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"What if you knew you were going to die?
If you knew that thousands would die in your wake?
What if you could stop it from happening?
What would you do?
What wouldn't you do?"


Bloodstained Hands is a 20 hours plus (approximately) RPG following the story of Rain, a young man forced into living his life cloaked in blood and shadows. As he fights to overcome the oppression of a tyrannical Emperor, he will come to realize that evil is not so black-and-white as it may seem, and none can say who the true villains are.

Features
  • A beautiful world artistically crafted using Parallax Mapping techniques
  • A breathtaking soundtrack from Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/)
  • An immersive story with a fresh take on your typical RPG clichés
  • An ATB battle system with various customizations
  • An intense, dynamic Overdrive system
  • A New Game Plus mode - play through the game with all your party members and skills intact!
  • No RTP. Just extract and play!
  • Various types of crafting
  • Optional mini-games in certain towns and pubs
  • A host of side quests to keep you entertained
  • Repeatable missions for endless adventures


Download Instructions
If you are downloading this game for the first time, just extract and play! No further instructions required. There is a read-me file in the root folder that explains controls and how to modify them.

If you are updating the game from a previous version, simply move your save files from the root folder of the old game into the new one. To ensure the game updates properly, activate the list at the entrance to the Sanctuary at any time after completing the training sequence at the start of the game, then unequip and re-equip your characters.



Thanks to orochii for the game page CSS. Support orochii here.

Latest Blog

Bloodstained Hands v5.9.8!

This update has been ready for a while now, but I just never got around to releasing it. Regardless, here it is! Bloodstained Hands v5.9.8!

What's new?
- Added a new encounter mode, and ability to switch between modes
- Added two new Overdrive skills
- Intimidate now affects enemies with queued actions
- Updated some of the more challenging puzzles
- Modified the secret final boss

Here's a full breakdown of the update list, with the reasons behind each update. Spoilers ahead.

So, first and foremost, the encounter mode. A lot of the feedback I've gotten relates to the random encounters, which is a pretty dated system that doesn't hold up as well in the present day, but does have some nostalgic charm. It seems as though avoidable touch encounters are a preferred method for turn based battle systems, and I agree. So, to that end, I've implemented touch encounters similar to a style seen in Villnoire. However, since I personally like the random encounter system, and I'm sure there are lots of other players that do too, I've kept both styles, and added an option in the System menu to toggle which encounter type you currently have active. Now you get to choose! Bait has also been modified to work with either encounter type, and certain dungeons that don't support touch encounters will still have random encounters.

Next, the two new Overdrives. Major spoilers here. So once you get the two ultimate staves, you get access to the skills Fiend and Celestial. While these skills are certainly powerful and useful, they lose their significance once they've been triggered once. They're basically just a stat buff. What happens when you get another Overdrive ready, but you've already used those skills? You're left with the default character signature Overdrives. Well, not anymore. Now, if a character has either Fiend or Celestial already active, their next Overdrive will unlock Abyssus or Aether, respectively. This is a massive Dark or Light spell that targets all enemies and hits three times, all at no MP cost! Definitely powerful, but takes some preparation to truly pull off!

On to the next update, Intimidate. This skill was pretty useless unless your wait mode was set to Full, since it wouldn't affect enemies with queued actions. Now, it does. It will always drain enemy wait gauges if they're not completely full, but now it will also have a chance to cancel a queued enemy action as well. This could be pretty overpowered, but certain enemies will have a better chance at resisting this skill, although no enemy is completely immune.

And finally, the secret final boss! I've made some adjustments to this boss that make it more than just a simple damage sponge. It still has the same hooks it had before, but it also has a new conversion skill that swaps immunities and resistances to Light and Dark magic - for the player. In other words, while this skill is active, healing magic will damage you, but if you're hit with a Light or Dark spell from the boss, you'll be healed. You can cancel this status at any time, but... well, there is an incentive to keep it active on at least one of your party members. I won't say more than that.


Anyway, that's it for this update! I won't be adding any more content to this game, it's officially done now. I will update it if anyone finds a bug or glitch that needs to be fixed, but this is the final update for Bloodstained Hands. I've had this ready for a while now, but I didn't want to release it until I was sure that I was done with the game and that everything worked smoothly. Thank you to everyone who played this game and gave feedback, you've really helped me to become a better developer!

