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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.



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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

Thank you very much. Maybe somewhere to heal up at the top of the mountain would also help? Also it would be nice to have a few more save slots. I'm already thinking that I may need to restart this game so that I can make sure I have enough money to buy healing items. Not being able to earn money from the fights leaves few options. I guess other people have managed though?
I'll think about it, but I don't want to make things too easy. Then again this is still only the third mission we're talking about, but I also am trying not to get into the habit of making changes or updates just because people ask. Can't please everyone, you know? However I do agree that it can be challenging to get through that area without some form of income or medicine supply. I'll be releasing an update tomorrow, so I may make some other minor adjustments before then.

EDIT: Ooh, I might be able to do a small event-based version of Blackjack at pubs. There's already a small dice game there, but I could possibly do something with higher wagers. Could be a fun way to make some extra money. I was actually thinking of doing that anyway. I'll see what I can do.

EDIT: Might be a little ambitious to make that entirely event-based. Not impossible, but not easily done in one day.
Thank you Strak. I was a bit surprised when having completed the 'kill 2 lots of bandits' quest I was then told that I couldn't have my reward until I'd killed another one at the top of the mountain? At least give me half my reward and then the balance on completion? I have actually restarted the game and am playing more carefully and saving a lot more so that I don't run out of money so quickly. I'd rather let members of my party die and then heal up somewhere free asap. This means I don't need to buy as many stimulants. Whenever I have a win on on of the games I then save before attempting again and losing more money.
I just finished the game. Definitely worth playing, better than many commercial RPGs.
Alright, version 5.7 is launched. I'll give a brief run-down of what's available now, since I made quite a few updates with this one.

First, and the reason why I made this update, I've modified the Equip and Status screens. There are several hidden stats that affect combat that could only previously be seen in the shop screen when purchasing or selling a new weapon or armour. With this update, you'll be able to see stat changes to Hit Ratio, Evasion, and Critical Hit rate when equipping a new weapon or piece of armour. While I was doing this, I also ended up with some dead space in the equip screen, so I went a little further, and now the equip screen will also display any elements that character is resisting, both from status buffs and equipment, as well as any status ailments that are being nullified. Hopefully this will help you make fully educated decisions about which weapons and armour you want, and not just based on the four previously visible stats.

Second, I've made some adjustments to the difficulty based on feedback from various players. Usually if one person complains, I ignore it, but if I get multiple players giving feedback on the same subject, I consider it worth adjusting. So to that end, I've implemented a method of earning money during the mission "Bombs Away." Normally when you accept this mission and travel to the related city, you're stuck there until the mission is complete and have no way of earning extra gold. Now, if you enter the pub within that city, you'll find a nearby assassin who will offer you jobs in the area for the duration of that mission. After the mission he will return to the Sanctuary, and you can continue accepting missions from him or the other assassins at that point.

I also added torches along the walls of the Nox Catacombs that you can light to keep track of where you've been. Kind of hard to determine how difficult a maze can be to solve when I'm the one who made it. It's still a challenge, but now at least there's a way to track your progress.

And finally, I realized I had made a huge oversight by not explaining how Spell Tomes work. Tomes are expensive, but can teach you some of the best spells in the game, and I'd hate for players to miss out on these and struggle just because they don't understand how they work. Now, when you reach the first shop that sells Tomes in Amethyne, the shopkeep will offer to explain how they work.

I've fixed a few other smaller graphical errors and bugs, but that's about it. I appreciate the feedback, and please let me know if you encounter any bugs as a result of this update. Previous save files should be fully compatible, simply move the old save files into the newly downloaded game folder. Thanks for playing!



And, StrangerByNight, thanks for the compliment! I appreciate it.
I second StrangerByNight's comment! The systems you implement is making this game SHINE a lot. (There's still a LOT I haven't explored it seems, ho ho!) I'll have to put my playthrough on hold due to IRL commitments, though. Nonetheless, I'm so excited to import my saves into version 5.7!

Thank you as always for the hard work! I always appreciate a dev who's willing to pour time, effort, and much consideration into their game.
I came across an old review of the first demo I ever released for this game, back in 2010. It's a little hilarious to think about how absolutely terrible the game used to be, and how far it's come since then. But hey, we all start somewhere, and this was basically my first attempt at making my own game. I'm fairly certain there isn't a single thing left in the original demo release that remains unchanged today. Over a decade of progress and learning will do that. If you want a bit of a laugh, check it out! This was a first look at Bloodstained Hands by NAMKCOR, a veteran of RMRK back in the day.

