Bloodless

Great game, such a small gem. The pixel art style is different than your usual pixel art, and you can see the eye for the details that the team had in it. I love the black background with white and just a hint of purple, red, and other colors. Very good taste.
Main character Tomoe is clearly inspired by Rurouni Kenshin, which is a big plus. Where's my Rurouni Kenshin remake?
The combat is simple enough, but it adds up over time as you unlock skills and items. Combat is timing-based, when you have to counter enemy attacks at a specific time. It gets more difficult when there are several enemy types on screen with different attack patterns. It doesn't get overly crazy (at least until now), but avoiding several enemies is fun.
There's a lot of cutscenes/dialogues, that breaks immersion a bit, but the characters are fun and a bit silly, they don't take themselves too seriously, so that's nice.
Recommended!

I really liked it and managed to beat it, but countering red attacks felt really random and inconsistent. Skill issue maybe, but personally I had way more fun in dashing into white attacks.

The game has a somewhat consistent difficulty but some fights are pretty difficult. But if I can beat it, anyone can basically.

TL;DR: As you can tell from the no. of hours I've played this game, I really enjoyed it. If you wonder whether it's something for you, give the (free!) demo a try and take the combat gameplay, in particular, into consideration.
Bloodless engaged me with its fluid combat gameplay, rewarding exploration and progression, manageable collectibles and witty writing. Due to the scope and art design, the exploration and writing reminded me of older Zelda games like Link's Awakening and the Oracle duo - searching every nook and cranny for minor power-ups, small boxes of text that get a laugh out of you, etc.
The story is decent. You've probably encountered a similar one about guilt, repentance, and the corrupting influence of power many times before, but that's perfectly fine. The characters are believable, and neither does the story overstay its welcome nor does it try to be at the center of your attention, anyway.
That spot will be taken by the (mostly) parry-based combat gameplay. Considering the size of the game, it offers a remarkable enemy variety and, therefore, a continuous challenge and learning curve. It doesn't always feel completely fair (looking at you, bamboo), and in a few instances, you might have to bear the thought of trying the same fight many times in a row until you get "lucky", but it is doable. If the devs added some accessibility options (e.g. slightly more forgiving timings for counters and "stun" punches, some i-frames to enable dodging into unblockable attacks, or removal/reduction of unblockable attacks), I think most of the negative impressions could be addressed without spoiling the fun for those looking for a challenge.

Bloodless boasts the best parry-centric combat system of any indie game I've played, which is especially high praise considering Nine Sols released recently and also thoroughly blew me away with its mechanics. Difficulty in this game can at times feel relentless and I'll admit to several occasions where I wanted to walk away in pure rage or frustration, but every single time I felt something was impossible, I took a deep breath, changed my tactics, and really tried to single out each enemy and figure out what made them tick. And before I knew it, every encounter fell before me without me having to use almost any healing. Bloodless gives you a sense of true mastery over its encounters.
Each enemy has fantastic design playing out like a timing puzzle. And once you learn how they move and what attacks they follow up with, it's extremely rewarding stomping them out of existence, turning what felt like vicious dragons into mere goombas. And what I love is how the deeper you get the more expansive the combat system feels with its talent tree, crests which modify your mechanics, and learned abilities letting you handle combat more aggressively if you so choose, or helping you hone in on ways to counter the enemies and make them their own worst enemy.
I do think the difficulty curve might be a bit steep at times. The game's greatest trick for making scenarios challenging is throwing several enemies at you at once and overwhelming you with overlapping attacks. This felt pretty cheap, especially early on when it was hard to know what each foe did yet and it felt like every encounter was trying to do its best impression of Godskin Duo. I feel some earlier encounters could be better adjusted to not be so overwhelming before you've had a chance to at least get some upgrades to handle them better (there was a 4-wave dojo filled with bouncy trees that was particularly masochistic) And once you're at the end game, you kind of just feel way too strong being able to bully down enemies with ki attacks without having to learn them anymore. I one shot basically every single boss in the game, but could struggle at basic enemy waves for upwards to an hour at times. It felt a bit odd.
The story, visuals, and music are all well presented and flow together perfectly. The ending in particular had a twist I was not expecting and I thought was a great choice for reinforcing the story's message. This is a fantastic game and I hope it gets the exposure it truly deserves!

Good game and deserves more attention.
The controls are smooth and the mechanics work very well.
Each part gives you more challenges to test your skills... And for me the progressions feels very good. You feel very reward for each battle that you pass.
Art, sound, levels, story... everything is matching so well... Without complains till now and zero issues. Very impressive.
I played a lot and I haven`t finished yet... I can see a lot of effort that the team has put into this. 10/10

Very interesting game ! It have some flaws with difficulty spikes, visual and hitboxes issues in a game which not permit mistakes. But from a reduced team with a reduced budget it's quite understandable and I had a really good time finishing it.
It's my first review in more than 15 years using steam because I think this game and team needs to be more visible.
Great game ! Can't wait for another project from this team !

Incredible game. Nothing else like it- you should go play it now- but it's fair enough that you'd want more to go on than that.
You don't attack, you parry. You can defeat everyone, and all without drawing a single drop of blood; Bloodless.

This is the core of the gameplay and the story, and lets both of them be like nothing else.
The fact that you *have* to react to enemy attacks means that no matter how good you get, you're always on the back foot- luring the enemy into what you want, and holding back like a good duelist- if you're too eager to draw, you'll be the one bleeding out on the floor. With great enemy variety, it's a delight from start to finish.
The story plays on this so damn well. It's all about violence- how much is justified, at whose hands, and the destructive repercussions of it on all sides. Dialogue, gameplay and audio and even the *colour scheme* of the game is used to help it land, and oh it sure does. I'm still thinking about the ending now, two months on.

Don't *not* play this game. It's so so special. You've found it, just go enjoy it!