Posts

Okay, good to know. Still, since you aren't the first person to struggle against it, and I've already got an update in the works, I'll probably nerf the boss a little bit. I still want it to be a bit of a challenge, it is a boss after all, but it doesn't have to be THAT tough. Especially so early in the game. Thanks for the feedback, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the game!
Hey, can someone help me out with something? I'm trying to create an Overdrive skill for a later update where a character throws a bomb, and I'm basing the mechanics of the skill on the same ones that allow for throwing toxins and shuriken. Problem is, my scripting doesn't make any sense, and now for some reason THOSE mechanics aren't working either. I can't figure out how I made it work in the first place. So I'm curious, when you throw a toxin or a shuriken, what do you see? Does the actual icon of the item fly through the air, or is it some weird glitched animation that makes no sense? If someone could test this for me and report back I would greatly appreciate it.

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out. Apparently it glitches out only when a character throws a toxin or shuriken with no weapon equipped. Which, let's face it, almost never happens. Unless you're testing and debugging the game, and forgot to re-equip your characters. Lovely.
Wow thanks for direct support for joiplay that's really a new and superb rpgm emulator for Android. Hope more developer support it as well.
Really looking good game by the way.
Hello all! Just want to announce that the game has been updated as of September 15, 2021.

After getting some feedback, I adjusted the difficulty of certain bosses and altered certain parts of the game that were either too challenging or not challenging enough. But I didn't stop there! That's not enough for an update in my opinion. Regardless, you should find certain parts of the game to be less of a grind.

But on to the big stuff. This update includes two new features that I'm pretty happy with, and did a playthrough of the game, start to finish to test them out as thoroughly as I could before releasing it to you all. Didn't want to release a bug-riddled update. That would suck. So, what are the new features? Let me tell you.

First, and kind of a last minute change that I made literally today, and decided to throw together with eventing, is the introduction of Scal, a simple dice game found in any Pub in Ilythea! Scal can be played as long as you have at least two players in your party, and you can make small wagers. You'll play against a random member of your party, and they'll make comments based on how well or how poorly they're doing. The rules are similar to the dice game "Pig," but have been modified to suit this game. Also I really didn't want to name this minigame "Pig." I mean, come on. What kind of name is that? No offense to you if your name is Pig.

But, that's not all that's changed. Not even close. May I present to you... Overdrive!

After nearly a week straight (had time, off work sick) of consistent hours in front of a script database writing in a programming language that I don't understand and have never actually taken any sort of courses on, I managed to do a number of things. I found an old copy of KGC's Overdrive system for VX that WASN'T a broken link, or in Italian, Spanish, or Japanese. I re-worked the script as best I could to make it compatible for this game. I studied and duplicated the CTB scripts for enemy Overdrive gauges and the HP bar scripts for Ally Overdrive gauges, then created the graphics to represent them. I then brainstormed ideas for six new Overdrive skills that I could introduce - then figured, nah, that's not enough, and created twenty-nine Overdrive skills instead, one for each tier of weapon per class, plus two unique skills per character. I rigorously tested these skills and the functionality of the feature, de-bugged like crazy, and found ways of balancing combat much more thoroughly. For example, those ultimate abilities that you've seen if you're close to the end of the game? No spoilers. But they're Overdrive skills now. Can't spam them to kill anything that moves. Also, you know how enemies will sometimes use ridiculously overpowered skills repeatedly? Can't anymore. They're Overdrive skills. They'll still use them, but not as frequently. Same with medicines. Tired of enemies healing half their health just as you're about to kill them? Well, they might still do that, but not all the time, and it'll cost them.

What does all this actually mean? Basically, now you've got powerful skills that you can use, but only when you've either taken enough damage or enough actions. Same goes for enemies. And it's all compatible with old save files, at least as long as you refer to the download instructions on the main page. My hope is that this makes the combat in the game a) A lot less stale, especially for purely physical fighters, and b) A lot more balanced, and less grindful. Grindy? Full of grind. Grindful.

Anyway. If you feel like updating and giving it a try, by all means do so! And if you're new to the game, I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to give feedback, and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see change or any major bugs that I'm unaware of. Peace!
i just tested the new version. dawn is still unkillable. when i empty his health bar he just heals to full for no apparent reason. this is assuming im lucky and he didnt decide to randomly heal himself for 7000+
author=bicfarmer
i just tested the new version. dawn is still unkillable. when i empty his health bar he just heals to full for no apparent reason. this is assuming im lucky and he didnt decide to randomly heal himself for 7000+


Hi bicfarmer,
There's a couple reasons why that could be happening, let me see if I can help with that. Although I'll be honest, your description doesn't make a lot of sense, since his health bar is hidden during that fight. There's no way to determine how close he is to death, just like every other boss battle. So when you say you empty his health bar, I'm curious, what do you mean? Did you somehow find a way to display his health when it's normally hidden? I tested this boss battle myself just two days ago and found no bugs, and he was perfectly killable, although certainly a challenge, given that this is a pretty high level boss we're talking about.

