Sukeban Games, the developer best known for the adorable and touching game in 2016 VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk bartending actionthere is announced new game. Titled .45 Parabellum Bloodhound: Cyberpunk Active Time Actionthe new project is a dark, retro-inspired adventure, drawing primary inspiration from Square’s 1998 cult classic for PS1 Parasite Eve. That last part is really all I needed to hear to get excited about it, and from what Sukeban showed it looks like it’s going to be great.
First, what exactly is it .45 Parebellum Bloodhound regarding? Luckily, Sukeban shared a brief elevator pitch as part of the announcement.
You play as Reila Mikazuchi; a washed-up mercenary whose glory days are long gone. In a last ditch effort to grab life by the horns, she decides to return to life, only to find that the real enemy is not at her gun.
The entire game takes place in these highly atmospheric environments, peppered with hand-placed encounters. You’ll be roaming around to find secrets hidden throughout the game world, as well as talking to a rather unique cast of characters. Not to mention awesome boss fights at the end of each level.
That sounds pretty fantastic to me! I’m really excited about the sense of intrigue that the short text evokes. The few screenshots and clips of the game also show these atmospheric environments, which have a sort of derelict industrial look. Sukeban also suggests that development on the game is underway, with five of its seven planned chapters already playable from start to finish.
The most interesting part of .45 Parabellum Bloodhound is definitely its subtitle: Cyberpunk Active Time Action. It clearly calls back to VA-11 HALL-Aown subtitle, itself an ode to Metal Gear Solid, but it also gives us an idea of how the new game will play. “Active Time Action” might make you think Final Fantasythe iconic ATB (or Active Time Battle) system of but the action part of .45 Parabellum BloodhoundThe subtitle of can actually be traced back to another Square release, Parasite Eve.
The 1998 horror RPG from Square Enix was developed in large part by Final Fantasy team (including series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, FF7 character designer Tetsuya Nomura and FF4 lead designer Takashi Tokita) and released just one year later Final Fantasy 7 blew minds around the world. Set in modern-day New York, it creates an unsettling mood as you blast genetic horrors with firearms, Parasite Eve leaned more towards real-time action than Square’s other RPG offerings, but kept a connection to the classic ATB system. Struggle in Parasite Eve lets you run around a small arena dodging attacks while the ATB meter fills up, at which point you can pause and execute attacks or other commands. It’s a fascinating mix of real-time and turn-based systems that gives the game a fast-paced yet strategic feel. The system would be repeated in the 2000s Scary story and is the basis of .45 Parabellum Bloodhound, as shown in short battle clips on the message blog by Sukeban. You can even see the familiar sphere-like grid of Parasite Eve in action as the main character of the game shoots a gun at an enemy.
According to Sukeban, that’s about as far as the comparisons go Parasite Eve end. What that means, I’m not entirely sure, and Sukeban remains cryptic in the message, saying they’ll “talk about it some other time.” However, based solely on the announcement blog, it seems to me that the comparisons to Parasite Eve go beyond just the combat system. Visually,.45 Parabellum Bloodhound looks like a Inspired by PS1 game with low poly character models and fixed camera angles. Maybe Sukeban just means that we shouldn’t expect the game to deliver the same horror elements that fans do Parasite Eve love. In any case, you should still go play Parasite Eve if you haven’t done it before, stick with it!
There is currently no release date for .45 Parabellum Bloodhound. Sukeban simply says that the game will release “When It’s Done,” though the team hopes the release will be sooner rather than later, and originally planned to announce the game when development was complete. Since then, however, the reality of selling an indie game has become much more difficult VA-11 HALL-A was released. “It’s not 2016 anymore,” the developers wrote, “so if we want this game to have a chance, we need to start now and accumulate those wishlists and crap.”
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