Live by the blade, die by the blade

Blame the Blade is a prototype built for the second Fraud Krew Jam in about a month. It's a turn-based duel game, where attacks follow a rock/paper/scissors/lizard/Spock level of interplay and with skills that affect how everything plays out.

There are four playable characters with different health bars, skills and tricks. The game features a VS CPU and local VS modes. Unfortunately, I did not manage to finish it up as it should have deserved, but I decided to publish it anyway instead of letting it rot on my PC.

Basics

• LIGHT > EXCEL
• EXCEL > SPECIAL and HEAVY
• HEAVY > LIGHT and deals high damage
• SPECIAL > HEAVY and LIGHT
• BARRIER clashes with everything and reloads all moves, but has limited durability
• When the EX bar is full, you can keep down AMPLIFY to Amp one of your buttons. Amped buttons have better priority and can deal enhanced damage.
• Winning in Neutral triggers Advantage
• in Advantage the defending player cannot deal damage

Skill description

• Rushdown: clashes cause Advantage instead of going to Neutral
• Relentless Rush: while in Advantage, doesn't go back to Neutral until the opponent performs a successful Parry
• Riposte: parrying an attack triggers Advantage state for the defender
• Superior Excel: Excel is automatically Amped.
• Vital Strike: deals more damage if the opponent choose a move twice weaker (e.g. Excel vs Heavy will double the damage inflicted)
• Barrier Breaker: double damage to barrier

Characters

Frida Igarashi

A 47 years old lone German/Japanese swordswoman that learned the art of the sword from her uncle (but not really). She believes brute strength can solve everything - and abides by this vision of her life. She is the owner of the Igarashi Supernatural Investigations agency in Euterpe, where she works with her partner-in-crime Mojave Steinberger. She has a love/hate relationship with Reno Gattonero, the father of her daughter Akane, and still hasn't stomached the fact that he settled with the Queen of England. Her swordmanship amounts to little more than swinging her blade around - with the strength of an industrial machine, that is.

Skills: Riposte, Superior Excel

Akane Igarashi

Akane is Frida's 21 years old daughter, born out of a one night stand with a certain neko detective. Like her mother, she is a terrifying force of nature. Like her father, she beds girls and boys with the force and speed of a hurricane (though she seems to have a preference for a certain black-haired bartender at the travelling cafe "Jackson's Express"). Like both of her parents, she carves her way through adversities no matter what, leaving nothing standing in her path. Her swordmanship is more refined and proper than the brute hulking style of her mother. She is also way more level-headed than her, but that doesn't mean she hasn't inherited the Igarashi trademark short fuse.

Skills: Rushdown, Relentless Rush

Mimi LeFou / Kryzalid

Mimi, also known as Kryzalid, is a terrorist who makes heads pop with the help of her ultrasound violin. She always wears a nasty grin on her ever smiling face, all while relishing in the destruction she causes. However, most of her mytholgy is based on word of mouth and the real Mimi is frailer and more humane that one would think. She mostly uses kicks here because she doesn't like to fight to the death, especially not against her beloved Laccy. Her long-time pal Dobrio would get along with Steinberger very well, if they were part of the same narrative universe.

Skills: Rushdown, Vital Strike

Lacrima

Lacrima is a rhizome - an artificial human with plant traits. She feeds on water and proteins she sucks from the environment and living beings and can photosynthesize to replenish her nutrients. Her body constatly produces lymph, which is becoming a drug in the underworld. She has a fondness for platform shoes - with heels no shorter than 8cm. Her weapon of choice is one of her own branches, produced by her body by consuming lymph. Of course, no way she would use that seriously against her beloved Mimi. Her fighting style revolves around precise strikes to the opponent's weak spots, since her overall constitution is weak - at least compared to that of her more successful sister.

Skills: Barrier Breaker, Vital Strike

Controls

• Toggle full screen: R3 on any joypad or ALT+ENTER

Player 1

• Move cursor: D-Pad, WASD (ZQSD on AZERTY)
• Joypad X, Keyboard F: LIGHT attack, select
• Joypad Y, Keyboard T: HEAVY attack
• Joypad B, Keyboard H: SPECIAL attack, cancel
• Joypad A, Keyboard G: EXCEL attack, select
• Joypad L1, Keyboard R: BARRIER
• Joypad R1, Keyboard Y: AMPLIFY

Player 2

• Move cursor: D-Pad, direction arrows
• Joypad X, Keyboard J: LIGHT attack, select
• Joypad Y, Keyboard I: HEAVY attack
• Joypad B, Keyboard L: SPECIAL attack, cancel
• Joypad A, Keyboard K: EXCEL attack, select
• Joypad L1, Keyboard U: BARRIER
• Joypad R1, Keyboard O: AMPLIFY

Additional credits

Music by @tak_mfk6101. Thanks for the amazing selection of royalty-free music on your channel!