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!
