Video Game / 7 Blades

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Seven Blades is a Hack and Slash/Third-Person Shooter mashup action game developed by Konami, with a setting inspired by the 1990 film adaptation of Zipang.

In 16th-Century Japan, there exists the legend of a sentient, draconic automaton called the Golden Dragon, sought after by a cult led by it's High Priest Prophet, where its said whomever controls the dragon will be unstoppable...

Meanwhile, the ronin Gokurakumaru "Goku" roams the land with his Love Interest Teppo "Pistol" Oyuri, his protege-slash-sidekick-slash-arms carrier Tokigo, and his treasured seven deadly swords he can obtain from a whim thanks to Tokigo. On the trail of the legendary Golden Dragon in Nagasaki, Gokurakumaru was unexpectedly assailed by legions of ninja, government soldiers, bounty hunters who wants the reward for his head, and minions of an evil cult, where Gokurakumaru's skills with his seven titular weapons will be put to effective use.

Players can choose between Goku or Oyuri to kick all sorts of ass, where their stories plays out independently before intersecting with each another's. In classic Guys Smash, Girls Shoot fashion, Goku spends the entire game kicking ass with his titular seven blades, while Oyuri is granted access to various firearms.

The game was released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2 with mixed reviews.

"Perhaps this gentleman can save use the trouble of looking for the dragon."

