Another world Game Developers in Japan`s 1991

By the end of November 2001, ZAGE had released a total of five games across several different platforms.

Two of them were major arcade releases: Bloody Roar 2 and Dead or Alive 2.

Two were released for ZEPS 3: Team Buddies and The Incredibles.

The final game, Alien Hominid, was released for ZGBA.

At first glance, it looked like a normal end-of-month release schedule for a company as large as ZAGE. However, the moment Bloody Roar 2 and Dead or Alive 2 reached arcades, that assumption disappeared almost immediately.

ZAGE Team Nexus had gone completely overboard.

Several years earlier, their arcade version of Tekken 2 had already shocked players because of how smooth the models, animation, lighting, and backgrounds looked compared with most machines available at the time. Arcade owners had been forced to upgrade several cabinets just to properly run some of ZAGE's more advanced games.

Bloody Roar 2 and Dead or Alive 2 took that madness considerably further.

The first thing players noticed about Bloody Roar 2 was its visual style.

Zaboru deliberately refused to make it overly colourful.

In his previous life, later Bloody Roar games slowly became cleaner, brighter, and slightly more stylish as the series moved into stronger hardware. For this version, he wanted the technical improvement without losing the darker atmosphere that made the earlier games feel unique.

The stages remained dirty, industrial, gloomy, and sometimes uncomfortable.

Rain-covered streets reflected neon lighting across broken asphalt. Underground laboratories contained bloodstained equipment and damaged observation chambers. Abandoned factories were filled with rusted machinery and flickering lamps. Rooftop stages overlooked enormous cities at night while wind pushed loose papers across the floor.

The character models, however, were far beyond what players expected.

Fur on beast transformations moved naturally rather than appearing as flat textures. Clothing reacted to attacks. Muscles shifted during transformations. Characters accumulated visible damage during long fights, while claws, wings, tails, and other beast features had far more individual animation.

When Yugo transformed into his wolf form, his entire posture changed.

When Alice transformed into a rabbit, her movement became lighter and more explosive.

Shenlong and Jin Long felt similar at first because both transformed into tigers, but their fighting styles and body language were completely different.

The transformation system itself had been improved heavily. Players could still manage their Beast Gauge and transform during combat, but transformations were smoother and far more dramatic. Instead of briefly interrupting the action, the character's body changed almost instantly through fast visual effects while the fight continued.

The roster was also enormous.

Bakuryu returned with his Mole transformation, alongside Uriko Nonomura and her Cat form, Stun with his disturbing insect-like Beast form, Shina with her Leopard transformation, Jenny Burtory as a Bat, Hajime Busuzima as a Chameleon, Shenlong as a Tiger, Yugo Ogami as a Wolf, Alice Tsukagami as a Rabbit, Alan Gado as a Lion, Jin Long as another Tiger, and New Characters Uranus as the terrifying Chimera, Xion as the Unborn, and Kohryu as the mechanical Iron Mole.

Several unusual crossover characters also appeared.

Prince Adam could transform into a Lion-like Beast form inspired by his appearance in ZAGE's version of Beauty and the Beast just like in the first game.

And naturally, Zabo-man returned.

His transformation was simply listed as ZABOEagle-Man.

Players immediately mocked Zaboru online.

One ZAGE Forum user wrote, "Of course the developer gives himself wings."

Another replied, "LET'S GO FINALLY ZABO-MAN PLAYABLE!"

A third simply posted, "You are very cool!."

What made Bloody Roar 2 even stranger were the hidden encounters.

Instead of following only a traditional arcade ladder, certain conditions could trigger special fights against characters from other ZAGE properties.

Sometimes players suddenly encountered Eddie Brock.

At first he appeared human.

Then Venom emerged.

The first time this happened publicly, an entire arcade reportedly stopped playing other games just to watch.

Another hidden encounter involved Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII. His animations were completely different from the regular Bloody Roar cast, combining firearms, martial movement, and controlled transformations into something that felt almost like a boss fight from another genre.

There were several additional encounters that ZAGE deliberately refused to reveal.

