What Penny Blood: Hellbound is
Penny Blood: Hellbound is a top-down action roguelike set in an interdimensional prison, built as a prequel to Penny Blood. You play as one of six Hellhounders, anarchists each carrying their own weapon, skills and personality, and you fight through a dungeon to get out. Runs are short and repeatable: you die, get sent back to your prison cell, and spend the malice you collected to permanently raise and diversify your abilities. Progress carries over between attempts, so a failed run still moves you forward.
The combat is built around bloodsurfing — sliding across the gore left behind by your kills to slip past enemies and cut through crowds — and harvesting energy from violence to unleash heavy attacks. Enemies come in waves, and the deeper you push, the more you learn about your captors, the Celestial Rainbow.
Playing it with friends
Online co-op lets you join forces with friends and run the prison together. You can mix and match character pairings to stack different weapons and skills, and timing your attacks together helps clear waves faster. The tougher abominations in the dungeon are meant to be taken on as a group, combining everyone's damage rather than going in alone. Coordination matters more than raw speed: line up your attacks so the group hits at the same moment and the crowd work becomes much easier.
Before you start
Expect gore, dark fantasy imagery and a heavy tone — the game leans into its horror side and includes content tagged as gore. The setting is the Roaring 1920s in the fallout of World War I, with NPCs and bosses tied to true crime and real-world history, so the story carries some real-world weight alongside the dark comedy. It's a roguelike, so dying is part of the loop: each death returns you to your cell with malice to spend, and the runs are meant to build on each other rather than reset you. The soundtrack comes from Yoshitaka Hirota and Noriyuki Iwadare, and the art is by Miyako Kato, with the scenario from Matsuzo Machida.