Thank you for some of the adjustments you've made. I've been able to progress the game further. However, I am now stuck in the Tower of Lux. Is there a diagram of the order that the switches should be pulled? I'm finding it very difficult to keep track of what I've done owing to the frequency of the encounters and going up and down the staircases. On the plus side my level has increased. However, I need to leave after a while as I run out of life and healing potions and then I have to start again. Is there a formula to follow?
Oh, water dungeons. Everyone loves them so much, right? They're everyone's FAVOURITE.

EDIT: And yes, as a developer I do experience a sort of schadenfreude from making a deliberately painful water dungeon. Doesn't everyone?

That dungeon can be pretty complex. I'm putting together a guide for how to complete each mission, but it's a little ways away from being completed so far. My best advice to you is to activate each switch at least twice to understand how they work. Some of the switches will turn a drain on or off, and some of them will rotate the flow of a set of three drains. What you're trying to do is clear the drain on the far left on the second floor, as well as the drain on the far right on the third floor. If you can do that, you'll have a clear path to the top floor. I'll see if I can put together something a little more detailed to help guide players through.
Thank you so much. I'm starting to hate the Tower of Lux and want to get to the top!
Hi. (endgame spoilers)
Im stuck on the abyssus 4 flame puzzle. I could do it after a long while, but i kinda hate those types of puzzles. Is there a guide to all the puzzles please?

I also need some help with the "exports" quest as well.
Hey, thanks for reaching out. I am working on a guide for each of the missions, but there's still a lot of work to do, so it may be a while before I can release it. I appreciate the feedback though, it's tough to know how difficult a puzzle can be when I already know how to solve it. I'll give you some hints below.

For the flame puzzle, it helps to focus on one at a time. The puzzle is taken directly from the Tower of Bestia, but there's no way to tell which flame goes to which torch. I may adjust that in a later update. Regardless, I'll explain how each flame moves, and I'll give a hint to the order of the torches.

Flame 1: Movement is shifted 90 degrees clockwise. Right is down, down is left, left is up, up is right.

Flame 2: Same as above, but reversed. Movement is shift 90 degrees counter clockwise.

Flame 3: Movement is mirrored. Left is right, up is down etc.

Flame 4: Movement is based on direction. Left will make the flame face vertically, right will make the flame face horizontally. Up will move the flame forward in the direction it is facing, down will make it move backwards.

As for which flame goes to which torch, it may take some trial and error, but I would recommend focusing on one flame at a time, and testing each torch with that flame until you find the correct one.

Now, as for the Exports mission, that was intended to be a little challenging since the rewards are pretty nice, but I'll give you some hints. I won't tell you exactly who to speak to, but I'll at least give you the order of which city and village to visit in the correct order. Just talk to anyone you can in those towns.
The cities in order are:
Amethyne
Cyana (Talk to everyone twice or you may miss it)
Silvein
Emerdala
Diamo
Rubana
Goldare
Sapphane


Hope this helps. I'll get to work more on the guide when life doesn't get in the way as much.
so, uhh, I finished the game. TLDR at the bottom to save an hour of your life AND is non spoiler.

If youre reading here, good luck. Heres my wall of text talking/venting about it. Its very long and includes end game spoilers but not NG+.

I accidentally clicked no to NG+. God damn it. Im not gonna go through 45+ mins of phase 3 of a 350k+ hp god again. I guess my gameplay ends here. I guess i wont be able to see post NG+ stuff mentioned in the comments here.

Well, story was good. Bossfights were prettu fucking enjoyable excluding pre abyssus and phase 2-3 mortalitus. However imo there were too many encounters, in a huge map like this, and too little money/herbs for equalling out the damage/mana spent and escape option being unviable made it much worse. It took a LONG time to go to a free sleeping place. And it got boring at some point I got burned out and didnt want to fight a single enemy. I needed to get to somewhere, but I couldnt with full hp/my stocked potions because of enemies. Not to mention towers. God damn those towers. And the Abyssus was an absolute nightmare with fiend encounters. I guess it depends on how you like to play, but it was pretty bad for me. I didnt like some of the ost, which may or may not be because of my encounter traumas, but others were pretty awesome, so thats a positive for me.

I knew marisa would die the moment she said was scared of our death, but it still was sad to lose her. Idve loved to keep going with her, story would be fuller with her. Actually Im not trying to critisize her death, Idk if i can properly explain this. Her death did make the game darker, which was better than other way around I guess. I fucking did feel Rains anger and loved it when the generals monologue was CUT) short. And so would gameplay(high agility is a must.)

And so was I sad when the thief died. Like, god damn it not you too. Not when trying to fucking redeem yourself.

