Bloodless

I appreciate an action game where you play as a pacifist - Bloodless's protagonist has abandoned the life of a samurai and has chosen to never kill again. One of the best parts of this game is that you can see her actions and choices change the lives and sometimes beliefs of the characters in game. I'm a big fan of the graphics style, and while it may look weird in screenshots, it truly works well during gameplay. While overall a positive experience, some of the fights (notably the arena challenge fights) are a bit overtuned and the games mechanics don't feel like they are fully designed to tackle these challenges without some luck. A few of the english lines are also a bit off, missing random words or just feeling unnatural. For most players I don't imagine this detracting from the experience too much, but they stood out to me as the game's main negative points so I thought i should mention them.

Let me start off by saying that this thumbs up is because I don't feel like this game deserves a thumbs down, not because I recommend it. It feels like a lot of care went into this game, but it needed like, another month. TL;DR it's like a 6 or 7 out of 10. If you love parry-based games and/or hard but usually fair combat, you might like this game. I can't say I love it, but I had fun, and the price was right. First, I want to talk about the art. The environment art in this game is very pretty. The character art, a little less so. The designs themselves are pretty good, but a lot of the animations are sometimes a little goofy (e.g. the run cycle on the serious protagonist is very bouncy and lively). Tossing sound in with art because I don't have a lot to say: The sound design exists. Nothing to write home about, but it's fine. Game design is where the real meat of my opinions lie. Caveat: I don't know that I'm very good at parry-based games, so take my experience with a grain of salt. This game lives and (doesn't) die on its parry system, and that, generally, feels fairly good. It regularly feels like that counter dash could be a few pixels longer, but maybe that's just me. The biggest issue I have with it is stamina. Hot take: parry-based combat systems should not have a stamina meter. A poorly-timed parry is punishment enough. Stopping it entirely feels bad. Enemy AIs are also, generally, pretty good. Fairly simple, especially early on, but you don't necessarily want complicated in a game like this. The enemy variety is respectable, especially in the quantity of attack types. It feels best in the early- to mid-game, but toward the end the enemies start pulling out a whole lot of really fast, sweeping unblockable attacks that you better dodge exactly right, or you're getting hit. I think there's a few that basically intend to require the (notably optional) skill that lets you somewhat interrupt their unblockables, but I think I used that skill more times on accident than intentionally, which made those enemies a huge thorn in my side. My biggest gripe is level design. It's not *bad* per se, and the frequency of save points feels pretty good. The issue is that movement in this game is, quite frankly, boring. And that's not strictly a bad thing, since this isn't a game about movement, but it does mean that traversing long levels, especially for runbacks or side quests, is not particularly fun. And the design of several late-game arenas is just kind of bad. Small pathways with walls that hurt if you hit them, combined with a lot of dashing, sweeping, unblockable attacks from multiple enemies kind of sucks. Also, as much as the map layout is kind of cute, it's not actually terribly useful when areas don't line up with each other on it. I'm sure it sounds like I'm raking this game over the coals (and I am a little bit), but I've generally had a good time with it. It's just that some of the issues are *really* glaring (in my eyes), and I think a lot of them could have been addressed with a little more playtesting.

mt foda, pra caralho

Simplesmente uma das melhores experiências possíveis, que um jogo de samurai pode proporcionar. A história é cativante e direta ao ponto, sem muitos diálogos expositivos, te apresentando o conceito geral da coisa apenas com a própria fluidez da narrativa. O combate é frenético e ao mesmo tempo exige bastante paciência, então se você curte mecânicas de parry, não vai se arrepender de comprar esse daqui

The best Sekiro-like out there. The fact that it's so unknown is baffling.

Com certeza o melhor jogo indie que já joguei, o jogo é simplesmente perfeito!!!

Ironic to call it bloodless when playing the game causes your knuckles to bleed from punching the wall. Very forward thinking of the devs to make a parrying game where you are PUNISHED for parrying.

Good One

Great game, incredible visuals and soundtrack. Held back by bad hitboxes, and IMO, unfair groups of enemies. Nothing unmanageable, but it does take the fun out of a game as precise as this one.

Having just finished the game for the first time, I can safely say that this is one of the best games I have ever played. The unique style of combat where you are trying to disarm everybody is a really cool concept and it is pulled off exceptionally well here. Your timing has to be pretty spot on to take down the enemies, almost as if this is a rhythm game, but there is more to it than just timing button presses. You have to keep an eye on your cooldown meter for stamina, you need to utilize the skill (basically subweapons) to wear down your opponents, you need to keep an eye out for hazards in your vicinity, and you have to master the ways these enemies will attack you. A lot of the enemies have aggro phases, that will keep you on your toes. The beauty behind the game is the mixing and matching of enemy types together and some of these combinations are insane to behold at first, but eventually you can figure out these wild challenges. Besides the combat, the game has an interesting story, well written dialogue, and characters that make you either love or hate them. I generally skip the text in most games, but this one had my attention the whole time. The pixel art is great and the color palettes are chosen well for each area. The music was perfect and mostly subtle, but there are moments where it gets intense as well. The whole package is very tastefully presented all around. One last thing I would like to mention is that there is a lot of additional content besides doing the main story. There are side quests, treasure to find, and a crap ton of extra challenges to test your skills, including a boss rush. I honestly give this game a 10/10 and would recommend it to anybody who likes top-down action games that will be challenging, but in a fair way.