I give you the second in what will hopefully be a long line of obscure, yet great, games.
Blood Will Tell
System: PS2 Year: 2004 Rating: Awesome
This is a very overlooked game for the PS2 that any fan of action/adventure games enjoys should track down and play. It does suffer from a few stages where the game shifts from awesome demon slaying to annoying stealth sneaking, but thankfully the stealth segments aren't very common.
Why is the game awesome? Well, besides the fact that the story is top-notch, there's the fact that you, Hyakkimaru, had all of your body parts stolen and given to demons when you were but a baby. Hyakkimaru has a mechanical body equipped with sword arms, knee-mounted rocket launchers and other crazy weapons. Oh, and it's set in a pseudo-feudal Japan.
The main thrust of the game is that you are trying to get all of your body parts back. You'd think that gaining a soft, squishy organ would make you weaker but each part that you regain actually makes you stronger and often grants new abilities. There are 48 different body parts to reclaim and almost every fight with the major demons who have those body parts is memorable. Add to this the fact that not every demon who has a body part is part of the main storyline and you have a lot of side-quest hunting to do, which helps to lengthen the game but not to the point where it wears out its welcome.
I really liked some of the subtle tricks that the game did. Early in the game, you can only see things in black and white as you are missing your eyes. When you reclaim your first eye, the world suddenly switches to colour. There are many other instances like this in the game and it's always a surprise to see if the body part you're reclaiming will add a few stats or grant an entirely new ability or way of playing the game.
I've seen this game on sale at EB and other used game stores for $10 or so, so it shouldn't be that hard to track down. A true cult classic if ever there was one.
