#Blud

#Blud is a great looking game that follows a classic cartoon artstyle similar to ones made by Cartoon Network in the late 90s and early 2000s. There are some great things and also some bad things and I'll review and give my thoughts so you can decide if this game scratches that nostalgic itch.

[@zacharymacleod1146]

Maaan it's funny because I played through most of this game and felt "man it feels like this game was made by a talented animation team with no game design experience"

[@canaldequalquercoisa7012]

Just like enchanted portals

[@SuperDestroyerFox]

@@canaldequalquercoisa7012no enchanted portals was just rushed and lacked funding because people were wrongly calling it a cuphead clone. I disagreed with it being a clone when it was just trailers because theming, plot, and bosses were much different. What we saw of the gameplay and animation were kinda similar but there is no rubber hose style and the gameplay had variance

[@canaldequalquercoisa7012]

@@SuperDestroyerFox yes, but as I said, the game design was really bad, almost everything wasn't working properly or in a good way. The game is really nice in terms of animation, but it's barely playable, but idk about now, maybe they fixed it?

[@SuperDestroyerFox]

@@canaldequalquercoisa7012 oh yeah I agree with you on it’s bad at least at release but I think that’s because it was rushed because everyone said it was a cuphead clone and also because kickstarter failed they had MUCH less budget(I’m pretty sure it failed)

[@canaldequalquercoisa7012]

@@SuperDestroyerFox that's a shame, the game had a lot of potential

[@MegabombGamer-rb5kh]

one thing I'd like to add that put me off from 100% completing the game is the amount of permanently missable content in the game. Enemies that only appear during certain chapters, so you have limited chances to take selfies with them (which does count towards completion) which is disheartening because they clearly put effort into unique animations for each enemy. There's also a few heart pieces that are located in chapter-specific areas that can't be returned to after those chapters are completed, which is also disheartening because the environmental puzzles are pretty clever. And there's no chapter select or new game plus to counteract this, either. It's egregious because they have a "Point of No Return" prompt before the final dungeon, except that by the time you've reached it there's already stuff that can't be completed. They clearly had some clever ideas, such as the shovel being mostly utility but being able to dig up the underground vampires, but there are also some underused mechanics, like you mentioned with the dodge roll, but also the uppercut attack which is never actually required, as far as I know.

[@Rockyrodentt]

Ps5 platinum difficulty?

[@Josuh]

Nah this sounds like a nightmare to me who fears missing out game content for not exploring throughly enough

[@deathproof8732]

Sounds like a game for people who like to replay. And to achievement queens. Cry more. Achievements shouldn't change a games direction. The game is meant to be replayed, not easy achievements.

[@penguinheightanimations]

Blud got a game review 💀

[@Lucas-dy5mt]

GET OUT

[@melmanredmane7594]

​@@Lucas-dy5mt Blud is mad ☠️

[@jankington216]

"BRO REALLY JUST SAID THIS" wow great meme, keep doing it

[@04_claymore]

​@@jankington216blud doesnt like the meme💀

[@XX-sp3tt]

10-12 hours. BETTER THAN MOST VIDEO GAMES THESE DAYS THAT TRY TO CRAM THE GAMES TO ABSURB LENGTHS! I honestly think we NEED more games that you can finish at such a length. Instead of the 1000+ hour nightmares or the like. Give us games that are short, that means everything in there holds meaning. The problem is when the creators are forced to compromise their vision and it DAMAGES the game.

[@fireplacegamingYT]

I’m with you, I’m working full time and I don’t have a lot of time so these types of games are wonderful for me

[@jurtheorc8117]

