Rainblood: Town of Death

By: Derek Yu

On: June 14th, 2010

It’s a rare treat to be able to play an original indie game from China, especially one that is as unique as Rainblood: Town of Death. The first episode in an ongoing RPG series, Town of Death takes place in a dark fantasy world inspired by Chinese mythology and Gu Long martial arts novels, among other things. And when I say dark, I mean dark – the game doesn’t shy away from violence and some pretty fucked up imagery. It was originally released in Chinese in 2007 to some acclaim and has since gone through a few English translations. The latest (version 1.15+, by Steve Gibbon, aka Drunken Paladin) was released this year and is considered the definitive translation.

Town of Death was created in RPGMaker, which is notorious for its widely-used default tilesets, but Rainblood’s creator, Soulframe, chose to create his own graphics using distinctive pen-and-ink linework. The drawings are quite good and convey the desolation of Central Land, where Rainblood takes place. Pretty much every area in the game is different, too. My favorite artwork, though, belongs to the monsters, who are relatively few but have pretty inspired designs. Similarly, the sound effects and music, while also fairly sparse, are nonetheless unsettling.

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