Doujin Classics: Blood-Over (PC)
Brought by 9th Night, a company that may not be too well known, Blood-Over is one of the two games released when they were active. Featuring fast paced gameplay, 3D visuals and an impressive story Blood-Over gives off a high-production feel.
Blood-Over features a decent plot. The tale begins with you and your trusty maid, Akari, going for some demon hunting. After your encounter with the grim reaper who is your first boss you are beaten and she steals your soul. After that it’s a struggle to find the grim reaper once again in order to regain your soul at the same time fighting the lust for demon souls that is slowly taking over your character. The game features quite a few of memorable characters, most of which you will meet through boss battles each having their own distinct personality.
Blood-Over has simple gameplay which is easy to learn and hard to master. It plays like a typical side scroller, since you are confined to going left, right and jumping. At your disposal you have a kick and fire button and that’s it. Using these you can string together combos and perform special moves. Crouching and pressing the kick button does a dodge, without which you don’t stand a chance against any of the bosses. The majority of the stages aren’t too difficult and if you play carefully you are likely to not get hit at all. Bosses on the other hand are ridiculously hard and it is here where you will lose the majority of your lives.
The main way for getting a higher score is by doing an Overkill. Beating the hell out of an already dead opponent gives you overkill points. After this you have a limited amount of time to kill another enemy in order to string multiple Overkills. Overkilling enemies fills your blood bar allowing you to perform devastating special attacks.
You are accompanied by your maid, Akari, whose only purpose is to dish out a special attack via her minigun. Special attacks are done using up the blood meter which you can use at will once you have enough blood. However once the blood meter is full your maid will automatically fire her special attack if you are hit, nullifying the damage you would have taken, working like a temporary shield for your character.
Blood-Over features dynamic difficulty. Once you start the first stage the game is automatically set to easy. If you manage to string a huge overkill combo and not lose any lives the second stage will become harder. Then if you play badly the difficulty will drop back to easy in the next level. This makes sure the game is always challenging, even when you beat it once. The difficulty level also determines the ending you will get further promoting multiple playthroughs.
From the visual side Blood-Over is rendered in 3D. While it may not feature the best 3D graphics you might have seen, for a doujin title it is still quite impressive. The developers could have easily taken a 2D approach since the entire game plays like a 2D game but instead to their credit they made everything in 3D. The music also needs special mention since the game features a stellar sound track, featuring one of the most epic title screen songs I heard to date.
THE VERDICT
Blood-Over may not bring anything revolutionary but it does a great job for a doujin title. From the engaging story, great soundtrack, dynamic difficulty and even little things such as different character voices in the main menu it’s evident that a lot of effort was placed in every aspect of this game. Definitely have a look at this game it will not disappoint you.
As the developer 9th Night doesn’t exist anymore the only trial version I could find is of version 0.91a (the newest version being 1.05a).
Blood-Over Trail 0.91a, Mirrors [1] [2] [3] [4]
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