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In Media Res (Watch this first) Optional Introductory Videos For the sake of giving the game a better first impression, I cut out a sizable chunk of unskippable gameplay from the very beginning. We went back and took a look at the unedited opening of the game for the sake of completion and morbid curiosity, and so can you with this supplementary video, but I don't recommend it.  There's also a lengthy cinematic that plays before the game's title screen. It skips badly on my copy of the game and I can't record it, but it's on YouTube here. Opening Cinematic Now, a little bit about what you've just seen...  Blood Will Tell is a Playstation 2 exclusive action game from 2004 adapting the unique premise of a classic series. Using the backstory and characters from Dororo, it tells a captivating story with its own take on the source material and is especially notable for having dozens of boss fights. It received mostly middling reviews upon release and quickly faded into obscurity, but a young Fiendly caught wind of it and was so enthralled by the absurdity of its hero's situation and enticed by the promise of so many bosses that the title never left my mind, even in the many intervening years in which I didn't play it (even though I owned it for several of those years). Finally, nearly a full decade later, I gave it the chance it deserved, had exactly the reaction I'd been expecting all along, and knew I had to share it.  Dororo was originally a manga series that ran through 1967-1968 created by Osamu Tezuka, an artist known the world over for works like Astro Boy and bearer of titles such as "Godfather of Anime" and "The Japanese Walt Disney." This story focuses on a boy named Hyakkimaru on a quest to defeat the 48 Fiends that are each responsible for robbing him of a body part, along the way meeting a younger boy named Dororo who fancies himself a master thief. The story was adapted into a 26-episode anime series in the year following the manga's completion, then lay dormant for a full 35 years before some genius at SEGA realized its potential to make a badass video game. We're obviously going to be focusing on that incarnation of the tale, but I will be covering its ancestors as we go through it, as well as the live action film that followed a few years later. About This LP Joining me will be various guests throughout the chapters, all of whom will be mostly blind to the game's twists and turns. We will of course be taking on all 48 Fiends in hopes of seeing our hero made whole again, including many hidden Fiends which will require the occasional return trip to a completed chapter to find and slay. We are unlikely to collect all the weapons due to the luck-based method of their acquisition, but they're honestly pretty samey anyway. With the introductions out of the way, our journey can now properly begin... Chapters  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3  Part 1 - Part 2  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Hidden Fiends  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3  Part 1 - Part 2 - Hidden Fiends 2  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Dororo Mode - Gallery Videos & Art - Sword Showcase 
Fiendly fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Oct 17, 2014 |
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Aug 4, 2014 07:05
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 09:48 |
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Encyclopedia Every Demon and Fiend in the game has an entry in the Encyclopedia. After each chapter, the entries for all enemies first encountered in that chapter will be compiled and posted here, along with what body part they restore upon defeat and information on what traditional monsters they are based on where applicable. Prologue & Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Final Chapter & Gallery Yokai Corner Zain's series of short videos about the attributes and nature of specific yokai, not necessarily ones that appear in this game, but still relevant and interesting to anyone who appreciates the game's numerous yokai allusions. Rokuro-kubi Kappa Kama-Itachi Bake-Kujira Yuki-Onna Gasha-Dokuro Fiendly fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Dec 13, 2014 |
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Aug 4, 2014 07:06
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Goddamnit why does everybody decide that one in the morning is a good time to start/update their LPs? Anyways I remember hearing about this game years ago and enjoyed the live action movie, so I'll be following this LP. After a good night's sleep of course.
