Bujingai (subtitled Swordmaster in Europe and The Forsaken City in the U.S.) is a 2003 Hack and Slash game for the PlayStation 2 by Taito and Red Entertainment, based on Wuxia and set mostly in a post-apocalyptic world occupied by demons. Its main character, Lao, is based on, is voiced by and uses motion capture of GACKT, who also helped write the storyline.
An interesting side note: This is one of the games that ZUN worked on during his nebulous 'day job' as a programmer.
Bujingai contains examples of:
- Action Bomb: Poisonous Watchers have harmful death explosions.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The first two bosses. One is a huge humanoid monster which looks like a sort of undead horse, and the other is a sort of lion-monster.
- Bloodless Carnage: No one ever bleeds.
- Boring, but Practical: Your first spell, Gouenken, is a basic fireball projectile that costs little energy to use and can take out most common enemies in two hits and the weakest in one. It's also the best way to beat Malron of Venom, the giant spider boss who constantly summons smaller spiders to attack for magic energy and has a spin attack that makes engaging it in close combat suicide.
- Calling Your Attacks: Lao and Master Naguri yell the name of the spells they cast.
- Came Back Wrong: Yohfa was brought back to life by Rei, but has a Dragon-demon sealed in her.
- Counter-Attack: Lao can block an incoming magical attack by spinning his swords. With the right timing, he can send it back and inflict massive damage.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Jinbuken summons a barrage of flying blades that surrounds Lao and hit his enemies.
- Dual Wielding: Lao wields a humongous curved sword in his right hand and a long, straight sword in his left. Rei Dual Wields thin, katana-like sabers.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Imagine Lao as GACKT wearing Chinese clothes, earrings and dark purple lipstick.
- Excuse Plot: Screw the plot!! Just go around hacking away at demons for fun!
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The final battle takes place on a newly created small planet in the/a demon-dimension, which is then sliced in half in order to form a proper platform.
- Final-Exam Boss: Both of the last two bosses require you to use basically every skill you've acquired. There's also a sort of final exam stage in the form of the penultimate level (see Platform Hell below), a series of platforms in the demon-dimension with a cloud motif.
- Gainax Ending: Lao beats Rei, but the latter pulls a Not Quite Dead moment and sends Lao into space...followed by the intro video. Interpret that!
- Giant Spider: Some enemies are large, spider-like monsters with the head of a bull and a gaping maw on their bodies.
- Heroic Mime: Lao is pretty much silent through out the game save for him yelling out the names of spells.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: So much so that Lao manages to save Yohfa by cutting only the demon inside her.
- In a Single Bound: No kidding, you can double jump, run on walls, and even glide from one platform to the next.*
- Ink-Suit Actor: Lao is GACKT.
- Lethal Lava Land: One of the levels takes place inside a series of caverns culminating in a volcano.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The penultimate boss is a gargantuan white dragon.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: While he has no problem using minions, Rei takes on a hint of this during the final battle. If you would lose by falling off the stage, he'll catch Lao and throw him back into the ring (unless your health is almost completely gone)."Sorry old friend, you'll die by my hand, and mine alone!"
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons are the main enemies of the game, aside from reanimated corpses and Rei, but they're not the conventional western sort of demon.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: The most common demons resemble some sort of flesh puppets with swords and a paper charm on their face. Many of the stronger demons look even stranger. The default puppet-ish demons might base their appearance on Jiang Shi/Kyonshi
, creatures from Chinese Mythology that are usually visualized wearing similar styles of clothing and with paper charms over their faces. - Platform Hell: In the last level, you must navigate several platforms above the clouds in order to reach a mystical temple.
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Defeated enemies vanish in a bunch of purple explosions.
- Rise to the Challenge: After Malron of Venom, Stage 6 has rising lava.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: One level is set on a frozen mountain containing a holy temple dedicated to the Si-Ling four deities.
- Temple of Doom: The third level takes place in a multi-terraced temple built into a mountainside. It is infested with demons and has several traps as well.
- Upgraded Boss: Mistress of Cruelty is an upgraded version of the Overlords.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: You better master parrying by the time you fight Mahler.
- Warm-Up Boss: The first boss is the Overlord of Tears.
