ゲームを楽しもう!

i'm not sure I've ever covered a doujin game before, in the fangame sense at least not that other meaning of the word. it's not a genre I've really ever delved too much into since it's almost entirely relegated to PC games and on consoles the ones that do release are usually touhou and neither of these are things I'm really all that familiar with. i did see though that a game i owned was actually labeled as such but i thought it was kind of weird. it is kind of weird even, it's labeled as a doujin game despite not really being a direct adaptation of another IP, though after actually playing it i do get why they called it that. it's a cute, small team making a tribute game to a personal favourite series of mine. it's basically an indie oneechanbara game and a very solid one to boot. it's fun, stylish, short, very cheap and it's a game that i can easily recommend to anyone reading this.

the main reason to play the game is the gameplay so I'll get it over with first. it's seriously good and it's impressive to me that such a small team managed to make one of the most fun combat systems I've played. it's so good that it still puts most modern action titles to shame with how much speed and depth there is to it. you have your standard suite of moves, a melee combo, a sword combo, two different kinds of parries with a standard guard parry and another that is closer to the onimusha parry. a sword dash you can chain 3 times, a kick that launches enemies, a rider kick that brings them back down, an air cut, a leg sweep and a very powerful sword sheathing attack that you can also chain 3 times. this last one is the most powerful attack in your basic kit, it can more or less solo a lot of the smaller fodder enemies on its own. there's also a charge attack that works like vergils judgment cut, but I find it's a little more fun for me than that is because of the other mechanics that surround it. in order to use any sword attacks including the charge you need to use a sword meter that you can save up by using melee attacks or via another system. this system lets you save up meter given by hitting enemies with sword attacks and inflicting bleed on them. you save this up and unleash it in a burst that damages any enemies afflicted with it while it also gives you back health and meter. it's a little like the blade cleaning from oneechanbara but it's a buff instead of a debuff. when you have that meter you can expend it in order to completely skip the charge cycle and instantly use your highest level charge attack. it all feeds back into each other and the game is so fast and quick that you almost never have to stop doing damage. it's a ton of fun and in the moment to moment fights there aren't many games that can match it in fun. stuff like chaining the 3 slash charges, kicking an enemy into the air, pulling a 3 hit combo and then destroying them with a max level charge attack, there isn't much that can really reach that high for me. though it's worth saying that there isn't any other weapons or playable characters, so what you have here is what you get. it is a mild shame since it would have been fun to have a campaign where you get to play as the friend especially since you can change her costume but with such a small team i can see why they didn't do it.

now for the quick parts I can get out of the way. there aren't very many levels here since each is basically a circular platform reskinned, but you do have a few different types of environments. there's a very nice looking Shibuya scramble zone, a tekken'y rooftop at night with lit cobblestone which was my favourite, a shrine in autumn and a night version with purple Sakura trees that looks so good. the rooftop stage is by far the nicest though and it's the one that gives me the most oneechanbara energy. the stage looks like that cool Tokyo skyline, futuristic metropolitan look to it that a lot of games of that era all shared. it's a really nostalgic look for me and it's one i always look for in games. it's my favourite kind of atmosphere a game can have, i guess part of that is that i lived in Japan for a while so it brings me back to that time period or just that the kind of lifestyle is something i always aspired to and daydreamed about and i always found these kind of games weirdly aspirational. that dream of being cool and looking cool and living a busy life in a major city, i don't know, it just spurs a lot of emotions in me and they always motivate and push me foreword to have that kind of lifestyle myself. experiences like this clear my head a lot.

the story is confined to just a few cutscenes between the main characters with one trying to stop the other after she's possessed by an evil sword. there's few enough cutscenes that the game doesn't realty even have an ending. it's basic but it works and I do like the personalities of the two girls. the bancho rival is really fun for the few scenes she has and both of them have really solid designs. I love the various renders the game has of them, it feels very PS3 era promo art which just further enhances that oneechanbara energy. the OST is solid in the moment, if not the most memorable and the loops are so short that it can become a little repetitive and it starts to kind of fade into the background. it works for what it is though. "city-afternoon", "temple at night", "final boss" and "city night" are my favourites. the final boss theme especially is super good. that's kind of it, really, it's not a game with much to cover and i think sometimes that's okay. it's nice to have a game you can quick one and done in the time it takes your average movie to finish.

as far as getting your hands on the game you have a few ports like PS4, PC and switch, though of these only the PS4 version has a physical release. despite being an early limited run title though it's very much not a difficult game to find. I've had this game digitally for easily a decade and I only just picked up the limited run version a month back for £25. it's very affordable and the digital version will likely run you much less. it's also a very short game, i beat it in 2 and a half hours on normal but that was with restarting to grind, if you're skilled enough you could easily beat this in half that time. there are reasons to replay though, like extra costumes and difficulty modes, plus maxing out your character to see how much damage you can do. for the price i'd say that's more than worth it. it's not super difficult either since you an do that restart to grind if you want and it does make the endgame more manageable, though i did struggle on some of those boss fights, the last two especially. there is an easy mode though if it's too difficult for you. sadly the game never really had any follow-ups, the group never seemed to go on to do much after this and the team never made anything else, just ported it to other systems and gave it that physical release. it's a shame because they're clearly talented and this was a great first game, I'd have followed them after this if they made more. overall it's an easy game to recommend, it's short, cheap and is a ton of fun so go and pick it up!