7 Blades

7 Blades is based on the 1990 film Zipang, directed by Japanese filmmaker Kaizo Hayashi.[1] The game takes place in mid-17th century Japan, during which the Tokugawa shogunate was gaining power. The game is set on the man-made island Dejima, which the Japanese government is using to house Western foreigners and where a Christian group is trying to separate from the rest of the country.[1][2] The main character is Gokurakumaru, a violent mercenary and poor womanizer. He travels with his gun-wielding love interest (Oyuri) and sidekick (Togizo). The latter provides comic relief and holds the swords as Gokurakumaru collects them one by one.

7 Blades was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan East (KCEJ East) in association with Paradise Pictures. The game was in development for over two years with a staff of around 20 people. Konami was assisted by Hayashi, who served as the game's directing supervisor and was given creative control over its storyline, dialogue, and action.[1][2][3] Hayashi had not been involved in video games prior to 7 Blades, but began leaning towards production of such a game when visual advances in computer graphics were made in the medium, striving to make it "universally appealing".[3] Hayashi meant for 7 Blades to cover a wide range of genres, and that even with the player killing a large number of enemies, hoped that it could be enjoyed as a sophisticated sword-fighting game as well. Hayashi felt that meshing the story branches of the two playable characters was a feature "only possible in a game".[3] Both Hayashi and producer Atsushi Horigami understood the importance of gameplay and insisted on making "a movie with some very deep action gameplay elements".[1]

7 Blades was first announced by Konami in May 2000, just before the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).[4] Konami released the first screenshots of the game in July of that year and made the game available to play at the Tokyo Game Show in September.[5][6] The game was released in Japan on December 21, 2000 alongside the 7 Blades Original Soundtrack produced by the Meyna Company and the single for the opening theme "Love Will See Us Though" by Sayaka Kubo.[7][8][9] A novelization of the game titled 7 Blades Jigoku Gokurakumaru to Teppou Oyuri (7BLADES―地獄極楽丸と鉄砲お百合) by Ryosuke Sakaki was published by Dengeki Media Works in February 2002.[10]

7 Blades was met with a lukewarm critical response from European and Australian publications, currently holding an aggregate score of 64.5% on GameRankings.[15]

The game was re-released under the "Konami the Best" range of budget titles in Japan, as well as its collection of European budget titles.[16][17]

• 7 Blades at GameFAQs