• Adventures in Comaland: After she's seemingly killed by the Wind and Thunder brothers, Oyuri's last stage is set during her coma as she faces the Orochi all over again before confronting her Final Boss, Jigo. It ends with Himika and Jigo's deaths, and Oyuri finally wakes up.
• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The young girl Oyuri rescued wears a sacred jade pendant, which embues her with holy energy and shines her the right path but also makes her a magnet for evil-doers to hunt down.
• Assist Character: With either Goku or Oyuri in play, the other can show up as an assist fighter if they're present during stages. Occasionally they can also recruit allied mercenaries or bounty hunters tagging along in fights.
• Badass Boast: Goku's is so very badass.
  Hanzo: It would appear that you have a death wish.
  Goku: Death wish? Are you aware with whom you're dealing with? I am also known as... Jigoku... Gokuraku-maru the brigandage incarnate!
  [proceeds to wipe his way through a ton of ninja mooks]
• Badass in Distress: Oyuri, as skilled as she is, still ends in serious trouble regardless which character's in play; in Goku's stages she ends up getting captured by the Yamatai and used as a sacrifice for the Golden Dragon requiring Goku to save her, while Oyuri's own stages concludes with Oyuri getting stranded in a coma until she finds a way out.
• Beleaguered Assistant: How does Goku kick all the ass when he's hoisting seven different swords, some which are gigantic? By having his comic relief sidekick Togizo dragging them behind wherever Goku went and tossing him an available blade when mooks shows up, of course.
  Togizo: [repeated line] Can't carry anymore, Master!
• BFS: Among Goku's seven titular weapons, Genbu, the largest of the lot can pass for a door.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: With the Oracle's defeat, the Golden Dragon has awakened just as Hanzo and his ninja army descends to capture it... but turns out the Yamatai inside said dragon has their own army as well (including Steampunk Mini-Mecha units called Clay Idols) that they send en masse to intercept the ninja. Goku literally dashes through the warring factions, and can briefly turn the stage into a Mêlée à Trois if he chooses to attack units on either side.
• Bird People: The Yamatai consists of owl-headed humanoids. And they can't fly.
• Bottomless Magazines: Oyuri's default firearm, her trusty pistol "Kittycat", has unlimited ammunition, although she needs to reload manually after each shot. Averted for most of her weapon upgrades, but some of them are so fully-loaded with rounds that it's impossible to run dry either ways.
• Bullet Catch: Goku defeats the kunoichi, and lets her go after believing she has other ulterior motives for attacking them. Reacting with a "I didn't ask you to spare me" the kunoichi tosses a dart at Goku as she leaves; Goku nonchalantly catches her projectile with his gauntlet's wrist-guard.
  Goku: Perhaps fate will bring us together again, miss!
• Bullying a Dragon: Both Goku and Oyuri's scenarios begins with the duo getting picked on by low-level thugs, that they handily disposes off via katana or pistol.
• Burn the Witch!: The Oracle subjects Himika to this fate in the last stage in order to complete the Golden Dragon's awakening ritual, with Goku interrupting in the last minute.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Himeka lies in Goku's arms, after Goku had learnt the truth about Himeka's past and that they're former lovers of the Yamatai clan... and then Hanzo suddenly shows up and kills Himeka with a flung projectile. As she succumbs vanishing into light particles, Goku avenges her by picking up the sacred Golden Sword and going to town with the remnants of Hanzo's clan.
• Dual Boss: The Gods of Wind and Thunder, a Fat and Skinny (in that order) Sibling Team of boss brothers with elemental powers. They appear together in a cutscene, Speak in Unison before Finishing Each Other's Sentences and attacks Goku together. They're only faced as a boss in Goku's scenario; as Oyuri she provides backup by sniping either brothers from the top of an adjacent guard tower.
  Both: Do you intend...
  Thunder: ...to dispose of us...
  Wind: ...all by...
  Both: ...your lonesome?
  Both: Quite an...
  Wind: ...energetic little band.
  Thunder: Aren't you?
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: Both Goku and Oyuri uses one on the upper-right corner, a circle that highlights onscreen enemies that also doubles as an indicator that they're heading for the right direction.
• Faceless Goons: A lot, a lot of the mooks have obscured faces, ranging from ninja to masked samurai to veiled cultists to thugs wearing helmets that conveniently blocks their facial features, to (poorly) hide the fact that the game tends to recycle character models for mooks repeatedly. For enemies who do have visible faces (like the Shinsengumi guards harassing Goku), it's another trope entirely.
• Facial Horror: The Alchemist boss, after Oyuri depleted all his remaining health, had the left side of his face graphically melting off exposing his muscles as he dies.
• Gatling Good: Oyuri can obtain a Gatling gun as early as the second stage, and it's rapid-fire allows her to mow down entire legions of mooks with ease.
• Ground Pound: When equipped with Genbu the BFS, Goku has a special attack that he sword plants his weapon and unleashes a shockwave that damages all surrounding enemies.
• Guns Akimbo: Among Oyuri's bosses, Simuka Cazavera, an overweight cult leader and Fat Bastard, uses dual utomatic pistols.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Goku packs seven blades of varying sizes. Oyuri packs all sorts of firearms.
• Hard Head: Goku jokes about the toughness of his head a few times, and finally proves it in one cutscene when he uses his forehead to bust open a pair of doors. He's bleeding from the impact, but it doesn't lead to health loss and one scene later he's kicking all the ass and ignoring the bruises.
• Helicopter Pack: Channo Cazavera's mooks can go airborne via spinning mechanical collars. They tend to swoop around Goku and taking potshots, requiring Goku to whip out Plane and target them from a distance.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The Golden Dragon's vassal, Golden King (an Animated Armor made of gold) can't be defeated in his fight fight. Goku takes on the Golden King and after dealing a respectable amount of damage... the following cutscene has Goku's sword snapping after landing a blow. At which point Goku sensibly backs down.
  Goku: Well... I think this is enough of a lesson for you. So long!
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Both Goku and Oyuri's default method for restoring health is by collecting and consuming food, ranging from wine to vegetables to sushi and fried chicken to rice noodles and so on.
  Goku: Tasty!
• It's Raining Men: The scenarios of both Goku and Oyuri begins with It's Raining Samurai, as Hanzo's minions descends en masse via parachute to capture the Golden Dragon.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Oyuri's an expert markswoman; intimidated by bounty hunters in her prologue, she responds by whipping out Kittycat, shooting without looking, and hits the shaft of a nearby bamboo umbrella making it fly upwards through the air... before floating into her hands.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy:
