I have been playing this game for a few months now, you can find my name in the credits for proof, and I can say that this is a game you should not judge by its cover; this game is really fun and shockingly good compared to what I expected going into it. The characters feel weighty in spite of how it might appear, the controls are crisp, and the combos are really fun.

One strength of the game is that the combo system allows pretty much anyone to pick up and start exploring routes in a way that is accessible without feeling stale or too generic. Whereas some games might fall into a trap of every combo being the same magic series for new players such that it feels like you need to spend hours in the lab in order to access fun and "sauce", this game gives you pretty cool ♥♥♥♥ in an intuitive way while also not requiring any handholding. With some fighting game know-how: mash the right buttons and you'll find that things frequently just work. It makes you feel cool which is so important for keeping a fighting game fun while you learn.

Beyond the combo system, the cast of characters is pretty fun, although small. You get a nice base of several archetypes -- the shoto, the zoner, the grappler, the demon made of paper mache, and the footsies mid-ranger -- and they fill a roster that interacts nicely with each other. They all play differently -- combos do not feel very similar between them nor do their normal moves -- which is an important part of why a small roster such as this can even work at all. They are also all fun to play in their own right. I also quite enjoy the designs of the characters, and the game in general for that matter; it's all quite cute and fun. The loads of fun alternate colors that reference other games is endearing, the basic sound effects are surprisingly effective, and I do like the music as well. I don't believe presentation is Blueblood's weakness besides having the game seem unassuming to the uninitiated.

There's beauty in Blueblood's simplicity, a game that's easy to pick up but where you can find a decent amount of depth if you keep digging. If you are wanting to step into it, do know that I do not expect matchmaking to be very lively for the foreseeable future. To offset that, I highly recommend you join the discord which can be found in game. It's a nice, small community which is always fun to be a part of with these small indie games. Anyways, I need cheesy, on-theme quote to end this review, so I hope to see you all in the arena. The Blueblood Arena!

Combo heavy, but honestly just its neutral is pretty fun to mess around with at beginner levels! It's reeeeally quick and snappy once you get a combo going, might suggest ya take hand breaks even with this one cause certain characters want ya to link *quick*.

It does have some issues when tabbing in and out of it at fullscreen though, namely it likes to fight with Discord being open at all. Fixed by it being windowed, but results in some text bugs. I'm sure these will get fixed pretty quick though, otherwise its a fairly polished little fighter thats pretty easy to get into with its simple inputs with a lot to work toward for combo excecution.

The combo system truly is expressive and free and reminds me a lot of Them's Fighting Herds so if you missed that game after the whole Maximum Entertainment thing and are disappointed in how Gameplay Group International did nothing to fix it and just left it so that all the fixes are now exA exclusive (exA Arcadia sucks btw), then I recommend this game