Manga chicks wielding swords in 2D action games

[Obiwanshinobi]

The topic has been floating in the air around here lately.
While swordfighting maidens are not completely unheard of in today's everyday gaming, apparently there was some craze in the mid-eighties-to-mid-nineties' Japan for scantily clad ones sporting somewhat formulaic designs. (I know it stems from the western sword & sorcery imagery alright.)
The oldest game fitting the bill I found would be the tough-as-nails Wing of Madoola for the Famicom, notable for its main character sprite depicting a wench with a hint of voluptuousness, yet not as featureless as lo-res sprites of realistic proportions tend to be (see Phantasy Star), even in 16-bit games. That's another topic - how the hardware limitations rendered super deformed style best looking in the old days. Behold, ladies and gentlemen:



I'd say it strikes the sweet spot between realistic and deformed, matched only by The Guardian Legend's Miria in this regard (if my knowledge of 8-bit games is anything to go by):



Kudos to Irem (or should I say Home Data?) for the mermaid Kazumi from Sqoon, but I don't feel she's quite up there (lower resolution doesn't help, admittedly):



Back to the topic. Does anybody on here knows how many Mamono Hunter Youko (Devil Hunter Yohko as the anime was called by the US distributor) games is out there? I know about three titles by Masaya/NCS: two visual novels for the PC Engine CD and one platformer for the Mega Drive. The latter is quite decent (the controls tighter than in the PCE CD remake of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier, but the animations not quite as elaborate) but I'm not sure what the anime's timeline has to do with it. It's more of a survival adventure in the vein of Flashback (indeed, Scene 1 resembles that game graphically), but without the Another World's demented puzzles. I like the shield mechanics and the pixel perfect approach to platforming doesn't put me off, but was the limit of continues necessary in a game of this kind?
That said, I'm not sure if there wasn't more Youko games. The 1989 date on this screen



(is it the year the franchise got copyrighted?) and a quote from this article:

Ledford was inspired by a different kind of green, and in 1992 began licensing anime films to distribute on video in the States, starting with Devil Hunter Yohko. Based on a bestselling videogame, it chronicles the adventures of a doe-eyed teenage girl trained by her loony grandma to become the 107th in a line of demon fighters-along the lines of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with more blood and skimpier outfits.

make me wonder if there wasn't another game, possibly even before the anime came along. Any ideas?

[rancor]

I always enjoyed Athena

[Herr Schatten]

Kudos to Irem (or should I say Home Data?) for the mermaid Kazumi from Sqoon, but I don't feel she's quite up there (lower resolution doesn't help, admittedly):

Wow. Eightbit-nipples. Did that game get censored in the US?

There are far too few mermaid games around. Gotta love the chubby mermaid from Mermaid Madness.

[Obiwanshinobi]

There are far too few mermaid games around.

Aye, there's even a squid game, so it's difficult to figure out why more developers didn't go there.

Wow. Eightbit-nipples. Did that game get censored in the US?

Nope, she's in the US version in all her glory. The nipples AND a cross, all this in the dark times of not just censoring cleavages in jRPGs for the American market, but also renaming churches to hospitals, priests to wizards etc., as well as replacing crosses, pentagrams, coffins even with something else. Heck, even years later on they renamed Preacher to Scientist in Soldiers of Fortune (console ports of The Chaos Engine).

I always enjoyed Athena

Good call! Just played a few credits in MAME. Sweet! The settings don't make plenty of sense (a girl named the same as the goddess of wisdom descends to earth and beats the crap out of nonsensical menagerie), but the gameplay is pretty great.

[BulletMagnet]

Whenever I think "manga chick with a sword" the first thing that comes to mind is Valis - there's also the more obscure Kendo Rage, if that counts.

[Observer]

I don't know if this fits the bill but Toki No Akuma (ときのあくま) is a doujin 2D action game and you play as some sort of loli-knight using a Gradius-like power up system. Your main weapon is a sword and you can cause some serious chaos with it. There is also a suspicious appearance of Pedo Bear as a boss... The game is that surreal/on-acid.

http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~icewind/yuki- ... okiaku.htm

It's the "Story of will that Fallen Angels left", whatever that means, heh. It uses the same engine of Diadra Empty but this one requires full japanese locale.

