VA-11 Hall-A Dev Sukeban Games Announces .45 Parabellum Bloodhound

VA-11 Hall-A developer Sukeban Games has announced .45 Parabellum Bloodhound, a new and rather strange-looking game that marries turn-based combat with real-time gameplay.

In an announcement on the studio’s official website, Sukeban’s Christopher Ortiz, otherwise known as kiririn51, describes .45 Parabellum Bloodhound as an “Active Time Action” game, playfully following up by saying that descriptor “sounds a little bit like nonsense but we like nonsense”.

In a similar way to the Parasite Eve series, the game will feature combat in which you move and dodge in real-time while you wait for an action bar to fill up, and once it’s full, you can pause the fight and plan your attack.

Sukeban Games’ newest title blends real-time combat with turn-based strategic planning.

Although the combat might boast some similarities with Parasite Eve, Ortiz says that’s where the similarities end, although Parasite Eve is a personal favorite of his.

Instead, he’s building a game with “highly atmospheric environments” and “hand-placed encounters”, one that’s full of secrets to discover and a “unique cast of characters” to meet, as well as bosses to fight at the conclusion of each level.

According to Ortiz, .45 Parabellum Bloodhound will have seven chapters to play through, and right now, five of those chapters are playable from start to end, although we’re likely a long way from release.

Ortiz says that he doesn’t know when .45 Parabellum Bloodhound will be released, and that in order to avoid repeating “a N1rvannA situation”, he’s not going to give a rough timeline for release either.

An aerial view of a winding staircase in Sukeban Games' .45 Parabellum Bloodhound
.45 Parabellum Bloodhound has some pretty evocative-looking environments to explore.

Between this and games like Spy Drops, as well as SignalisYellow Taxi Goes Vroom, and many others, you’re quids in at the moment if you’re nostalgic for the PlayStation era of gaming.

While we don’t have a release date for .45 Parabellum Bloodhound, Ortiz and his team have promised monthly development updates to showcase how work on the project is going. They’ll likely be released via the official Sukeban Games website, so check back often for those if you’re interested.