Seven Samurai 20XX is a 2004 Hack and Slash videogame with a futuristic setting, loosely based on Akira Kurosawa 's Seven Samurai and Samurai 7, released by Sammy Studios. Notably, Mœbius was the character designer for the series.
In a dystopic futuristic world, humans are costantly under the threat of hordes of inhuman beings, known as the "Humanoids", who threaten the life of people in those few locations outside the great cities. The story follows the wandering Samurai Natoe, a skilled warrior carrying two swords on his person, as he gets involved in a desperate struggle for survival: a small village is about to be overrun by hordes of Humanoids, and are looking for "Hunters", powerful warriors from outside the City who can stand up to these monsters. An old veteran samurai, Kambei, offers his help to the villagers, but they'll need the assistance of at least seven samurai to win this struggle, Natoe included. However, things aren't so streamlined as they seem, when Agents from the City join the fray, and our heroes wonder why the Humanoids are so determinated to get this village in particular...
The gameplay is extremely simple, as the player controls Natoe and has him fight hordes of enemies and minibosses scattered in linear levels of varying length, with cutscenes in-between that take the story onward. Unfortunately, the game had a mediocre success and was considered average, especially when compared to the original material.
This Video Game contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Female Samurai such as Cue, Jodie (sadly Informed Ability), Morozumi, Tsubaki Dayu and female Humanoid Zwei.
- Acrofatic: Some late game enemies include round pale Humanoids who can roll at you like balls while moving at great speed.
- All There in the Manual: The pause menu contains a list of info on the swords you've obtained and on the bosses.
- And I Must Scream: The chief villager's wife is found naked but apparently alive and conscious, stuck from the waist down in some sort of grotesque, portrait-like mass of black corpses which are all grabbing on her.
- Animal Motifs: Zwei's human minions wear each a golden, animal-themed accessory: Klein has the Golden Dragon Gauntlet, a gauntlet shaped like a dragon's head which can spit flames, Lange has the Golden Ram Helmet, which along with his sorceresque looks and ability to conjure fire give him a demonic look. Finally, Weite has the Golden Lion Shield, which alongside his sword Calaimn Solais gives him a knightly appearence.
- Anti-Hero: Natoe, especially early on, where he doesn't see why he should help the villager. He gradually becomes more selfless and amiable as the story goes on.
- Apocalypse Maiden: Two examples: Hinata is the Sacred Child, essentially the power battery of the city, which is why the Agents are targetting the village. Unfortunately, she's wanted by the Humanoids as well for the Sacred Jewel she carries, alongside Cue, who's really Ein's sister and "soul twin".
- Asian Fox Spirit: White Fox is a masked canine Humanoid with a sword modeled after a demon fox, though he doesn't really have tails, rather tassels on his back emulating tails. He also wields an Oddly Shaped Sword an can turn himself invisible.
- Bandage Mummy: The boss Charnel is a creepy man covered head to toe (safe for his right leg) in crimson bandages, which he can also use to reel his axe back to him.
- BFS: Fen's weapon is almost as big as him, consisting in a curved, jagged giant blade with a wooden handle connecting the tips.
- Big Bad: Ein, the leader of the Humanoids.
- Big "NO!":
- Rojie, when he sees Sallah being injected with the altered drug and turned into a monster.
- The village representative, when he sees what happened to his wife.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Zwei's henchmen, as seen in their names, which are the German for "Wide", "Small" and "Long". In a case of ironic naming though, Klein (Small) is the Big guy and Weite (Wide) is the Short guy.
- Bittersweet Ending: The village is safe, Hinata is free and the Humanoids are no more... but of the seven samurai, only Kambei and Rojie are alive.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: While the Humanoids and the Agents are clearly antagonistic, the villagers aren't completely blameless as they look. It fits well with the inspiration.
- Blocking Stops All Damage: Actvating the block allows Natoe to deflect all damage, but by parrying at the right time he can obtain a Just Parry which leaves the enemy open and istantly fills the Nitohryuu meter. Certain attacks cannot be blocked.
- Boss Bonanza: Chapter 3, 4, and 10 features more boss battles than mook fights.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: During Chapter 9, a red version of Necryl appears accompanied by the large grey humanoid enemies. Unfortunately for you, this enemy comes right after a long, tedious Multi-Mook Melee and they tend to deal a lot of damage. If they defeat you, you have refight all the enemies from that section again.
