It's a long running franchise of hack 'n' slash games from the lil' japanese developer D3 Publisher.
You know when you look at video games these days, and you call some of the titles AAA-games, and the smaller budget games. Well, D3 is known for producing even less expensive games.
They've been known mostly for their "Simple 2000 Series" back on the PS2 days.
Which was a series of very cheap games, that still play moderately well, and were at least fun enough.
Because that's what's important at the end of the day. Games are meant to entertain.
So what if they don't all look like blockbusters?
D3's been king of the B-movie-like genre of video games. They even produced some pretty good ones (including my all-time fav, Splatter Action).
And now they're gonna have a new Onechanbara!
Their games rarely get released outside of Japan, you need to import most of the hidden gems, but their most famous series "Onechanbara" has been edited across Europe and America over the years with either under different names (Zombie Zone, Zombie Hunters...) or pretty faithful ports (the Xbox 360 and Wii installments).
The latest episodes, on the Xbox 360 (Oneechanbara VorteX/Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad) and on the Wii (Oneechanbara Revolution/OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers), while not innovating or reimagining the series, got enough attention that they outsold previous episodes, were sold in most countries and helped produce 2 live movie adaptations!!
Anyway, enough talk.
I like the series, and despite all its flaws, I actually loved those two games.
(and no, I won't use the silly cliché "so bad it's good" because it ain't bad - bad is playing through the mildly boring and generic Resident Evil 5 or ruining a perfectly series-Duke Nukem Forever)
The games are mindless fun, it's like watching a good grindhouse or B-movie. You know it gets dirty in the corners, but overall it's enjoyable!
Onechanbara Z Kagura is the all-new installment for Xbox 360 this time again. And from the looks of it, it looks like a big improvement since any past Onechanbara! °__°
The game does actually look good.
You will be able to slay through hordes of monsters, zombies and for the first time in the series, werewolves and vampires too!
Returning to the game are everyone's favorite bikini Samurai-clad Saaya (as a previous title implied so well) and newcomer Kagura, who will replace schoolgirl Saki instead.
Here's some screens:
It looks pretty good actually, which surprises me, and quite gory :D
And here's the official trailer:
Can't wait!
I much rather to play these so-called "little games" than any of the Ninja Gaidens. (but that's just me probably...hey! to each their own!)
And for the kiddies/fanboys crying for a PS3 episode, it's not that a simple matter!
To develop on the PS3, companies have to buy the development kit for it, and for very little companies like Tamsoft (developing the series) it's quite expensive! If you're like Ubisoft and have dozens of them across the world, of 300+ employees each it's not a problem..
But there really isn't a simple choice for them to make (nor a profitable one) episode on the PS3. Maybe porting an existing episode later on.. The 360's the easiest HD console to develop for, thus, the cheapest; an asset for a budget game.~
