Originally created to be a VR experience, Bow to Blood for the Nintendo Switch has managed to blaze its own path in the arena combat style games. Billed as a competition to become the best airship pilot, this procedurally generated action game manages to dip its toes into several genre’s, creating a fun and unique experience with loads of charm and flavor.
Sometime in the future, airship combat and piloting becomes something of a game show. You take on the role of a pilot hoping to prove themselves as the best. Overall, your goal is to gain as many points as possible, keeping yourself highest in the rankings. This will earn you bonuses and perks randomly offered by different companies who wish to sponsor you. The bottom two captains at the end of the season are voted on with one of them being removed from the game. To earn these points, you have to destroy enemy ships, find hidden loot and help (or hinder) opposing contestants.
There are many possible match types, from Seek and Destroy missions, heists, races, battles again large Titans and treasure hunts. Each of these has their own unique goals and completing them in certain ways entitles you to more points. My personal favorite was treasure hunt missions, as I felt it had much more exploration in it, even if the ships are slow and the arenas relatively small.
When combined with the impressive visuals which seem a modern take on cell shading, the randomized captain to captain drama and the gameshow delivery, the presentation of Bow to Blood is an impressive and entertaining experience. The developers clearly went to great lengths to ensure the banter or captain to captain moments are not only entertaining but truly sell the game show vibe.
One of the more unique aspects of this title is that other captains will give you dramatic decision to make, which alters how other captains may think of you. This adds another layer of strategy into the game. Knowing when to help and when not to help can make the difference in first or last place. Sometimes you’ll even run into other captains in the arena where they may ask you for help or turn against you despite an alliance.
Combat seems very straight forward at first. Hold a button to shoot, press another button to lock on. Depending on the current situation or match you are in, you’ll need to adjust power between different systems such as giving yourself more speed at the cost of weapons. You also have crew members that can be moved to these different positions to boost them and provide special abilities such as a boost of speed or a special weapon. You can also change the special ability of a specific station on your ship depending granted you’ve found or earned them. Managing all this can be very challenging and hectic at first, but eventually becomes as second nature as moving your aiming reticle.
Each playthrough will find you earning different sponsorships depending on how you perform and the things you do. These sponsors provide you with enhanced parts for your airship which can make all the difference in combat. On top of this, the game throws random equipment malfunctions and wildcard events into the mix which further force you to adapt to new ways of staying alive or earning points. While many games with procedural generation go a little too far with the randomization, it makes each playthrough of Bow to Blood feel authentic and unique.
Bow to Blood takes a simple and often highly repetitive game style and manages to create what feels like a full and living game world without boring you to death with backstory and 10-minute long cut scenes. It gives players a unique, fun and interesting game world to experience in a genre often lacking it and manages to have great gameplay on top of it. More than that I believe that there is a lot to be learned from this title by other developers, and hope that it leads to better storytelling and world building for arena shooters and round-based games.
