Forgotten Blood

Forgotten Blood è una vera perla nascosta per tutti gli amanti dei GDR dark fantasy e dell'esplorazione vecchio stampo in stile King's Field. Il gioco convince fin da subito grazie a un'atmosfera cupa, un fantastico world design interconnesso e un livello di sfida appagante che non prende mai per mano il giocatore. Il sistema di combattimento è privo di fronzoli, punitivo e ragionato, premiando l'attenzione e la pazienza in ogni singolo scontro. Sorprende la cura riposta nell'ambientazione e nella narrazione visiva, ancora più impressionante se si pensa al lavoro svolto da uno sviluppatore indipendente. Un'esperienza immersiva, nostalgica e ricca di segreti che merita assolutamente di essere giocata!

I like the game, but it needs a lot of work still and could use some qol improvements. It's unplayable on my widescreen monitor, in fullscreen text and health bar get cut off, and in windowed mode the window is tiny and I can't resize it. I suspect this is a general problem with wide-screen monitors. Luckily I have another computer connected to a TV, so there I can play it, but unfortunately there are still some major problems with the game... As soon as you enter the outside/forest area, the performance tanks pretty hard, which is quite surprising considering the oldschool graphics and low poly models. I found several hidden Chests that I could not open and there was no message saying I need something to open them (I had keys anyway). I got stuck in several places and often had to respawn to get free. There are so many places where you can hear footsteps but no enemy is there, so either there's a sound bug or a lot of enemies stuck inside walls or under the ground. On-Screen text is often just displayed for less than a second, then you have to find the perfect position for it to pop up again for another second... When using an item after you die, but before respawning, the item disappears. Example: you notice your health bar is almost gone, you're about to heal, but the enemy hits you > you die right before you push the button, the healing item is gone on respawn. This happens until the screen is completely black after you died which is a considerable amount of time. New items sometimes get automatically equipped to quickbuttons in whatever spot is free. Instead of having the same item you designated to a button (which you have to do nonetheless), you sometimes have completely different items there. If you don't notice that, you want to use a potion and suddenly your char draws a bow because it was automatically assigned to that button. That's just WTF. Some items don't stack properly, somtimes I got seperate piles of the same items like bronce keys or healing potions (happens even with only two items, so it's not the amount). When using controller, you use items via directional buttons (up, down, left, right), which is fine and pretty common. Problem is that it still happens when you hit any of the directional buttons inside the inventory screen. You want to go up/down the list of items, and instead you use whatever item is currently designated to that button. You also use items when you just want to designate Items to those buttons. Both should not happen and are massive desing flaws. In general, most people use the directional buttons to steer through the menus (not the sticks), so having those buttons do something completely different is a pretty bad choice. Blocking the buttons inside menus and/or use a dedicated button to activate the designation would be a lot better. Bad collision in many places, including invisible walls (the ones you get stuck on). I saw a few instances of environments having holes or having been placed badly (you can look through/inside the map). Combat and overworld controls are mostly fine for this type of game, but could use some fine tuning as well. There are some great Kings Field-Likes that don't ignore every single qol improvement invented after the first Kings Field released. This one is not part of that group. It has the right ingredients, nice level design, great atmosphere and feel, but it still needs a lot of work to get there. I wouldn't recommend this game until there are some major updates. Even with discount it's not worth it right now, it's just frustrating to play.

I am 100% going to return to this when some bugs have been squashed. the vibes, the environment, the exploration without being told anything - it’s the best. I just ran into a few issues I’d like to mention so the dev can take a look. Happy to provide any logs or anything too if needed. - I dropped a torch in the beginning of the game and was unable to pick it back up. Seemed to clip into the ceiling. - There were two different times where I picked up an item and it just never appeared in my inventory. One time was two bronze keys in an area I think I sequence broke to get into (which I love). The second was actually three items. I found a small elevator that led me to a closed room with a skeleton with a book saying “fire.” Fortunately one of the chests had a torch in it which I assumed would get me out; however, the torch wasn’t in my inventory. I also received two items called ??? from the chests that didn’t go into my inventory either. You’re already updating quickly and I appreciate that so much. I’d imagine it’s very difficult to do this solo and I love your vision so I’ll support this for sure!

Incredibly terrible inventory management and or interactivity. It does not function as intended or the intention is for it to not function? I went to use a life crystal of which I had seven and it gave me one charge but deleted the other 6. Playthrough completely scrapped. Not only does the inventory not function properly 90% of the time but trying to pick up items from vases and enemies is like pulling teeth. You had better hope you're standing in the right spot or the glowing loot might as well not exist. The reach of weapons does not match animations and attacking only works when it wants to. Sometimes I can swing back to back, other times it takes 3 business days to attack more than once and this is at full stamina as well. Every action is laggy beyond measure and nothing registers as it should. The navigation is ridiculous and unnecessarily long winded. There really is no purpose in taking away the stairs when you cant pass through the torchwall from the other side even if you jank your way across the eye shaped opening. You also can't open the locked door without the silver key. It serves no purpose except to force you to backtrack through the entire level from bottom to top just to arrive back at the torch exposed door. If you enjoy these types of games I can see potential here, but I'd wait for more than a few updates to release first.

really nails the fromsoft mood and weird obscure exploration, and the art is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ breathtaking. writing is pretty good. some notes stamina regen needs a bit of a buff imo the menu ui is extremely difficult to navigate on controller get a variety of exertion noises going on the skeletons with shields feel unhittable even when i'm attacking from behind make sure all your assets have walls, found a couple things i shouldn't have been able to walk through allow players to return to the dialogue tree without ending and restarting the dialogue

We cordially invite you to the swamp