It happens more and more often in the gaming world to resurrect years old series, perhaps with a reboot, or with a new chapter that makes the hardened fans discuss who, inexorably, will always find something to complain about.
The first chapter of Kagero, known in the West as Tecmo's Deception, It dates back to 1996, and it never arrived in Europe: in fact, only two of the four chapters released over the years have been marketed all over the world.
The last iteration dates back to the distant past 2005 (2006 from us) on PS2, and until last September the brand of Disappointment he looked dead and gone.
Tecmo therefore surprised everyone with a surprise announcement; Deception IV: Blood Ties (by now Blood Ties) was in development for PS Vita e PS3, and it would have been both a great starting point for new players, and a welcome return to the mechanics of previous games.
HEADED VERSION: PLAYSTATION VITA
The devil's daughter
Each chapter of Disappointment can be played on its own, as the underlying storyline begins and ends in the title itself.
Blood Ties is no exception, and tells the story of Laegrinna, the daughter of the Devil, arrived on earth together with her three handmaids to retrieve the Sacred Verses useful for reincarnating the beloved father.
To recover the twelve parts of the sacred song, Laegrinna will have to kill the twelve descendants of the Saints who imprisoned the evil parent, thanks to the diabolical traps that he will learn during the title.
The story mode of Blood Ties is divided into chapters: each of them sees Laegrinna face one or more descendants of the Saints, who will promptly send waves of knights to try to kill the sensual white-haired girl.
Between a wave of soldiers and the next, Laegrinna will also be able to meet innocent villagers, who happened to be in the game area: it will be up to the player to decide whether to let these unfortunate farmers escape or brutally kill them like meat.
Although well told, the plot of Blood Ties is only a side dish and an excuse to learn game tactics and unlock new traps.
I love how you die, young man
The main goal of B it's the same as its predecessors: using one or more traps to kill the protagonist's enemies.
What at first looks like an action game, then turns into an ingenious and very challenging puzzle game.
If it is true that to bring the enemies on the traps placed it will be enough to move Laegrinna and be chased, a certain strategy is required to inflict massive damage, chaining more traps together and inflicting the worst tortures to the unfortunate on duty.
Traps fall into three different categories (one for each Laegrinna handmaid):Elaborated, consists of traps with specific effects: a boulder, an electrified spear, a jar full of boiling oil capable of blocking the target and damaging it; Sadistic, they are traps with a high war potential like the classic cleavers, harpoons or scythes that will bleed the adversary violently; Humiliating, the last category concerns all those weapons that apparently seem funny, but that behind the funny facade hide a threat not just like a banana peel, a giant yo-yo or a UFO.
In story mode, the three maids will ask Laegrinna to meet certain requirements, challenging the player to activate their wits to please the requests.
In addition to the faithful traps, Laegrinna will be able to rely on two special skills equipped with the square and triangle buttons, among which in addition to the possibility of being able to add an additional weapon slot, you will find skills such as dodging, recovery of HP, or the possibility of paralyzing the enemies.
Most Skills will have a limit of uses, while some such as dodging will be unlimited; continuing in the game (both in the story and in the missions) you will unlock both weapons and new skills, which can be purchased with the Warl, the game currency that can be obtained with kills.
The complex system of chaining the traps takes time and practice on the part of the player, making Blood Ties a title capable of giving satisfaction and very long-lived, at least until boredom sets in..
That trap wasn't there before
In addition to Story Mode and Missions, in B there is a level editor named Cross-Quest, where the player will be able to create their own challenges both to try their hand at new combinations and to upload them online sharing them with other players.
This editor makes Blood Ties tend to be infinite, as you will be able to download new levels from all over the world and repeat them to earn the precious Warl.
In the editor you can choose the enemies, up to a maximum of three, among all those killed in the story mode, and also you can set up to a maximum of four secondary objectives, ranging from the classic do not suffer damage to scoring requirements, to give a personal touch to the challenge.
Once completed and uploaded to the Tecmo servers, other players will be able to download it on their console and, after completing it, evaluate it, making it more visible in the event of a positive vote.
The Free Battle mode closes the circle and is very similar to the Cross-Quest editor, allowing the player to calmly hone their deadly techniques against enemies already faced.
Heartbreaking screams
If the gameplay of B it is practically the same as the previous chapters, leaving satisfied the historical fans of the series and also the newcomers, on the technical point of view we expected some more improvements.
The graphic aspect is the least cared for, especially the NPCs which are all very similar to each other (except for the 12 descendants) and who actually disfigure against Laegrinna's character design.
Fortunately, the story sequences offer well-crafted 2D sprites although very few animations are present.
Even the dubbing in Japanese is of exquisite workmanship, accompanied by a medieval background music that will be interrupted by the heartbreaking screams of our victims: unfortunately as in the case of polygonal models, even the sampled screams are divided into only two versions, male and female, making it all too cold and impersonal.
Small note for the PS Vita version: the Sony laptop proves to be the ideal home for the Tecmo game, even if the latter does not add any use of the unique functions offered by the console.
Verdict 7/10 How do I kill you today? Comment Deception IV: Blood Ties is a great hit and run game that offers ingenious and sadistic entertainment, and is perfect for a handheld console. If you overlook the technical flaws, Blood Ties is able to kidnap the puzzle game enthusiast and offer him a unique challenge in the genre. Let's just hope that ten years won't go by for the next chapter. Pros and cons ✓ One of a kind
✓ Many different traps
✓ Longevity tending to infinity ... x No use of PS Vita functions
x ... but it might be boring
