News: Everybody loves akio otsuka, episode three: blade dancer

February 06, 2006, 09:48 PM

by tim, via sony, konami, hitmaker, otsuka -
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I've waited and waited for someone on the internet to say something about Blade Dancer, and it just hasn't happened. So here you go -- the official site for Blade Dancer: Sennen no Yakusoku ("The Thousand-year Promise"), an original traditional RPG for the Sony PlayStation Portable, by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and former Sega studio Hitmaker. The game has nice, clean art and an intriguing post-Final Fantasy IV semi-real-time battle system that implements a special meter shared by both the enemies and the player characters. You use the meter to execute special attacks; the more of the meter you use, the stronger the attack. The system focuses on tempting you to save up the meter as much as possible, yet forces you to balance it out by unleashing specials before the enemy can.

It's basic two-button stuff, yet it still feels deep. The game also sports a wireless LAN mode where you can penetrate dark, moist dungeons with your character of choice, along with a friend's choice of one of his one-player quest characters; this makes it kind of like Diablo. You get to keep the experience points and treasure!! And those four characters it fixes into your party are lovely; it has nice towns, too. At first it looks something like SCE and Climax's Tenchi no Mon, though in execution, it's actually quite a bit better. It's being released in Japan on March 2nd, for the low (high) price of 4,800 yen. I'm sure it'll be released in English, so do be on the lookout for it. <Brandon's note: I predict by Nippon Ichi. Wait and see!>

Or -- actually! No, import away! Why should you import? Well, because one of those four fixed main characters is voiced by none other than our favorite guy Akio Otsuka! I'll give you five seconds to guess which of the main characters -- the plucky, young, blue-haired, sword-wielding kid (Shane), the dancing green-haired girl with the magic staff (Faris), the long-eared, weepy fairy (Tess), or the giant, burly, robust, beaded-necklace-wearing, giant-cudgel-swinging philosopher-monk Gorthan -- Akio Otsuka plays!

Give up? Why, it's Gorthan, of course! I remember reading something in Famitsu a few months ago about that Ninety-Nine Nights game for Xbox 360 that Tetsuya Mizuguchi is dipping his finger into, and how the female warrior (no, not the little pasty-thighed female witch with the creepiest face ever rendered in a videogame) was named "Inphyy." I remember writing somewhere that "Inphyy" sounds too much like something a Korean dude (or little girl) would name his Diablo II sorceress, and that something like "Gorthandra" would sound a hundred times better. And now here's Akio Otsuka, playing "Gorthan"! I'm sure he'll earn a place in our hearts next to Solid Snake and Batou.

For more information on the voice-actor of our generation, you can most definitely check out his work on Hideo Kojima's audioblog, which is awesome even if you don't understand it. That link also leads you to a good summarized resume of Mr. Otsuka.

In closing, in memory, let's take a quick look at some head shots of Mr. Otsuka's most memorable characters -- how diverse and different they are, each in their subtle ways. <Brandon's note 2: check the alt text on these.>