games like oneechanbara have just as much value as more artistically important games, while the industry has for sure moved away from games like this, and there and there will be exceptions to this, hentai vs evil is memed on for very well deserved reasons since it's gross, kinda exploitive and just, well, look at it, but not every "trash game" is like this and i think games like this can be good for you. oneechanbara as a series knows what it is, with a title like "bikini samurai squad" it's easy to tell the game isn't taking itself very seriously and while i'm usually the first to notice blatant misogyny, it's so silly and campy that i can't even be upset at it, it's clearly influenced by campy B-movies and even sillier games of the 90's and early 2000's, it has silly impractical outfits, the cheesiest dialogue and storyline, it's got far more blood than most horror movies and even creatures directly lifted from movies like the boss fight against the massive zombie baby that has little shop of horrors plants attack for it, it's not taking itself seriously and i think thats what sets it apart from actually misogynistic media like rent-a-girlfriend, konosuba or the afformentioned hentai vs evil, no one is going to play onechanbara and come away a sexist pig, while the same can sadly not be said for the other media mentioned, is oneechanbara sleazy? yeah kinda, most games by tamsoft and indeed most simple series games are, it's just a product of how those games are made, but it's also not inherently all that bad, it has it's place and in the case of oneechanbara i would argue it ads to the campy exploitation vibes to it. games like oneechanbara can are a pallet clenser, sometimes you need something dumb and silly inbetween bigger AAA or more artistic games to really help you appreciate the strengths that both can bring.

the game itself is a remake of the first two oneechanbara games, the originals are simple line series ps2 games, budget games about well, uh, bikini clad aya and her sister saki murdering waves of the undead, they're fun! basic for sure and very repetative, but if you play the extended "special" versions you have a lot more character variety including cameos from other simple games like dragon sisters. the remake choses to not have this extended content which is a shame but i get it from a budgetary standpoint, and you also don't get every single boss fight from the original, but you do get a third character if youre able to beat 100 waves of the games survival mode, which is pretty doable, not easy at all, even with max level characters, great rings and a full inventory of rings it was still a long grind and it took multiple attempts, but you can also in an actually sleazy move, buy the unlock which is just kinda gross, especially since lei is the games most fun character to play as! she uses the games main ranged weapons, some machine guns, pistols and her main weapon being a double barreled shotgun, she alo has a small knive she uses for super fast attacks, the speediest in the game. the knife is also where her other main mechanic comes in, as the knife does damage and you reload it, it gives her guns a blood gauge, this gage lets her use blood bullets for much higher damage and it makes for a fun loop which makes her feel deeper and more in depth vs the other characters. the game does well in combining both into one game though, you go through the first just as aya but once you hit the end of that first game, the designs change and you unlock saki as a playable character and the mechanics expand a little. it feels natural and if you didn't otherwise know you would assume it was just a halfway point.

it plays a lot better too, it's much closer to the oneechanbara Z games, Z2 specifially, but it does have some dlc weapons which are from oneechanbara Z with nonono! on ps3. it's fast and has a good amount of depth for what it is, you have a very satisfying parry, character switching, multiple weapons, a dodge which has a perfect dodge move for good timing, a rhythmic "cool combo" system that rewards exact hits in timing with extra speed and damage and a stun attack that can kill multiple enemies at once. once you really get into the zone the game has a great rhythm to it, during the grind to unlocking lei there were whole waves where i just kind of zoned out and had a good time, you can do some real damage too, aya's single sword special once killed an entire wave in one hit and the games baneful blood modes for the characters just make it even more ridiculous, you can kill entire swaths of enemies in one slice with a triangle attack, it's so much fun and it can carry the game for much longer than its run time, even with a slight lack of depth in combos and mechanics, while the game's only maybe 3-4 hours long i was happy to spend over 20 beating it multiple times and unlocking lei! helping this is a fantastic style, it adopts a new cel shading rather than Z's ps360 porcelain style and it looks really nice, it makes it feel a little less "simple series sleaze" and a little more like its own thing, it's a unique look and one i think fits the series super well, the ultra saturnted colours making some of the environments, like the graveyard, look amazing and the vibrant red blood covering the screen makes it look even better, you won't find much else that looks like this out there. there's a wide variety of environments too, from shockingly lush graveyards, spooky abandoned hospitals, the city streets of tokyo including a shopping ginza and a whole mall to fight through, the first game i find has a little less, with just the graveyard, hospital and sewer, with a single level at the end in a large japanese style mansion courtyard within the sewer. the music also fits it all super well, there's some amazing battle themes here, the intro battle theme and the final boss theme are both super fun vocal themes, the opening level theme doing a great job at hyping you up for the journey and the end theme, with more screamy vocals, doing a fantastic job of making the end boss that much more fun, i love the end boss partially because of that, it's one of my favourite end boss rushes ever! special shoutout also to the main menu music, chill vibes. also worth mentioning is the pretty great english dub, the cast do a great job here and the writing is really funny at times, they seem like they had a fun time and it shows in the recording, it doesn't take itself seriously almost ever .

really one of my few complaints with the game is how it's a little harder to get, it never got a physical release in western regions so if you want it in english, you will have to go either digital or the fairly rare asian english copy, this sucks and it should have had an english boxed release just like Z2 chaos, but the game is more than playable in japanese and you dont miss that much without the dlc, it's also on ps plus as of writing if you don't want to pay for a download like me. the game has so far been the most recent game in the series, it's been a fairly slow series this gen, with just Z2 chaos, the spinoff SCHOOLGIRL ZOMBIE HUNTER and then this, which to me is an original game and i will consider it as such since it's so radically different from the original, i'd love a new game soon, adding in the characters we missed from Z2 chaos. the game was created almost entirely by tamsoft alumni, with misaki minagawa directing , who has mostly worked on neptunia action games as well as the tamsoft captain tsubasa game (god i really gotta play that one) as well as shunsuke tezuka as both the games executive director and the games art director and they have credits dating back to the 360 era on oneechanbara, senran kagura and even being involved in early tamsoft projects like toshinden 4 and knight and baby as well as being a director on personal favouite, demolition girl. you even have some character designs from katsumi enami, who has worked on the star ocean and puyo puyo series in the past as well as the kiseki series and anime like baccano! i hope this team works on the series again because i would love a more expansive game from the series again like my favourite one, z2 chaos.