Bloodless Features Overview: Indie Action-Adventure Full of Charm
Sep. 5, 2024Bloodless Features Overview: Indie Action-Adventure Full of Charm
In this article, we are going to be taking a look atBloodless, a new retro action-adventure game with a charming pixel artstyle and mechanics, featuring a pacifist hero and focusing on precision disarming and hand-to-hand combat that was just released on Steam a little over a week ago. And although it only has a few reviews currently, it has a whopping 93% approval rating, which is phenomenal to say the least.
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Bloodless is a very unique game in that it is unapologetically indie and clearly devoted to its concept and style, mixing oldschool text storytelling with beat-them-up mechanics and spicing it up with simple skill trees to customize your combat experience.
The first thing that I’d like to mention about Bloodless is one of its main appeals, the setting. While there are a lot ofSamuraiandRoningames out there, with varying degrees of righteousness or tales of revenge, Bloodless explores the side of the hero that has lost the lust for battle and is truly done with killing.
Many people in our audience read manga and watch anime, and of course the souls audience is all about Berserk that inspired so many of FromSoftware’s concepts. Bloodless does something similar but with a manga and franchise that is actually more popular even than Berserk, and one of my favorite of all time: Rurouni Kenshin. If you are unfamiliar with that series, it has over 70M copies in circulation and the most recent Live-Action movie released only in Japan was top box-office for the country breaking records. It’s that popular!
What I love about that series is the fact that the protagonist isn’t just “jaded from war” but actually is committed to NOT being the cause of more deaths. This concept is very rarely explored or carried through successfully in any type of entertainment media focused on the Edo period and similar Japanese Samurai era. There is a tendency to glorify death and violence, which has led to a very negative portrayal of the time. A very obvious and recent example of this is when a Ubisoft developer boldly stated that “most people” in Japan died from clean decapitations at the time. That kind of view has taken shape from the multitude of violent stories, movies, games and tales that romanticize war and the very long period where the Bakufu (military government) controlled Japan.
So, when I saw a game that is actively trying to do the opposite and let you have a hero that doesn’t want to focus on these things and is trying to promote peace and conflict resolution via alternative means I got quite excited for the concept and decided to dive in and check it out.
Setting aside, Bloodless aims to be a narrative game where you can follow an emotional story as you interact with many characters from Tomoe’s past and her quest for changing how things are done. In general, you shouldn’t expect any sort of narrative excellence here as this is a casual game without voiceovers and with a strong “OG Final Fantasy” feel to its dialogue and questlines. This is something that generally doesn’t bother me as the game is not trying to be pretentious or trick you into thinking there’s some amazing twist, so I found some sort of charm on the strong retro feel of dialogues and quest progression.
This brings us to the game itself and how it plays, what the gameplay loop is like, etc. As I mentioned this is a very indie title so there are no voiceovers, so your opening scenes are simply showing you what happened and then letting you take control of the character to interact with a top-down side-scroller world. I would say it all starts out rather slow as the game takes its time showing you its mechanics with areas that you can mostly just walk through. This can be deceiving for people who may think the game is easy and, oh boy, it really isn’t!
The start of the game will primarily teach you about the basic combat mechanics and the systems of the game, so let’s explore those a bit so you know what you are getting into:
As Tomoe is trying to change here ways, she has opted to never use weapons again, so the player will instead be fighting empty-handed. This would be akin to martial arts or a “Monk” style of gameplay in other titles, but there is a large focus on disarming enemies, which you do by dodging into flashing white attacks of enemies.
At first this sounds easy. See the flashing white, dodge into it, disarm the enemy and that’s that. However, Bloodless does a very good job of easing you into the game’s mechanics, before dropping you off a difficulty cliff, so it’s easy to be lured into a false sense of security.
Eventually Bloodless will start mixing in red attacks that can’t be disarmed, it will mix in ranged attacks that you must dodge, it will add combos to the enemies, meaning you might have to dodge into them multiple times. It will change timings of different attacks so you can’t just dodge straight away but must read the attack correctly, waiting for the opportune moment. And on top of that you must manage your Stamina while doing this, since you cannot dodge if you run out, which can put you in a very bad position. But that’s just the beginning…
Soon after that you will be given Ki attacks that help you to stagger enemies, allowing you to disarm them if you completely deplete their gauge, giving you a method of playing offensively so you aren’t only waiting for enemies to attack you. This is somewhat similar to Sekiro’s posture system, only instead of filling a gauge you are depleting one.
So then combat becomes about attacking, disarming, dodging, positioning and Stamina management, and as more and more enemies come at you on the screen with different moves and ranged attacks, it becomes a real test of skill and reflexes, as well as memory since you need to remember the attacks of each enemy and handle them accordingly.