Maybe Crescent Pale Mist (by ClassiC思考回路) could also match, but I think the main character uses magic and a dagger/knife rather than a proper sword. This will be localised by Rockin' Android for PSN this week, hopefully getting a boxed PC version later on (I HOPE).

http://classic-shikoukairo.jpn.org/data ... _shot.html

[Mortificator]

Another incarnation of Athena is in Psycho Soldier, though the sword is a power-up instead of your regular weapon.

It's top-down instead of a side scroller, but you could try Legend of Valkyrie.

And on the modern side of things, there's Order of Ecclesia.

[louisg]

It's top-down instead of a side scroller, but you could try Legend of Valkyrie.

That game rules

[ZOM]

No Mail!? Fail.


Though she came rather late.


As for Legend of Valkyrie, we could also include its (ugly) prequel. Let's see if we find a sprite to post...

EDIT: hmm... found a pic of her getting gang-raped, let's look for something different.

EDIT2:Hah! There she is! (the ugly bitch)

[Ruldra]

'Sword-wielding chick' instantly reminds me of Janne from World Heroes.

[Drum]

Some of these don't qualify as manga chicks, but they are all foxes:

Nobody will ever beat Tyris Flare:

The thief and elf from Shadow Over Mystara were pretty awesome too.
Spiral from Children of the Atom/MvC2 has lots of swords!
Sexy barbarian girl from Blades of Vengeance:

[Ed Oscuro]

Girls with swords in action platformers! Overall, a deplorable gap in my platforming games knowledge. There is a girl in the Tower of Druaga series of games though, at least in the promotional materials (2P character or something?) Mega ultraspeed demo: Hah, she doesn't get ANY weapons in the third game in the series, and a wand in the others (I knew that but forgot, whups).

[drauch]

This title screams my life, if you can't already tell by my avatar. Some good mentions so far. Not really swords, but what about Faussete Amour and Alisia Dragoon?

[BrianC]

There is a girl in the Tower of Druaga series of games though, at least in the promotional materials (2P character or something?) Mega ultraspeed demo: Hah, she doesn't get ANY weapons in the third game in the series, and a wand in the others (I knew that but forgot, whups).

Her name is Ki. She's turned to a rock throughout most of Tower of Druaga. o_O

The third game? Do you mean Quest of Ki? I thought of that as more of a prequel. It shows what happens to Ki before Druaga and has a creepy ending. Poor girl.

I was surprised to hear mention of Blades of Vengeance. I love that game so far. I was surprised it was designed by Beam Software.

I have Valkyrie no Bouken for Famicom. I like it so far. I like how it has day/night and some minor customization. Graphics are simplistic, but it's pretty impressive for 1986.

Not swords, but I can't think of early NES game girls without thinking of Metroid.

Gauntlet is one 1985 game with a swordswoman (Thyra the Valkyrie). I had a blast playing this in arcades, and it's especially fun with multiplayer. I also like the NES Gauntlet, though it's an original game for NES. I like how the NES Gauntlet II is 4 players. Not arcade perfect, but a pretty good port.

[ZOM]

This title screams my life, if you can't already tell by my avatar. Some good mentions so far. Not really swords, but what about Faussete Amour and Alisia Dragoon?

Attention, going to the non-sword wielding girls might cause me to plaster this place full of Dela-pics.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sheesh, The Wing of Madoola is a stone cold bitch of a game. I like the artistic direction big time (better than Athena, easily), but man, is it one tough cookie. Maybe if you have early Castlevanias for breakfast, you won't be whining along those lines, though.
I knew Valkyrie no Densetsu, but she's not a poster girl of the fad as she doesn't have this bikini/go-go style going. Still, there's no denying that we owe Lenneth's design from Valkyrie Profile to her:

Not swords, but I can't think of early NES game girls without thinking of Metroid.