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Aug 4, 2014 07:16
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Oh good, sometimes I wondered if playing this game was an old PS2 based fever dream I once had. Blood Will Tell is one of those rare moments where narrative and gameplay seemingly work perfectly together with little to no effort on the part of SEGA or Red Entertainment, even if the premise is absolutely bonkers when you think about it. But even if it is a easier Devil May Cry 1, and likely everything that is good in the game is more due to Osamu Tezuka than anything else, its a pretty entertaining experience that doesn't skimp out on how important all of Hyakkimaru's 48 missing body parts are to both story and game mechanics. You get back an eye and the game goes into color, you slay more fiends and more benefits are unlocked (and instantly replace the prosthetic part that he was using up till then somehow) that I won't spoil for anyone. At least for me its presentation wasn't enough to disturb my suspension of disbelief once you got over the first of many bosses and how weird the game is, but YMMV. Thanks for LPing a game few people may have experienced, Fiendly. Crabtree fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Aug 4, 2014 |
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Aug 4, 2014 09:13
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I liked this game, but certain aspects of it drove me absolutely nuts. Kindly break it in half and dance on the ashes tia.
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Aug 4, 2014 09:46
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Oh how I wish I had heard of this sooner. Hyakkimaru has got to have the greatest backstory I have ever seen. I can't wait to see where this goes.
Edvarius fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Aug 4, 2014 |
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Aug 4, 2014 12:46
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Trying to find this game on the cheap is near impossible! I know 30 bucks used isn't that bad, but like considering how old of a Ps2 game it was and most unpopular games tend to be maybe 5-10 bucks.
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Aug 4, 2014 16:12
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I feel this game doesn't live up to it's own potential/tagline very well, but I'll leave the videos to go into details.
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Aug 4, 2014 20:03
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Oh hey, this game. I remember it being pretty okay. Like others have said it doesn't quite live up to the concept, but I recall having fun with it. Didn't remember the forced tutorial though 
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Aug 4, 2014 23:01
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I saw a box of this game exactly once and could never remember the name or track it down. Looking forward to this, the premise and mechanics look pretty neat.
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Aug 5, 2014 00:56
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Posting so I'll find this thread later. I don't know what this game's about but I'm looking forward to watching Fiendly trash the poo poo out of it.
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Aug 6, 2014 02:02
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Also for anyone looking to enjoy more Dororo, the live action movie is currently up on Netflix and is pretty well made: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780503/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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Aug 6, 2014 02:23
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Years ago, I saw a super short blurb for this crammed in the back of an old Playstation Monthly magazine along with a dozen other weird games with pretty much zero chance of making it big and a good chance of not being made at all. The thing is, it sounded way more compelling than pretty much every single other game advertised in that entire issue and I was kinda sad that it was such a small deal to publishers. I'm glad to see that this game actually got released. Thanks again for highlighting such an obscure classic F(r)iendly!
AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Aug 6, 2014 |
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Aug 6, 2014 04:53
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That Knee Cannon  This game actually looks pretty rad, but what happens to all these cool tricks when you get back the proper body part? Do you actually lose abilities as the game progresses?
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Aug 6, 2014 07:06
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Edvarius posted:Oh how I wish I had heard of this sooner. Hyakkimaru has got to have the greatest backstory I have ever seen. I can't wait to see where this goes. He sure does. If you ask me, it doesn't disappoint. Zain posted:Trying to find this game on the cheap is near impossible! I know 30 bucks used isn't that bad, but like considering how old of a Ps2 game it was and most unpopular games tend to be maybe 5-10 bucks. When I found out the pre-title cinematic was broken on my disk and I feared other stuff might be broken too, I went looking for a replacement copy and quickly gave it an audible "gently caress that." All the more reason to do the LP, provided my copy holds out. Heavy Sigh posted:That Knee Cannon We will in fact be gaining abilities left and right as pieces come together. As for what happens when the useful prosthetics get replaced, that remains to be seen, maybe we'll get something better in their place?
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Aug 6, 2014 11:34
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drat this is a pretty cool concept. I love it. Also watched the forced tutorial before the prologue because I didn't realize the prologue image was a link. Oops. Didn't sour me on the game though. So that's something at least.
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Aug 6, 2014 12:00
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I'll be following this one with interest. If it turns out to be half as insane as it sounds, it should be quite a ride.