- Boss-Only Level: Chapter 10 features nothing but a gauntlet of boss battles against the 2 Guardians, then Fen, then Zex Ultimate and finally the Final Boss and his One-Winged Angel form.
- Boss Rush: One of the unlockable modes Coliseum Mode pits you against all the bosses in the game, with the order of the bosses being fixednote Unfortunately, your increased stats do not carry over to this mode, forcing you to make do with the defaults.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Eight looks like a dwarfish drunken buffoon, but is a former Agent and a top-class warrior.
- Camp Gay: One of the most prominent villagers has a very effeminate voice and mannerism
- Carnival of Killers: The Bremen gang under Epsilon: they are quite a varied team including a murderous axe-wielding creep in red, a duo of rapping kids in rollerblades, a one-armed robed amorphous magician with a Cool Mask and their leader who is a ventriloquist swordsman whose soul is hidden in a puppet.
- Cleavage Window: Cue's otherwise practical outfit sports a massive cleavage window.
- Company Cross Reference: If you unlock the Foo En Ken and Foo Rai Ken swords, their descriptions will note that they originate from Guilty Gear X, and were used by Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske respectively.
- Cute Mute: Hinata is an adorable rose-haired girl who never speaks.
- Deadpan Snarker: Natoe's tongue is as sharp as his sword. Agent W isn't above snarking himself if he has to.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you die, you can start again from the last checkpoint or bossfight with replenished health.
- Death Seeker: Fen, a Humanoid whose regenerative factor's so big he believes himself indestructible and envies humans for their frailty and for being able to die easily.
- Degraded Boss: The Gigantes droids, first appearing in Chapter 1 appear as late game enemies.
- Dirty Coward: The first boss of chapter 2, Takijee, goes from confident to spineless after you teach him a lesson, an gladly betrays his boss Necryl when confronted.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Downplayed example, but Epsilon during his bossfight can only be damaged when the puppet is struck, implying that the puppet is the real Epsilon. The menu downright confirms this.
- Dope Slap: In Chapter 2, when Natoe sneers at Jodie's offer to join the Seven Samurai, she calls him idiot and gives him a hard one offscren.
- The Dragon: Chapter 3 has the shinobiesque Jiro, the bodyguard of the otherwise wimpy Kowloon mafia boss Kyric. It's implied that Zwei, Drei and Fen are also servants to Ein.
- Dragon Ascendant: After Ein and Almana's death, Zwei tries to ambush the heroes to get the Sacred Jewel for himself. She's killed before she can try though.
- Dramatic Disappearing Display: Unlike the other bosses in the game, the Drug Monster you fight during Chapter 3 has no HP and Guard bars at all, much like the enemies you fight.
- Dual Boss: In chapter 4, you have to fight the rapping brothers Mu and Chi, who have seperate healthbars. Once they get down to low health or one of the twins is KO'd, they gain an aura around them. Despite their fast movements, both of them are pushovers who are more bark than bite.
- Dual Wielding: Natoe can use Nitoh Ryuu to wield both swords at once as some sort of Super Mode which allows him to attack faster and deal much more damage. You can only use Dual Wielding for a short time, but a Just Guard will istantly recharge the gauge, which means that it can make the Nitoh Mode last longer.
- Eye Scream: Eight managed to persuade the Agents to leave Hinata and the village alone... but had to cut out his own eyes as a payment.
- Fat Bastard: Drei is horrendously obese and slouches on a mechanical hovering chair with robot hands. He's also a remorseless, Psychopathic Manchild who treats the lives of others as playthings.
- Faux Action Girl: Downplayed with Jodie, who despite carrying a sword she doesn't fight the Humanoid much, though according to the Menu entry for her sword it's because, unlike everyone else, she lacks any modification or special training, meaning that she's more like Overshadowed by Awesome.
- Final Death Mode: One of the unlockable modes Survival Mode makes you go through the entire game without saving or healing. If you die, the mode ends.
- Flash Step: Just Step (performed by pressing the Dash command right before the attack lands) results in Natoe teleporting behind the attacker, leaving the latter stunned.
- Giant Space Flea From No Where: The Mangler, Drei's new creation he tests on Natoe when confronted during the end of Chapter 9. Epsilion could also be considered this unlike his henchmen, because he suddenly shows up for his boss fight then dies after the fight is over; the player will only ever learn that he's the leader of Brehmen if they read his Enemy entry.