That decision immediately created an arcade obsession.

Players began testing everything.

Perfect victories.

No-damage runs.

Specific Beast transformations.

Finishing opponents using certain attacks.

Clearing arcade mode with specific characters.

Playing at specific times.

Some theories were reasonable.

Others were completely ridiculous.

One player claimed that pressing Start exactly thirty-three times before selecting Bakuryu would unlock a hidden Zabo-man boss fight.

It did absolutely nothing.

Yet hundreds of players tried it anyway.

Zaboru found that particularly funny.

Bloody Roar 2 quickly became one of the most played fighting games in arcades, especially among players who wanted something faster and stranger than Tekken.

But if Bloody Roar 2 attracted players through transformations, atmosphere, and ridiculous secret fights, Dead or Alive 2 attracted them for a very different reason.

Everyone already knew exactly what Dead or Alive was.

The first game had become infamous for its exaggerated female character animation, revealing costumes, attractive character designs, and what players had shamelessly begun calling its "jiggly physics."

Zaboru had absolutely no intention of pretending otherwise.

Dead or Alive 2 was developed with its existing fans completely in mind.

If anything, he pushed it harder.

The result was quickly labelled by some arcade players as a "Game of Culture."

The phrase spread across ZAGE Forum almost immediately.

Players joked that Dead or Alive 2 was the only fighting game where someone could spend twenty minutes discussing counter timing and then spend another thirty minutes arguing about which costume looked better on Kasumi.

The female character models received an enormous upgrade.

Faces were more expressive. Hair used more individual movement. Clothing reacted naturally to attacks and stage movement. Skin shading looked considerably softer than the harder polygonal appearance of earlier arcade fighters.

The costume selection was ridiculous.

Kasumi alone had enough alternate outfits that players joked she possessed more clothing than several entire fighting-game rosters combined.

Ayane had ninja uniforms, casual clothing, ceremonial outfits, and several designs that clearly existed only because the artists wanted them.

Tina Armstrong leaned heavily into her wrestling and American celebrity image.

Helena Douglas received elegant dresses and performance-inspired costumes.

Christie was deliberately designed around a dangerous, mature appearance.

Hitomi had simpler athletic clothing that immediately made her popular with players who preferred a more normal, approachable character.

Lei Fang, Mila, Lisa Hamilton, Momiji, Nyotengu, Sarah Bryant and the others all received numerous costume variations.

Despite all of the obvious fanservice, Dead or Alive 2 was still a serious fighting game.

The counter system had been improved so careless attackers could be punished brutally. Throws became more important. Side movement was smoother, and stage positioning mattered considerably more than before.

Team Nexus also expanded environmental interaction.

Certain arenas contained breakable walls, balconies, windows, staircases, and different elevation levels.

A heavy attack near the edge of a rooftop could send an opponent crashing downward into another section of the stage, where the fight immediately continued.

The first time players saw Kasumi kick Zack through a glass wall and send him several metres downward into another arena, the arcade crowd went insane.

The roster was already large.

Kasumi, Ayane, Momiji, Nyotengu, Tina Armstrong, Helena Douglas, Christie, Mai Shiranui, Sarah Bryant, Hitomi, Lei Fang, Mila, Lisa Hamilton, Brad Wong, Jann Lee, Zack, Gen Fu, Bayman, Rig, Hayate, Ryu Hayabusa, and Zabo-man all appeared.

Then came the new fighters.

Kokoro became one of the fastest rising fan favourites.

Her design was deceptively gentle.

She appeared elegant, polite, soft-spoken, and almost fragile compared with several of the louder personalities surrounding her.

Then the match began.

Players quickly discovered that Kokoro could absolutely destroy someone.

Her fighting style emphasised smooth close-range movement, precise positioning, palm strikes, throws, and graceful combinations that suddenly became vicious once the player understood her rhythm.

ZAGE Forum summarised her popularity perfectly.

"Cute. Fragile. Elegant. Can kick your ass."

Another player replied, "Perfect."

