Tamsoft and D3 Publisher revealed story and gameplay details on their upcoming PS4 exclusive OneeChanbara Origin. The game’s official site has opened as well, and the game’s genre is funnily listed as “High-speed Bloody Sword Fighting Action”.
Oneechanbara Origin is the newest game of the OneeChanbara series, which started on PS2 in 2004. Just like the Earth Defense Force series, OneeChanbara initially started as one of the games in D3 Publisher’s Simple Series: low budget games sold for a very cheap price and with a simple concept. And in OneeChanbara, that concept is “girls kill zombies”. OneeChanbara Origins reboots the series and will cover OneeChanbara 1 and 2’s story by adding new elements.
Let’s go over the story: OneeChanbara Origin takes places in 20XX, Tokyo, after the world got devastated by a zombie outbreak. The story revolves around two sisters, the bikini-clad Aya and the schoolgirl Saki. They have the same father but different mothers. Their family has been made of assassins for generations, and so their father abandoned Saki and her mother, taking Aya with him to train her. At some point, Saki’s mother was murdered, and upon learning about her death, Aya’s father disappeared. Aya then started making a living as a zombie hunter with the sword skills she learned. Meanwhile, Saki fell into darkness after her gentle mother’s death, blaming the world and looking into ancient arts to revive her, all while controlling zombies and spreading chaos. Players control Aya as she’s searching for Saki.
Here are the characters’ profiles:
Aya, voiced by Yoko Higasaki.
The descendant of an ancient clan of assassins called the “Pure Blood” and an exceptionally talented swordswoman. She trained under her father Oboro from early childhood and is now on par with him despite being much younger. When Tsubaki, Saki’s mother got murdered, and her father disappeared, Aya started working as a zombie hunter. She accepts requests from Rei, a woman who acts as an information broker to help subjugate zombies.
As a descendant of the Pure Bloods, when drenched in the blood of zombies, Aya can remove the limiter of the Pure Blood flowing through her body, entering “berserk” state, highly enhancing her abilities. That’s why she wears a high skin exposure bikini in battle. Her flashy appearance and sharp tongue might indicate otherwise, but Aya is always calm and insightful. Aya also masters dual wielding, kicks, and kunai throwing.
Saki, voiced by Hiromi Igarashi.
Aya’s stepsister. Their father left the house with Aya when Saki was still a child. As such, Saki’s mother Tsubaki was the only person who ever showed her love. After her mother’s death, something inside Saki broke. Believing Aya and their father killed her mother, Saki only lives to exact revenge on her family and honed her sword skills. Saki also learned of an ancient technique which could resurrect her mother. To do that, she needs the heart of a member of the Pure Blood clan. Saki manipulates the zombies and tries to kill Aya and obtain her heart.
Rei, voiced by Yuu Kobayashi.
A zombie hunter, like Aya, who also acts as an info broker. In exchange for Aya eliminating zombies, she tells her new information about her family’s whereabouts. The two of them are business partners, and she often contacts Aya via radio. Everything about Rei is a mystery, but one thing we know is that she has multiple sisters. She doesn’t seem to like them much, however.
OneeChanbara Origin has a revamped character design by Enami Katsumi, freelance illustrator on Baccano!, Vamp!, The Other World Dining Hall, The Legend of Heroes Zero no Kiseki, Ao no Kiseki, Ys Seven, Star Ocean the Last Hope and more. I obviously don’t know what are Enami Katsumi’s rates but it’s easy to see OneeChanbara Origin has a higher budget than the first games 15 years ago, seeing they got such a popular artist. As a fan of Enami Katsumi, I must say they did a really good job adapting the designs in cel-shaded 3D.
Some details on the game’s enemies were shown as well. Starting with the normal zombies, who are now controlled by Saki. They have no emotions or sense of self, but sometimes mutter gibberish from their past life’s memories.
Next, we have the Madman enemies, which are stronger zombies. Their only weakness is the nucleus in their bodies, which can be destroyed by a Pure Blood’s attacks, Aya’s attacks, while she’s in Berserk mode. Besides that, they repel every other attack.
Policemen zombies, who will shoot at Aya, attacking from a distance.
Murder zombies, made with the corpses of soldiers who died in Japan, regardless of their origins. Because of their life experiences, they follow Saki’s orders closely and are much stronger than other zombies.
Two bosses were shown as well. The first one is Devda, a giant zombie created by a mysterious organization. Like with other zombies, it has no ego but sometimes speaks gibberish from its past memories. It has multiple symbols on its body.
The second boss is Anzu. A girl descendant of the Pure Blood, who was caught in a feud between two different Pure Blood families and died. She was revived by a secret technique and is now driven by lust for human flesh and blood. She has no memories of her past life, except of a certain person whom she remembers very well.
More artworks, 3D models and screenshots can be found in the gallery below.
OneeChanbara Origin was announced at Tokyo Game Show 2018 with some first screenshots. Producer Nobuyuki Okajima already confirmed in an interview with our ex-reporter Guiseppe that it’ll release in the west. The game has no specific release date for now besides “2019”, for PlayStation 4. More information will be published on the game’s official Twitter.
The post PS4 Exclusive OneeChanbara Origin Reveals New Character Rei, Story Details, Screenshots by Iyane Agossah appeared first on DualShockers.