Cookie Cutter and Clash: Artifacts of Chaos are both very, very solid games with awesome art direction around that playtime. Can warmly recommend them both. Cookie Cutter is, like Blud, hand-drawn 2D animated and a more combat-heavy Metroidvania. Though the lead dev also has a story he very much wants to tell and was *very* adamant to find a publisher that wouldn't interfere in the vision. (went over a hundred publisher interviews before he found the one.) As is, the game has ended on a cliffhanger due to budget-- but support so far has been good. Recently there was confirmation that the devs keep work going. There are big updates in the works with new story beats, weapons, bosses, areas, characters etc. which can extend the playtime. Keep an eye out on the upcoming Genokids. Hack-and-Slash/character action type game which I believe is said to be around... six, perhaps seven hours for a normal playthrough, but the devs go all in on the combat. Would want to mention Soulstice as well. Same genre, came out 2022, has some rough spots and one of them has been that either the beginning or the middle dragged on for certain people. But it's got production values like Darksiders, with a *lot* of love for both the story and characters, and a big amount of depth in the combat. Character Action games are sometimes described as that the first full playthrough is the tutorial, and I don't disagree in Soulstice's case. But that's not a bad thing. Means you can get more gameplay out of a single game if i *want* to after experiencing the story once. There's so many games to look forward to that are worth spreading the word on. And that does include Blud, despite all its shortcomings.

[@Randomgalthe1st]

I like games with long playtimes or that I can replay for hours.I DON’T however like games that achieve that playtime with padding instead of a fun and interesting gameplay loop. A game that takes 100 hours to complete is worse than a game that takes 20 if those 100 hours are mostly padding.

[@ItHamBoi]

It depends on the game, stuff like Yakuza is rightfully long, I feel like it would be way less enjoyable if it was a short game

[@ros9764]

I've seen a pattern that the most celebrated indie games take the arcade-style of gameplay approach that a lot of 90s platformers took inspiration from. Make the overall exprience short but sweet and then have a bunch of bonuses and secrets that add a lot of replayability This is why the original Crash triology for example still hold up, their core gameplay mechanic has aged well

[@Waffletigercat]

12 hours for a $25 game seems pretty reasonable TBH.

[@parisulki729]

2.1$ per hour!

[@Waffletigercat]

@@parisulki729 As long as the time spent is enjoyable, I’ll take $2/hour for a fun little indie game over AAA $70 games that last 150 hours but only 30 hours of that is genuinely fun.

[@Waffletigercat]

@@parisulki729 I’m not sure if this is meant as a complaint or not. But I’d much rather spend about $2/hr on a game that I enjoyed all 12 hours of than your typical AAA experience of only spending around $1.50/hr, but only actually enjoying about 20 hours of that 45 hour experience, with the rest being tedious grinding and annoying minigames and lengthy travel times where nothing interesting happens.

[@ChickenMcKicken]

@@parisulki729wow, underpaid much? sheesh.

[@handlesshouldntdefaulttonames]

I generally want at least an hour per dollar but with inflation 2 dollars per hour seems reasonable.

[@theotherjared9824]

This is a certified "watch the cutscenes on youtube" banger.

[@brandonsclips7741]

Horrible way to engage with art

[@Kyumifun]

Kinda like Don't Starve and Cult of The Lamb?

[@TroboTicTac]

​@@Kyumifun No. Those games you'd definitely wanna play instead

[@BobbinRobbin777]

⁠@@Kyumifun Nah, more like SSB Brawl & (most) FNAF games.

[@toongrowner1]

nah, I sadly have to agree with the dodge mechanics problem, though it wasn't enough to ruin the game for me. As a fan of classic cartoon network cartoons, I freakin love the game. This doubled by me being a fan of john carpenters the thing, which this game clearly toke at least some inspiration from, like some of the crotesque boss transformations, the town littereally named Carpenter vile and becky having littereally a poster of the movie in her room XD Also even with the flawed dodged mechaincs, this game has some of the best and most fun boss fights I had in a long while, in terms of mechanics and representation

[@fireplacegamingYT]

The bosses are fantastic and I didn’t catch the John Carpenter reference that’s pretty cool!

[@Lover_of_ebrietas]

It got that teletoon style (camp lakebottom, sidekick, total drama island, etc.)

