Disk 9: Kuro no Ken (黒の剣)

Name: Kuro no Ken (黒の剣)
Type: Turn-Based RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

Today’s game is yet another one that I picked up entirely for the cover art. Kuro no Ken, subtitled in English as ‘Blade of the Darkness’, sports a very nice sketch of a man saving a damsel in distress from an unpleasant situation on the front cover. The back of the jewel case promises an excellent vocal cast paired with high quality graphics. From the pictures shown to illustrate this fact, those high quality graphics consist of nearly naked women, which doesn’t impress me much. The male lead is voiced by Koyasu Takehito, though, and that impresses me a great deal. Let’s see if Kuro no Ken can live up to its own hype!

Whether you hear it first from the game opening itself or have read it in the manual, it seems that the world in the game we are going to play has had some trouble with jet black dragons. I seem to be meeting up with a lot of dragons during the course of writing this blog, but considering that my medium is RPGs, that should be no surprise. Koyasu Takehito’s voice speaks for the first time as a ship in the midst of a storm appears in a mirror. A strange conversation ensues with a woman, during which we learn that the main male character, Kaiesu, is in the country of Kuraitsen training as a swordsman. It seems that he has come to ask the woman where he should go next. She is as vague and unhelpful as one would expect, and ends by telling him to choose for himself.



Shinobu realizes that she is in a game that subsists on fanservice.

We are suddenly taken from that strange scene to meet Shinobu, who is sitting up in her bed as though she has just awoken from a dream. Apparently she was sleeping naked, but is thoughtful enough to cover herself with a sheet despite her confusion. There is a scantily clad woman in the room with her (the lack of clothing seems to be a theme in this game) who asks her if she understands her, because Shinobu is a foreigner. She introduces herself as Enisu, the savior of Shinobu’s life. Apparently Shinobu has no idea where she is, but she does mention a ship. Enisu saved her from getting eaten by monsters, and bribes her into working for her in return for saving her life. Unfortunately, Shinobu only carries a sword with her as a good luck charm, so she will have to use magic to pay off her life debt. There is a noble’s manor to the south of the city where Enisu wants us to go, so I suppose we have no choice. She won’t tell Shinobu what she’ll be doing there, though, which is worrisome. We finally gain control of Shinobu, who can’t find her very important sword anywhere. Enisu won’t tell her where it is, but says she’ll remember after her work is finished. Great, first guilt, now extortion.

Shinobu trudges south to the manor, which is replete with fountains and potted flowers, and stately music plays in the background. After the player takes a moment to decide that the place is legitimately creepy in its outward cheerfulness, Shinobu heads down a marble hallway, past some surly guards, and into the mansion proper. As she wanders aimlessly about, Shinobu finds a pretty jewel which she believes Enisu sent her to the mansion with the intention for her to take. She isn’t too keen on the idea and so doesn’t steal the jewel, but as she’s leaving she gets attacked by the guards for being Enisu’s underling anyway. A fight ensues, which Shinobu wins without breaking a sweat. Those guards really should have listened to her.

 



Unfortunately, a youjinbou, Zefyu-doru, shows up next, but he actually listens to Shinobu. After making a rather perverted comment and letting us think that we’re going to get away, the other soldiers remind the youjinbou of what he’s being paid for, and the fight is on. As he has both voice acting and an accompanying facial avatar, I’m assuming that this won’t be so easy. I attacked him with Shinobu’s basic magic attack, Fu Chou Jin, but it did nothing, and after commenting on her magic’s strangeness, Zefyu-doru defeats her in one blow.

Shinobu is certain that he isn’t just an average youjinbou. She is searching for a swordsman who is going to be caught up in some complicated RPG destiny that the game hasn’t explained yet, and Zefyu-doru is as confused by Shinobu’s riddles as I am. He reminds her rather forcibly that she has just lost a fight to him, which is probably something that she should be more concerned about at the moment. Just as Zefyu-doru thinks that his amusement is about to begin, Shinobu shows him why she isn’t as concerned as he thought she should be by using her magic to disappear from the battle entirely.


Shinobu decides that it's time to leave Zefyu-doru and the manor behind.

Shinobu heads back to the port city of O-rubain to speak to Enisu, telling her that she has no intention of becoming a thief. Enisu has no problem with this, though, as Shinobu had only been sent in as a decoy. Lovely how she saved her life only to throw her into danger immediately after she healed. After joking about how she doesn’t remember where Shinobu’s sword is, Enisu finally returns it. Apparently Shinobu is looking for a swordsman that she can entrust it to. She tells Enisu that the sword is cursed, that its name is Kuro no Ken, and that it’s better if she knows no more about it than that. I have a feeling that we’re going to learn a lot more about it before the game is over though, given that the game is named after the sword.

The battle system in Kuro no Ken is your average turn-based RPG fare. When it is your character’s turn, you will be presented with a window with that character’s health, magic, and status, and there will be a long list of commands that appear in kanji on the screen. You can attack, use a special command that depends on which character you’re using, defend, use an item, change your equipped weapon, or retreat. It’s an incredibly basic battle system, but it looks very nice.

The major conversations in this game take place in anime-like images, much like visual novels. They are very nicely drawn, if a little voyeuristic at times. The rest of the game world looks rather average, a typical fantasy RPG world that you could see in half a dozen games picked at random. In fact, it looks more like a Super Famicom game world than a PlayStation one. The in battle sprites are where this game shines image wise, as the creators really put some love into their design. The music is bland, not bad in any sense, but certainly not memorable either.

While Kuro no Ken was a nice game overall, in spite of its gratuitous fan service, it certainly didn’t live up to the hype on the jewel case. I will admit that the game looked lovely in battle, and that the anime cut scene pictures were nice, but the rest of the game was average at best. While I wouldn’t recommend Kuro no Ken over many other major titles, it is a nice way to spend a few afternoons if you’re bored. I have certainly played games that were a lot worse.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma