We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.
OverBlood 2
Overblood 2, developed by RiverHill Software and published by Evolution Entertainment in PAL regions in 1999.
| 
Screenshot |
Player's Review
"The hidden top-secret project of the government, the impenetrable Hayano Industries, the computers heavily guarded and protected by sophisticated electronics, the underground labyrinth and the enemies who appear on the way. After all the heroic fighting, would it be possible to develop a new future as expected?"
The games story continues from the previous game, but it is presented in a totally different style. The game plays like a poor man's Final Fantasy VII with a cyberpunk city and running around the city for items. The adventure is split up into missions with lots of drawn-out and dry dialogue with in game cinematics. The English voice actors sound like there are recording a BBC Radio Play instead of voices characters in the game world. Also like the previous game, there are no subtitles. You get a lot of spoken dialogue as well as text but never both at the same time and no option to do so.
Like the first game, the controls are clunky, and the camera is even worse to control this time. So much detail in the game world is not shown due to poor camera angling and any attempt to correct it resets when you move. It's a chore to manage items and fire weapons which can cost you in a fire fight. The game also has a ranking system that has no place in this style of game. During each mission you gain points for finding items, taking out enemies and destructible and lose points for using some items like explosives and reloads and especially using a continue after a game over. Normally I would ignore such a system, but you need to pretty much aim to S rank the seven main missions in order to unlock an eighth by collecting a total of at least 2000 points.
For a game released in 1998 (JP Original) the graphics are quite poor in places especially the character models. The backgrounds are mostly very well done with some low-res textures on walls and floors but the fmv cinematics are of very low quality with heavy macro blocking. That said, it seems like they saved the good stuff for the final mission which has some great texture work.
HOWEVER, the game does have a story and although not very original, it works. It has a very slow start but does actually get better as the game progresses. It's just that dry dialogue delivery and overly long and drawn-out cinematics that cause the game to feel like it's dragging on. The final episode in particular has some really long scenes. Surprisingly though this is a Christmas story. Between missions I do venture out to get some of the npc dialogue from around the city.
The longplay follows the game guide at overblood2.com with the author only being knows as Ben as far as I can tell. There are some minor deviations but it's easy to follow along. Even with a guide the game can still be annoying due to the controls and the need to flick trough the clunky inventory screen quickly. The longplay shows all 7 missions completed at S Rank to unlock mission8 which doesn't have much to-do with the story and the level itself is a real pain. Camera and control issues dialled up to eleven. I also use the opportunity to show clothing unlocked during the game. The fireproof suit I had to buy as it didn't drop when killing the boss as in the guide. I made a bit of a mess with episode 6 with all the gang fights costing me lots of CP points, i think but i still has enough in the end. I tried to make use of different weapons so as not to always use the same one but it's not always practical due to damage level and near impossible to aim ones like the grenade launcher and bazooka.
Finally, it appears that there is a slight oversight that the game doesn't offer to save the game upon completion. That means you can't go back into the game to spend any coins found in final mission, try on a clothing unlock or speak to the robot to view completion time and maybe try to beat it. Completing episode 8 doesn't offer to save at the end either, so maybe access to it will be lost if a manual save is not made during the mission.
00:00:00 Intro & Terminal
00:21:16 Edge City
00:54:40 Episode 1: Encounters
01:41:55 Edge City
02:03:50 Episode 2: Awakening
03:09:25 Edge City
03:27:15 Episode 3: The Underground Space
04:13:50 Edge City
04:40:00 Episode 4: A Bloody Rose
05:05:45 Edge City
05:15:00 Episode 5: The Deceptive Jungle
06:04:00 Edge City
06:19:12 Episode 6: Edgy Kids
07:02:58 Edge City
07:23:52 Episode 7: Another Future
09:19:46 Ending
09:32:23 Episode 8: Final Break Down
The games story continues from the previous game, but it is presented in a totally different style. The game plays like a poor man's Final Fantasy VII with a cyberpunk city and running around the city for items. The adventure is split up into missions with lots of drawn-out and dry dialogue with in game cinematics. The English voice actors sound like there are recording a BBC Radio Play instead of voices characters in the game world. Also like the previous game, there are no subtitles. You get a lot of spoken dialogue as well as text but never both at the same time and no option to do so.
Like the first game, the controls are clunky, and the camera is even worse to control this time. So much detail in the game world is not shown due to poor camera angling and any attempt to correct it resets when you move. It's a chore to manage items and fire weapons which can cost you in a fire fight. The game also has a ranking system that has no place in this style of game. During each mission you gain points for finding items, taking out enemies and destructible and lose points for using some items like explosives and reloads and especially using a continue after a game over. Normally I would ignore such a system, but you need to pretty much aim to S rank the seven main missions in order to unlock an eighth by collecting a total of at least 2000 points.
For a game released in 1998 (JP Original) the graphics are quite poor in places especially the character models. The backgrounds are mostly very well done with some low-res textures on walls and floors but the fmv cinematics are of very low quality with heavy macro blocking. That said, it seems like they saved the good stuff for the final mission which has some great texture work.
HOWEVER, the game does have a story and although not very original, it works. It has a very slow start but does actually get better as the game progresses. It's just that dry dialogue delivery and overly long and drawn-out cinematics that cause the game to feel like it's dragging on. The final episode in particular has some really long scenes. Surprisingly though this is a Christmas story. Between missions I do venture out to get some of the npc dialogue from around the city.
The longplay follows the game guide at overblood2.com with the author only being knows as Ben as far as I can tell. There are some minor deviations but it's easy to follow along. Even with a guide the game can still be annoying due to the controls and the need to flick trough the clunky inventory screen quickly. The longplay shows all 7 missions completed at S Rank to unlock mission8 which doesn't have much to-do with the story and the level itself is a real pain. Camera and control issues dialled up to eleven. I also use the opportunity to show clothing unlocked during the game. The fireproof suit I had to buy as it didn't drop when killing the boss as in the guide. I made a bit of a mess with episode 6 with all the gang fights costing me lots of CP points, i think but i still has enough in the end. I tried to make use of different weapons so as not to always use the same one but it's not always practical due to damage level and near impossible to aim ones like the grenade launcher and bazooka.
Finally, it appears that there is a slight oversight that the game doesn't offer to save the game upon completion. That means you can't go back into the game to spend any coins found in final mission, try on a clothing unlock or speak to the robot to view completion time and maybe try to beat it. Completing episode 8 doesn't offer to save at the end either, so maybe access to it will be lost if a manual save is not made during the mission.
00:00:00 Intro & Terminal
00:21:16 Edge City
00:54:40 Episode 1: Encounters
01:41:55 Edge City
02:03:50 Episode 2: Awakening
03:09:25 Edge City
03:27:15 Episode 3: The Underground Space
04:13:50 Edge City
04:40:00 Episode 4: A Bloody Rose
05:05:45 Edge City
05:15:00 Episode 5: The Deceptive Jungle
06:04:00 Edge City
06:19:12 Episode 6: Edgy Kids
07:02:58 Edge City
07:23:52 Episode 7: Another Future
09:19:46 Ending
09:32:23 Episode 8: Final Break Down
No Comments have been Posted.