Adaptations OneChanbara (2008) | ||
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Games Onechanbara Z2: Chaos, OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie S, Zombie Hunters 2, Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai, Onechanbara Z: Kagura | ||
OneeChanbara (お姉チャンバラ), initially defined The OneeChanbara (THE お姉チャンバラ), is a series of action horror games developed by Tamsoft for D3 Publisher's Simple 2000 series for the PlayStation 2 and later ported on Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, PS3, PS4 and cellular phones. The title is a portmanteau of the Japanese words onee-chan (お姉ちゃん, lit. "big sister", but also a colloquialism for a young adult woman) and chanbara (チャンバラ, "sword fighting"). Commonly spelled and pronounced incorrectly as "Onechanbara" (as in [wuhn] instead of [O nē]), due to the simplified English/U.S. release titles, which has become a synonymous alternative spelling variation.
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The hack and slash gameplay involves the player controlling Aya, a scantily-clad cowgirl who wears a scarf and wields a katana. The player is pitted against hordes of zombies and nightmarish boss creatures, who spill torrents of blood when they are attacked. Aya is often accompanied on her adventures by several other warrior women, such as her younger sister Saki, who appears in most titles in the series.
In 2008, a film was released in Japan titled OneChanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad as the first film based on the Simple series game. A straight-to-DVD sequel of the film entitled お姉チャンバラ THE MOVIE vortex or OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers was released in 2009.
Gameplay
The OneeChanbara series puts players in control of a lone girl (or in later games, two girls with the ability to tag out) against a legion of the undead. Players guide their characters through the stages, completing tasks while hacking through enemies. The player-character's weapon becomes progressively covered in blood, causing their attacks to be slower and to inflict less damage, even getting stuck in enemies if it gets too bad. This is represented by a "Blood Meter" showing how dirty the weapon is. To prevent this, players must actively clean off their sword to keep the blood meter from filling up.
In addition, there is also the "Blood Lust" meter. As a character kills enemies, this meter starts to fill. Once the meter is full, the character will go into a "blood frenzy". This gives the character an increase in attack power, but drains health. To recover from a blood frenzy, the player must use statue items, which are dropped by dead enemies. Additionally each level will contain a large statue. Going to the large statue will remove the blood frenzy and also recover any lost health.
Unlike the stereotypical zombies, most of the undeads encountered in this game series are not automatically killed by decapitation; some would continue to attack even after losing their upper torsoes. This is briefly explained in OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers by the notion that, while humans killed due to infection with bodily fluid of the undead will be zombified, most undeads are not re-animated corpses but are merely made by some supernatural power that created them to look similar to humans.
Series
The OneeChanbara series includes several upgrades and sequels that have been released since the original game:
Aya, the series' main character, has also appeared in Simple 2000 Series Vol. 91: The All*Star Kakutou Matsuri (released as All-Star Fighters in Europe in March 2007 ), a fighting game featuring characters from many different Simple 2000 series releases. Saki has been featured in a cell phone D3 fighting game as well.
A set of 6 (8 if the 2 secret variations are counted) official gashapons was released in Japan on January 4, 2007 by Yujin. The set consists of characters from the series, including Aya and Saki from the first game, Reiko and Riho from the third and fourth games respectively, and Aya and Saki from the mobile game.
Live-action film
The live-action film adaption of OneeChanbara was made starring Eri Otoguro, Manami Hashimoto, and Tomohiro Waki base. It was directed by Yohei Fukuda, and the executive producers on the film were Hideki Tsujhata, Takafumi Ohashi, and Shunsuke Yamada. The extended version of this film under the title OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers was released on DVD in Japan on July 3, 2009. The theme song is 69 Balloons by Aural Vampire.