Blood Will Tell

Blood Will Tell is a PlayStation 2 game released by Sega. It is based on the Japanese manga series Dororo created by Osamu Tezuka. It concerns a hero named Hyakkimaru, who has had much of his body stolen by 48 Fiends, and has prosthetics to replace these missing body parts. Along with his ally, the thief Dororo, Hyakkimaru must defeat all 48 Fiends. Both Dororo and Hyakkimaru are playable characters. Because the manga series never finished, the ending to the story was created by the developers of Blood Will Tell.

Story
The game is divided in nine parts :

Prologue : Hyakkimaru
After a tutorial where Jyukai teaches Hyakkimaru (and the player) how to use his weapons, Hyakkimaru reaches an isolated village attacked by demons led by a Fiend, the Great Horn. After slaying the Fiend, Hyakkimaru gets back his vocal cords, and a cut-scene shows the player the story of Hyakkimaru's birth : the land was in war, a war created and used by the 48 Fiends, the demon gods. One day, the heaven gods decided to send a child, a Chosen One, to slay the Fiends once and for all. The demon gods counter-attacked by corrupting the samurai Kagemitsu Daigo, the child's father : in exchange of "the power to bring back peace to the land", each of the Fiends takes a body part from the baby. Horrified by what his son became, Daigo abandoned him in a barrel, thrown in the river. Back to the present, Hyakkimaru saves a group of people from more demons. One of the people, a kid, says Hyakkimaru he wants to steal him one of his sword arms and introduces himself as "the world's famous thief, Dororo". Dororo is later saved by the samurai from another Fiend, the Homonculus. Hyakkimaru wins another body part, his left eye, and tells Dororo about what he knows of his past : he has been found and raised by a physician, Jyukai, who built him fake body parts to allow him to live. At the age of 18, Hyakkimaru heard a voice from the heaven, who told him that the Fiends created a human with the stolen body parts, and that Hyakkimaru could get back his body parts if he killed the 48 Fiends or their human creation.

Characters

 * Hyakkimaru
 * Kagemitsu Daigo
 * Dororo
 * Jyukai
 * Misaki
 * Mio
 * Tahoumaru
 * Snake Eyes Saburota

Differences from the original manga
The game's story is similar to the manga's one in many ways, but there is also some differences :


 * Some characters in the game (like Snake Eyes Saburota or Tahoumaru) don't exist in the manga.
 * Hyakkimaru mentally evolves in different ways : In the manga, as he progresses in his quest, he becomes more and more bitter, grim and lonesome (in a way, less and less human) ; in the game, he always keeps hope and faith, even if there are bitter and sorrowful moments.
 * As is typical of Tezuka, the manga is more cartoonish than the game, but Blade of the Immortal manga-ka Hiroaki Samura was hired to do more realistic character designs.

Hyakkimaru's body parts
Here are the 48 body parts Hyakkimaru takes back :


 * Six parts from his digestive system (Esophagus, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, liver, gall bladder).
 * Four parts from his muscular system (Abdominal muscles, pectoralis muscle, lateral muscles, trapezius muscles).
 * Four parts from his skeletal system (Ribs, spine, skull, pelvis).
 * Four parts from his immune system (Lymph nodes, pancreas, thymus gland, bone marrow).
 * Two parts from his respiratory system (Lungs, diaphragm).
 * Three parts from his circulatory system (Heart, platelets, kidneys).
 * Two parts from his oral cavity (Teeth, vocal cords).
 * His four appendages (Arms and legs).
 * Five parts from his sensory system (Right eye, left eye, nose, ears, lacrimal glands).
 * Four parts from his nervous system (Sense of pain, hippocampal synapse, cerebellum, cerebral neocortex).
 * Three parts from his endocrine system (Pituitary gland, thyroid gland, adrenal glands).
 * His seven chakras (Muladhara, Svadhistana, Manipura, Anahata, Vissudha, Ajna, Sahasrara).

The body parts serve, in the game, as the main way to make progress Hyakkimaru's skills and stats, and can also have additionnal effects (For example, before he takes back his left eye, the game is shown in black and white).

Critical Reception
Blood Will Tell has generally been classified as an average game by critics. Gamespot.com gave it 7.3. IGN.com scored the game at 6.8. However, casual gamers consider it a cult classic.