Generic game looks generic.

The character design, it hurts!

@maxax: Generic comment about generic game looking generic sounds generic.

Looks like we're finally getting an accurate depiction of women in this game!

"We are big fans of anime..." & yet somehow have managed to miss the mark somehow. Big eyes and skimpy outfits do not anime/manga make.

if only my onimirage account wasn't banhammered this post would mean more to, woo is me

judging from the picture... the girl has power over lensflares?

That thong thong thong thong thong! Wow, looks really lame and aimed at prepubescent adolescent males... seriously, get this crap away from me.

@xDiscoStu: Yeah, in order to make real anime/manga you have to be Japanese. Right?

Freaking elitists. Seriously, the genre spans looks from Captain Harlock to Hellsing, if you can't see an anime inspiration behind these character designs you're either blind or stupid.

will get on pc for the mods that will obviously come out.

Bungie probably threatened legal action, I mean an anime style game with a female lead and the same game mechanics (except for the sword) as Oni, and they dared have the name "oni" suspiciously included in the title. That can not be, criminals, we all know that ip theft is currently the worlds biggest problem, killing thousands of innocents every day, so they took ONI out and all is well.

I patented breathing, all those who breath must pay me royalties, or i'll sue!!

Sad, lame, and will probably not sell worth a damn. It's always funny to read the press releases gushing forth about the sheer awesomeness of awesomeity that this game will awesomely put forward, though -- especially six months after the tanked game release. Bookmark this one for a pick-me-up, folks!

Squall and Seifer called. It seems some ganguro stole their gunblades.

X-Blades? Welcome back 1995! DO THE DEW!!!! I really hope that we get a sequel in a couple of years. Then we can call it eBlades. Then it'll take a couple of years off and triumphantly return as iBlades.

Devil may bloom FX... still I'll wait to see actual reviews before deciding if this is worth picking up.

I remember fondly how every reviewer under the sun tore Oni a new asshole yet the game was fun for me.

Southpeak? Considering the high profile titles they've done in the past, such as Monster Madness and Two Worlds, I'm looking orward to this game.

Heh, unlike everyone else I am pretty excited over this. I want to see how a Russian mindset images RPGs.

@Maldron:
Yes, we can see it's Anime/Manga inspired, but it doesn't actually look like it. It's like an asian bootleg.
Western artists that can use the Manga-style are rare, and certainly Gaijin Entertainment hasn't one of them.

@HateFate: Dante's on hold. Ganguro took the gameplay too.

"Redefines the genre" and "pushes into brand new territory" mean nothing from the company that makes a game. It sounds like FFX2 meets DMC on a budget. Maybe Diablo meets Oni?

It'll be interesting if it keeps the Russian voice acting though...

@Maldron:
Actually, yes. You have to at least be in Japan to make manga/anime... by definition. Otherwise you just call it comics, cartoons, manwha, or whatever it is in your native tongue. Even nontraditional styles like Hello Kitty, MPD Psycho, or Tekkonkinkreet are manga/anime because they're from Japan. Even big-eye styles like Ninja High School (anyone remember that?) or even spinoffs like Adam Warren's Dirty Pair are comics.

If it makes you feel any better, I'll smash the barrier and say manga is comics; but if I draw a picture of Naruto, it's not manga, just a picture of a character FROM manga.

I didn't get the excitement behind the video when it was posted before, and that continues now. This looks like it just screams mediocrity.

Normally I am not one to get pissy about people using an "anime" style, whatever that means...but this looks like the Totally Spies of video games. A cheaply done, cash in on the popularity of japan made to appeal to the the easily deceived and the weaboo amongst us.

Maybe it will be good and I am just jumping on the negative band wagon...but I get no indication of that from the earlier video and these shots.

You know it all spawned from American Disney movies right? The west pioneered animation, japan just followed.

Ever seen astroboy? Their style is just a retelling of disney style. LOL damn elitest.

not to mention the NUDE drawings in the fanart section. RUSSIANS RULE!

Been here done this. How about something a little different for a change?

Hey! Let's all judge it before we play it!

You guys are all a bunch of Cooper Lawrences.

@fuchikoma: In truth, you don't HAVE to be japanese to make anime or manga.

Because no country ever made that law, and it isn't a rule in the grammar of any language.

I can call any comic book a manga or manwha or whatever.

Will it sound stupid? Yes. But people are still totally allowed to do it, and they wouldn't be wrong, because no one ever made a rule about it.

In the end its just another countries word for the same thing. So while it may not be the most intelligent sounding thing, and it may be silly...people aren't wrong for doing it.

@skrame: It's what we DO.

QED- Smash Bros Brawl boards on Gamefaqs.

@fuchikoma: *Sigh* Yes, if we go by the technical definition, in order to qualify as manga/anime it does have to be produced in japan. However, I was taking a greater exception to the fact that he said it didn't "look like" anime/manga. The looks are so varied that it really doesn't mean anything, and the inspiration for this game is clear.