But then you also unlock Secret Techniques that consume a resource you build up by fighting enemies, allowing you to pull off special moves that can turn the tide of combat, and using them at timely moments as well as selecting the best one to equip is also part of the combat of Bloodless. It is not a stretch to say that Bloodless is a throwback to the golden era of games where new titles were extremely challenging, and you will need all the tools at your disposal in order to succeed in this game.
Beyond combat there is character progression in the form of Skills and Crests. Skills are passive abilities that you will unlock as you progress the game by acquiring Skill Points that you can spend in the Skill Tree. These will unlock things that make your Ki-attacks deal more damage, to heal by disarming enemies, and even refill your stamina by deflecting projectiles. All in all, it’s not a huge Skill Tree by any means, but it does make you feel stronger, and you notice the improvements because Bloodless is so challenging.
You will also find or buy Crests in the game, and these sort of work like Talismans or Rings in other games, and they provide you with a passive benefit like drinking your health potion faster, consuming less Stamina when dodging or consuming less Stamina when sprinting. Each Crest fills up a certain amount of slots, so you’ll have to pick and choose wisely so you don’t waste slots by not filling them. And again, these are essential because of the difficulty of Bloodless.
There is a crafting system in Bloodless, though minimal, but it does allow you to brew tea at checkpoints using crafting materials you will find and loot around the game world. You can make tea that heals you, tea that gives you Special Technique resource so you can use more special moves, tea that gives you unlimited stamina and more. You will begin with 3 uses that will replenish when crafting more at checkpoints, but this will increase as you progress the game.
And it might seem like a chore to have to farm materials to make healing tea, but they are usually stationed just near checkpoints, so it’s actually not hard at all. I never really had any problems with healing items, though they are somewhat difficult to use in combat, so make sure you have good separation before using one, or simply wait until after combat to heal.
When not in combat, you are usually interacting with NPCs in towns who may have quests, act as merchants, or simply provide story progression for the game events. I feel most people will likely skip a lot of the dialogue as is common with these kind of games, and the story while somewhat interesting, is definitely not what most people will play this game for.
The game world is one big interconnected map that you can traverse, and Bloodless does have an in-game map that shows where each location is and what it’s connected to to help you move about easily. And not too far into the game you will unlock some fast travel that will allow you to jump between major areas of the game without having to run all the way there and back. You will likely find you don’t need this immediately, but you will be happy when you eventually need it.
Visually, you can tell immediately that Bloodless is going for a very retro look that is reminiscent of games that you would find on Nintendo or Sega Genesis. This will definitely appeal to some of us old school gamers, and may not appeal to those who prefer flashy and modern graphics. Personally, I admit I was not totally thrilled about the visuals when I started playing, but they grew on me over time, and eventually I even came to like them somewhat.
And while the animations are not complex by modern standards I did find them handled exceptionally well when paired wit the red and white flashes, and there is actually a lot going on in Bloodless despite this being a 2D pixel art game.
Audio wise the sound effects of the game are also on par with a Nintendo or Sega game, and there is no voice acting, which makes the story telling it bit harder to digest, though I don’t think that too many people will be playing this game for the story specifically, but rather the hardcore challenging combat. That is not to say the story is necessarily bad, and it will be rewarding for those who pay attention until the end.
The music though does add to your immersion, and definitely fits the theme of the game perfectly, really ramping up the excitement during combat.
Bloodless is a game that I was intrigued by due to the setting, but that I wasn’t sure what to expect from since it’s so indie. My first impression was that I wasn’t a huge fan of the art style though I didn’t hate it, the combat seemed simple and easy, and the story was ok but not great. But as I played more and more I really started to see the appeal of the game, and as it began challenging me, and I started to improve I gained an incredible sense of satisfaction overcoming some very difficult fights, and then I couldn’t stop playing.
I really love when games turn me around in that way, we all know someone that quitDark Soulsat some point, but I feel indie devs have a very challenging time getting people to stick around or try things out so they can see the appeal.
Bloodless is priced at 14.99$ but discounted to 12.47$ right now, which makes it a quite affordable indulgence for anyone with an itch for retro gaming with a Japanese flair. This is a small game by a small but passionate team that has created something a bit different, and while it’s not for everyone, I definitely think it is for those players that want a challenging combat experience that comes down to skill and reflexes.
So if you like what you see you can use our link below to pick up the game, or if you’re still on the fence, there is a demo on Steam that you can download and try out before you buy.
Fexelea
MMO raider by day and guide writer by night, Fex enjoys multiplatform gaming, good books and animes, and streaming with a cold beer.