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Aug 6, 2014 18:35
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Finally got a chance to watch it. Considering how simple 'Maru's backstory is, I'm glad they went ahead and got it all out now instead of, oh, piecing it out across the game despite it being totally obvious what happened within the first ten minutes. Also, this is why you don't make deals with demons, folks. They offer ultimate power, sure, but they charge you an arm, a leg... *Puts on shades* ...And 46 other body parts. YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
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Aug 6, 2014 19:30
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Hyakimaru didn't make the deal though, our rear end in a top hat father did.
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Aug 6, 2014 21:45
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At no point did I say it had to be his, though.
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Aug 7, 2014 03:57
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THAT'S what the game was called! Oh wow, I remember reading about this game years and years ago in Gamepro I think it was. I remember thinking it sounded really cool, but I could never find it anywhere, and pretty soon I forgot everything about it except for vague memories about some game about a samurai with a cannon for a leg. Looks like I'll actually be able to see what it's all about now!
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Aug 7, 2014 04:05
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Heavy Sigh posted:That Knee Cannon Getting weaker and weaker as a game goes on and having to rely on your raw abilities sounds like it could be a great concept in the right hands.
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Aug 7, 2014 04:19
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My guess is, any time he gets something that would remove a weapon (Say, the knee cannon) they probably give him another attack in its place to make up for it. In general though, yeah, he does seem like he'll get stronger statwise as he gets parts back because he's the Chosen One and all that, but eventually those arm swords and the versatility that comes with them are gonna go.
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Aug 7, 2014 04:28
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Maybe he's just gonna get wristblades Assassin's Creed style. Or maybe you're gonna just get so many numbers in your stats that enemies will just basically melt.
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Aug 7, 2014 04:45
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Man I really need to finish this game. Fun fact: the hand drawn artwork in the backstory flashbacks and the japanese cover has done by the manga artist Hiroaki Samura, who created Blade of the Immortal. Its a pretty badass series featuring a guy that is basically samurai Wolverine.
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Aug 7, 2014 05:19
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Chance II posted:Man I really need to finish this game. Fun fact: the hand drawn artwork in the backstory flashbacks and the japanese cover has done by the manga artist Hiroaki Samura, who created Blade of the Immortal. Its a pretty badass series featuring a guy that is basically samurai Wolverine. Oh cool, I love Blade of the Immortal! I was wondering why the art for those cutscenes was so great.
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Aug 7, 2014 05:43
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I'm really glad that they went with this art direction for Blood Will Tell. Tezuka is great and Dororo is a great manga but I've always hated the astro boy elephant feet.
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Aug 7, 2014 05:53
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I'm expecting some glowing arms of holy fury or something.
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Aug 7, 2014 05:55
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I've never heard about this until the LP but so far the Fiends look to be based of Japanese demons. Great Horn for instance looks like your typical Oni, a big burly humanoid with a horn, and the second one that had his eye is most likely based off Nyurarihon that is depicted looking like an old man with a large head that robs peoples homes and eat their food.
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Aug 7, 2014 06:44
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Chance II posted:I'm really glad that they went with this art direction for Blood Will Tell. Tezuka is great and Dororo is a great manga but I've always hated the astro boy elephant feet. It's funny how many people go into the original manga expecting it to be Astro Boy in feudal Japan, when really, it's a spiritual forerunner to Berserk.
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Aug 7, 2014 09:15
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Haha, gently caress yes. Let's cut everything and get our lymph nodes back from demons! This cannot possibly go wrong!
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Aug 7, 2014 12:28
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There needs to be more samurai game LPs. This is scratching an itch I never knew I would have.
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Aug 7, 2014 12:31
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DrManiac posted:Getting weaker and weaker as a game goes on and having to rely on your raw abilities sounds like it could be a great concept in the right hands. This was the original concept for Quake. I don't think anyone has actually tried it, probably because when you think about it you realize you'd be driving away at least ninety percent of gamers. It'd be ridiculously hard to make a game with that premise that would actually be fun and not arbitrarily punishing.
