not polished.

Nor is the A.I. Enemies are mindless and predictable, leading to Blood

Will Tell‘s biggest problem: boring repetition. Although the combos

are cool, there are simply not enough of them. The game lacks the style and verve

of greats like Devil

May Cry or Onimusha.

Ultimately, the dated feel, dumb enemies and repetitive gameplay leave you

wanting more.

The blood is decent and Osamu Tezuka tells a great story, but the will to play

just isn’t there.