黑暗之血　-Beyond the darkness-

As a child of the ’90s who grew up on the NES and Super Nintendo—sorry, everyone, not a Sega kid here—I have this innate fondness for pixel graphics that I can’t seem to shake. Call it simple nostalgia if you must, but when a game has beautiful pixel art, I’m drawn to it. And sometimes those visuals can completely trump anything else about the game... Even the gameplay! DarkBlood: Beyond the Darkness

This game is undoubtedly a masterpiece in the corner. I've been a huge Dark Souls fan for a long time, and this game showed me a lot of the features it referred from Dark Souls. For example, the setting of "undead man", the form of various monsters, merchants, etc. What makes it different is that it is organized in the form of cards for combat and strategy. And the rules are very easy to understand, allowing me to explore more combat possibilities with my own understanding in the process of exploration.

From the start, the game throws you in the deep end - Trekking along a long, dark, harrowing hallway. Very little of the game’s systems are explained, and there’s something rewarding about discovering one’s own understanding of how to play. At times, things can feel unfair, they can even feel downright grim and unforgiving - but players who approach DarkBlood with a sound strategy will always see results in the long run (even if you can’t help getting one-shot by giant spiders now and again).

This game reminds me of some old fashioned arcade games that all you need to do is to explore deep into the caves (or towers, castles sometimes). It's a bit more fun with rouge like elements, and it does reminds me of the other game I have tried here, which was "life in adventure" with a 5/5. This one however, lacks a bit of extra storylines and events that makes it a bit boring after playing it for couple hours. A good time killer, not bad.