OVERALL IMPRESSION:
Silver and Blood is a narrative driven RPG with auto battle (and some semi-manual) combat. The story is captivating with a focus on an interesting cast of characters and intriguing world building. The pacing, dialogue, voice acting, music and most of the visual design is all on point. It’s such a rare occurrence that a game, especially in the gacha space, understands what it takes to create a narrative that will captivate audiences. It’s still very early, but Silver and Blood sets a new standard in story telling for its genre. Combat is sufficient with some interesting elements, but its clear that the main feature here is the story. If you’re a fan of narrative driven RPGs this is a title that is worth checking out.
STORY:
A strong foundation on story telling is established early and carries on throughout. The narrative is well paced with a balance of character moments and world building. Animated cutscenes feel like they are straight out of an anime. Each episode is also an appropriate length. Pacing and episode length make a big difference in capturing and keeping an audiences attention. It never feels too drawn out or overstaying its welcome with unnecessary filler. Instead, you get to know these characters, their personalities, their flaws and their desires. Moreover, the voice acting significantly adds to the overall feel of the game pulling you into this world and making you feel the emotion and turmoil the characters are going through. This isn’t just in the main campaign either. The first event story featuring Lamia is also a highlight that showcases the power of what it means to create a meaningful character arc. It’s such a rarity that a game gets the story right. But when everything comes together it creates something special. Silver and Blood does just that by setting a new standard for story telling in a gacha live service title. It’s still very early, but I hope this high quality and understanding of what makes a narrative work continues.
GAMEPLAY:
Silver and Blood is an auto battler with some manual play. You can cast characters’ ultimate abilities once you have enough resources. Depending on the encounter, manual play can help you overcome certain challenges. However, in many fights especially early on, full auto play is sufficient. Like many RPGs, characters fill certain roles. This includes: tank, fighter (hybrid between DPS and tank), healer, DPS (single target/AOE and ranged/melee), and support (control, buff/debuff). Team compositions are interesting with synergies based on mechanics (e.g. continuous damage, summons) or damage type (physical vs magic). Ultimate animations are outstanding and overall gameplay is sufficient. However, for an auto battler the overall strategic depth feels a bit lacking especially in the early game.
ART & CHARACTER DESIGN:
This is a game that firmly establishes its own visual identity. Most of the characters and overall design are exceptional and well established displaying a high level of artistic vision. This is exactly what you want from a game that can lay the foundation to establish its own memorable and distinct vision. Characters are stylish and dripping with personality with epic and badass designs. Depending on your own perspective, the one drawback that I don’t feel is exactly needed is the exaggerated fan service. I know many games in the gacha space do this to attract fans. But the quality of the narrative and overall art is so well done it doesn’t need anything extra added in. It also detracts from the actual visual design in that the exaggeration doesn’t match the overall aesthetic.
MUSIC:
The music here is epic. If a modern Castlevania were to exist, this is what it would sound like: melodic, haunting fight music. Just like the visual design, the music doesn’t just mimic or channel inspiration it sets its own identity. The tracks here range from introspective with tints of sadness, to a call to arms and battle. Altogether, the soundscapes help immerse you into this fallen world of conflict and drama.
GACHA:
The overall feel of the gacha system is quite generous to F2P players. To evaluate a gacha system, you have to go beyond the drop rates/pity system and also look at how easily you can earn pull tickets/currency and in the end actually get the characters you want. Getting duplicates here allow you to increase a unit’s maximum level. This is important to note in this game because its much more about getting a unit multiple times than just once. With this in mind, there are multiple systems setup that give players premium currency, pull tickets and also selectors (the ability to pick the exact unit you want). There is also a system that allows you to pull for a random SSR once you’ve obtained enough of a certain resource. Additionally, in the standard pool banner, you can select which units you prefer to pull (allowing you greater chances for those specific units). These are the type of systems we need more of in this genre. After a short time playing (1 week), you will likely have a good range of characters from all these systems. Meaning, eventually you’ll likely obtain many units in the game because of how it’s designed (needing duplicates).
Compared to other similar games, it’s quite generous in the amount of pulls you can get and also with selectors that are available. Of course, RNG and luck will stay play a strong role, but the back up systems with selectors and SSR only pulls helps significantly. It’s still too early to say exactly how good the overall system is, but for the gacha space this is a move in the right direction. It also makes sense to move towards helping players gain a wider range of units as the more units you gain that you actual want the more likely you’ll continue playing.
CHALLENGES:
The main challenge for this title is that although the combat is sufficient, at least in the early stages, the overall depth and strategy feels shallow compared to other similar games in the genre. In many encounters, even in harder challenges you may leave the gameplay to full auto allowing the AI to control everything.
The other aspect of combat is that many challenges are time based and there’s a lot of variation and RNG that can come into play. You could run and re-run a fight with the exact setup and in one instance be 10 seconds slower or faster. It may seem trivial, but this can be the difference between getting a reward or not. Hence the ability to do well, at least for some aspects, feels like its outside of the players control. Whereas, in other games, how you maneuver or control units feels like it has a greater impact on the outcome. This could all change when it gets to end game content as it’s still very early and this is just a first impression.
Another challenge that is often not always covered in these types of games is the daily activities. The daily activities here are repetitive and although can be quick they can start to feel like a chore. The more I cover these types of games the more I believe that the daily activities being repetitive and boring actually make you want to leave a game eventually as it feels more like homework than obtaining rewards. The daily activities in this game are similar in type to most others. The overall time to complete them is also of a nature consistent to what has already been established. So far there’s only one game I’ve seen tackle this issue in an innovative way by allowing you to completely skip most daily content during a cycle (7-14 days) if you’ve completed it once already. This allows the player to just focus on playing content they enjoy instead of making it feel like a burden. As this genre continues to evolve, the systems must also change and adapt with it to create better player experiences.
Lastly, there is some variation in the quality of the narrative. The opening and first major story arc in the main campaign is excellent along with the first event story featuring Lamia. It sets a very high standard. However, the quality of other event stories and the 2nd major story arc in the campaign starts to get somewhat bogged down with issues in pacing and a stronger focus on plot with a new cast of characters that aren’t as engaging as in the opening act.
CLOSING THOUGHTS:
There is something special here that we don’t often come across in gaming: a developer that understands the elements of how to craft a captivating narrative combined with a unique visual identity, stellar voice acting with an immersive soundtrack and intriguing world building. Combined with a generous system to obtain characters and you have a strong foundation to build upon. If you’re a fan of narrative driven RPGs in the gothic vampire space, this is a title you may want to check out. If you are looking for a beginners’ guide and tier list, check out this post.
GAME DETAILS
PLATFORMS: PC, Android, iOS
RELEASE: 2025
DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER: Moonton
GENRE/TAGS: RPG, Story Driven, Auto Battler
TARGET AUDIENCE: RPG auto battler fans that enjoy a narrative adventure set in a gothic fantasy setting with vampires.
COVER IMAGE CREDIT: Moonton
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