OverBlood 2

Gameplay

The game features an introduction and seven episodes, plus a hidden bonus episode unlocked by earning 2000 Clear Points. Between most of the episodes, which are all set in different locations, the player generally has the option to explore the main city where the game begins in order to buy items, weapons, talk to non player characters and find hidden perks in the game.

Introduction

The year is 2115. Christmas is just around the corner. The world is a boiling inferno that would be uninhabitable if it weren't for the Key Point Air Cooling System or KPACS that maintains the temperature. The Hayano Corporation controls interests across the country, from organized crime, to the construction industry. The game begins with an old man named Dr. Veltor Curtis on a flight to East Edge City being watched by ITP agent Chris Lanebecca. The player hears Lanebecca's inner monologue about her loathing for the petty problems of citizens and a general disdain for Christmas. Afterwards the game shifts to the protagonist Acarno Brani, an ambitious twenty-four year old Junk Blade pilot, arriving at East Edge City Airport after relocating from Greyland. Acarno and Curtis have a brief chat in the airport terminal before Curtis leaves for the door, as Curtis is leaving Acarno has a premonition of Curtis being attacked. Curtis is then ambushed by a powerful, mutating villain called Kondo. After throwing a mysterious capsule across the floor in Acarno's direction, Curtis is taken by Kondo. This is the first point at which the player encounters combat, armed only with a sword, and must swiftly exit the airport after avoiding people trying to shoot at him. Acarno jumps out of the airport window, falling hundreds of feet into the sea.

After climbing out of the water, Acarno is given the choice to examine the capsule. Upon doing so he hears the name "D-NA" between a lot of static, before the message being played cuts out. The game then turns into a free roam game, giving the player the ability to travel throughout East Edge City. Eventually Acarno will come across a bar named "D-NA", and inquire with the bartender, Raz Karcy (the main character from the first OverBlood game), who begins telling him about the passenger who gave him the capsule which led him to the bar. Raz informs Acarno about a conspiracy involving the project being worked on by Hayano Industries. With time being of the essence, Raz offers Acarno 50,000 credits towards the entrance fee to enter the local Junk Blade race in exchange for helping with his plan to uncover the secret of the project.

Meanwhile Kondo reports to his boss, Hayano, about the failure to retrieve the capsule and the interference of Acarno, who Kondo believes is a spy.

Episode 1: Encounters

Acarno travels to Billboard Island to recruit Navarro Jean, an old colleague of Raz and acquire a map of Hayano's Pagoda. Meanwhile Raz is confronted by Chris Lanebecca. Acarno fights and solves puzzles to get through the Billboard Island Facility, eventually going up against a large security robot. Acarno destroys the robot, but is then tased by a robot of the same model as Pipo, a companion from the first game. Navarro Jean interrogates Acarno about his motives, but the interrogation is cut short when the ITP ambushes Billboard Island on Hayano's orders. Acarno is freed in the hectic scramble, and mans a turret to fend off the attack.

Interlude

Afterwards Acarno, Navarro, Raz, and Chris regroup at D-NA to discuss their past endeavors and future plans. Raz and Navarro explain that the government is working on a top secret project involving the mafia and Hayano Industries is behind it. Twenty years ago Dr. Raz Karcy, Dr. Navarro Jean, and Dr. Veltor Curtis were scientists working on a top secret government project, and even though they were working together they were never allowed to speak to one another after an initial meeting. Eventually Raz, Navarro and Curtis were shipped out to separate labs, and after their jobs were finished their memories were wiped by memory absorbers and the laboratories were blown up to hide all evidence of the project. In the commotion a clone of Raz escaped confinement and killed the original Raz Karcy. The two scientists and the clone of Raz, (believing he is the original after the mind wipe) survived however, but with their memories severely scrambled they were soon recaptured, locked in an underground facility and forced to continue working on the project. One day while the three scientists were being transported to another facility the truck was stopped and the three were rescued by a mysterious child, who then instructed the scientists to search for the "parallax key", though none of the scientists knew what that meant, the boy then took off without another word. Curtis, Raz, and Navarro then made a pact to find out the purpose of the project they had worked on, and terminate it if the purpose was in any way destructive or malicious. Chris asks a series of questions about the project and the events surrounding it, eventually Raz explains what little he remembers about the work he was credited for, which involved research into cloning superhuman beings. Raz then explains that Curtis put all of his data regarding the project into the Zeus supercomputer in Hayano's pagoda, and that the team must break into the pagoda to retrieve this data. Chris volunteers to help, but Acarno leaves to compete in the Junk Blade tournament. Raz says the team needs a third member to pull off the job, but his bad leg will prevent him from being the third operative. Navarro insists that they convince Acarno to stay, because they can't trust anyone else with the job, but Acarno is already gone.

