official [ Oc Review ] - Blood Shard

[Ocedic 249]

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Title: Blood Shard

Author: Gorlami

Version: Demo 1

 

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The screenshots alone are enough to justify at least a passing interest in this title by the talented Gorlami. This is a title that has drawn my attention for some time, and I've been spending so much time reviewing avant-garde titles that I thought it was time for a more traditional game. Enter Blood Shard, a project with vast ambitions and solid production values. But is there substance beneath the painterly surface?

 

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In terms of visuals, not a whole lot has to be said. The maps and environments are gorgeous, with mise-en-scène similar to the very 16-bit era epics. The maps are detailed and alive, as well as varied. At times, the author does go overboard with effects. Dark lighting and intense storm effects obfuscate the action and distract from the story. And while the parallax mapping is certainly a pleasure on the eyes to behold, pathing is not always clear and you will find yourself doing a lot of aimless wandering to advance. For example, the first playable scenes have water that is sometimes pathable and sometimes not. It doesn't ruin the experience, but it will annoy you when you feel that the game doesn't have clear visual indications of its rules.

 

 

The music is surprisingly not scored by Gorlami, who is known for his orchestral audio. It seemed like typical JRPG fare, though one scene had a Fallout 3-esque song playing from a record player that seemed a bit out of place given the setting of the game. Otherwise, the music does its job well even if I did feel a bit let down since I was expecting musical greatness from a musician's game.

 

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Blood Shard has a lot of interesting mechanics that make it stand out from the typical JRPG. First, you fully heal after every battle and to my knowledge don't seem to gain levels or experience. Thus, non-boss encounters are fewer and seem somewhat trivial. The game is generous with healing items, which was initially confusing given the lack of need to heal outside of battle. However, once you get to the first boss it becomes clear why you are given so many consumable items. The boss fight is legitimately tough, and you will burn through consumables like skittles.

 

 

Combat is a bit more interesting than typical RM games, but it feels a bit unbalanced and very obtuse. Mechanics are poorly explained (if at all); I still have no idea what the vigor system is. I think it's explained in the game thread, but I feel that game mechanics should be fleshed out in the game itself. Spells in general feel very weak, either with too little output (your healing spell will recover less than a basic potion; the latter doesn't even take a turn) or burdened with drawbacks like long cooldowns. Forte abilities in general seemed very lackluster and a turn waste. Overall, you're pigeonholed into a specific set of abilities, removing a lot of choice from the battles. Cool ideas are here, but they could be better executed.

 

 

Outside of battles, the game is pretty much standard RPG fare. There are puzzles and NPCs to interact with, although the environment lacked purpose beyond visual appeal. There was one room full of NPCs in which none of them even responded to interaction. It's a shame because the story and visuals give the vibe of a rich world, but in practice there really isn't much to explore.

 

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Blood Shard boasts some robust writing, but the story fails to captivate. The key flaw that keeps me from getting invested is the poor characterization. Characters' motivations and personalities seem sparely revealed, leaving characters to feel somewhat generic and indistinguishable. The characters that I did enjoy such as Miranda seemed to receive too little screen time, and the opening sequence feels like a series of non-sequiturs as a multitude of characters are introduced but none are fleshed out.

 

 

The other core issue with the title is that its story raises a lot of questions, but they're either uninteresting or poorly formulated. For example, by the end of the opening sequence one of the mysteries is "What is a Blood Shard?" ... I guess? The game feels like it has a lack of tension and you aren't dying to find out more. It's a shame because it feels like there's a dark, epic story that wants to be told here, but the title fails to hook you in from the beginning.

 

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Beautifully designed and aesthetically lush, marred by a dull story. Battle design is innovative, but needs clarification. Overall, quite a bit of potential here.

 

Grade: B-

[Gorlami 24]

Oh wow, it took me a while to notice this.

 

Than you for the review! The characterisation has been touched upon by a few people that've played it (though others have said it's fine, need to find a balance there). Few niggles that I feel like I need to explain -

 

A lot of features were left out a little because of the insane rush I had releasing this for RSW (which was subsequently pushed back for more time -.- ), and tbh I never had the time to go back and fix a lot of the stuff. That's why the NPCs were pretty much non-existent at least. A skill system I had was also in the works, but not finished in time for the demo, which led to there being no EXP awarded for fights in the game. So that stuff'll all be changed. And, I actually did most of the music myself xD pieces that weren't mine were the one when Arcontana starts to blow up, a few scenes in there, and the scene when Riffolk comes back. All the rest was mine though :3

 

I agree with you on needing some form of tutorial for the battle system though, so that'll be first on the agenda anyway (as well as touching up on skills and balancing issues and whatnot).

 

Thank you for the review though! I'm glad you played through it.

[Ocedic 249]

Ohhh, my mistake on not realizing that you had written the score. Looking forward to seeing more from this title (as well as Oneirophrenia).