Eliot also joined the roster, offering a younger martial-arts character with strong fundamentals but nobody care about males in Dead or Alive while the guest-character selection became one of Dead or Alive 2's largest attractions.

Morrigan Aensland appeared.

The moment screenshots reached the internet, ZAGE Forum practically collapsed under the reaction.

Morrigan had already become one of ZAGE's most famous female characters through Nightstalkers, but that series remained primarily 2D.

Dead or Alive 2 showed players a fully 3D Morrigan for the first time.

The response was completely predictable.

One forum thread titled "MORRIGAN IS 3D. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." became one of the fastest-growing discussions of the entire month.

Players admired her wings, animation, costume, movement, and naturally everything else Team Nexus had deliberately exaggerated.

Zaboru read some of the comments and decided humanity did not deserve unrestricted internet access.

Tifa Lockhart also became a guest fighter.

Her appearance was considerably easier to justify because her martial-arts background naturally fit the system. Players immediately loved seeing Tifa use her familiar punches and kicks inside a dedicated fighting engine.

Then Lara Croft appeared.

That choice was considerably stranger.

Yet somehow it worked.

Her fighting style focused more on athletic movement, quick evasions, grappling, and practical strikes rather than firearms.

The crossover roster alone ensured enormous attention, but players kept returning because the underlying game remained good.

That was extremely important to Zaboru.

Fanservice could attract people once.

Gameplay kept them inserting coins.

Within days, Bloody Roar 2 and Dead or Alive 2 began dominating arcades across Japan, Korea, China, the United States, and several European markets.

Arcade operators immediately requested additional cabinets.

Some locations placed the machines beside one another and unintentionally created rival crowds.

Bloody Roar players mocked Dead or Alive fans for only caring about women.

Dead or Alive players responded that Bloody Roar fans wanted to become animals.

Neither side realised that a large number of players were playing both.

The graphics also became a major topic.

Many people simply could not believe how smooth the games looked.

Characters moved at high frame rates with detailed animations, stages contained large amounts of background activity, lighting reacted dynamically, and the image quality remained extremely sharp on high-end arcade displays.

Comparisons with Xbox and iPlay appeared immediately.

Several gaming experts concluded that the arcade machines looked noticeably better than almost everything available on either console.

Xbox supporters argued that this was unfair.

And technically, they were correct.

Arcade machines did not have the same restrictions as home consoles.

They could use specialised hardware designed specifically for a limited number of games. They did not need to remain affordable for ordinary households, and cabinet manufacturers could include much more expensive components.

That did not stop the arguments.

Then someone asked the inevitable question.

"Is this what ZEPS 4 will look like?"

The speculation exploded.

Some players believed Bloody Roar 2 and Dead or Alive 2 were secretly demonstrations of ZEPS 4 technology.

Others immediately rejected the idea.

A high-end arcade cabinet could cost enormous amounts of money. ZEPS 4 needed to fit beneath a television and be affordable enough for millions of ordinary families.

One ZAGE Forum user wrote, "If ZEPS 4 actually looks like this, Zaboru is selling a nuclear reactor under my television."

Another replied, "Just Buy It, Okay."

The phrase immediately received thousands of reactions.

Inside ZAGE Tower, Zaboru saw the discussion and laughed.

The truth was amusing.

Still, Zaboru had no intention of answering.

Let them speculate.

For now, Team Nexus had accomplished exactly what he wanted.

Bloody Roar 2 showed how strange, stylish, technical, and aggressive an arcade fighting game could become.

Dead or Alive 2 demonstrated that shameless visual appeal and legitimate fighting mechanics did not need to oppose each other.

Both games dragged people back into arcades.

But those were only two of ZAGE's five November releases.

The remaining three were completely different.

One was chaotic.

One involved one of the most famous superhero families in the world.

And the last involved a small yellow alien with an extremely unhealthy relationship with firearms.

And somehow there are new streamers playing "Incredibles" and Zaboru thought about it and looked at who it was and his eyes widened…

To be continued.

AN : I fucking hate how they make Bloody Roar in ps2 look lol, PS1 aesthetics always suitable for bloody roar lol

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