Blood Will Tell -- Well, Bloody Good.

Red Entertainment has taken a famous old Japanese comic and turned it into a bloody fun hack and slash action game. You alternately control two characters through the game, Hiyakkimaru and Dororo. Hiyakkimaru is the one on a quest to seek his missing body parts. Dororo is a little boy with aspirations of being the greatest thief in the world. They play entirely different from each other. Hiyakkimaru is the main character you'll have control over. The left analog stick controls character movement. Holding L1 will allow you to strafe. The X button is jump. Jump in conjunction with a direction on the analog stick while holding L1 allows for you to jump and dash out of the way of oncoming enemies and attacks. The square button is a light attack, and the triangle button is the heavy attack. The circle button is used with the analog stick to issue one of four commands to Dororo who will be tagging along most of the time you'll be in control of Hiyakkimaru. You can command Dororo to attack, search, collect, or stand close. Attack has Dororo actively fighting. Search has Dororo looking for hidden items or enemies.  Collect has Dororo acting defensively and running around collecting items. Stand close has Dororo returning to your side. The game features the standard light and heavy attack combos but then adds some new elements. Pressing R1 will fire Hiyakkimaru's arm cannon, a machine gun attack from his elbow. Pressing and holding R2 will have Hiyakkimaru kneel down so he can aim his leg cannon. Pressing the triangle button fires the leg cannon, which acts as a grenade attack. Holding down the triangle button will cause Hiyakkimaru to glow. Releasing this attack successfully into an enemy makes the player enter slice mode. A series of button indicators will show up in a box at the bottom of the screen as well as a timer. You attempt to get through as many of the buttons before the timer runs out. You need to press the triangle button to finish off the attack before the timer runs out. You're rewarded with a Shinobi like tate kill sequence. Pressing L2 switches Hiyakkimaru's combat modes. He can use his arm blades, or use a standard sword. The standard swords are found throughout the game. They offer different powers. They'll add elemental attacks or defenses to poisons and the like.  You'll also find scrolls throughout the game that you can use in combination withthe swords that give them different magic attacks.  In both of Hiyakkimaru's combat modes there will be a meter that fills up. When it's filled up he can perform a special attack. In the sword mode the attack is based on the scroll. In the arm blade mode it's something else entirely. The attack is launched by pressing both the light and heavy attack buttons simultaneously. The swords do not level up. You'll need to find more powerful weapons as you go. Hiyakkimaru's arm blades do however level up by simply using them. It's incentive to kill everything as you're going to need all the help you can get in defeating all of the fiends in the game to reclaim your lost body parts. Dororo controls essentially the same way with his jump and strafe abilities as well as his light and heavy attacks. He differs in having no weapons and therefore being extremely weak in both offense and defense. He does however have a couple of ranged attack where he'll throw rocks at the enemies. You use him mostly as a plot device, as a means to solve minor puzzles, and for his thieving ability. The premise of the game has you trying to get your stolen body parts back and each one is being guarded by a fiend. That means each one is earned by successfully completing a boss battle. The game really is a boss battle showcase. They're frequent, they're cool, and they're predominantly original within the game. Each regained body part will help you in some minor or major way. If you retrieve your left leg, and I say if because it's dropped by a hidden optional fiend, you'll earn the dash ability. Pressing L3 will allow you to dash across the levels at a much greater rate of speed and it even offers up new attack possibilities. With his left eye for example, you'll be able to see the game in color. The first parts of the game are in black and white until you find your eye. The hippocampal synapse controls your short term memory and will allow you to remember how many enemies you've killed in the game. The adrenal glands secret adrenaline which translates to boosts in speed and stability, and max hit points. The game has statistics for attack power, endurance, speed, regeneration, stability, luck, and max hit points. Each of the recovered body parts will add to a few of those stats making Hiyakkimaru stronger. Red Entertainment has managed to take a rather weird Japanese comic and turn it into a really fun action game and really make the most of the premise. The combat is fun and fast. It controls great and is perfectly responsive. I dig it. Next time should cover boss battles and storytelling.