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Interesting Battle Mechanics...

  • Waxius
  • 04/18/2018 06:49 PM
  • 1509 views
Bleeding Sun - by JaimePazLopes



First Thoughts:
Bleeding Sun in an interesting game. At first I didn't like that the battles took place directly on the map where the encounter started, because the characters look like they're as tall as the trees like they are giants!. After a while though, I got used to the battles and I kind of like it now. The games music and sound effects are definitely a selling point, as it puts you in the right frame and time period of feudal Japan!



Story:
You are Yori Takenaka, a young man who has witnessed his fathers murder as a boy. Now, 15 years later, you have come back for REVENGE or for HONOR, depending on the choices you make. Along the way, Yori will enlist the help of a once legendary warrior and friend known as Kenzou. Together they will seek to defeat Ichiro and his demon witch Chiyo.

Will Yori get his revenge? Or will he restore honor to House Takenaka? Can he do both?



Game Play:
Now here's where it get's interesting. The action starts immediately upon starting the game. As you walk around you could be attacked in random battles directly on the screen. Yori fights with a wooden sword at the beginning, and he does NOT use Action Points or MP. Instead he has "Cooldown Skills" that he can use at any time, but he must wait a set number of turns before he can use it again. In between battles the counter resets and he's ready to use it immediately. His first skill "Dragon Bite" does very decent damage, but it could be boosted. If Yori uses the "Guard" Command, he will not only take half damage, but he'll also raise his ATK power at the same time. Finally, he has a passive skill to counterattack one opponent per round. This makes sense to me as honorable fighters will not make the first strike, but will defend themselves once attacked. If Yori guards first, he can follow up with a boosted Dragon Bite on the next turn for MASSIVE damage.

At different points in the story, you're asked to make choices. These choices affect the skills your characters receive. For example, when asked "Why did you return?" Your choices are "FOR REVENGE" or "FOR HONOR". I chose REVENGE, and I was given a passive skill adding three points to my ATK power. I'm not sure what you get for choosing HONOR, but I would imagine three points to DEF or AGI.



As you wander around the fields, you might wonder why you can't walk over seemingly small obstacles such as mushrooms, roots, or small plants. If you press the action button while facing those object, you'll collect them! Picking up Herbs, Mushrooms, Roots, small gems, etc. are part of this game's crafting mechanic. With three herbs you can make an herb potion that heals 30HP. Otherwise an herb by itself would only heal 10HP.

Bleeding Sun does have some mapping issues, there are some trees that have seemingly wide gaps in between them, but you can't pass through. So that makes it a bit frustrating when trying to get to that chest hidden in the bushes. Otherwise it's kinda funny during battle to see Yori and Kenzou standing on top of tents and trees to fight gang members.

Graphics and Music:
The graphics in Bleeding Sun are quite good. The custom menu is awesome, and I really like how the roof disappears when you enter small tents and buildings. The animations for the different attacks look great too. What I really appreciate is how the characters walking sprite, battle sprite, and faceset match really well. I've seen other games that have facesets and walking sprites be so far away in style that I didn't know they were the same character! The developer of Bleeding Sun has taken much effort to ensure everything matches. I also enjoyed the flashback scenes showing ghosts of the regular characters.

The music and sounds effects have to be my favorite aspect in this game. There's no native RPG MAKER MV assets here, there's bamboo sticks, koto guitar, and a Japanese vibe in all the music tracks. It's all very well done.

Overall:
Bleeding Sun - Demo is awesome to play. I'm looking forward to the full game and will definitely do another play through of the demo to make different choices to see the differences. I don't normally rate demos, but since this is intended to be a commercial game, and it provided a high level of challenge, I give it 4 stars.

Posts

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WOW your review is amazing!! I really expected something simple. What makes me happy is that some of the points you've liked are things that I've really put many hours to get it right. And some things you've pointed as strange or issues are on my to-do list, like the awkward positioning in battle and the tree collision. The battle positioning will be fix with battlebacks taken from the open area of the map, so the battle will be on the same area, but a little to the side so there is nothing on the way of the fight. The tree collision are more annoying because it'll need a full map rework. As this first maps on the game were my first maps in many years without using rpg maker, I was a little rusty and didn't realized some of the issues in the maps. Now that I've got more experience I intend on improving them.
Thank you for reviewing Bleeding Sun!
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