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Aug 7, 2014 13:08
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Derek Barona posted:My guess is, any time he gets something that would remove a weapon (Say, the knee cannon) they probably give him another attack in its place to make up for it. In general though, yeah, he does seem like he'll get stronger statwise as he gets parts back because he's the Chosen One and all that, but eventually those arm swords and the versatility that comes with them are gonna go. DrManiac posted:Getting weaker and weaker as a game goes on and having to rely on your raw abilities sounds like it could be a great concept in the right hands. Please remember that up to this point, Hyakkimaru is running off psychic fumes and is something of a glass cannon by looking at the stats vocal cords alone give him. 46 pieces of him are still little more than prosthetic doll parts that Dr. Honma grafted onto him several times so he could be able to move or have an easier time interacting with people as a limbless, eyeless, etc. kid (or involve much more darker magic to make those parts work if I remember the manga right). There may be perks to having "not real" parts as a warrior, but Maru wants what's rightfully his. 
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Aug 7, 2014 13:19
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Hyakkimaru is some kind of freaky meat miracle and the Doctor's some kind of miracle worker, because apparently the Doctor was able to fit him with a prosthetic digestive system, but Hyakki was able to make do without one for three years. That's how great his will to live was.
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Aug 7, 2014 13:55
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After the demons are finished with him, he's little more than a lump of meat with air holes in it. Being the Chosen One sucks, but apparently it comes with some benefits.
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Aug 7, 2014 14:05
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Ratoslov posted:Hyakkimaru is some kind of freaky meat miracle and the Doctor's some kind of miracle worker, because apparently the Doctor was able to fit him with a prosthetic digestive system, but Hyakki was able to make do without one for three years. That's how great his will to live was. Best not to think about it. OR the whole ordeal with the demons filled Hyakkimaru with so much Machismo that he does this stuff by pure will alone.
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Aug 7, 2014 14:41
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:It's funny how many people go into the original manga expecting it to be Astro Boy in feudal Japan, when really, it's a spiritual forerunner to Berserk. If there was ever a go-to example of how art style is not indicative of content when it comes to sequential art and animation, Osamu Tezuka would be it. He drew a lot of his influences from Walt Disney Studios and other animation of the time such as Popeye and Betty Boop, and so his art-style is rooted in caricature and cartoon logic, but where western animation (mainstream, anyway) stuck to fairy tales and funny gags, Tezuka used it to write everything. He wrote comedy, he wrote tragedy, he wrote historical dramas, he wrote kid stories, he wrote horror stories, he wrote adaptations of classics, he wrote mythology... it is estimated that his full body of work consists of 700+ volumes, over more than 150,000 pages! And yes, he was not afraid to go really, really dark when he felt the story called for it, which, yes, catches a lot of people off guard. Whenever somebody who's ever really read anything but Astro Boy asks me for other things he wrote, I sometimes have to suppress a strong urge to point them straight to Ode to Kirihito or MW...  But yes, so far this looks good, Fiendly; I'm interested to see more.
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Aug 7, 2014 15:12
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resurgam40 posted:Whenever somebody who's ever really read anything but Astro Boy asks me for other things he wrote, I sometimes have to suppress a strong urge to point them straight to Ode to Kirihito or MW... Why resist the urge? Ode to Kirihito is the only Tezuka work I've actually read, and I'm glad I had the opportunity. Sure the comic was darker than a moonless night, but it was good.
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Aug 7, 2014 15:53
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It's one of the things I really appreciate about Tezuka even though Astro Boy IS the only thing I can remember off the top of my head that I've ever sat down and read any of. The man went all over the map with his stuff and not only proved that it could be done with that kind of art style, but he proved that it could be made in the first place. People call him the father or godfather of manga because the media really didn't exist in Japan until he came along, or if it did wasn't nearly as prevalent/considered mainstream.
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Aug 7, 2014 16:08
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