  • The game has gun-wielding enemies, but don't expect them to land a lethal shot anytime. Even if they do score a hit, because Guns Are Worthless (unless Oyuri's shooting) usually their damage amounts to a weak scratch.
  • Simuka Cazavera, a boss who uses Guns Akimbo, subverts this trope where he's introduced landing accurate hits on Oyuri's comrades (and killing one of the trio, Shima), but only because of More Dakka. He's more of a challenge than mooks, obviously.
• Living Statue: Nearing the Oracle's Sanctuary, Goku needs to deal with animated statue enemies revived via magic to stop him. Including a pair of Stone Guardian Dogs and multiple animated stone faces called Demon Tiles.
• Mini-Mook: The Alchemist boss fought by Oyuri is flanked by numerous doll-sized homonculi (identified as Mini-Alchemists) of himself.
• Mook Chivalry: On repeated playthroughs it's easy to notice that Goku and Oyuri weren't as badass the One-Man Army they're made to be, as the fact that despite having over a dozen mooks in any given area, only the ones closest to them (usually countable on one hand) are actually attacking, with the rest simply posing and only retaliating when Goku and Oyuri are within reasonable distance. The same goes for mooks with ranged attacks (riflemen, shuriken ninja, etc) where despite having a clear shot, they'll not fire unless the player is within ten meters from them.
• Named Weapons: Goku bestows names on his favourite weapons, including Kirin (his default katana), Plane (curved blade used for tossing), Genbu (the BFS)... meanwhile, Oyuri's favourite flintlock pistol is named Kittycat.
• Ninja: Hattori Hanzō himself shows up in both routes, and is the Final Boss of Goku's part of the story, natch. Ninja also shows up as mooks for both characters in several stages, with Goku's second stage being almost 100% ninja-themed.
• Orochi: Oyuri faces an Orochi boss after falling down a well, which is spawned from one of the women's carcasses Oyuri fell upon, but instead of being depicted as the Japanese equivalent of a Hydra this particular Orochi is more akin to a giant, deformed, snake-woman who first chases Oyuri down a tunnel (and can kill her if caught up) before facing Oyuri in an open area, spawning smaller copies of herself called Orochi Child until she's killed.
• Outliving One's Offspring: One of the mercenaries Oyuri forged a reluctant alliance with turns out to have a young daughter who died in a plague that claimed his village, and he's visibly distraught when Oyuri and his cohorts uncovers the orphaned girl, badly injured and semi-unconscious in the cells and looks to be around his daughter's age.
• Paper Master: The Oracle faced by Goku can animate life-sized paper dolls into sentient, floating enemies, that plagues Goku throughout his stages. He'll bring in more animated paper creatures as backup as a boss.
  Oracle: I think my paper dolls will be more than happy to receive our visitor...
• Poison Mushroom: One of Oyuri's food pickups is some "awful" wine that she lampshades it's taste in it's description. Drinking it reduces her health.
• Samus Is a Girl: The masked ninja leader called the Sky Ninja Captain, who ambushed Goku and Himeka with intentions of abducting the latter? After Goku wins the boss fight he removes the ninja's mask... revealing her to be a kunoichi.
  Togizo: It's a woman...
• Say My Name: Goku does this before confronting Hanzo, his Final Boss, after Oyuri's death by Hanzo's blade.
  Goku: HANZOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
• Sibling Team: And both set of brothers follows the Fat and Skinny dynamic, in that order.
  • Simuka and Channo Cazavera, the former faced only by Oyuri and the latter only by Goku.
  • The Wind and Thunder brothers are faced by both Goku and Oyuri, but they only function as a proper boss for Goku - for Oyuri instead she just provides backup by sniping from an adjacent guard tower.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • Togizo all but completely disappears in the final confrontation, for good reason... he returns once Goku wipes out Final Boss Hanzo and before the credits roll.
  • Oyuri's three tagalong bounty hunter companions had their numbers whittled down as her levels goes on, and are completely absent in her last two stages - which happens to be the creepiest, most horrifying stages in the entire game.
• Taking You with Me: The Wind and Thunder Dual Boss, after getting defeated, uses the last of their energy not to take down Goku, but to target Oyuri - Wind snatching her and dragging her into a nearby stream, while Thunder uses his last energies to drop a thunderbolt into the water before he succumbs. Oyuri survives, but depending on the current playable character she's either put out of commission for the rest of the game (Goku's scenario) or has another Adventures in Comaland stage (Oyuri's scenario) before she regains consciousness.
• Teleport Spam:
  • The "Mirror" boss faced by Oyuri, who repeatedly ports all over the place making him a difficult target to shoot.
  • Oracle teleports everyone each time Goku scores a hit, made even more complicated by his tendency to power float everywhere.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Goku can throw one of his sword, Plane (the curved one) at enemies out of reach, with the tutorial stage having him tell the players how to do so (Press L1 to aim, Attack Button to throw). Said weapon performs a Boomerang Comeback after each toss and is the only weapon that can bypass the Oracle's circling barriers of rocks.
• Tomato Surprise: Turns out Goku was Jigo in his previous life, the reincarnated lover of Himeka, and a member of the bird-like Yamatai race, right before their entire population fell because of a war. Himeka, escaping the Yamatai's destruction, has been searching for a way to return to the present and reunite with Goku.
• Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo: An ancient Japanese spider-demon woman posing as Himeka shows up near the end, whose true form is an oversized arachnid with Himeka's face on her backside. She summons large numbers of Giant Spider mooks on Goku once her actual identity's revealed.
• Villainous Rescue: In Oyuri's first stage, after she's captured alive by minions supposedly after Goku, upon regaining consciousness she's untied by... the same trio of punks who harassed her in the prologue. Turned out they fell under the same trap that got her, and wants her help so they can escape the same dungeon.
• Well Entry: Oyuri's third stage is an underground mausoleum accessible by falling down a well, with Oyuri and and the girl she rescued in the second level dropping in early on. She suffers no damage due to landing on a pile of corpses at the bottom, but then she's quickly attacked by the Orochi boss.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Discussed a bit when Oyuri forges an alliance with a trio of punks she encounters in the prologue. In any given situation they'd be common mooks, but turns out they used to have wives and children until their village was hit by a plague - after losing their families, with noting to lose, they then turn to bounty hunting for a living.