- Giggling Villain: White Fox giggles ominously during his second appearance.
- Godhood Seeker: Ein's ultimate plan involves using the Jewel of Life held by a Sacred Child to achieve a god-like form to wipe humans from the planet.
- Gratuitous German: The top three leaders of the Humanoids are named Ein, Zwei and Drei (One, Two and Three). Zwei's minions are also called Weite, Klein and Lange (Wide, Small and Long). Zex' name could be derived by Sechs (Six).
- Gratuitous Rap: The "Hip Hop Brothers" Mu an Chi breaks out in a rapping sequence before their boss fight and even when defeated they talk in rapping fashion. Natoe is less than impressed.
- I Have Your Wife: Early on, Necryl is holding Tatsuma's sister hostage, but by the time you reach him to rescue her you learn tha he disposed of her long ago.
- Healing Factor: Fen's regenerative skills are so powerful they made him believe he was indestructible. Luckily enough they subside in his boss fight when he receive enough damage, enforcing an Attack! Attack! Attack! approach.
- The Hero Dies: After defeating the Final Boss, Natoe and Jodie are ambushed by Zwei, and eventually all three die in the resulting battle on the bridge, leaving Kambei and Rojie as the sole survivors.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Salla's right hand man betrays her and infects her with tainted drug to turn her into a monster to sic against Natoe an Rojie... but the Drug Monster kills him first.
- Hollywood Cyborg: Implied that most of the Humanoids (safe for Ein, Cue, Zwei and maybe Fen) are cybernetic in nature. Even Zech and Necryl, who look organic, do release electrical discarges from their bodies when cut down.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When Zwei gloats over Natoe, the latter manages to use his free arm to chuck his Bishamonten Sword at her, impaling her in the chest and through the head.
- Improbable Use of a Weapon: Eight's weapon is, essentially, a loaded missile launcher he mostly uses as a spear.
- Improbable Weapon User: Takijee, as if he wasn't pathetic-looking enough, wields a bladed roadsign as his weapon he calls the "Demonslayer". Pyro tries to kill you with his guitar.
- In Medias Res: The story opens with the villagers Dick, Tay and Hinata on the run in the City's streets, with Zex pursuing them when they stumble into Natoe. Natoe and Jodie's subsequent encounter also implies they've been knowing each other for a long time, but nothing is properly clarified. In a way, kinda like we don't know much of the protagonists' backstories at first in the movie.
- Interface Spoiler: If you check the enemy section after defeating Zex and White Fox respectively for the first time, their entries simply read Unknown whereas all the other bosses have proper descriptions. This is a hint that you'll be seeing those two again later on.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Natoe, whose heart of gold becomes more evident as he spends time with the other samurai.
- Joke Item: By achieving combos of 100+ hits, you can obtain a Megaphone, a Slipper, a Toy Hammer, and a Fly Swatter respectively.
- Karmic Death: Drei acts like a Bad Boss to Zex Ultimate and is squashed like a bug by it.
- Keystone Army: During the final fight, it's implied that Ein is the source of all the Humanoids, and by killing him they will stop appearing.
- Large Ham: Rojie. In his first appearence alone he bellows so loudly in victory for solving a puzzle that he literally deafens Natoe.
- Light Is Not Good: Ein is dressed in white, has white hair and resides in a cathedral-like building, and can turn into an angelic creature. He also wants to eliminate every human to make way for the Humanoids.
- Lightning Bruiser: Zwei during her boss fight attacks with sudden and deadly ramming attacks, often in a row.
- Mad Scientist: Drei is a disgustingly obese slug of a man who spends his time collecting bodies, creating monstrosities and generally being a monster.
- The Magnificent Seven Samurai: The game is a big homage to the movie, to the point of recreating certain scenes from it.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When Drei is reduced to a head by Zex, he calmly but angrily orders him to put his head back on his body. It doesn't end well.
- Marathon Level: Chapter 3 is the longest level in the game, with most of it spent exploring the area trying to advance the plot while fighting enemies. It has has several Optional Boss fights, which only make the level even longer if you go out of your way to complete them all.
- Mecha-Mook: The standard Humanoid soldiers, as well as Drei's creations and the Gigantes robots.
