Blood Opera Crescendo

BLOOD OPERA CRESCENDO is an investigation-adventure game set in the year "17XX", with you taking the role of conductor Heinrich Steiner focused around solving a murder. The game is heavily centered around musical themes and ornate baroque/rococo visuals. I picked the demo up for its theme which interested me, and with the gorgeous visual style showcased on the game page, smashing that download button was not a hard sell.


I'm writing about the demo's best categories first, moving onto where the problems in my opinion lie. And just to say it once I don't end up repeating myself - the visuals are gorgeous and distinct. It's all well put together in service of the atmosphere and style.


Story

The story (so far) is choreographed well and events follow each other logically. The demo ends just as the pace starts picking up. There's not much to comment, given that we won't yet learn much detail about the murder or any suspects at all. The story could really be headed to any direction after this, so there's little to critique or praise yet.

Above all the overall musical setting is a refreshing choice for a game, ripe with culture and history to draw story ideas from. Great!


Sound

Custom music dominates and is well crafted to suit the setting and style. A few highlights of famous classical pieces are employed to good effect at crucial scenes. Unlike many other titles with custom music, there's few to zero noticeable jarring volume differences between the tracks. Sound effects use standard RTP.

If we can expect this level of quality with the custom music in the full game I have no worries and can indeed give a thumbs up. Good!


Gameplay and mapping

In the demo it seems most major gameplay systems are demonstrated at least once. I might be the only one in our universe who hasn't played any Ace Attorney games before, which might explain how much more novel these kind of systems felt to me than the average gamer, and how much I enjoyed them. But more objectively speaking, there are few surprises in the gameplay department.

Mapping is fairly routine but functional. The theater building stands out, not only visually but its layout is also very believable. An important cutscene that happens there is fantastically made, too.

None of the investigation parts were too challenging, while a crafting system is only hinted at. (But see the buglisting at my postscript below for some minor gripes.) Nice!


Writing

Very messy. My main gripe with the demo is that all text is fashioned like a Japanese-to-English machine translation, with flawed punctuation and awkward sentence structuring rampant. I had a hard time taking anything seriously with a script like this. It reads like a first draft more than anything, perhaps it's a matter of course at this stage of the game's development but it makes for a poor impression in the overall picture. This level of quality shouldn't be tolerated in a commercial game.

The writing, simply as in ideas expressed and developed, length of cutscenes, character interactions... it actually does a fine job. No interaction feels forced or too lenghty. The writing is even good at points but the game is in dire need of an English proofreader. Poor!


In conclusion

An appetite-increasing sampler of a good adventure game in the making. The novel setting centered around classic/baroq period music is presented convincingly, together with its lush visual style - the effort in the visuals alone would elevate a finished game above many. However poor attention to punctuation and grammar in its English text drags the game down a lot. This level of writing spills a shadow of "amateurish" over an otherwise competent title. No majorly exciting gameplay features and some bugs also contribute some staleness to the experience.

We shall see how the investigation systems are put into use in the future. So far, I can warmly recommend this demo, so long as you aren't expecting anything too spectacular to enjoy beyond the visuals.


As a whole I'd give this demo around three stars, but if a player doesn't mind the text issues add a star or more.




Postscript (or, random commentary)

- Just personally I dislike the pixel walk systems in Rpg Makers, however elegant the effect. Unfortunately due to engine limitations I don't think there's a way to truly control passability beyond the default square system, so movement is often awkward around objects. Walking up diagonal stairs is a good example.

- Probably due to pixel walk system, standing somewhat in between of two objects and interacting triggers both of them in succession. It was just awkward and annoying.


- Stuck walking past these ladies here and couldn't get out. Help!


- Interact with the oil lamp from a different direction and it turns into a candle. Similar unintended glitch happens when talking to the drunkard at bar from different directions.


- Bug with this shadow at the bar.


- In the deduction scene, if you fail and try again there's no background picture displayed.

- The "orchestra pit" in theater is lacking but plausible given they're only setting up for the performance at this point. It could use more diverse graphics of instruments to convey a more complete orchestra. Or just more empty chairs placed there to the same effect.

- Pianos aren't usually employed in operas (except for practice rehearsals), but "Don Giovanni" just happens to contain sections of recitatives with the harpsichord. Either way I just had to mention this nice detail even if it's not intended!

- Considering Mozart's "Don Giovanni" is featured the game must be taking place sometime in the years between 1787-1799 (assuming this game is intended to be "historical", despite its fictional characters and city etc). This puts the game in the classical or rococo period, rather than baroque :)

- There is a title card for the first chapter titled "Cadenza". This strikes me as odd, considering a cadenza is something usually occurring later in a piece, for example near the end of the first movement in a traditionally structured Piano Concerto. That got me thinking: what if the chapter titles were named after the traditional sonata form structure: "Exposition, Development, Recapitulation, Cadenza and Coda"? It might not work, and this musical reference would get lost on so many players, though.

- The printscreen key automatically places an image file in the game's folder. However these images don't display correctly.