[@fireplacegamingYT]

Yes! And we need more

[@Lover_of_ebrietas]

@@fireplacegamingYT absolutely i feel a stardrw valley type deal would fit this style great

[@abbiebabbles]

CAMP LAKEBOTTOM MENTIONED!!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@Lover_of_ebrietas]

@@abbiebabbles hell yeah boy CAMP LAKE BOTTOM WHERE THE ZOMBIES RULE🗣🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥

[@montanajackson3713]

CAMP LAKEBOTTOM WHERE THE SPOOKS ARE COOL! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[@imaz0mbie_]

blud got its own review 💀

[@Ch3zzIts]

those jokes are in the trailer too 😭

[@chideraumejiaku3895]

I don't understand

[@TroboTicTac]

​@chideraumejiaku3895 blud is not gettin it 💀

[@XanderGurkin]

10-12 hours is perfect for a game though? How is it short??

[@Purple_Pink_And_Fluff]

So true! I hate games that are too long, I will get bored of them before I can finish

[@ThorDude]

A lot of people dislike games they feel are too short. No matter what the actual quality is. This is something movies and novels struggle with too.

[@Eva17-kp2ki]

i think it depends on the person. i know i love really really long games that are extremely in depth with story (100 - 150 hours)

[@theashtubereviews]

Nothing more off-putting than a 40-hour plus slog with too much busy work

[@wool578]

@@Eva17-kp2ki ok but obviously you aren't getting that from this type of game

[@didjargo]

Another flaw with the combat, I found, is that you cannot cancel out of finisher animations into a dodge roll. Finisher animations happen automatically at the end of a combo instead of being mapped to a "heavy attack" button, and they don't have I-frames. Because these animations are lengthy, you are likely going to take damage from surrounding enemies during them before you can move or dodge.

[@maxiawesomekid899]

4:56 “brew got that rizz”

[@Lazarus971]

amazing group😂

[@omgman5745]

"rizz" "blud" this is truly the gen alpha game

[@Lazarus971]

@@omgman5745 gen z*

[@omgman5745]

@@Lazarus971 reflection

[@Lazarus971]

@@omgman5745 🪞

[@toddileelee6935]

''It's a little short.....10-12 hours!!!!'' LOL. That's short?

[@K4rm4ttack]

It's very immersive in terms of animation and aesthetic, but I'm really hoping they go more in-depth on the mechanics in any sort of sequel. Having neither health items nor money actually come from the enemies in a beat-'em-up doesn't feel great, it leaves very little incentive to actually fight anything that isn't part of a required gauntlet or boss battle.

[@K4rm4ttack]

(I ran past entire enemy sections in the last boss fight area because there was just no reason to stick around and fight them when I could just grab items from the boxes, run past them, and go to the next phase without risking all that damage for no payoff.)

[@viberum6415]

Just finished the game and yeah i definitely agree with you! I always felt like something is missing here and there to really get me immersed but yeah it's all the little things with the combat and traversing through the areas that made me think there should be more stuff to spice up the gameplay or something idk. I do love the hand-drawn animation everywhere I really appreciated the whole aesthetic.

[@K4rm4ttack]

As I mentioned in my own comment, I think having the enemies drop money and health items would give you more incentive to actually fight them. Whole stretches of them can just be straight-up avoided in the last boss area because the game will let you just go to the next part of the boss fight without finishing them and why risk that damage for no payoff?

[@Vlyg11]

from this video alone I can tell that the problem with this game is the fact the roll does NOT carry your momentum and those types of "mobility options" are so unsatisfying to use

[@Xeorboom]

my first thoughts playing Blud was: ok... brilliant animation, great characters and decent boss fights but it's very obvious that the devs are EXTREMELY new to this! overall, it's like if Cult Of The Lamb combined with Hollow Knight but with Cuphead-style boss fights and a plot straight out if Strange Hill which I, of course, love!

[@Pokefan8263]

I hated the ice block section! Those flaming vampire lady’s were so annoying in the big heater room!!! And not being able to heal during the final fight was super annoying! Besides those issues I really did like this game the art style was really nice.

[@fireplacegamingYT]

That freezer area was a war crime

[@gabrielsamociuk2117]

A guy who recorded blud in Poland calls them fire banshees

[@SOJITZL]

Maybe they'll look at the feedback they get and inprove the game based on its flaws. Better combat, more combo moves, etc. It seems the biggest focus of critique is just combat from the user's side.

