Orangeblood comes to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One and brings with it an eye-catching JRPG that can't quite back up its presentation with satisfying gameplay. Orangeblood, from Japanese indie developer Grayfax Software, takes players to New Koza, an alternate-history cyberpunk metropolis set on an artificial island off the coast of Okinawa, heavily inspired by hip-hop music and culture. The story follows four anime-style girls with connections to gangs and the music industry, with classes ranging from Gunslinger to DJ. It's a captivating world and presentation that glosses over some frustrating mechanics, dialogue, and gameplay.
Two of Orangeblood's best aspects make themselves apparent immediately: art style and music. The game creates an incredible sprawling urban environment like something out of Cyberpunk 2077's breathtaking Night City, all with flat pixel art images. The music is evocative of West Coast hip-hop, with several groovy themes for the overworld and combat. Despite its crime and near-constant violence, New Koza is a city begging to be explored, and rewards the player for doing so by including lots of secrets and hidden chests across the map. However, the layers of underground shops and walkways can sometimes be disorienting.
The game begins to fall apart a little beyond its sights and sounds. The localization for the dialogue wears thin quickly after the constant barrage of F-bombs and cliché slang. Seeing a character begin a battle with "You're hella wack!" for the tenth time inspires cringing rather than courage, which is enough to prevent Orangeblood from being one of the best JRPGS on the Switch. The combat system that follows has some problems, too. In a laudable attempt to mix up the typical JRPG formula, characters have both "Action Points" and "Special Points." Action Points function as ammo, draining every turn, and a turn can be spent to reload. Special Points fill up over a battle, and can be spent to unleash some devastating moves.
Unfortunately, while the ambition to be innovative is respectable, the combat isn't particularly satisfying in a best-case scenario. Guns have many traits that lead to overwhelmingly long names and sometimes broken combinations. It's possible to get a gun at the start that's used throughout the entire playthrough, but it's possible to have to grind for hours to make it past a certain section, too. Combined with an encounter system that makes it common to have back-to-back battles, the game is in need of some serious balance tweaking.
There are things to appreciate about Orangeblood, which tries to avoid many of the tropes of smaller-budget JRPGS with its hip-hop influence and cyberpunk setting - even if it's not quite as varied as Night City's fifteen districts. It's just such a shame that Orangeblood's creative world, great visuals, and catchy music are marred by mediocre gameplay and cringe-inducing dialogue.
Orangeblood is available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. Screen Rant was provided with a digital Nintendo Switch download code for the purposes of this review.
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