Orangeblood

Orangeblood is your simple, run-of-the-mill JRPG that gives you that nostalgic feeling for the games we played growing up.

Orangeblood is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s visually striking and has a conceptually deep battle system. On the other hand, the english translation is incomprehensible and your characters are too powerful to really have any sort of challenge or interesting fights. It won’t physically and emotionally destroy you like the Lisa games, but it’s still a decent enough RPG that I can recommend if it’s on sale.

Orangeblood is a game of half measures. It feels like it’s afraid of taking its bold style all the way, and the game suffers for it. While it did catch my attention at PAX West last year, actually sitting down with the full release was a disappointing experience.

What is the proper response to organized crime? This game strongly suggests that directly fighting the mob members is best, so don't come to it for legal advice.

Orangeblood throws you into an alternative history timeline where you control a party of girls taking on the dirty and corrupt underworld of a Japanese municipality. It’s a game that merges cultures and aesthetics in a uniquely interesting way, but also struggles to find its footing at the same time.

There is a seed of something great in Orangeblood. It may not be in the gameplay or story but it’s there in the art and music. Unfortunately, Orangeblood has some technical hurdles to get over in order to let this game shine. It should be noted that the developers, Grayfax Software and PLAYISM, are working on resolving these issues quickly. Since I’ve been playing and reviewing Orangeblood they’ve released several updates fixing and patching the game. Based on the steam page it looks like they’re updating every three to four days.