- Miniboss: The game is notable for having almost as many minibosses as mook types.
- Miyamoto Musashi: Natoe uses the Nito-ryuu popularized by Miyamoto Musashi and according to the old Sensei from the city of warriors, a man named Musashi taught Natoe his sword style and entrusted his sword to him.
- The Mole: Turns out Jodie
- Monster Compendium: The Enemy section, accessible by pressing Select, has entries for every boss in the game (except the Drug Monster) but unfortunately has none for any of the Mooks that you fight throughout the game.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Morozumi is a curvaceous, muscular black woman dressed in silk bands who acts flirtatiously towards Natoe.
- Salla is a gorgeous buxom woman in an incredibly revealing black dress which bares her boobs both above and below.
- Zwei is surprisingly easy on the eyes for a multi-winged harpy-like monster.
- Cue is a well-toned white-haired woman with a nice pair of boobs.
- Multi-Mook Melee: Chapter 9 consists of several bouts of this, making this one of the longest levels in the game aside from Chapter 3.
- Murderous Mannequin: Drei's Humanoid servants looks more like creepy female mannequins with swords.
- Named Weapons: Most of the swords and weapons you see are given a name in the menu section after you defeat whoever as carrying the weapon.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: While he's a small fry, a guy named Charnel the Tombstone does sound like bad news even before you see the red bandages or the spiked axe.
- New Game Plus: Once you beat the game, you can start a new playthrough with everything you had during your previous playthrough, and you can also change your equippable swords to any of the ones you've already unlocked.
- Non-Indicative Name: The weapon used by Kyric's men is called "Naginata Saw", but is clearly a classical Chinese Dadao.
- Not So Above It All: Kambei is the most serious of the group, but when Natoe and Jodies' antics with a rotating table over a cup of liquor cause him to stumble mid-explanation, Kambei grabs the cup and chugs it to end the quarrel.
- Not Quite Dead: After being seemingly killed by Natoe, Necryl tries to dash at Tatsuma with murderous intent, only to be tossed to a Disney Villain Death. He then makes a surprise appearence in chapter 9 at the end of a grueling Multi-Mook Melee.
- Numerical Theme Naming: Among the samurai, we have Eight, Natoe (from nana = seven and to = ten), Rojie (ro = 6) and Cue (kyu = 9). The leaders of the Humanoids are called Ein, Zwei and Drei.
- Off with His Head!: How Natoe takes care of Zex Beast. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as his failure to destroy Zex's remains allow Zwei to take Zex's head and use it to create Ultimate Zex.
- Old Master: Yagyu, the mysterious swordsman Natoe encounters in the City of Combats who knew his master Musashi and offers to teach him.
- One-Winged Angel: After killing Ein, he uses the Sacred Jewel to transform into a massive, white, literally one-winged angel with incomplete limbs, three eyes and two floating sashes made of light they can use to attack.
- Optional Boss: Six optional bosses can be encountered in chapter 3 around the city, Tsubaki Dayu and Gotehnmaru can be found early on, with the latter blocking a shortcut back to the start. Pyro and Morozumi can be found if you backtrack and actively engage them to start their fights, and Oniwaka and Ushiwaka can be found behind the sealed doors. Brahman is found in Chapter 7, and though the game doesn't tell you this, defeating all bosses, including them all which unlocks the Coliseum Mode.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Amongs the Humanoids there are white Wolfmen who attacks with powerful claw swipes.
- Palette Swap: During the second to last Multi-Mook Melee section in Chapter 9, a red version of Necryl shows up after you've spend a lot of time cutting down a lot of enemies. This enemy only shows up during that chapter and never again.
- Pivotal Boss: Zex Ultimate is unique in that he's sitting in the middle of the arena and will turn around to attack you.
- Playing with Fire: A few enemies can attack with fire or bombs, and both cannot be parried, not even with Just Parry.
- Post-Climax Confrontation: Zwei attacks Natoe and Jodie as they cross the bridge to the village, causing them to take severe damage.
- Puzzle Boss:
- Lambda is usually hidden in her own shadow and cannot be damaged until you empty her parry bar with Nitoh Mode: this way, she will emerge and take damage when hit.
- Epsilon starts taking damage only when you make him release his puppet, and only by attacking the puppet he receives damage.
- Ultimate Zex must first be attacked in the arms to make him drop down, then you have to slash at his head to deplete his defence bar: after that he starts registering damage.
