Dancing Blade: Katteni Momotenshi!

"I choose you, O'inu-chan!"

Dancing Blade, produced by Konami is a strange game in that it is not actually a game, but more of an interactive video. The actual game play is to choose which path the story should follow. There are many paths, with many endings, some being a rehash of the original ending, but still different. Originally this was a Playstation release. There are many characters; Oinu the doggie girl, Momo from the peach moon kingdom, Sarukichi the monkey robot man, among many others. The story is actually very long, taking over an hour or so. Character design and the environment/background design is delightfully varied.

Graphics 8
Most of the story is rendered in plain anime style colors. There are minimal special effects. There is hardly any 3D graphics to be found accept in a few mechs and transport ships. This is acceptable as a port from the Playstation, but could use a lot more Dreamcast exclusives. The FMV intro has spectacular lighting effects that can only be produced by the power of Dreamcast. Too bad that this is all the spectacular lighting effects produced.

Music/Sound 7
Character voices are excellent. Each character has a unique personality and the voice acting does a great job bringing each individual’s attributes out. Explosions and sound effects are good. The background music, however, is very dull and extremely repetitive. The music ruins some of the gaming experience, since the whole experience is watching and listening.

Game play 4
There is no real game play. The story progresses without a skip button. The game can be saved anywhere, but may resume at a much earlier point in the show. This can be tedious during replays when you are looking for different paths. Nonetheless, there is a vast amount of replay to be found in this game. At the beginning of the game the first few choices also determines the whole story. This helps to extend the life of Dancing Blade by actually offering 2 separate stories; a comical story and the original story.

On a side note, there are some fun extras to be found by finding the different character endings. Small video clips are unlocked, including a preview of Dancing Blade 2. There is also a picture gallery, and movie editor option. The first video clip to be unlocked is my favorite. SD versions of the characters in a quiz show? Hmm.. However all these extras are very short and can all be viewed within a few minutes, with the exception of the movie editor.

Overall 6
This is not a game. If you’re looking for some great anime videos for your Dreamcast, this is it. There are no subtitles and almost everything is in Japanese. There are no mini games, nothing but movies and pictures. I would recommend this game, but at a high import price, there are many other, more enjoyable titles available, including Dancing Blade 2. If you collect Konami games, or love anime this may not be a bad choice.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/00, Updated 11/29/00