About gameplay, I wont comment much, but lethality was overrated in the story, but not as much in gameplay. Deals a little less to equal to than 2 flurry hits and *might* bleed opponents IF it hits? Is this really that deadly ability shadow only heard of before Rain used it? IMO, It shouldve been 100% hit, powerful with bleeding possibility(would depend on target as well) but taxing to use. The story hype is anticlimactic imo. I was actually really looking forward to it, just to never use it in any bossfights whatsoever.

The skills made the completionist me grind for them. At that point I was bored, but thankfully pre abyssus had awesome places to grind. It still took over an hour for skill grinding which is too much in my opinion. And some of them werent as strong as it shouldve been. I got a few suggestions but im no game balancer so yeah.

I expected a lot more interaction at the end. Like, I just defeated THE STRONGEST FUCKING GOD, which had 3 DAMN PHASES! I was even expecting it to be over after phase 2, too. Having all other 5 people talk about this would be nice??? Like, Grey was saying he would rather die than seeing Rain become an assasin, and now Rain saved the literal world. And itd be cool if the chat was as if they all went together instead of only 4. There probably is more in NG+ but I wont be doing that fight again unless i cheat. One very neat idea is to be able to have everyone on your party in NG+, if that isnt in the game already. Also we never really found our guildmasters identity, have we? NG+ maybe? :(((

So, in my personal opinion and experience the overall plusses and minuses are:

Minuses:

* Gameplay: - - - - - (I normally wouldnt go over 3 minuses, but I feel like I need to for this. Because of everything i talked so far. AND encounters during puzzles. I HATED/HATE THAT A LOT. happened in at least 4 places IIRC, and they were NOT fun.)

* NG+ option not there bcs i missclicked: - (Big inconvenience but nowhere close to encounter trauma and gameplay.)

* Leaving 2 members behind for Abyssus: - (I understand why, but I still dislike leaving party members behind. I guess its unfortunate so many games do that :( )

* Training to become a silencer being kinda underwhelming: - - (Dont get me wrong concentrate is GREAT but no stat increase -EDIT:other than leveling which I already was lv20,- and lethality isnt good which is what was hyped. Like in the story it has 100% accuracy, unless youre specifically prepared for it, and is deadly AF. Not in gameplay though.)

* Slow transportation: - (Kinda overlaps with encounter rates. So I will only be giving it one -.BTW, why did the fast travel option disappear in the ship after a point anyway? Things were slow pre airship, ngl. EDIT: AND!!! some o the pre abyssus locations had to be travelled with ship, not airship. Thats one minus in itself. Here it is: - )

* No character interaction in the end: - (I would do it like this: show the world/cities/a city, have a cutscene there; have a cutscene with the main cast; and possibly include guildmaster&king in some point as well; and have the final cutscene about Marisa; just like the only one is right now. Wow its surprising how easy it is to talk about it, yet I could never be able to do it myself.)


Neutrals:

* some of the town and outside ost's.

* Big map. (It does have advantages and disadvantages. Its neutral imo.)

* RPG Maker graphs. Personally Idc about graphics unless its really horrible, so no problem for me.


Positives:

* Good ost where it counts: + (excluding bossfights so kinda limited. Guild is a good one imo.)

* Story: +

* The map is beautiful and can be zoomed out: +/2 since it has nearly no impact? I still wanted to mention it though.

* Theres a quest tracker guy at the guild: +/2

* Main characters intelligence, story around the chaaracters: + +

* Bossfights: + + + (The talk, the music, the getting there/buildup is and the satisfaction in EXCLUDING THAT them is pretty awesome, disregarding encounters. HOW MANY FUCKING SOLDIERS HAVE YOU GOT FFS *cough)

* Good quest line and cutscenes: +

* Good cities and little details: +

* Clarity of how much effort went into the game: + + (Im not sure if im weird for caring about this but if i can tell a game had much effort put into it, it makes me respect it more and I want to play it more; to discover everything, see everything. This was what kept me going through the encounters, and bossfights made it worth it.)

Also, Its been at least 3 weeks since I started the game. I got to pre abyssus in several days and burned out in abyssus so I took a break. I dont remember all of it, and probably forgot most of the small details that could make into + or +/2. Its always the negatives that stick you the most :/ Also I didnt get every character encounters unfortunately either. And I guess I divided story into 3 in the positives section?



Anyway, while not fun in between, this was a good story ride. Im sure this is my own personal preference. And I tried to critisize it as best/much as I could specifically because much effort went into it, and I respect it a lot. I overall enjoyed it. Thanks a lot for the free 20h+ great story experience.



TLDR

too many encounters for my taste, but good story. Might wanna play it.
Hey, thanks for the feedback!