Acarno briefly considers going back to help, but decides to think about himself over everyone else. While walking through town Acarno has a flashback to the night his sister Nina was kidnapped and suffers a complete breakdown, afterwards he sees a vision of Nina who says she's in the pagoda, and that Chris and Navarro will be killed in the pagoda mission unless he helps. Nina then disappears, and Acarno questions his conscience again and this time decides to help his friends in their mission. When he returns to D-NA to join the mission Raz briefs the team on infiltrating the pagoda by knocking out all three sub-computers at once. The team is given a chance to go into town to buy new gear, then they regroup at midnight to launch the attack.

Episode 2: Awakening

Acarno, Chris, and Navarro infiltrate the perimeter, check in with each other before going radio silent, then launch the attack. The Pagoda is filled with enemies, puzzles, and traps, and the trio must fight their way through the Pagoda to the three respective guardians, a crab-like robot, a frog-like robot, and a squid-like robot. The player decides who uses which entrance, and thus who fights which guardian.

The trio then break into the mainframe. Navarro hacks the main terminal of ZEUS while Chris and Acarno keep lookout. The computer reveals that the secret government project is codenamed: Meridian. The KPACS only has approximately ten years before the energy is depleted, so Project: Meridian was designed as an immigration ship that uses KPACS energy to ferry the Earth's elite to a colony world with fresh resources, but can only hold 20,000 people. The team ponders why Raz and Veltor would be needed for the project before deciding to escape first, and figure out the details later. As they're headed for the door Acarno remembers that Nina said she was in the Pagoda. Acarno runs back into the central room and tries to knock down the door to a restricted safe-room while calling out Nina's name as Chris and Navarro try to stop him. This triggers the alarm and Kondo is dispatched to kill the invaders. As Acarno admits defeat and leaves with the other two all three are knocked to the ground by a shockwave as Kondo appears. As the intruders recover from the blast Chris and Acarno recognize Kondo. Acarno says he can take Kondo on his own and rushes in to fight. Acarno is badly beaten however, and just as Kondo moves in for the killing strike Kondo is paralyzed by a lightning bolt and Nina appears. Acarno is stunned to see Nina there, and Nina apologizes for making Acarno get involved, and almost getting him killed, she then mentions the search to find the Parallax Key, then disappears before Acarno can ask what she means. When Kondo wakes up Acarno demands to know where his sister is. Kondo explains that Nina was abducted because of her supernatural powers, and was experimented on in an attempt to clone the gene that gave her those powers. The experiment lead to Nina's death which is why she appears the same age as when she was taken, and that the Nina Acarno was talking to is an A.I. simulation. Acarno flies into a fit of rage and begins channeling a field of energy. He fights Kondo again, this time brutally beating Kondo. As Kondo calls for backup Hayano orders him to release the intruders. Kondo begrudgingly obeys.

In the elevator to the lobby the gang discuss Acarno's ability to harness Xeno-Rays, which is a power only one in five-million have. Chris says that they have to do something about the KPACS reserves running out before the ten year deadline. Navarro explains that the Meridian launch is going to exhaust the reserves of energy keeping KPACS operational, killing all life on Earth, meaning they have only weeks to come up with a plan.

Meanwhile Hayano is alone in his office planning on how to counter the next attack by the rebels, and what to do about Acarno and his special power.

Interlude

The gang regroups at D-NA to discuss their plan to stop Meridian. Acarno says that Meridian would be shot down if it tried to launch because of the U.N.'s International Star-Watch treaty, but Navarro reveals that Hayano has run several "Doomsday Drills" on how to wipe out other country's nuclear weapons facilities, which includes destroying virtually all civilization on Earth. Raz speculates that the construction site may be underground. Acarno leaves to investigate.