[@mathieubordeleau150]

Looks fun, kinda reminds me of Cult of the Lamb.

[@bwmpii_yt]

I still plan on getting it cus of how visually pleasing it is as an animation fan

[@jzh5267]

Someone probably already said this but if you go to the Winsor's mini market and go to one of the freezers and check it becky would actually say something that references to a certain boy, Becky: "Gauva juice? Birthday cake? Large fries?? Chocolate SHAKE?! WHO(i forgot what she said in the middle of this sentence but ill guess)STOCKED THESE FOOD?! A TEN-YEAR OLD?!" (if you know your cartoons you should know what show this references)

[@fireplacegamingYT]

A fairly odd selection indeed!

[@Delifte]

were getting way more stylized cartoony games recently, first it was cuphead, then pizza tower and now #Blud

[@ETcraftingChannel]

Really great review! Love that you don’t just tell what you think would need improvement, but also offer a few “solutions” to the problems

[@marting5308]

Great review, well balanced and thoughtful. I'm surprised this game has made such a small splash online considering how beautiful and nostalgic it looks, apparently if it's not a generic mascot horror game or some other meme game it will not be picked by most youtubers. Anyway, this game broke my heart. I really wanted to be great and inspire a lot of other studios to make more gorgeous 2d games, sadly it was worse than bad, it was mediocre, which makes it more likely to be forgotten than if it were plain bad. I still thought the game came out pretty good considering it was the first game ever by a studio made of like 5 people, and i really wish it would sell good enough for us to get an actual great sequel that moves 2d games forward.

[@ololoshka.09]

Of course, I understand that I am speaking off topic, but I will say this. (Attention, there is a spoiler here!) Let me remind you that the Main Character activated the portal at the end so that the portal would suck in Dragoon (the main antagonist in the game) and thus save the city. But if the player gets too close to the portal, then the Main Character will be sucked in, but apparently, this is not the end, and the game will simply start from the last save point. I have an idea about this point. Let’s say that if the player falls into the portal 3 times (not on purpose or on purpose, it doesn’t matter), then the main character will be completely and irrevocably sucked into the portal, and the player can no longer return to the save point. And when the cut scene is shown where the portal closes, and Dragoon looks at it with a grin, because finally the vampire hunters have died out and now he can continue to capture more territory (I noticed that the curse of “vampirism” only affected the city where he lives GG, it’s like in a strange gidon, when Bill Cipher captured only Gravity Falls, and Bill didn’t have time to capture the rest of the areas, because of the barrier, if anyone remembers). When would it be a bad ending where Dragoon takes over more territory and now no one can stop him...

[@patrykzukowski7471]

I played the demo and this game, aside for Unicorn Overlord, is the best animated game I've ever played. And that artstyle! Unfortunately the gameplay itself was... well, barebones, to say the least. In every aspect. Non-satisfying combat, non-satisfying movement (cause of how super slow you are) and yeah, I just lost interest.

[@OuterSpace90]

Great review!! Keep the indie reviews coming

[@kboi1170]

I played the demo and thought the same thing. The animation is GORGEOUS, but there’s missing quality of life features and the gameplay gets repetitive (at least in my opinion).

[@bananabike279]

Great review! Glad to hear #Blud turned out pretty good

[@josesosa3337]

I want to support it just for the 2d animation.

[@JeremyFinch42]

When can we get Crip.

[@FishVirus]

that’s the sequel

[@montanajackson3713]

I love the game’s art style. It feels like a Canadian 2000s or 2010s cartoon.

[@halcyonacoustic7366]

I played the demo and all of the running back-and-forth across the map really turned me off.

[@Gfrog1000]

Seems like a “wait for a sale” kind of game to me. The visuals alone have me interested though.

[@FishVirus]

ain’t no way that they gave Blud a review 💀💀💀 but seriously, nice video man

[@M4N14C4L]

Blud got their own game 💀

[@Mp7Imparable]

In resume what is bad in your opinion about the game?

