Bloodless

About

Bloodless is a single player action adventure game with a anime theme. It was developed by AntonioHR and was released on August 29, 2024. It received positive reviews from players.

⛩ Bloodless is being developed by Point N' Sheep game studio, scheduled to release for PC in 2024. ⭐️ Add Bloodless now to your Steam Wishlist! We're also on Twitter and Instagram, follow us to stay tuned with Bloodless development updates. ********************************************************************************* ABOUT The project was born at Ludum Dare 45 game jam in October 2019. …

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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82%

Audience ScoreBased on 83 reviews

gameplay19 positive mentions

grinding2 negative mentions

Unique and innovative parry-based combat system that is challenging and rewarding, requiring precise timing, positioning, and pattern recognition.
Striking and beautiful art style with well-chosen color palettes, complemented by a fitting soundtrack that enhances the atmosphere and immersion.
Engaging story and characters with interesting dialogue that holds player attention, combined with additional side quests and arena challenges extending gameplay.

Performance issues reported including lag, frame drops, and stuttering on various platforms, sometimes making the game feel unplayable or frustrating.
Difficulty spikes and crowded combat encounters can feel overwhelming and unfair, especially due to enemy attack spam, confusing hitboxes, and inconsistent parry/dodge mechanics.
Gameplay balance problems such as stamina management frustrations, problematic environmental hazards, and lack of quality of life features like key remapping and fast travel.

gameplay
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
60%
5%
The gameplay of Bloodless is centered on a parry-based, timing-heavy combat system reminiscent of Sekiro, offering fluid, rewarding, and mechanically deep encounters that challenge pattern recognition and positioning. While praised for its engaging core mechanics, variety through skill trees and crests, and smooth controls, some reviewers found late-game difficulty spikes frustrating due to inconsistent enemy behavior and occasional reliance on luck, which can disrupt flow and lead to a janky experience. Overall, the gameplay is novel and enjoyable, though it may feel rough or unfair in parts, with a learning curve that rewards persistence and mastery.
- “Bloodless boasts the best parry-centric combat system of any indie game I've played, which is especially high praise considering Nine Sols released recently and also thoroughly blew me away with its mechanics.”
- “The gameplay is very well designed, the counter-based gameplay goes beyond the standard design and rewards timing, pattern recognition, positioning, and crowd control, while the chi attack gives the option for a more proactive playstyle.”
- “And what I love is how the deeper you get the more expansive the combat system feels with its talent tree, crests which modify your mechanics, and learned abilities letting you handle combat more aggressively if you so choose, or helping you hone in on ways to counter the enemies and make them their own worst enemy.”
- “While overall a positive experience, some of the fights (notably the arena challenge fights) are a bit overtuned and the game's mechanics don't feel fully designed to tackle these challenges without some luck.”
- “Considering the core game mechanic revolves around dodging into enemies and parrying attacks, this causes nearly every fight to devolve into a random chance battle with the game itself.”
- “I think sometimes the enemies kind of trip up the flow of gameplay by boxing you in and giving a flurry of attacks, not all of which you can avoid or parry, so it causes you to lose health quickly without being able to fight back.”
story
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
49%
7%
The story in this game is generally engaging and well-written, featuring believable characters and intriguing dialogue, with a slow reveal that effectively builds the bleak world and plot. While some find it moderately interesting and suitably paced without overstaying its welcome, others note it can feel rushed or somewhat unmemorable until key moments near the end. Overall, the narrative complements the art style and gameplay well, offering a rewarding and immersive experience despite occasional frustrations.
- “Besides the combat, the game has an interesting story, well written dialogue, and characters that make you either love or hate them.”
- “The fights are really well designed, whenever I lost I only thought 'get good, get better' and then continued progressing through the very mature and engrossing story, with some surprising turns.”
- “Absolutely gorgeous presentation, with some beautiful backgrounds, use of colour and dithering, great score and quite an engaging story, this is a demanding, but rewarding experience that has been criminally overlooked.”
- “I was always mildly interested because the story was at least a break from fighting, but there were lots of forgettable characters and nothing really happened until the end.”
- “I also feel like there isn't a lot of content in this game, it's relatively short, and I'm not sure if the gameplay and story are stimulating enough to make it worth the price.”
- “The story is overall not that mindblowing, but the characters and dialogues are quite nice.”
graphics
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
43%
10%
The graphics are widely praised for their beautiful, distinctive pixel art style, innovative use of color, and strong aesthetic appeal that enhances gameplay and storytelling. However, some users find the harsh monotone palette and simplicity challenging for a game requiring close visual attention. Overall, the visuals are considered a standout strength that evokes nostalgia and complements the game's tone and atmosphere.
- “The artwork is one of its greatest strengths, with wonderfully crafted character sprites and environment art; it was the reason I picked up this game.”
- “Graphics: gorgeous, the artstyle is beautiful; it's one of the best aspects of this game.”
- “The art style works really well, especially the use of color filters that add to each area's identity.”
- “At first, I was put off by the simplistic graphics from the screenshots.”
- “But it is just unplayable, which is a shame, since I really like the art style and storytelling I've seen so far.”
- “To be clear, this is purely aesthetic, it does nothing and it took me an embarrassingly long time to suss this out.”
music
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The music in the game is highly praised for perfectly complementing the atmosphere, ranging from subtle to intense moments, and enhancing the overall experience with well-fitting regional and combat themes. The soundtrack is described as beautiful, immersive, and thrilling, contributing significantly to the game's engaging and memorable presentation.
- “The music fit very well: it drew you into the world of the game, set the mood of the regions and combat, and never got tiring.”
- “Soundtrack: very well done too, the tones fit the areas and encounters quite well, boss themes getting faster tempo with how deep in the fight you get makes for a thrilling encounter.”
- “The music was perfect and mostly subtle, but there are moments where it gets intense as well.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding, especially through arena challenges, is recommended for obtaining upgrades needed to overcome difficult late-game content, but the process can become tedious due to the game's slow combat pacing and the need to isolate enemies.
- “I recommend grinding the arena challenges for upgrades, because the late game kicked my ass six ways to Sunday and I just hit a wall.”
- “Because the main character has a serious recovery time between punches and parrying, there is no way to deal with these situations in any meaningful manner except trying to separate groups, which gets tedious really fast.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the game emotionally engaging, describing it as heartfelt, funny, and genuinely heartwarming, highlighting its strong emotional impact.
- “Funny, heartfelt, a work of heart.”
- “Bloodless is such a heartwarming game.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features a captivating atmosphere enhanced by beautiful pixel art and well-designed, atmospheric locations. The mix of challenging parry-based combat and light exploration with NPC interactions creates an engaging and well-balanced pacing.
- “The parry/dashing focused combat is tough but very fun; light exploration of the very atmospheric locations and dialogue with NPCs breaks up the pace just right.”
- “Also, the pixel art is beautiful and I love the atmosphere.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant performance and optimization issues, causing poor gameplay experiences even on high-end hardware like the RTX 4070 and portable devices such as the Steam Deck.
- “I wish I could recommend this game, but it had huge performance issues both on my 4070 and Steam Deck.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor is described as funny and heartfelt, adding a genuine, emotional touch that resonates as a true labor of love.
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game demonstrates strong stability, with users reporting no glitches or technical issues during their experience.