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 boy, tells Hyakkimaru he wanted to steal 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 what he knows of his past: he had 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 heavens, who told him that the Fiends created a human with the stolen body parts, and that Hyakkimaru could get back what was stolen from him if he killed the 48 Fiends or their human creation.

Chapter 1 : Yudai
Hyakkimaru and Dororo come across a small, poor village full of people who look up to a woman named Mistress Yudai. However, the villagers don't realize that their beloved mistress is actually a fiend who steals their money. Mistress Yudai has three forms: a kindly woman, a large ugly demon named Scourge, and another demon form named Ogress. A troll spirit helped the villagers find their money in a bamboo thicket, but Mistress Yudai demanded that anyone who saw this troll be brought to her and executed so that her secret may be kept.

Chapter 2 : Dragon Brood
After defeating Yudai, Hyakkimaru and Dororo come across a ronin named Tanosuke in a desert-like area. This ronin wielded a sword known as Dragon Brood, which was possessed by one of the fiends that had stolen Hyakkimaru's body parts. After Hyakkimaru fought the masterless samurai, he ran off. Dororo followed behind Tanosuke and quietly stole the sword from him. At that moment Dragon Brood begins to tell Dororo to kill to satisfy its thirst for blood, causing Dororo to go after Tanosuke's sister Misaki. However, Hyakkimaru arrived just in time and got the sword out of Dororo's hand; unfortunately, it was reclaimed by Tanosuke. Tanosuke then fought Hyakkimaru, but after a great defeat he sacrificed himself, allowing Dragon Brood to kill him. After Tanosuke's death, Hyakkimaru slashed the blade in half and thus regained his spine.

Chapter 3 : In the belly of the mountain
Hyakkimaru and Dororo came along Daidara Mountain and arrived at a temple where a girl named Mio lived. They stepped in only to meet Tahoumaru and Kagemitsu Daigo (read about them next chapter). Afterward, they came to the village and they saw Daigo and the magistrate, a glutton compared to the villagers, who are rail thin. Dororo followed the fat magistrate to his hideout in a nearby cave where he was knocked out and captured when he saw the magistrate eating. Hyakkimaru then came to Dororo's rescue and then headed to the mountain where they fought various parts of the demon concealed within. At the end Dororo killed the heart of the demon, returning to Hyakkimaru his sense of pain.

Chapter 4 : The Wall
Hakkimaru and Dororo arrive at a place known as "The Wall." It is here that he met Snake Eye Saburota, and again met Daigo and Tahoumaru. He fought the three-tailed fox, then he fought off some soldiers and saved two children, whom Dororo helped get to their home. The wall divided one town in two: "North Town" and "South Town." While Dororo guided the lost children, Hyakkimaru went and found Daigo's manor, where he fought the six-tailed fox. After the battle, Hyakkimaru left and was locked in by barriers set up by the "nine-tailed fox" (three-tailed and six-tailed never existed in Japanese mythology). Later, he fought Snake Eye Saburota but the battle was cut short. Soon after he went back to the Wall after destroying the barriers. When he arrived, he fought Tahoumaru and knocked him out cold - or so he thought. When that happened the nine-tailed fox appeared telling him, "Hyakkimaru... Hyakkimaru... the man you just wounded is your own brother." Soon realizing that tahoumaru is his brother, he realized Daigo is his father. Tahoumaru threw his sword into the eye of the fox, giving hyakkimaru the advantage. After defeating him, Tahoumaru said to hyakkimaru "I may have helped you today, but mark my words, if you get in the way of my father's plans I will kill you, even if you are my brother."

Characters

 * Hyakkimaru
 * Kagemitsu Daigo
 * Dororo
 * Jyukai
 * Misaki
 * Mio
 * Tahoumaru
 * Snake Eyes Saburota
 * Mistress yudai
 * Mai-Mai onba
 * Tanosuke

Differences from the original manga
The game's story is similar to the manga's in many ways, though there are 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
The forty-eight 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).

In the game, the body parts serve as the primary method to improve Hyakkimaru's skills and stats, and can also have additional 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, many gamers consider it a cult classic.