A mediocre RPG set in a feudal Japan-inspired world

Gameplay: Blood of Calamity’s gameplay is just…. mediocre at best. Not too terrible but not too bad either. The game has a mini-map for exploring dungeons, there are heal points at the start/end of dungeons and you do get the ability to instantly teleport to towns around the world map w/a special item partway through the game. The game also has Subquests but the NPC’s don’t have a mark over their heads to denote as such, unlike in EXE Create’s games. The encounter rate for enemies in BoC is absolutely atrocious, and there’s no QoL features or even items to turn off or lower the enemy encounters except for 1 item which just lowers the encounter rate for 300 steps only at a time. The IAP shop contains an unlock item for an extra dungeon that contains lots of good accessories and permanent stat boost/level-up items, along w/overpowered War God Stones accessories that make characters OP and break the game. Also be prepared to have constant black bars on the left and right sides of the screen if you’re playing on a newer Android phone, as this game does not support full screen mode and Magitec is now defunct so there will be no fix for updating Blood of Calamity’s screen ratio for newer devices.
Controls: Controls were a little jank on my phone (possibly due to it being on Android 11 which is much newer than when the game was released, this game was from 2014.)
Story: The story of BoC is pretty dark and had potential, but partway through the game your party does some dumb things that make the plot take a nosedive into bad writing territory. Kenshiro, the main character also likes to flirt with women which some audiences may find offensive (thankfully his dialogue isn’t as offensive as Fleon’s dialogue from EXE Create’s Revenant Dogma, imo.)
Battle System: Combat is turn-based, you get 2 formations to use: Front which has 2 characters in the front and 1 in rear, and Rear which is the other way around. You also get these battle benefits called Mandaras that boost stats, clear bad statuses or regenerate your HP/SP when your character takes action on one. You cannot use the same Mandara on all your party slots, however. There are powerful Limit-Break style skills called “Clan Specials” which consume a separate gauge, if you want it to refill up quickly, you must use the “Redeploy” command which switches your party’s positions when they take action in battle. I wish you could swap characters out mid-battle as you get 6 characters in your party, though.
Skill System: You learn new Kiho (this game’s magic skills) and Clan Specials through the TP system. You boost stats using TP and they may learn new Kiho and Clan Specials as you gradually boost them up. Unfortunately this isn’t well explained in the in-game tutorial section, thankfully someone over here on RPG Insanity has a guide in the game’s forums on where to plug in your TP in order to learn your Kiho and Clan Specials.

Blood of Calamity

Unlike most magitec games Blood of Calamity features a japanese setting which helps break up the standard. The story thankfully starts off strong with a new character joining fairly frequently with a couple dungeons to break them in.

The skill system would have worked better if the help section was as detailed as Soul Historica’s. Every level, each character gains 60tp which can be applied to any stat except hp/Sp. At certain points, you learn a new skill.

Later dungeons force you to disable certain switches to open doors and feature trap doors unlike most magitec games which have spike floors.

Blood of Calamity:

Blood of Calamity is a rare game which is set in a fictional Japanese-style setting instead of the usual European medieval fantasy. This is a good thing, and alternative settings should be encouraged. I personally enjoyed the battle and skill system, though the latter might do well with a guide, I kind of enjoyed the risktaking in putting points in certain stats without knowing. I finished the game without the guide and without much grinding. In terms of character use, I stuck with the starting two for the entire game and did fine, only switching the third member for one you get later.

The world map itself is unfortunately bland and boring. The only settings you’ll be setting are towns, castles/mansions, shrines, mountains, forests and caves. Even when things get serious, you won’t be seeing any real variety in the scenery. There isn’t any in the one unlockable area, either.

A lot of people complain about Kenshiro (the protagonist’s) behaviour, but I didn’t see it that way. I thought that it’s a good thing, to have a character who initially starts out irresponsible and dislikeable but learns to become a leader. My only complaint, if anything, is that he switches from one to the other a bit too easily, and around halfway through the game his womanizing tendencies just disappear.

My biggest problem with the plot is something that happens later. Let’s just say the two protagonists of the setting do something for personal reasons that is spectacularly stupid, and there’s just not enough there to justify the supposed emotions making them take these actions, that makes going through it more frustrating as you feel like you’re solving the problems created by your own characters’ idiocy.

Having gotten it on Android, it was worth the low price but it wouldn’t be worth much more.