Blood Will Tell -- Bloody Well Fantastic.

As of this entry I have completed the story mode of Blood Will Tell. I have fought the impressive last boss, completed the game, and watched the credits roll. I am however not finished with the game. I have unlocked the Dororo mode. This is a collection of challenges based off a few levels of the game in which you control Dororo out to collect treasure against a timer. You are rewarded with concept art and movies in the now unlocked gallery mode. I've described the combat as great and I'm pleased to have found that the boss battles themselves also live up to that standard. That's quite important as there are more than fifty bosses to be fought. The bosses themselves are impressive in their range of size and scope. They do palette swap a few of them here and there, but you won't really care as you'll find most of them to be decidedly unique in action. The game has a couple of different types of bosses. They break down as story bosses and optional bosses. Bosses you have to complete because the game's plot demands it, and bosses that you might not even see unless you seek them all out. It's to your benefit to seek them out as they all provide you with a body part that powers up Hiyakkimaru. All the fiends in the game are introduced via a little scene where their name and level is given. Their levels are shown because you can find an optional level forty-four boss within chapter one. The level represents where your arm blade levels might need to be in order to effectively defeat the boss. If your blades are only level twenty when fighting something level forty-four, your blades will hardly even scratch the boss. If they're level fifty then they'll rip through it as if it were made of paper. The boss battles themselves are for the most part challenging. Some of them are really hard, no matter your levels. You'll want to find them all because it's the key to the final chapter, and the cool as hell final boss, and the true ending. Missing that would turn out to be a crime in my opinion as I'm amazed at how much I truly enjoyed the story. If you can deal with the decidedly goofy concept of retrieving your own body parts you'll find a story that is both very well written and acted with class. The story starts dark and gets worse, which of course is for the better, if you like that sort of thing. The characters aren't knights in shining armor and noble and otherwise one-dimensional. They do however show real emotion and things don't always work out in nice little neat conclusions. The story and characters both have real depth. I was truly surprised at how well the story worked for me. I fell right for the big plot twists hook, line, and sinker. There is a plot device that's running through the whole game that they play with that pays off wonderfully at the end. Next time will be my final opinion on Blood Will Tell.