I believe Kissy from Baraduke to be the original 8-bit Girl in the Shell:

[Lordstar]

charlotte from Samurai showdown/spirits

[Observer]

Speaking of recent cases of sword wielding manga/anime girls, you have Muramasa (Wii) and Odin Sphere (PS2).

Also available is the Fire Emblem series for Gameboy Advance. In Sacred Stones your main character is a swordsgirl (pun intended) and there are plenty of female knights, mercenaries and such too.

[Lordstar]

Speaking of recent cases of sword wielding manga/anime girls, you have Muramasa (Wii) and Odin Sphere (PS2).

fantastic example

[greg]

The first to always come to mind is Yuko from Valis. And those large pixel sprites above inspired me to make a Perler Bead pixel art of Yuko last night. I'll post a pic later.

Does anyone own Faussette Amour? Is it any real love for the game or is it just collectors who are after it?

I've been tempted to pick up the Devil Hunter Yohko PCE games, but if they were a platformer like the Megadrive one, I'd definitely get it.

[undamned]

I always enjoyed Athena

First game that came to mind when I started reading this thread.

I believe Kissy from Baraduke to be the original 8-bit Girl in the Shell

AND MOTHER OF MISTER DRILLER!!! I'm not even joking. Look into the yor of Namco if you don't believe me.
-ud

[greg]

Just finished it this morning:


And while I'm posting pictures, here's one I made for Specineff. No, it has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Sashimi domburi was my dinner on Sunday night. Jealous?


EDIT:
I've added Reiko.

[Drum]

Haha, that's awesome.

How could I forget Blunet from Shadow Force:

http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/e/shaf.htm

[drauch]

Awesome Yuko bead art! I've actually got one lined up to do myself soon.

Faussete Amour in my opinion is not worth owning...the game is just 'okay', and I love shit with cutesy girls and platforming. It's kinda got a cool gimmick with the grappling sword thingy and some cool cut scenes, but it doesn't save the game from being mediocre.

[greg]

Holy freaking crap, guys. I just found something on Youtube. Here is a Valis promo anime that was made as a promotion to the Famicom version of the game. Behold the 80's anime glory! Too bad they never released an OVA series of Valis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLnPV6cJa70

You're welcome.

[drauch]

Whoaaaaaa! Why doesn't this exist?????

[Obiwanshinobi]

Yeah, I stumbled upon that vid last night.
Which particular game from the Valis series is that beadwork based on, greg? I kind of remember her running around wearing a sailor suit in that PCE CD remake of The Fantasm Soldier.

[greg]

I used a pixel dump from the Genesis/Megadrive version for Yuko and Reiko. Apparently the pixels are the same in Valis I and III for the Genesis. The sprites look better than the PCE Valis II game. In that one, IIRC, she just sticks her sword out in front of her. The Genesis version shows her slashing her sword. The best would have been from Valis I for the PCE, but I couldn't find a pixel dump from that game online.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Any thread like this cant be complete without an mention of Satoshi Urushihara who is a god of character anime art imo. Although most of his manga is erotic his medievil fantasy characters is his best work imo.
For anyone who doesnt know who im on about he is the artist behind the Langrisser (warsong) and Growlaser series ad his non ero manga and anime of Legend of Lemnear, He cut his teeth as a key animator /artist in the classic Transformers show.





cant beat those famous shoulder guards Im a big fan of the late 90s anime style when cyberpunk was still in vogue, and before the loli and moe craze took off with vannila digital anime with no soul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Urushihara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIijtNTw ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgDda847 ... re=related

If i had a dieing wish it would be to finally play english translated (fan translated or not) of all the Langrisser and Growlanser games (plus for the 3x3 eyes manga scanalation project to be finished)

[drauch]

cant beat those famous shoulder guards Im a big fan of the late 90s anime style when cyberpunk was still in vogue, and before the loli and moe craze took off with vannila digital anime with no soul.

Exactly. This is what life is about.

Thanks for posting who that was, I really enjoy his work. I'd love to play those games as well someday...