Blood-over- (PC)

On last article, i busted some demon that disrupt children's dream. This time i'll bust other demon as anime-ish demon hunter in Blood-over- (2006), an indie game made by 9thNight. 

There's also subtitle: nobody, lives. Don't mix it with No One Lives Forever, please!  Why the word 'over' has strip between? Maybe so people not assume this game as anime version of Monolith's Blood sequel. Anyway, we have Shou the demon hunter who wield dual handgun and her maid Akari who wield Gatling gun! I'm sold! Game start, please!

 

The first level starts with dialogue between two while running inside of this abandoned house. Akari suggests her mistress to lay down on working for today because she had nightmare this morning. But Shou keep on going with the demon hunt and Akari just rolls with it. Due to Akari's timid and loyal manner also her maid uniform, i think she's like Hisui from Tsukihime but has more jagged hair. Meanwhile Shou reminds me of Aria Holmes Kanzaki from Hidan no Aria/Aria the Scarlet Ammo but with hair more resemble Cecilia Alcott from Infinite Stratos, what's with her stubbornness and adeptness with handgun.    

I'm pretty sure that's skeleton and not demon, miss. But it's common misconception to group undead with demon so i let it off. There's button configuration on option menu but it shows configuration for playstation controller but with only 3 face buttons and no 'select' button. Through trial and error, i found the control as follows: 1) Direction keys to move, jump, or crouch 2) Z key to shoot her handgun 3) X key to make her kick 4) C key to call Akari to shoot her Gatling Gun 5) V key to pause the game. And Esc key to instantly exit to desktop.

This is more like it! This flying eyeball is undoubtedly demon. Shou shoot her handguns in straight line when she's on the ground. If she's in air, her shooting will lock on to enemies and it's accurate. So she can only deal to enemies in air if she's also airborne and not while standing on the ground.

There's A key to lock on an enemy but only useful for shoot while strafing. It doesn't affect kick attack. So i shoot this giant skeleton's arse instead kick it but as long as it works. It's fine.

Beyond that mid-boss, there's pink slime with teeth for some reason. So far, every enemy drops blood when get shot so the title is true to the game! Speaking of blood, the orb thing above the life gauge is called blood that will be red if the number besides it, is 100 to 300 (the maximum number). It cost 100 on that number to call Akari's bullet barrage and do her job once in a while. She's mostly follows me around in background like that skeleton that accompanies Alice in Asura Buster. To raise that blood counter, you have to overkill the enemies. Well, they're demon afterall. They deserves to be slaughtered beyond their demise. You can see their small lifebar near them. The blue fill represents their health while red ones represents overkill damage they took. The more overkill damage you can inflict, the bigger blood number you get. There's also flying number of damage that everyone took, which like in RPG if you ask me.     

 

We reach the first boss. She's demon that looks like human but with weird ear because anime! She ask why Shou hunts down demons and absorb their soul. She only reply with "None of your business and you're next!"    

Whoa! The demon boss isn't messing around. She summons fast moving magic orbs to kill me although the damage only come for the impact when they touch the ground. This reminds me of Touhou Project 7.5 Immaterial and Missing Power, already.

 

Now that i have lots of Blood number to burn, i call for Akari's assist. Get her, Heavy my maid!

No matter how much bullets the boss takes (and her health bar depleted), she comes out as the winner as it's scripted that she take my soul. No way i'm going to survive this fatal loss. Game over. 

To put salt on open wound, the game grades my performance. The assessment kind of unfair as there's no health remaining or finishing time scoring. But even they exist, my rank will be lower than it is as this is my first run.

Turns out, i'm fine. I may lost my soul but i can still alive  because i absorbs demon soul that i vanquished. That mean i have to absorb more demon soul to survive. I'm like vampire but instead of blood, i hunger for soul. Maybe, i become like Raziel from Soul Reaver?

After some lesser game along the way, i found a big ones but some lady with broadsword killed it already. She introduces herself as Nozomi of the Seven Undertakers. She told me to leave this case to her and leave this place. Surely, i can't do that!  

Hey! I notice that far back tombstone looks like made up from cardboard. You can't fool me, game! The kick attack doesn't work like what you think it is. I mean it deals considerable more damage per hit than the gunshot, sure. But it doesn't form into combo like what Arcia Rinslet (Chaos Legion) can do. On the contrary with the shooting that can form into combo of 6 hits. But at least Shou has variety on her moveset and you can kind of connect the moves together. Thus the general strategy is: stay away from enemies and shoot them. Don't even think to approach them for melee action! Instead, you wait them to come near so you can kick them.

