The beauty of the modern era is that there is room for everything. Virtually any kind of story, idea, perversion or taste can have its outlet, almost always legal. Do you like to dress up as a stuffed animal and huddle up with your friends? No problem! Do you want to see women in lingerie playing American football? You can do it! Do you want to annihilate your existence by watching trashy movies with anacondas fighting giant monitor lizards or a city ravaged by a tornado full of sharks? We have it!
And if you want to impersonate a vampire girl who fights the undead by dressing with enough fabric to make just a pocket in a normal dress, the reference point is undoubtedly the Onechambara series. Despite a technical realization worthy of the basket of offers, a laughable plot and a game mechanics reduced to the bone, this saga has passed as if it were not one but two generations of consoles, even allowing itself a passage on the portable ones. While good ideas ended up in oblivion and skilled studies closed their doors, these bikini-clad vampires continued to thrive thanks to an unstoppable force: butts and tits. A bit like the production company Asylum (or Troma), which deliberately churns out trash and splatter films, the developers of Onechambara know well that as much as the public loves well-made and thick products, there is always a little of space for boorish entertainment, the one that rests the synapses and satisfies the lowest instincts. Pure fun, without compromise. But is this Onechanbara Z2: Chaos really funny?
Onechanbara Z2: Chaos, or bikinis, katanas and zombies for brain-dead entertainment
Two clans fighting
Orienting yourself in the events that lead the protagonists to slice through hordes of infernal creatures can be complex, because not all the chapters of the saga have been officially published in the West and the plot is not really a writing masterpiece. There are two sisters, Aya and Saki, one is dressed as a schoolgirl, the other as a cowgirl in a bikini, who initially clash and then fight together because yes.
Both are part of a vampire clan called Vampiric and later clash with two very similar antagonists, Kagura and Saaya who are affiliated with a clan called Baneful. In Onechanbara Z2: Chaos these four young ladies will have to put their personal differences aside and work together to defeat yet another demonic invasion, making their way through the hordes of the undead using every possible exotic weapon and occasionally unleashing the fury of their blood power. This obviously is only a pretext to throw ourselves against dozens and dozens of enemies, moving from one fight to another with such a rhythm that in the end what little remains of the plot is diluted in the midst of some dialogue that precedes yet another absurd situation. For heaven's sake, not that other games of this type, from Bayonetta to Devil May Cry through Ninja Gaiden, enjoy who knows what writing, but here the level is really down to earth and is certainly not elevated by the repetitiveness of enemies and environments, not to talk about the dialogues that seriously risk taking away points to the IQ at each reading. What is amazing about the story is that, however convoluted it is, it doesn't shine for longevity. If you don't pay too much attention to the final score of each level and hit random keys, Onechanbara Z2: Chaos can be finished in about an afternoon of normal play. We're not sure it's the shortest action game ever, but it's definitely on the podium.
Swords without brakes ...
The most obvious and perhaps the only improvement in this new chapter is the combat system. The more experienced will be able to ring very long combos thanks to the possibility of choosing on the fly which character to use and to summon in certain cases all four swordsmen at the same time.
With a little practice it will be possible to start a combo using a character with moves able to make enemies fly through the air, jump and immediately switch to another warrior equipped with ranged weapons, to shoot them in midair and finish. all with an area finish that kills the survivors. Furthermore in some situations we will be able to transform into particularly powerful demons, consuming part of our life energy, but gaining an enormous damage capacity. Another fundamental aspect to consider is the fact that over time the weapons will get dirty with blood and lose their effectiveness, so they must be cleaned by pressing the appropriate button, a feature that was already present in the previous chapters. As for the fighting style, Aya and Saki haven't changed their moves that much compared to the past. Aya uses two Katanas, while Saki prefers melee, although in both cases it is possible to change the weapon for a different approach. The new generation instead show a completely different style. Kagura is probably the most versatile swordswoman, because her secondary weapons are reminiscent of Kratos' Blades of Chaos and allow you to keep many enemies under control at the same time, Saaya instead uses a chainsaw, which in addition to doing very badly can stun with lethal efficiency, opening the door with mileage combos.
... but above all nonsense
Everything we have written so far, however, is practically canceled by a very simple concept: if the dictionary had the entry "button mashing", next to it there should be a photo of Onechanbara Z2: Chaos.
Many action titles are lenient with those who are not particularly good at executing complex moves and allow for a certain degree of randomness, but here we are faced with a game that could be completed by pressing only two buttons: square and triangle. Sure, sometimes we can throw some special moves in the pile or change characters, but the music remains more or less the same. To make things more "difficult" we think from time to time monsters vulnerable to a specific special power, but all they do is make things more boring, because if that power is not available we will be forced to wait for its recharge, launching in the meantime unnecessary shots. The craziest thing is that virtually any fight, including bosses, can be completed simply by jumping and hitting at random. This is because enemy hitboxes are unnecessarily large and don't detect aerial moves, so just go vertical to hit from a safe distance. To tell the truth, you don't even need to use this glitch, because the artificial intelligence is on average very low, sometimes comical, and the attack patterns are predictable. The same goes for the structure of the missions: a series of corridors where every now and then the passage is blocked until we have eliminated a few people and so on, until the inevitable confrontation with a larger monster, also without any particular genius. It is true that in Onechanbara Z2: Chaos we are dealing mainly with zombies, who are not particularly famous for their tactical acumen, but here we are exaggerating!
L'apoteosi del fanservice
The Onechanbara series has never been famous for its visual fidelity and this chapter will certainly not overturn the tradition. From a purely technical point of view, the game seems to have drawn its assets from a mass grave where the scraps of the Playstation 2 era were buried. The scenario is quite depressing, not only because the polygon count is dramatically low, but also because the color palette is sad and confusing, both as regards the background and the creatures, so much so that sometimes the latter cannot be distinguished from the former. However, as is often the case with these cases, the game excels (or at least improves) in the polygonal models of the main characters, which stand out from the rest like flowers in a minefield and are equipped with all the customization possibilities provided in the rooftop world of fanservice. The four heroines of the game can be dressed up in ways ranging from absurd to ridiculous, through to grossly vulgar outfits that are basically a way to show nudity on screen with a few more textures. We do not know if this is what we usually look for in a game nor do we judge any particular tastes, but without entering into controversy on the representation of the female body and the evolution of the videogame landscape ... we might as well watch a hentai porn, right? At least you avoid the boredom of repetitive mechanics.
Comment
Resources4Gaming.com5.0
Readers (21)5.7
Your voteThe major flaws of Onechanbara Z2: Chaos are not the trash or the fact that it is a crude and humiliating product for the female gender, certain products will always have a market, but the fact that it is simply a badly made, short and simple game that matters to to be successful simply because it makes us impersonate a swordswoman dressed in a banana and two strawberries (you read that right). So far it has gone well because we know what pulls more than a cart of oxen, but how long will it last?
PRO
- Interesting combat system
- Well crafted and customizable main characters
- Technically poor
- It can be finished by pressing two keys
- Repetitive
- Very short
