Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft

Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft is a 3D fighting game that came out for MS-DOS and PlayStation. Its story takes place within the Ravenloft setting, a part of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game.

Gameplay

Players pick a hero or villain to fight as. The character selection screen lists them in a specific order.

Development

Take-Two Interactive developed the game. Producer Rick Hall explained that the market was full of martial arts fighting games, but lacked fantasy ones, and as a D&D fan, he thought that would be a fun idea. The game was first announced as an exclusive for the Panasonic M2 console under the name Ironblood.

Later, Take-Two said it would launch on PlayStation first, with M2 and PC versions to follow. They stated they had always planned multiplatform releases for the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and M2, and had started work on the PlayStation version first. The M2 exclusivity announcement was because 3DO was the only console maker to have approved the game at that time. The M2 version ran at 640×480 resolution, while the PlayStation version was limited to 512×240 due to hardware constraints.

A Sega Saturn version was announced but later canceled when Acclaim stopped supporting the Saturn. The M2 version was canceled by the end of 1996, with Take-Two and 3DO agreeing to drop it. Fighters’ animations were created using motion capture of members from the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Take-Two reported that by the end of October 1996, Iron & Blood had sold over 150,000 units, making up 32% of the company’s $12.5 million revenue for that fiscal year, with a net income of $349,074. The game received mostly negative reviews.

Reception

Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the large fighter roster and the innovative ability to earn new magic abilities during fights, but criticized the fighting engine for jerky controls and lack of technique. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot panned the game, citing jerky controls, poor animation, and confusing camera angles that made directional inputs unreliable. A Next Generation critic praised the animation and graphical detail but found the fighting unoriginal, with limited combos, clichéd special moves, and an anachronistic techno soundtrack against medieval visuals.