Hey, All! 

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Don’t worry…the development of Blasternal is still coming along, albeit more slowly than I would obviously care for. 

In that time, as many as five playable prototypes have been developed, but we still have a long way to go before we’re able to show any working demos. 

Meanwhile, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to the second playable character: The mysterious bounty hunter who has no name, pilot of the potentially supernatural Ningyō.

Before I prattle on, I’d like to once again give a big shout-out and heartfelt “thank you” to my longtime friend and on-and-off business partner, Chris Martin for the design concepts for the “Nameless” Bounty Hunter, and also to Jeff Allen for his immaculate modeling of Ningyō.  

You can see more of Chris’s work and follow him over on DeviantArt here (*WARNING: Contains adult-oriented NSFW content): https://www.deviantart.com/akumakaze 

You can also follow Jeff’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@mJeff3D

Now…if you recall from an earlier blog post of mine, I explained how I am purposely conceptualizing Blasternal in such a way to make it “accessible”, as-in: If all goes well, the concepts in this game should seem familiar to sci-fi and video game fans. Take our “Nameless” Bounty Hunter character, here. Comic fans might readily see him as the “Batman” archetype of my game…and you know what? That’s perfectly okay! That’s kind of the point. But then, a true gaming nerd might instead see him as Jin Saotome from Capcom’s Tech Romancer and the Marvel vs Capcom series. But then again, some fans might see him as Storm Shadow from GI Joe. Heck…I can even see how anime fans might compare the “Nameless” Bounty Hunter to Genos from One Punch Man. No doubt, there’s a litany of comparisons that will inevitably be made…from Guyver to Casshern. 

No matter how you look at it, though, the character of the “Nameless” Bounty Hunter is going to play a hallmark role in Blasternal. Even outside of his his white blast-proof “pseudo-ceramic” cebernetic armor that enhances his strength, speed, agility, and durability, you get the idea that this mysterious ronin has been so infamous in his travels that he doesn’t even seek the glory of notoriety. 

Making this infamous Bounty Hunter even more formidable a threat is his “variformer” Ningyō. While not as durable as her counterpart, the VT-HSA “Knucklebuster” piloted by Ad Azimuth, Ningyō more than makes up for this disadvantage with her uncanny speed and agility. In fact, playing as Ningyō in her bipedal “doll mode” will greet the player with a flattering homage to other video game ninjas like Capcom’s Strider Hiyru from the Strider series and Konami’s Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Also, I hope that the true shmup fans among you will immediately recognize the inspiration behind Ningyō’s “bird mode”. 😉 

That’s…all I’m going to say about this shadowy living phantom for now. You’ll just have to find out more once Blasternal is released.