Regardless, I'll try to help you out.
What point are you at? Are you still in his palace, or have you followed him into the Veins of Ignis? If you're facing him for the first time, does the game freeze, or does he simply not die? Does he retreat from the fight, or does he stay after calling reinforcements? Have you adjusted your battle speed and wait mode at all?

I just tested that boss fight again on multiple wait modes, multiple different battle settings, and a few specific and highly unlikely scenarios that I know can cause problems, and I've gotta say, I have no idea what you're talking about. Challenging? Certainly. He's a high level late game boss. He's supposed to be challenging. This game wasn't designed to be a walk in the park. But unkillable? Not at all. Every test I've done came up with the same result. I appreciate the feedback, and I get more similar feedback I may consider reducing the difficulty, but as far as any bugs go, this fight seems pretty airtight. I also know there are several other players that have managed to beat him. If you'd like some help with some specific strategies on how to get past him, you can feel free to PM me and I'll walk you through it.
"There's no way to determine how close he is to death, just like every other boss battle."

He stops moving (no stepping animation) when hes at low health. Its the same for his soldiers.

Im fighting him in the volcano on full wait mode. When he has half health he summons 3 minions. At low health his stepping animation stops and he stands still. After a few hits when hes still, he sparkles slightly then starts moving again meaning that hes no longer at low health.

I tested again, and managed to beat him when i ignored the minions, he stops moving and doesnt fight anymore after his health bar empties, and i end the fight by taking out the minions. I think the problem was that when i take out the minions first, it doesnt end the fight when he's the last one to be defeated.

Also, i never said it was too hard, and you assuming that is very condescending. I'm dissatisfied with there being a potential game breaking glitch and was hoping that it would be fixed. No need to tell me to 'get gud'
I'm sorry if that came across as critical or condescending, that wasn't my intent. From my own perspective, your post came across as essentially saying "the game is broken," to any new players who might have in interest in trying it. That brought out a little bit of defensiveness on my part, and I apologize for that. The stepping animation is a bit of an oversight, I'll admit, but it doesn't actually mean he's healed. It just means he's got another status ailment (or buff) that's affecting his walking animation, although that wasn't deliberate. He doesn't actually heal at that point, it's more of a graphical error. Its strange that it wouldn't end the fight when his minions are killed first though, I tested that too and it seemed to work fine.
ok i think it was just that random sparkle that confused me. however i ran into another issue, a libpng warning that says 'ignoring bad adaptive filter type, CNxFile Object: MemoryFile, then a IDAT: CRC error, then 'Script 'Cache' line 80: RGSS Error occured. failed to create bitmap, and the game crashes. This happened when i fight the grudge in the mines, seems like one of its attacks specifically causes it
Huh. Now that's interesting. It's an optional boss fight, so I didn't test it all that much, but I never came across that. I'll look into it. If it happens again, could you screenshot it and send it to me? I noticed a bug or two that, while not game breaking, are annoying, so I'm going to release a small update with a few minor bug fixes, I'll see if I can include a fix for that as well.

EDIT: I tried testing the fight and I couldn't seem to re-create the bug, but I'll keep digging. It sounds like you may have found one of those very very specific and highly unlikely scenarios that I mentioned earlier, but it's hard to say for sure. Either way thanks for the feedback, I'll see what I can do to fix it.
oh no, the same crash happens if i use mia's crit boost buff limit break
Weird. Every time? It sounds like there's a file missing. I'll double check the download files when I get a chance. There are some similar animations that some of those skills use.

There is a very very rare bug when certain skills are used at certain levels a certain number of times, but it's so vague and specific that it's nearly impossible to measure. For example, using the skill Blood Rage 20 times when Matthew is level 23 and he's got an Iron sword equipped triggers a bug with the script that lets your learn skills by use. If he gains one level it stops causing problems. That's just an example, but THAT kind of specific. It sounds like you might be encountering some of those bugs, but if so you've got to be the unluckiest player I've met to play my game. I only encountered one or two over the course of SEVERAL playthroughs. I'll keep digging, maybe it's a problem with the download files.

EDIT: No, you're exactly right. Just tested the download files and found the same bug. But for the life of me I can't source it. I can't seem to find any missing files. Give me some time, I'll try to find a fix.

