Topic: Onechanbara Z2 Chaos coming to PS4 with 60fps and 1080p graphics

[affinity]

Wonderful news!!   Z Kagura did deepen the gameplay nicely, and this looks to be a direct sequel.

http://gematsu.com/2014/07/onechanbara-z2-chaos-announced-ps4

here's a taste of what Z Kagura (X360/PS3) combos were like:

Onechanbara Z Kagura 『お姉チャンバラZ～カグラ』 - KAGURA & SAAYA COMBOS!

And the next gen sequel on PS4 could really be more advanced and stylish than that.   

Onechanbara Z2: Chaos is in development at Tamsoft for PlayStation 4, D3 Publisher announced in this week’s Famitsu.

Due out in Japan this October for 7,344 yen, the game is the first full HD 1080p entry in the series, and will run at 60 frames per second.

The game features four characters–Kagura and Saaya (both voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro), Aya (voiced by Yuko Kaida), and Saki (voiced by Nao Takamori)–which players can switch between during gameplay. It will feature a new “Cross Merge Combination Element,” which sees several characters attack at once. And it will utilize the PlayStation 4 touch pad with a new “Quick Time Kill” element, a special attack that can be used against boss enemies.

Onechanbara Z2: Chaos is 70-something percent complete.

http://gematsu.com/2014/07/first-look-onechanbara-z2-chaos-ps4

http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Onechanbara-Z2_Fami-shot_07-16-14_001-600x337.jpg

http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Onechanbara-Z2_Fami-shot_07-16-14_002-280x345.jpg

http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Onechanbara-Z2_Fami-shot_07-16-14_003-280x345.jpg

http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Onechanbara-Z2_Fami-shot_07-16-14_004-280x345.jpg

http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Onechanbara-Z2_Fami-shot_07-16-14_005-280x345.jpg

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201407/17057226.html

[Claimh Solais]

Neat. I played Bikini Zombie Slayers on Wii and thought it had potential, despite having the worst controls in existence. I thought Z Kagura looked like a substantial step in the right direction. Any idea if this one will actually see a Western release?

[affinity]

Well people can request localization here.

support@d3p.us

http://www.d3publisher.us/Support.asp

I think this is great timing, especially if western D3 Publisher was waiting for this, since:

1. PS4 is a new fresh market that has little competition.   It barely has any games, so Onechanbara releasing within a new console's
first 2 years, would gather more attention to players seeking a new action game, especially if it has co-op and a long campaign.

2. PS4 has the best console hardware now. So they don't have to cut features like what happened to the
PS3 version of Z Kagura, which had to cut out co-op due to technical reasons (plus the 360 version had small windows.
the upgrade in graphics from Bikini Samurai Squad must of made it had to have a decent framerate with 2 full screens like BSS/Vortex,
so that's why 360 has those little windows, which they must of felt caused the mode to be ignored/unused.) So now with
PS4 hardware, they can keep all the features they plan with quality framerate and resolution and enhanced graphics.

3.  PS4 like the previous PS consoles are the best market for the largest variety of international tastes.
Instead of Xbox (shooters) and Wii (mostly about the 1st party games).
 
4.  Z Kagura greatly advanced the gameplay with so much awesome mechanics, attack options and better combos.  So
Z2 Chaos could meet and surpass westerner gameplay expectations expanding the gameplay further (like that new team
combinations system they hinted.)

5. including 4 playable characters instead of just 2 or 3.  So now players can enjoy playing as Kagura, Saaya, Aya or Saki
without needing to deal with DLC.   So this will be a boost in PS4 and fan morale knowing Aya and Saki are included.

6. This might be the first Onechanbara game to support online co-op.   If that's the case, then that will boost first timers
impressions of the Onechanbara franchise, and make co-op more widely played. Plus if splitscreen co-op is in, that will
win the interest of local co-op players as well. 

7. While it's too early to confirm, there are hints that more than 2 characters may be on the field at the sametime, if so,
that might open options for 4 players co-op for the first time in the series.  Of course it's not confirmed, but it just goes to
show with PS4 hardware and developer friendly advantages, they can really lift the series to greater levels of entertainment.

8. zombies are always popular, and the first screen hints vampires are returning too,  so fans of either will be very interesting
fighting hordes of both. There's rarely any game that has both types of enemies in an action game like this, especially with
great amounts of blood and gore.


They recently revealed the website:

http://www.d3p.co.jp/anez2_chaos/

http://gematsu.com/2014/07/onechanbara-z2-chaos-teaser-site-opened

Some translators say something about "through conflict, they unite", so it's possible Kagura and Aya forces team up from the start now,
which does make sense since the previous story they were enemies/rivals, and now the new situations can cause them to fight
alongside each other against the new hordes and antagonist(s), leading to a scenario of more epic proportions.