I just didn't like him attacking the game from that angle. If it's generic, unfun, whatever. But I've watched too much of the stuff, and I know that there's no pinning down any single "look" for the genre. Kinda insulting to anybody who actually wants to pursue the style.

South Peak is a terrible publisher; their name immediately conjures images of Two Worlds and Monster Madness. This game looks like it will continue their streak of crappiness.

Ick. Screens look like Fury. But maybe worse.

@fuchikoma: Tell that to the american doujinshi writers and artists at conventions.

BTW goback2gaia.

You realize that manga is just another word for comics, right? Western audiences just use the term to describe stereotypical eastern works (I don't think I read Frank Miller referring to Lone Wolf & Cub as a manga).

That aside, I concur with Smitty. X-Blades? Really? I think it's time to rethink your marketing strategy.

game looks kinda pretty.

I just yawned so huge that I created a wormhole in one of my molars.

@Setzer IIDX: haha. I know.

Hehehe...you know what...guy characters in game are in all kinds of armor. But girls are just running around in bikinis...how do they protect themselves. Oh well...I like it still :)

@fuchikoma:

OK, so what's Megatokyo, eh, genius?

[www.megatokyo.com]

I wonder if the next gen consoles mean the Wii also.

"We're calling it BoardX now."
"Why?"
"Because the 'x' says 'edgy', and 'hip'."

(the above may be misquoted, haven't read that part in a while)

using a gunblade in real-time seems a lot more fun than just selecting "attack" to me, so I'll give it a try.

I hope this game has more variety in beating monsters than the gameplay trailers show becuase if it doesn't , it'll gain the "very pretty but shallow like DMC2" award.

@Lackshmana:
I didn't say you had to be Japanese. You could move to Japan and get a comic published there and it'd be manga. But you're right, it's not like a legal designation or anything. However when someone just apes the style and calls it that it is deceptive, regardless of their works' quality.

@Maldron:
Very true, just like the examples I brought up - it's not a particular style. I do think xDiscoStu had a point though that it looks like it could be another copycat who's missed the point and thinks it's all about visuals. It'd be a dumb point to attack the whole game on though as for all I know it could be great, and maybe they did get the idea. It looks an awful lot like the insincere copies so far though.

@manjikengo:
Never been, don't plan to, thanks. "Tell that to" isn't an argument though; imagine if I said "Tell that to the Scientologists!" Well... what if you did? What difference would it make?

@Barts:
A once funny American webcomic.

Look... the assumption people always make is that when someone says "that's not manga" that they're holding manga up as some unreachable holy ideal. There is some crushingly bad manga and some amazingly great comics. I'm just talking definitions and misuse of words here.

In Japan, Disney's films are anime - then again, that's a blanket term for animation. So in the strictest sense anime/manga can apply to animation and comics from anywhere. But everywhere else it distinctly refers to those of Japanese origin, otherwise like like Lackshmana said it would sound silly/stupid. What would you think if I said I was typing this post on a pasocon? That I write on paper with my enpitsu? Or that a Lamborghini is one hot kuruma? I'd sound like some Japanese wannabe poser.

Now it's sad that some kids buy manga because of where it's from because great stories come from all over, but if you live in an English country and draw a comic and call it manga, you're probably trying to cash in on the manga craze by mislabelling, or you don't think your work is good enough to sell on its own merits so you have to grab an exotic sounding label for it.

If you'll excuse me, "hiru gohan" calls...

@Barts: Horrible, is what it is.

IDK about the game, but a title like X-Blades just sounds terrible. It sounds like a roller-blading game more than anything.

I remember seeing the trailer for Oniblade when Kotaku blogged about it a while back. I thought it looked awesome - though it was all cinematics, no gameplay, the art style was very purty. Though I felt that Oniblade was a sorta lame name, "X-Blades" is worse. I say call it by the original Russian pronunciation... "Ониблэйд"

(Highlander Wolf has no friggin' idea how to read russian)

Ониблэйд = "Oniblade" (or "onibleid")

Kinda looks like they could port this too wii. The graphics don't really look all that advanced.

@fuchikoma: I was really afraid I was going to get back some rant about how I am a dumb gaijin fool american and blah blah blah. I suppose idiot fanboy jack asses make me paranoid.

I totally agree with pretty much everything you are saying and my earlier comment was just meant to be a blanket to extinguish any silly arguments about what defines this and that when no real fast and hard rules exist.

This game definitely wreaks of anime popularity cash in. Which actually would be fine, if it was a high quality, well made anime cash in, but it looks like its just crap made to appeal to people who like big eyes and little noses, etc...

Well, I said it before, and can repeat it again: grafics and CG videos are the only great part of this game. Bought it at release, played like 2 hrs and move it on the shelf to collect dust. No story, no atmosphere, no good battle system.... still some people find it kind of fun to play. Not me, really.