In town Acarno meets a homeless man that used to work for Hayano who doesn't know where Meridian is being constructed, but knows a man named Figaro who might. Acarno goes to The Pumpkin Hall to find Figaro. Acarno finds Figaro passed out on a table with a liquor bottle in his hand. Acarno wakes Figaro up and demands to know where Meridian is being built. Figaro takes Acarno to his lab where the BTC-1000 digging machine is located, and shows him the readout of the suspected construction site. Figaro says the object has grown from 100 kilometers to 125 confirming that it's the Meridian shuttle under construction. However because of an underground explosion Figaro's sensors were disrupted, and Figaro doesn't know where the site is.

Back at D-NA the gang concoct a plan. With the information Acarno, Raz, Chris, and Navarro have found they narrow the possible sites down until they conclude the site must be under subway sector D-5. Navarro suggests blowing up the anti-proton core, which will take weeks to replace, buying the team more time. At this point Acarno, Chris, or Navarro can be sent on the job, this synopsis assumes Acarno is sent. Acarno is given a robot called "Snooper" which is designed to track the anti-proton core signature.

At the subway station Acarno finds a man asleep on a bench, and steels his keycard to access the restricted tunnel. Acarno reaches D-5 just before a supply train, he stows away on the train and rides it to the secret underground site.

Episode 3: The Underground Space

At the underground site Acarno discovers an entire city built around the construction of Meridian with thousands of people. Meanwhile a scientist named Zeno Razuul is supervising the final preparations for the launch of Meridian.

Episode 4: A Bloody Rose

Acarno meets with Hosaka's contact to get information on the escape ship.

Episode 5: Deceptive Jungle

Acarno, Chris and Hosaka travel to Jamelgalda to free Veltor Curtis.

Episode 6: Edgy Kids

Acarno finds an orphan who claims to know a woman with telepathic powers. Acarno makes his way through Gloom Alley to find the orphan.

Episode 7: Another Future

Meridian launches, and the team fights to stop the destruction of the world.

Epilogue

Meridian is destroyed. Marius leaves a final message to the world before crossing over.

Episode 8: Final Break Down

A Key Point Air Cooling unit is on the verge of meltdown. Acarno, Chris, and Navarro are called in to stop it.

Development

Mark Estdale, an industry veteran, looked back on his work on the localization of the game in an interview with GameCulture. He stated, "I read the script. It was awful, translated to English from Japanese by Italians so I suggested rewriting the English to match the stylized Japanese, or making it into an acted comedy or to scrap the whole thing. I was told the script was perfect and couldn’t be changed and that we must do it with seriousness. We squirmed and the actors wept. When the game finally came out we discovered amongst many painfully awful mistranslations that the hand bomb throwing device was a grenade launcher and the whorehouse key level was actually a warehouse."

The director of the game was Akihiro Hino, who previously worked as a programmer on the first game. He would later become CEO of developer Level-5, working on franchises such as Dark Cloud, Professor Layton and Dragon Quest.

Reception

The game sold 62,492 copies in the ten weeks following its release, which failed to meet the sales of Overblood which sold 195,201 copies in the same amount of time. However, Overblood 2 was arguably more well received among gamers scoring a 5.7 average score, beating Overblood's 5.3 at GameSpot.com. In comparison, the two games are cited as being very different, shifting from sci-fi horror/survival in Overblood to a 3D action game in Overblood 2. The main similarities include references to the story and including the main character from the previous game as a non-playable character, and the fact both games are set around the same time in the future. Many players posted online that they experienced a game-breaking bug that freezes the game after a particular boss-fight.

During the time of its release, the game was reviewed by many different gaming magazines, receiving average scores. One area both games were criticized on were the faults with the games graphics, animation and excessive dialogue in cutscenes. In an import review of the game, GameSpot criticized the excessively long cutscenes, along with the slow performance of the game engine. However, many fans and independent reviews online credit the games uniqueness and original story line.

The Overblood series received more recent attention after being the subject of the online video blog series Super Replay by the editors of Game Informer magazine. During the Super Replay, the editors criticized the lack of the ability to skip cutscenes, the convoluted storyline and the general lack of direction. Despite this, they occasionally praised it for its ambition.