Ashes of Immortality II - Bad Blood

I went in with a certain kind of hope that only series finales can produce, the fragile hope that a small indie RPG will actually stick the landing. Bad Blood is the closing chapter of Warfare Studios' Ashes of Immortality saga, a 16-bit style turn-based RPG built in the RPG Maker tradition, set in the gothic world of Ruthven where hunters, vampires, and werewolves have been colliding for several games now. The story picks up with vampire Orlok Vladimir Dragonov and hunter Simona Rinoldt arriving in the Hinterlands, the werewolf territory of Landis, with unresolved tensions and unfinished business in tow. That setup, carried in Orlok's dry, self-deprecating voice, is genuinely charming when it lands. As a series-ender, the game leans hard on narrative payoff over mechanical innovation. Combat follows familiar turn-based party RPG conventions, and the game world is populated with the kind of colorful side characters that Warfare Studios has made a habit of writing across titles like Vagrant Hearts and Midnight's Blessing. Players who have come in from the first Ashes of Immortality or its direct sequel will find the callback threads satisfying. Locations like Talbot City and the werewolf settlement of Packland give the world a lived-in texture, and the side-quest structure adds a few hours of optional breathing room to the main story. One player in the Steam community logged nearly 18 hours, which suggests there is more meat here than the casual genre label implies. The honest part: Bad Blood carries a "Mixed" reception on Steam, sitting at 45% positive across its review pool. That number reflects real friction. Players have flagged a progression-blocking bug in the first town after the wolf encounter, and at least one person hit a confusing "to be concluded" screen mid-playthrough that felt like a false ending. For a series closer, these are stinging problems. The game did not receive significant post-launch patches based on available information, which means those rough edges are likely still there. If you are not the type to check community guides when you get stuck, that could sour the experience quickly. Where the game earns its quiet defenders is in its tone. Orlok's narration has a wry, self-aware humor that cuts against the generic gothic atmosphere, and the 16-bit pixel presentation, modest as it is, has an earnest handmade quality that I find easier to sit with than flashier productions that forget why that aesthetic worked in the first place. The pacing is unhurried, the world is small in scale but consistent in its internal logic, and for fans of RPG Maker-adjacent indie RPGs who have already invested time in the earlier entries of this franchise, there is genuine satisfaction in seeing the saga through to its end. Approach this one as a series-committed player rather than a cold entry point. It is a game that needed a bit more testing before release, and it shows. But it also has a beating narrative heart that the right player will recognize immediately.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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