Couple things I should mention.
You're absolutely right, Lethality isn't as good as it's hyped up to be ANY MORE. It was really good, but I ended up having to nerf the skill, then forgot about it entirely when I added the Overdrive system. I'm thinking about modifying it to become another unlockable Overdrive skill, but I'll have to make some more adjustments first. In essence, Execution operates the same as what Lethality used to be, but you need a silver or diamond weapon equipped to use it. The major added benefit to Lethality is that it can bleed enemies - including several bosses such as the generals and even Kain, which can make it extremely valuable against enemies with a lot of HP. Regardless, I may be adjusting it in a later update.

Also, I will be including a repel feature, since it is quite literally the most requested change so far. Encounters are crucial to getting enough experience to really level up, but if you're just trying to get out of a dungeon or finish a mission, it makes sense to include. I've considered making Shroud a skill that works both in combat as per usual, as well as in the field to repel enemies for a short time, but I wonder if the cost would be too small for such a good benefit.

As for endgame interaction, there is a bit more after NG+ but not much. Might be something I'll think about for my next project, I'm not hugely considering altering the story too much at this point. Although the guildmasters identity is apparently too obscure for a lot of people, so I may modify a cutscene to clarify that a bit more. His story is similar to Kain's, in a way.

Oh, and I forgot to mention skill levels. I'm impressed you were able to grind them out, but I feel kind of bad for saying this. There's an easier way. You know that chest right before you fight the last boss, in that area with the high encounter rate? It contains and EXP ring. That ring doubles spell usage so you don't have to grind as much. It's meant to help you with NG+, since most players probably wouldn't use Mia much in the endgame since her spells are level 1. But she is available right away in NG+ which was kind of the point of a second playthrough to begin with. I'm really sorry if it was a grind, I really tried to make it more doable, but hadn't considered it for the first playthrough.


Anyway, I appreciate the feedback! I don't know if I'll release another update any time soon, unless a major bug gets reported, but if I do I'll consider making some adjustments if it makes sense.
i finally finished this game. as someone who doesnt like grinding i feel like the slog between defeating the second to last boss and getting to level 40 is way too much. Since max level skills are unavailable till level 40 it forces ppl to have to be level 40 to be sufficiently powerful for the final area. Even after doing the end game sidequests i wasnt even close to 40 on anyone and had to just grind for some hours in the desert. ideally id liked it if you were strong enough and ready to go after finishing all the sidequests but it just doesnt add up, you have to be level 40. Feels very forced
I suppose that depends on your perspective. Personally, I've been able to beat the last boss with all characters at level 30, but at that low of a level it does require some pretty unorthodox strategies, and more of a reliance on items than on spells. But it's definitely doable. Certainly max level spells help with that fight immensely, but they're not strictly necessary. As for level grinding, you might have been better off staying in the last dungeon, as the average experience you can get there is quite a bit higher. Also I did add an item in the chest at the end of that dungeon that helps with experience grinding specifically in case players were having trouble and needed the extra boost. Honestly though, I never really intended players to get max level spells until new game plus, so I'm kind of impressed you went through the trouble of grinding them out. Regardless, thanks for playing and I appreciate the feedback.
I love this game so far. But has anyone got the problem with dashing? I can only dash in town. When in the world map, or in the forest, I can’t dash. :(
Oh that's not a glitch, dashing is disabled in those areas. It may sound weird, but it actually felt like more of a grind when dashing was enabled in certain dungeons, particularly outdoor dungeons. Something about the encounter rates and the quick movement just didn't mix, but it's hard to explain without actually experiencing it fit yourself. As for the world map, dashing was always disabled there. It just looked goofy to be sprinting past mountains and oceans when it's meant to portray crossing a considerably more significant difference than the actual steps taken.

It's very similar to a lot of the classic final fantasy games in that sense, actually. A lot of the initial inspiration for some of the game mechanics came from FFII.
Hello, I tried your game and as the player above, I thought the non dashing in the forest was a bug. It feels pretty slow, maybe add some speed via script? (I know the script call allows for decimals in speed like 3.8)

Very nice and polished otherwise (and hard considering healing options at the begining, I had to reset several times because of a dangerous encounter)!
Interesting, I didn't realize you could adjust speed by decimals! I'll play around with the code, maybe I can adjust the default speed to be a little faster, or alter the dash code a bit. I don't actually know any Ruby, but I have a bit of a talent for figuring things out if I stare at it long enough. As for healing, the next update should help with that as I'll be introducing a repel item, so you can get to Inns easier if you're stuck in a dungeon. I just need to test out a new boss battle and I should be able to release it later today.