[@s.m.2523]

In sumary: He finds the pacing of the story a bit jarring at time, could be a little bit longer and devellop some aspects more. The UI can be confusing and make it hard to track quests. The combat has an unconsistant feel to it. The range of move on the main character is pretty limited can make combat a bit repetitive sometime. The dodge mecanic has no invicibility frame which make it easy to send yourself into the big bosses hitbox or an enemey, which can be frustrating and make it feel a bit off. He wishes either there were i frames or that more enemies telegraphed their attack better.

[@fireplacegamingYT]

Great summary, thanks for putting it together!

[@Glitchedpixel5]

​@@s.m.2523maybe they could make a dlc story that fixes those problems

[@leoultimaupgraded9914]

@@s.m.2523did he mention the SFX in the cutscenes playing too much? thats the biggest issue for me personally

[@fireplacegamingYT]

I honestly found that endearing as it was definitely like old cartoons 😂 but I understand why it could be annoying because they do use the SFX often

[@LOMRI-bm2lp]

This game teminds me of ok ko's game lol

[@Ihave_the_longestname4]

Corey looks like the red guy from eddsworld

[@ireneroytenko7875]

Tord

[@Slidius]

Even thou im not super into the art style i can tell you its very good the art style and direction even thou i dont like it

[@grimshock6983]

The music and voices got to me. Oddly annoying

[@ros9764]

Personally the art style gave me a mix between Ren and Stimpy and Dexter's Lab

[@novemberparade1]

blud thinks he was a perfect game

[@WakoDoodle]

I really love the fake Twitter name so much I wish Perch was the official name instead of Twitter! ^^ Or whatever letter it decides to be now. Personally I think Q is better than X but I also like James Bond so; meh.

[@Bakedbeans780]

Blud got a review 💀

[@patriciafeliseperez5261]

im sorry but what's an eye frame?🙈

[@thebraviarykid7849]

I-Frame is short for invincibility frame. Some games make you invincible while dodging and others don't.

[@KrispyRodent]

“The game is pretty short” 10 to 12 hours is not a short game dude

[@tqnordic]

the blud jokes be mad cringe

[@consequenciasinimaginaveis6901]

The flaws of the game give it character.

[@Secondcomingofwocky]

Genndy Tartakovsky

[@strvmpet]

real

[@khililamachado5675]

Nice vid bud

[@BobDoleTrasher]

Far too many frames in the animations

[@TroboTicTac]

Who is blud 💀💀💀💀

[@cor.tenebrarum]

Gameplay brings this game down. It's extremely clunky.

[@fireplacegamingYT]

It’s isn’t too bad, but with a bit of polishing and feedback from players they can either patch it or release something a lot better

[@user-AADZ]

Blud really criticized the game

[@Wapcvm]

Oh, it's a zeldalike. I'd rather play Roland In The Outskirts coming later this year.

[@diananer]

Literally every thumbnail for a new product ever “GREAT!!! *But…”* “ONE PROBLEM…” Video is alright but I feel like the same fucking rage-bait thumbnails are being thrown around like it’s twitter

[@iconica9516]

its not any sort of bait if thats LITERALLY the game it does everything right but the gameplay focused stuff is a big problem just be normal and put your resentment of a formant thats been being used properly forever aside

[@diananer]

@@iconica9516 Alright fair enough

[@mati_man_51]

It doesn't help that devs are xenophobic. That's sad because I really wanted to play the game.

[@newtonmarques1271]

Question mark?

[@14days61]

Wth is xenophobic

[@newtonmarques1271]

@@14days61 it's when you're scared of aliens invading the place you live or something like that

[@14days61]

@@newtonmarques1271 wow new weird phobia i never heard about -

[@helpmii6826]

@@14days61you’ve been lied to, xenophobia is basically just a fear of anything different from yourself that is usually used to describe those who are racist or prejudiced towards others that do not fall into a similar line to them

[@root-beer]

blud is a slur!

[@ETcraftingChannel]

Really great review! Love that you don’t just tell what you think would need improvement, but also offer a few “solutions” to the problems