I was about to say that there's no health refill but this cyan crystal serves as one and you have to kick it to utilize it instead just walk over it like in other game. There's also red version of this crystal that increase blood gauge instead but i don't think it's much important because i don't use the super assist often and that's because i'm stingy.   

Oh no! Nozomi is being held by some tall demon guy who has the same hairstyle and trench coat as the bastard Archer from Fate/Stay Night. He left her go after he deal 9999 damage to her! Scout_negativevocalization05.wav

This gook know that i need bigger soul to survive and he ask "Why not sacrifice thine servant?". This is my reply, you schmuck!

Ack! I have been hit by the same move that he did to Nozomi. Back then when his health bar still has 2 layers, he only ram at me or kick me. But when his health bar only 1 layer, he become more aggressive and grab me like this. To be honest, i didn't realize that kicking enemy is much more risk than the reward in this playthrough. I should keep distance and gunning!

Sorry, Akari. I always makes you worried. Luckily, there's 2 continues! Soldier_mvm_resurrect06.wav

But killing the miserable schmuck and absorbing his soul, doesn't assure my survival and only to fill my emptiness temporary. Thus i decide to hunt that reaper demon and force her to give me back my soul.

Meanwhile, Nozomi survives the attack and watch me absorbing demon's soul. She's confused as she states that she didn't know which one is demon.

At the start of level 3, Shou asks Akari what's her purpose to hunt demon as she seems forget about it. I take it's for revenge her (or maybe Akari's) relative, not for other cool reason like following the footstep of The Doom Slayer or Dante from Devil May Cry. From now, she's settled with hunting for the reaper demon as her purpose.

This level introduces us with evil dogs because they're cliché on video games. Even with their lower posture, i can hit them with standing gunning luckily.

I encounter a demon boy around. Why the male character in this game is always evil? What he mean by "play with me!" is obviously killing each other. It's not about hide 'n seek or rope skipping.

 

1048 damages! This is what you want. Right, boyo? During Akari's strafing, i can move independently so i can give him my own beating. Ah! He already fleed.  

Then i got gobbled by bigger blood slime. Either Akari believes in me or she accumulates her worries inside while remains calm. Either way, i respect your ability to keep your composure, Akari.

In this section, there's lots of runes that will triggers a thunder strike if i approach them. I didn't know demon can create such fancy security system like this.

Finally, i can catch up with him and his sister is there too. Her hair reminds me of Hata no Kokoro. So i have to fight both of them? Joy. [Light Sarcasm]

Thankfully the sister only stay in background while occasionally summon thunder strikes around me. She's like Akari only more active in assisting but less accurate, mind you. As for the small brother, his attack pattern remain the same: he jumps, he shoots wind wave along the ground, dashes forward, punches at me, rinse and repeat. When his health bar decrease by 1 layer, her sister summons more thunder strike...and crash to desktop. I try anything i can, like fiddling with graphic setting and change the run compatibility. But the results remains the same. I can't get past 3rd level because of this error. There's practice run that allow me select the stage to play but  i can only choose the stage that i finished meaning i can only practice at 1st stage and 2nd stage. There's 6 stages in total. It's really shame that i can only play halfway through. To compensate my inability to finish the game, i show you this demonstration gif...    

I'm still clumsy, though. :p

9th Night's Blood-over- (2006) is great indie game. It's 2D action game with some fighting game element like Blood gauge and special move. The input for special move is the usual fireball motion (quarter circle forward) + either shoot or kick button but you have to press the direction motion fast or it won't register as special move input. Fireball motion + shoot button will results in powerful shoot while fireball motion + kick button will results in somersault kick. To dodge enemies, you have to rely on either slide (down + kick button) or diving slide (down + kick button in air). There's also dash move that is executed by pressing left/right button twice but i feel that slide is more reliable to dodge enemies. If you press shoot button while crouching, Shou will shoot upward like uppercut in Mortal Kombat only with projectile. There's auto-bomb like feature: if your blood gauge reaches 300 (maximum) and you get hit, the damage will be nullified and Akari will shoot her big gun without being told. This is neat feature for those who like to keep the super gauge until boss fight such as me. The gameplay is simple and fun but don't treat it like Devil May Cry in 2D. Keeping range and shooting from afar is the winning strategy. The music is simply good. The sound effect is pretty good and the gunshot sound is really satisfying to hear. The story is quite interesting. The dialogues are mostly typical, like you can find them in every anime that you watched.

With whole of my soul [snark!], i recommend you to play Blood-over- (2006) especially if you can have the perfectly working ones. It's only 6 stages so you can finish the game fast enough like a bullet goes to your demonic target.