So overall, D3 Publisher should really be serious about localizing this.  PS4 isn't going so well in Japan, but Japanese games have
to be bold and take the first steps to increase PS4 incentives, and at the sametime they can benefit from the international sales as
well, so PS4's success in the west is more reason to localize this instead of just banking on Japan sales.   
Choosing this platform, they have greater ambitions for quality presentation and features,  so it's to everyone's benefit for this
to be localized in North America and Europe as well.

We have seen examples how people got attention from companies to localize things (like Operation Suzaku), so if the demand
is great, that can improve chances of localization.  D3 Publisher has contact information, so if they are aware the demand is
there, they will be comfortable taking that chance.  So overall it may be up to the gaming communities if this gets localized.

[Claimh Solais]

The plot was always nonsense to me in these games, but didn't really care since they provided a good amount of fun. From what I saw on Z Kagura, it looked a little better.

One thing to point out is that the last two games that were released here were on the wrong platforms. As you pointed out, most of the target audience on Wii is first-party games, and then while Xbox 360 wasn't necessarily about shooters, it was mostly western games in general. The best place for this series is on Sony platforms.

PlayStation gets a ton of these 1v1000 brawler games, especially with Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, all the Warriors spinoffs, and even Sengoku Basara under its wing. While it might not be much, there's still a reasonably larger amount of people that would be interested in this kind of game.

The unfortunate part is that most people would pretty much just see the characters on the cover, and think that it's just a purely fan-service game. I'm pretty sure that's how the series began, but I took a chance with it on Wii (since I borrowed a few games from a friend and it happened to be among them), and saw that while the controls were god-awfully unresponsive (due to terribad motion controls being the only setting), the gameplay held a lot of potential with multiple character movesets, Saki's various grapple techniques, etc.

Co-op is a must for these kinds of games. No matter how fun they are, they will always be more fun with a friend. Both splitscreen and online co-op would work out well for it. The more than 2 characters on screen at once could be them trying to liven the stages up a little. The Wii game had some dreadfully dull stages, and the X360 one wasn't any different. Z Kagura had some nicer looking areas, but it was still pretty dull.

All in all though, I'll request the localization since I'm interested in seeing the changes in gameplay (was considering importing Z Kagura to check it out). And since it's D3 Publisher and ask them about God Eater 2 while I'm at it, lol.

[affinity]

Well more people will give it a chance since, like you say, Sony platforms are the best platforms for this.  It's too mature for the Nintendo market, and outside the genres that sell on Xbox market.  Lollipop Chainsaw is said to have sold $1,000,000 worldwide, and that's a very short and shallow game compared to even Onechanbara Vortex (BSS and BZS).  I thank D3 publisher for localizing Vortex, but they shouldn't get paranoid because it sold bad on Wii and X360.   Those platforms were primarily chosen because they are easier to program than PS3, even though they are terrible markets for this.  PS4 really is the best timing to give localization another chance in a fresh market, and promote it professionally in the west, with emphasis on all the gameplay mechanics, features and advanced combos.  It's a shame Z Kagura got overlooked, but Z2 Chaos could bring everything great and make things better, and with the new hardware, they can do more with it.  So Z2 Chaos can give a better impression for modern gamers.

[Super Waffle]

I don't get this series.

[Claimh Solais]

I don't get this series.

With its non-sensical plot, no one does.

[zangetsu468]

This look like another DW masher with no platforming.

[uzo]

I don't get this series.

I figured you'd be the one most likely to get it.

The Wii one I tried, but it was pretty low quality. Clunky waggle shit, and uninspired design.

[Claimh Solais]

This look like another DW masher with no platforming.

...What does platforming have to do with it?

The Wii one I tried, but it was pretty low quality. Clunky waggle shit, and uninspired design.

Classic controller or Gamecube controller support might have helped a little but I doubt it would've done much to fix what was overall a broken game. Still, though, the game had some concepts in the gameplay that could have been built off of (dual character mechanic, weapon-style on-the-fly switching, Saki's grapple mechanic, etc.)

[affinity]

The Wii one I tried, but it was pretty low quality. Clunky waggle shit, and uninspired design.

Well of course the BZS on the Wii is not a decent representation of the series,
especially with Wii's gimmicky controller overcomplicating while dumbing down videogaming in general. 

The X360 version of "Vortex" is superior, but judging Onechanbara based on BZS (Wii) or BSS (X360)
 is like judging the Street Fighter series based on Street Fighter 1,
or Final Fantasy based on the first games instead of the later games that made the series mainstream.

Z Kagura really elevated the series gameplay and overall design much better, even though of course it's not AAA quality production values, it includes a lot more combat depth than anything that plays like Dynasty Warriors.