- Final Boss Almana is invulnerable until you deal enough damage to his light ribbon when it tries to encircle you. Then, as they descend to the ground, you have to aim for the red jewel in their chest.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Epsilon's gang is composed of a red-clad axeman who fights with his own bandages, a duo of rapping twins using rollerblades and a costantly twitching masked warlock who can manipulate his own shadow.
- Recurring Boss: Zex, the first boss, reappears other four times through the story, twice in his default form then during the endgame and Zex Beast, and Ultimate Zex. Minor villain White Fox is fought thee times, once in Chapter 2 and twice in Chapter 4
- Recycled In Space: Seven Samurai in a sci-fi/fantasy setting with robots and mutants.
- Red Baron: Most of the bosses and Hunters you meet have monikers, though you'll need to access the Menu to read them.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Tatsuma lost his sister to Necryl, so he's adamant in making all the Humanoids pay.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: During Chapter 3, two of the optional bosses Oniwaka and Ushiwaka are sealed away behind doors with red seals. Chapter 7 has Brahman sealed away in a hidden room that requires you to backtrack after defeating two groups of enemies to defeat another set. Defeat the third group, and a hidden route opens up, allowing you to fight Brahman.
- Seven Deadly Sins: The keep of Drei is divided in six areas named after the Deadly Sins (save for Wrath), fitting Drei's amoral personality.
- Shout-Out:
- Two of the bonus bosses are called Oniwaka and Ushiwaka, a nod to Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Musashibo Benkei.
- The description of Fen's sword is an obvious hint to the Dragonslayer, though it looks different.
- Sinister Scimitar: The standard robotic humanoids wield knife-like swords, and so do the Chinese thugs in Chapter 3. Ein's personal sword is a curved, pitch-black sword which can channel lightning.
- Spikes of Villainy: Zex Beast can attack by suddenly unleashing a mass of spikes from either his chest or his back.
- Taking You with Me: Eight blows himself up to seal one of the village's entrances, destroying many humanoids.
- Tail Slap: Guardians have long, blade-tipped tails and they usually leap into a parallel dimension and open windows to suddenly whip you.
- Take My Hand!: Near the end of chapter 1, Kambei grabs Natoe's hand to save him from a collapsing bridge. Natoe dies as he tries to save Jodie from falling off a bridge.
- The Unfought: Kryie, one of the leaders of city in Chapter 3 is never fought in his default form, instead transforming into a giant Drug Monster. Salla's monster is never fought either and is a Cutscene Boss. Drei is never fought as well, because he ends up getting crushed by Ultimate Zex. Agent W is never fought at all, though in his case it's justified because he isn't an antagonist.
- Training the Peaceful Villagers: Halfway through the game, the Samurai train the villagers, just like in the movie.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Kyric's gang in Chapter 3, while not overtly referred to as such.
- Uncertain Fate: Because we never see Natoe and Jodie fall to their deaths despite them bleeding out from Zwei's attack, it could possible that they survived and eventually managed to get themselves off the bridge. It would also explain how Kambei and Rojie were able to see one of Natou's swords on top of the mountain during the ending.
- Unique Enemy:
- The Humanoid Knights in Chapter 9. They only appear for a short sequence.
- The red Palette Swap of Necryl that appears after completing the longest Multi-Mook Melee in the game during Chapter 9, and also the horse-riding humanoids that only show during the beginning of the level.
- Villain in a White Suit: Agent W, the city's emissary sent to retrieve the Sacred Child. Subverted when he later calls off the hunt for Hinata when Eight compensates by paying with his eyes and shows up to reveal the heroes why the Humanoids were gunning for Hinata and says farewell to her.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: Zwei is smitten by Natoe's physique and threatens to make him her personal pet. Tatsuma shows up in time to save Natoe and fights back, half-jokingly saying he'll make Zwei his pet instead. The menu reveals that her three henchmen are all humans she enslaved.
- Wolfpack Boss: Chapter 9 has you fight against Klein, Weite and Lange after several battles against large groups of mooks.
- Wolverine Claws: The standard Ninja Humanoids are armed with claws mounted on their wrists. So does Starter Villain Necryl and his Boss in Mook Clothing counterpart.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Jaguar Ball and Jiro in chapter 3 try to stop Natoe for going after their respective bosses.
