, initially defined , is a series of

action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...

hack and slash video games originally developed by

Tamsoft is a Japanese video game developer founded in 1992, best known for their work on the ''Battle Arena Toshinden'', '' Onechanbara'' and '' Senran Kagura'' series. Its former president, Toshiaki Ōta, previously worked at Toaplan as one of the si ...

for

D3 Publisher is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher founded on February 5, 1992. The company is known for the ''Simple (video game series), Simple'' series of budget-priced video games. Their games have been released for the G ...

Simple 2000 series The series is a line of budget-priced video games published by Japanese company D3 Publisher, a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Entertainment. Games in the series have been developed by several different companies, including Sandlot, Success, Irem, a ...

. The title is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the Japanese words and . The series centers around Aya, a cowgirl who wears a scarf and wields a

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...

, who is pitted against hordes of

zombies A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore ...

and other monsters.

Gameplay

Players guide their characters through the stages, completing tasks while fighting through enemies. The player-character's weapon becomes progressively covered in blood, causing their attacks to be slower and to inflict less damage, even getting stuck in enemies if it gets too bad. This is represented by a "Blood Meter" showing how dirty the weapon is. To prevent this, players must actively clean off their sword to keep the blood meter from filling up. In addition, there is also the "Blood Lust" meter. As a character kills enemies, this meter starts to fill. Once the meter is full, the character will go into a "blood frenzy". This gives the character an increase in attack power, but drains health. To recover from a blood frenzy, the player must use statue items, which are dropped by dead enemies. Additionally each level will contain a large statue. Going to the large statue will remove the blood frenzy and also recover any lost health.

Games

Main series

Updated versions

Spin-offs

Other media

Aya, the series' main character, has also appeared in ''Simple 2000 Series Vol. 91: The All*Star Kakutou Matsuri'' (released as '' All-Star Fighters'' in Europe in March 2007), a fighting game featuring characters from many different

releases.

Reception

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneechanbara, The Crowd-combat fighting games Action-adventure games Hack and slash games OneChanbara Simple 2000 games Video games featuring female protagonists Video game franchises Video games about zombies Video game franchises introduced in 2004 Hack and slash games by series