It wasn't until recently that Onechanbara has entered the higher tiers of action gaming, but the series is still at its heart,
a pure beat em up that isn't so dependent on story to be fun and meaningful.    One could say Onechanbara is one of the few
action series these days that place gaming first over storytelling,
though whatever story there is, is meant to be playful and not taken too seriously. 
Some of the best beat em ups (like TMNT) are played for their gameplay instead of their story.

Onechanbara is more than a button masher, even though it can be played that way (like just about any other action game out there).

[Claimh Solais]

Well of course the BZS on the Wii is not a decent representation of the series,
especially with Wii's gimmicky controller overcomplicating while dumbing down videogaming in general.

Don't blame the Wii's "gimmicky" controller for the game's faults. BZS is just an overall broken game. It has nothing to do with the Wiimote, it has more to do with the developers creating such awful god damn controls for the game, and giving no Classic or Gamecube controller support.

The X360 version of "Vortex" is superior, but judging Onechanbara based on BZS (Wii) or BSS (X360)
 is like judging the Street Fighter series based on Street Fighter 1,
or Final Fantasy based on the first games instead of the later games that made the series mainstream.

No it isn't. It's judging the series based on the only two games that even came stateside. Which, mind you, are games pretty far into the series. These games, despite some of their good concepts, are the epitome of bad 1v1000 games.

Also, why compare it to "judging Street Fighter off of the first one" when there were literally 4 games that came out before Bikini Samurai Squad? And remember, Bikini Zombie Slayers was the sequel to BSS, and it was MUCH worse (and no, the Wii is not to blame).

Z Kagura really elevated the series gameplay and overall design much better, even though of course it's not AAA quality production values, it includes a lot more combat depth than anything that plays like Dynasty Warriors.

First off, the Dynasty Warriors games have more depth than people give them credit for. Sure, the older ones were really repetitive, but they were good for mindless fun, and were pretty much a 3D representation of old-school beat-em-ups, and were (GASP!) playable. (BZS was beyond a chore to play due to its controls, and while I haven't played BSS, I've heard millions of reports of sloppy and unresponsive controls.)

The recent Warriors titles (namely DW7-onwards, Warriors Orochi 3, etc.) have a lot of depth put into them. The basic combo system is pretty simple, just like Ninja Gaiden. Unfortunately, just because it's DW, people tend to write it off just because of the simple combo system. However, combining the normal attacks, charge attacks, switch attacks, EX attacks, and Musous is hella fun. Plus, playing it without that "technical" playstyle still keeps it as a pretty fun game for mindless play, and it's a blast co-op.

Also, Sengoku Basara is a VERY deep game combat-wise. This game is a 1v1000 game with a more quality-over-quantity mindset to it, decides that rather than having numerous characters, it instead has a smaller amount with much deeper movesets (which many fans have stated that you could literally make a whole game about each character in SB3).

It wasn't until recently that Onechanbara has entered the higher tiers of action gaming, but the series is still at its heart,
a pure beat em up that isn't so dependent on story to be fun and meaningful.    One could say Onechanbara is one of the few
action series these days that place gaming first over storytelling,
though whatever story there is, is meant to be playful and not taken too seriously. 
Some of the best beat em ups (like TMNT) are played for their gameplay instead of their story.

Onechanbara is more than a button masher, even though it can be played that way (like just about any other action game out there).

This right here is hyping up Onechanbara far more than it really should be hyped up. Really. While the gameplay is definitely improving, as are the graphics, nothing else really is. The story isn't really the "playful, don't take it seriously" type, when the game itself literally takes its own plot that seriously. Like, the games are trying their hardest to make you care about the characters, and failing miserably as a result of an overall boring and nonsensical plot.

Also, there are plenty of action games nowadays that focus more on gameplay rather than plot. The Warriors games are a good example of that, especially since each game in the series literally retells the same plot. Only with the more recent entries (DW8, SW4, etc) did they place a bigger focus on the plot.

Also, Anarchy Reigns, Platinum's online-brawler. That game has a WAAAAAY bigger focus on gameplay than its plot. Also the Devil May Cry series (that is, until DmC).

All in all, Onechanbara's US releases were pretty damn bad (BZS at least), and nothing to write home about. Two games is enough to turn off audiences. Despite the fact that they were both released for the wrong platform, the point still stands that they weren't very good games to begin with. And it says something when I think even Ninety-Nine Nights was a better game than them (and Ninety-Nine Nights was pretty dreadful).

[Super Waffle]

I figured you'd be the one most likely to get it.

Yeah, I guess I'm known for Japanese girls in bikinis and cowboy hats killing zombies with samurai swords.

[zangetsu468]

...What does platforming have to do with it?

With Castlevania? Ohh not much I suppose...

[Claimh Solais]

With Castlevania? Ohh not much I suppose...

This... this is the gaming board. You know, about games that aren't Castlevania?