The faithful of the blog of the author already knew about the existence of this title, previously called Project D, but which can finally be called by its pretty little name: .45 Parabellum Bloodhound. Announced on Steam with no release date on the horizon, this “Active Time Action” combining real-time and turn-based combat using a system inspired by Parasite Eve, will however be playable for the lucky ones present at the BitSummit in Kyoto from July 19 to 21. The protagonist of this cyberpunk universe with lo-fi artistic direction is called Reila Mikazuchi, a ” killing machine coming out of depression » who is apparently looking to rebuild himself by returning to his life as a mercenary. The adventure will take place over seven levels, with fights interspersed with encounters, dialogues and puzzles without any recourse to random generation. The combat system is intended to be suitable for beginners and veterans alike, and while it is openly inspired by Parasite Eve, Christopher Ortiz points out that the comparison with Takashi Tokita's game ends there.
” You move and dodge in real time as the action bar fills at a rate determined by character and weapon stats. Once full, you can stop time and plan your offensive “, the author sums up in a few words. ” We're currently aiming for seven chapters; five of them are playable from start to finish. Most features are already locked, as is the story. We highly doubt things will change much from this initial description, though you never know… »
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The launch window for .45 Parabellum Bloodhound has not been announced, but the game is well underway and should not end up in the same situation as N1RV Ann-A, which was ultimately pushed to the back burner. I don't want to give any timelines so as not to repeat the situation with N1RV Ann-A, but we hope it's sooner rather than later. In fact, I was planning to wait until the whole game was built before officially announcing it, but selling games has become much harder. It's not 2016 anymore, so if we want this game to have a chance, we need to start now, rack up wishlists and all that. »
After a few reboots, the current incarnation of the project has been in development for about two years. In addition to Christopher Ortiz serving as director and writer, the development team includes a co-creator and programmer who prefers to remain anonymous, the artist Merengedoll to the design of characters, enemies and bosses or even Juneji for the soundtrack.