Monday, October 25, 2010

Young girls cutting each other with sharp, pointy objects. Online. (But no multiplayer)



When I show up on the blog every once in a while, that usually means ancient trivia, bits and pieces from Korea's or Germany's gaming history. For a change, I will be talking about a more recent game - so recent, in fact, that it is not even finished, yet.

The game in question is an indie fighting game named Gomanna. Or Don Quixote. I guess one is/was a working title, but I couldn't find any information which is which. Of course, it is not simply about girls cutting each other, at least when an early post from 2008 is still to be believed, which tells a story about intrigues and feuds of certain fateful indivuduals in North- and South Korea.

(Warning: Strong animated violence inside!)


An old version title screen.


The demo that was released earlier this year, however, is just about two girls cutting each other, and violently so. They do the killing in a measly alley that is already marked by earlier casualties - together with the sound and lighting causing a truly creepy and morbid atmosphere. The art in itself is impressive, especially as it all is coming from a single person, Park Pyoung Lyong (screenname: Horus).



The controls might feel rather awkward and maybe a bit frustrating for gamers used to Street Fighter, Tekken and co., because they're actually more in line with many fighting games released prior Street Fighter II, and even closer to Byulbram's fighting games. There's only one attack- and a block button (left and right mouse buttons), the directional commands come into play to create more variety with one's moves.

A progenitor? Byulbram's Rage of Tiger 2.


As can be seen in the teaser trailer, battles can get very intense and sudden, very much like in the Kengo / Sword of the Samurai games. The action is also very gruesome with lots of blood, and even dismemberment. The game, however, is at its core conceived as an online grindfest, and before you'll be able to pull off anything like it is shown in the trailer below, you'll probably have a lot of leveling to do in the final game, whenever it is released.



An even bigger catch is the fact that one has to be signed up and logged in to the authors network in order to play even the demo, although it doesn't contain any multiplayer features whatsoever. In case anyone wants to try out the game, I've documented the procedure necessary in order to do so:

In theory, the demo should have its own signup menu, but it didn't work for me. So what I had to do is download and install a cutesy avatar messenger program by the same author and sign up there. The login data is compatible between all his projects.

The messenger is available here (there should be a button that reads "6.4MB Ocean7 setup.exe" that triggers a scripted download, make sure you have scripts allowed):
http://cafe.naver.com/donquixoteonline.cafe?iframe_url=/ArticleRead.nhn%3Fclubid=14722577%26menuid=51%26boardtype=L%26page=1%26specialmenutype=%26userDisplay=15%26articleid=3908

After installing and starting it, press on the plus to open the new user dialogue. The info translate as follows:



When done, press the circle icon, and you should be signed on to the service. When you're able to log in to the messenger, it'll also work in the game. You'll need the demo file, too, of course. Download Gomanna.zip from this page:
http://www.masque.kr/?mid=indiegame&listStyle=webzine&document_srl=27192

Log in, and you're ready to go. Have fun!

21 comments:

  1. Girls cutting each other? Perhaps we should rename the blog Hardcore Maiming 101, with a subtle shift from obscure games to obscure fetish pornography?

    Jokes aside, this is a fascinating entry. I love the art style, and the animation (which isn't so fluid, but this only adds charm to it I feel).

    I'm really pleased to see this being documented in English, because the need to sign in to play the demo would probably put 99.9% of everyone else off.

    I'm not sure I've the motivation to do it myself, but hot damn if that isn't fascinating.

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  2. Wow, thank you for putting this up. It's really amazing.

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  3. Can anyone post the controls in English, by the way? I can access the menu but it's garbled. And I can't read Korean.

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  4. I tried to use Oceans7, but I can't see anything. I can only hear the ocean sound.

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  5. Girls cutting up each other, girls being cut up by guys...for me, things like that conjure images of pathetic social rejects who never had any contact with girls living out their fantasies where the "bitches and whores get what they deserve."

    Not my kind of subject matter.

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  6. this is really something. I want to try it nao.

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  7. Translated controls:

    Left click = attack
    S + Left click = low attack
    Right click = block
    A or D + W = jump
    A or D + W + Left click = jump attack
    A or D + right click = dash
    A or D + Left click + right click = grab
    A or D + W + Left click + right click =step over back & attack
    Left click + W or A or S or D = Hold left mouse button with movement for combination attacks

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  8. I can't see the "6.4MB Ocean7 setup.exe" button anywhere. Care to point out where it is exactly? Is it possible that the page has changed since you posted this?

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  9. @David: no, you have to wait years until it finally pops up.

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  10. Does anyone manage to beat the girl in the demo? I've tried a hundred times and no way...

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  11. Thanks for sharing this - and thanks derboo for posting the controls :)

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  12. I loaded Oceans 7, and a small pikachu appeared on the taskbar and I heard the ding sound. The window appears low down though under the main taskbar and I can't grab it or drag it up. Does anyone know the solution to this?

    Thanks in advance.

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  13. I also had the window appear below the task bar. The solution was easy enough:

    1. Right click on the task bar and open properties
    2. Check Auto-Hide and apply
    3. Launch Ocean7
    4. Mouse over the task bar then up until it disappears
    5. Grab the window and drag up

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  14. I've leveled up to Level 40+ and no change in enemies - still girls with hammers, though my character can kill with 5 hits (you kill 10+ without dying and it's still the same). Any news about updates - or how to play with something besides knives?

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  15. I cannot find the download button to ocean 7. Ive tried on 3 different browsers. Could someone help me out

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  16. There's a positive side to communication in online games. Relationships and marriages have been built upon the foundations of LittleBigPlanet and World of Warcraft. Gamers who aren't complete cretins exist, and they're willing to travel hundreds of miles to see their high-leveled love warriors. It's like fusing blind dating with online dating, except without the tedium of writing boring "about me" introductions.

    You don't hear about this often because people are ashamed of admitting that they fell in love while beheading faux-zombies together in Resident Evil 5. Can you blame them, though? It's certainly not the most romantic of scenarios. Then again, neither is drunken pretend sex that passes off as dancing at a club.

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  17. Also can't find the download button for the messenger. I've translated the whole site with Google Translate hoping to find the button this way, but no luck. I'd really love to try this. Any new info?

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  18. The download button, if you do the full translation of the page, is the link ending in Ocean7.zip. When I checked today it was: http://freeutil.net/down.php?file=Oceans7.zip

    I have that installed and running, with a new account, but I can't get the actual Gomanna functioning. If anyone can help with that, I'd appreciate it.

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  19. Any updates? It's 2015 - five years since the original post. I've seen nothing :(

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    Replies
    1. Boris: Doesn't seem like it. I remember this title every two years or so and come back to his webpage. No new posts... so I stalked around on his youtube-account. The latest activity was him adding a dev video from Gunpoint to his favourites. I wonder why he's gone underground like this.

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