EDIT EDIT: From what I can tell, there was a problem with compression, and the encrypted archive is broken. I'm compressing the game again with the new updates as well, should fix the problem. I'll make a new post when it's updated. Thanks for the feedback, would have had no idea it was broken otherwise.
Alright, the game has been updated. I went with a different approach this time, since RMVX doesn't encrypt files very well, and frankly it doesn't matter. This isn't a commercial game, and every resource I'm using can be found elsewhere. The game shouldn't have any problems this time, hopefully. Please let me know right away if you find a broken file, I'll be sure to fix it as soon as I can.

That said, there are a few more fixes included in this update. I fixed a few other minor bugs, including one with the walking animation for certain bosses. The opponent AI for Scal has been updated, and I fixed a problem where the Overdrive skills Velocity and Momentum weren't functioning properly. Now, those skill will double the damage of each consecutive successful hit. The damage will reset if you miss. With this fix, Momentum has the potential to deal more damage than any other skill in the game, given the right circumstances and a bit of luck.

Fingers crossed it worked out well this time. Let me know if you encounter any more bugs.
Help please
I have spenmany many lock without luck. Could you show me an example, step by step so i can succe. (Old 78 lady wuth reumatoid artritis).
MAny thanks
There is a lockpicking tutorial in the Sanctuary, next to the vendor who sells lockpicks. That would be your best place to start. However, I will also reiterate the tutorial here for your convenience.

Lockpick Tutorial

Lockpicking is a skill that allows you to open locked doors and chests without a key. When you encounter a lock that can be picked, the lock will appear on your screen like this. You can only pick a lock if you have lockpicks on hand. Your total number of lockpicks will appear in the bottom of the screen.


In order to pick the lock, you need to find the right angle to set your pick. Use the left and right arrow keys to adjust your angle. Once you've set your angle, press the selection key to attempt to pick the lock. If the pick gets jammed, the lock will stop turning and you'll need to adjust again. If you continue to attempt to pick a lock at the wrong angle, you will break the pick you are currently using. If you run out of picks, you will be unable to open the lock, and you'll need to come back with more later.


Once you've found the right angle, the lock will begin to turn. Pressing and holding the selection key will continue to turn the lock. If the pick is not at precisely the right angle, the lock may jam along the way.


If the angle is correct, you'll be able to turn the lock completely to the open position. When the lock is turned a full ninety degrees, the lock will open, and the door or chest will open with it.



Hope this helps.
OH MY GOOD GOD DAMN I AM SO FRUSTRATED.

I just released an update today. Literally today. And I just found another bug that is not game breaking enough to release yet ANOTHER update, but is annoying as heck. So I'm making a post to address it.

If you happen to play this game all the way through the base game AS WELL as New Game Plus, you will come across a post game mission. This mission is basically like an alternate ending/epilogue for players that persevered through multiple playthroughs. There's a slight graphical error during the opening cutscene of this post game content. I'll try to explain it without spoilers. But just in case I'll hide it.

There's SUPPOSED to be a captain that runs out and describes a situation that leads into the post game mission. As it turns out, he's now invisible. You can't see him. He's there, but he's just invisible. If you manage to get that far, just pretend that a random soldier runs into the room. That soldier is the one doing the talking. Pretend he's visible.

There's one other bug. If you use a max level spell, the screen blacks out. That's supposed to happen. But if you use a max level spell when facing the last boss, the screen blackout hides the boss as well. That's not supposed to happen.


Anyway. Rant over. I've fixed the problems in the editor, but I'm going to hold off on releasing an update for a few reasons. One, I just updated the bloody game. Two, these bugs are way too minor to release an entire update for. Three, there may be other bugs that players come across that I'd like to fix if I'm going to update this game again. And four, these bugs are so deep into the late game that you'll likely never see them if you don't play through the game more than once. So most players likely won't encounter them. Regardless, I'm letting you know that I'm aware of them, and I'll fix them eventually if the game needs another update later on.

EDIT: OH! And there's another bug that didn't exist for some reason. Marisa's unique Overdrive isn't functioning properly. Imperil/Bane was bugged before so I attempted to fix it. And instead I broke it. So yes, I'll be fixing this in another update. Probably today. Sorry folks. I'm kicking myself already.
help again!
Where can i find a pickaxe? I am in amethine south
You'll find one later in the game. For the stones in Mount Fulmen that require a pickaxe, you'll need to come back later.

EDIT: I'll be honest, I never really considered how irritating that must be. I'll consider making an adjustment to that, since I'm going to need to release an update soon anyway. I'll get creative and figure something out.