Official Experience of Bloodthirsty Print: A Serious Action Game Delayed by Welfare

Oh, I know, it's that color game, right.

When it comes to "Bloodthirsty Seal" now, most players may have the reaction mentioned above. At some point in the second half of 2019, with the appearance of sexy and seductive character images in various gaming communities, the name "Bloodthirsty Seal" gradually spread among players. I also got to know this game at that time.

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It has been three years since the release of the Steam Early Experience (EA) version of this game, and the game has recently become an official version. After actual experience, I feel that the player's focus may have been guided to strange places, which is a bit regrettable.

Action gameplay with low threshold and high upper limit

It must be acknowledged that the existence of welfare elements, including official skins and more colorful player made content, caters to the needs of some players and naturally affects their evaluation of the game. But in fact, the action gameplay of "Bloodthirsty Print" is quite good, and it is also a qualified action game when viewed alone.

The battles in Bloodthirsty Seal are based on the ACT type design of light and heavy attacks, dodging blocks, and jumping. Although RPG values are incorporated to lower the threshold, the upper limit for players to explore is quite high due to the rich variety of weapons and flexible action design.

The official version provides 6 types of weapons, each with its own unique move combo. Some are connected by light and heavy attack combinations, while others require pauses to change the attack rhythm. With a single weapon, you can play a visually appealing and practical combo.

Weapon Attack Table

What makes combos even better is the switching weapon design in the game. The character can equip two weapons at the same time and can switch with buttons at any time during battles. The action of character switching weapons is itself a move with attack judgment, so players can also add it as one of the moves to the combo design, making the combo more complex.

Combined with the so-called "Bloodthirsty Seal" system, which is a special skill used with just one click, high-level players can achieve quite gorgeous combos. The active skill of "Bloodthirsty Seal" can often break down the enemy's dominant body, and can be added to the platoon design with a targeted approach when familiar with the enemy's moves.

Bilibili Users; Vincent EDGE's combo

So what about average level players? I belong to the type of "randomly following the flow" where I cannot plan or control my own moves and can only output without thinking, but in reality, I can still feel the joy of combat when playing.

One of the important reasons is that the various moves and actions in "Bloodthirsty Seal" can basically be cancelled with another move or action, and the direction can be changed midway, which is very flexible. In actual gameplay, it is reflected that under normal difficulty, I can confidently press and focus my energy on controlling the direction of the move, and timely dodge or block when the enemy's attack starts to shake.

Dodge, blocking, and moves can all be cancelled from each other

This design is very user-friendly for average level players, making the game threshold lower. Thanks to this, players can attack as they please. As long as the timing is right, they can use their anti backlash and Bloodthirsty Seal to confront enemies at any time. Unlike the Soul series, which requires careful handling of their moves, Bloodthirsty Seal's strategy encourages attacks more and the gameplay feels closer to Ghost Cry.

After players have practiced and improved their skills, as mentioned earlier, this game also has enough upper limits for them to further study, play more magnificent combos, challenge main chapter levels at higher difficulty, and enjoy the thrill of being on the brink of death.

Continuously updating more playable content for three years

Compared to the initial version in 2019, the official version of Bloodthirsty Print has undergone significant changes. The early version attracted some roast due to bugs, details optimization and other problems. The official version greatly improved these problems, allowing players to focus more on experiencing the combat system and playing methods of the game itself.

Over the past three years of continuous updates, "Bloodthirsty Seal" has added multiple gameplay modes, and the richness of playable content is no longer comparable to early versions.

Existing game modes of

Players who want to hone their combat skills can try "Blood Palace Mode" and "Priestess's Trial", both of which are tower climbing gameplay. The former has a fixed enemy configuration, while the latter has certain random elements; Players who enjoy collaboration can try multiplayer PvE, while players who enjoy PvP can engage in battles with other players or participate in the "chicken eating hand to hand combat" where one player relies solely on picking up equipment at the beginning.

In the future, the official also plans to launch the "Rogue mode", the specific details are not yet clear, but it should be a gameplay mainly based on randomness.

Speaking of Rogue, this game was often described as "soul" or "Roguelike" in the early stages of release, but strictly speaking, it only borrowed some elements from the above game types in level design.

The level design is the second highlight that surprised me a bit beyond the fun of battle in Bloodthirsty Print. The levels in this game refer to the three-dimensional and multi route map design of the Soul series. There is often more than one way to reach the next level through the current region. Against the backdrop of hidden treasure chests and small game NPCs, it is quite interesting to explore.

Some level designs in are indeed quite three-dimensional

In addition, the refreshing of the monster mechanism configuration in the level scene after each character's death and rebirth is clearly a reference to Roguelike's work.

Undoubtedly, there is still room for improvement in many aspects of the game, but ultimately, it is unfair to compare it to works like "Ghost Cry", "God of War", and "Ninja Dragon Sword", as the development team for "Bloodthirsty Seal" is only three people.

A work by a three person team

Yes, this 3D single player action game with ten main chapters and multiple gameplay modes, as a development team, Yilong Studio currently only has three people.

According to previous media interviews, Art Dragon Studios began producing "Bloodthirsty Print" around 2017. Initially, there were only two creators, Li Chicheng and his wife. By the time the EA version was released in January 2019, the studio had five people. From the current Steam store page, the staff of the studio has been reduced to three people.

As an outsider, I am not sure what specific difficulties the team encountered during development, but it is almost certain that for such a small team, resource constraints are inevitable. Nevertheless, the development team has persisted in updating over the past three years, which is commendable.

The cluster explosion evaluated by Steam is basically consistent with the nodes updated in major versions

In recent years, we have seen the emergence of many excellent domestic single player games, many of which, like Bloodthirsty Print, have chosen to be released on Steam in the form of a preemptive experience. Some works are still being developed, causing players to feel uneasy and uneasy; Some ultimately failed to fulfill their promises for various reasons, causing great disappointment among their supporters.

So, for example, like Bloodthirsty Print, it is even more difficult to complete the game after three years of development and continuously expand the content and gameplay.

The sincerity of the development team has also reached out to the players, and this game has already received over 17000 Steam reviews in the early experience stage, which is the result of two price increases. After the official release, it is expected that the sales record of "Bloodthirsty Print" will continue to be updated. We hope that this three person team can persevere, whether it is long-term operation or developing new games, and continue to produce interesting game content.