so. #BLUD. it's fun, in a broad sense ... like the energy & presentation & all that is delightful, very charismatic. but it's got a huge "style over substance" problem ( maybe because the studio that made it is first & foremost an animation studio? ) that really kills any of that fun if you spend enough time with it ... which is not really something you want from a video game.

visually, it's spectacular. of course. stretchy rubber hose animation & gorgeous 60's-inspired backgrounds harken back to oldschool TV animation that you'd be hard pressed to rag on for quality, and the light-hearted plot & predictably quirky cast evoke a saturday-morning-cartoon vibe that my american mind has to at least acknowledge, if not enjoy. my main complaints aren't going after the team's art chops, though -- they're going after their game design chops: namely, that all these punchy, flashy, polished, aesthetic assets don't make up for the fact that gameplay is profoundly bland. it's surface-level substance & a vehicle for the animation, only barely considered beyond its rather standard beat-em-up mechanics. which is a shame! how often do you see games with this sort of visual style?

more specifically, i think the fighting in this game lacks depth. the questing system -- while presented through a cute, unique pop culture lens -- is also not too exciting, but it doesn't really need to be when it's more about building character & inviting you to putz around the world; the main gameplay mechanic of combat, however, just feels like there is so little going on ... it really struggles to keep the momentum going, which isn't helped by the fact that it takes quite some time for you to get your main weapon & "open" up combat more. ( for the record: this kind of delayed mechanic CAN be thrilling, but in most cases including this one, it just makes getting to that point dull & leaves a poor impression for the first hour or so of gameplay. )
there's a dodge roll & a punch, which simultaneously read well, but don't play well, if that makes sense -- you have great big fists & sword swings to show where you'll be hitting, but something about how the animations execute as you hit your buttons just doesn't feel right. hit boxes may need to be enlarged, perhaps, to help with flow & make things feel less stiff. again, such a shame for such a loose, cartoony looking game.

and here is my genuine only concern with the art direction: dialogue is funny, but the associated talksprites are WAY too overanimated. they're exhausting to look at & exaggerate tone in a way that i sometimes found inappropriate; more concretely, it's an issue in that nearly everything else is also animated to this level of motion, so it ends up either being so tiresome that you get bored of it & it loses its punch, or it gets so tiresome that you feel weary just looking at it.

#BLUD is a really cute game, though. it is. and i think to some, the concept will be so charming that its writing & design work will be enough to carry it ... but for me personally, i just couldn't get into it because of how it felt to play, as much as i REALLY wanted to love it. it kind of reminds me of flash games or CD doujin games, in the sense that it's a beautiful art project ... but not a very inspired game.
there's a lot of really nice core stuff here, though, and i hope in the future exit 73 will keep making games & find a better balance between hugely aesthetic visuals, and genuinely fun gameplay.