Bulk Slash

バルクスラッシュ, Baruku Surasshu (BULK SLASH)

Bulk Slash is a (single-player) third-person action mecha simulation video game developed by CAProduction (which consists of former Techno Soft employees) and published by Hudson Soft for the Sega Saturn exclusively in Japan on July 11, 1997. Taking place on a futuristic science fiction setting, where military chief Alois Gardona and discriminated inhabitants of the fictional planet Blau plots a coup d’état against their oppressors, players assume the role of SDF fighter pilot Cress Dawley in order to win the war against Gardona and his army. The game has been met with mostly positive reception from video game magazines and online publications alike since its release; critics and praised various aspects of the title such as presentation, soundtrack, gameplay, replay value and graphics.

Gameplay

Bulk Slash is a third-person action mecha simulation game reminiscent of Virtual On: Cyber Troopers where players assume the role of SDF fighter pilot Cress Dawley taking control of a transforming flying mech through seven stages levels, each with a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further, in an effort to overthrow the army of military chief Alois Gardona of planet Blau alongside his planetary coalition as the main objective. During gameplay, players tackle multiple objectives across each stage while fighting airborne and ground with a diverse number of weapons such as bombs capable of obliterating any enemy caught in its blast radius.

A notable gameplay feature is the Manageable Intelligent Support System (M.I.S.S.); on every stage, a female navigator is hidden on certain areas and after being recruited by the players, with each one providing their own special abilities. Each navigator players bring alongside during stages gain experience points that are separate from the score and for experience points gained, they are leveled up and alters the game’s ending.

The game is over when the player’s flying mech is destroyed or if the onscreen timer reaches zero. If the player chooses to use a continue after he/she is defeated, the player’s score will be reset to zero.

Playable characters

Players initially take control of the main character at the start, while extra M.I.S.S. navigators are recruited through gameplay and any of them can be switched to between missions:

• Cress Dawley (クレス・ドーリー, 19 years old male; v.b. Takehito Koyasu): SDF fighter pilot. Main protagonist of the plot and childhood friend of Reezen Ravia.
• Reezen Ravia (リーゼン・ラヴィア, 19 years old female; v.b. Yuri Amano): Childhood friend of Cress whose father was executed as war criminal and joined the military group led by Gardona to fight against discrimination of her people on Blau.
• Leone Rhodes (レオネ・ローデス, 16 years old female; v.b. Miki Nagasawa): SDF soldier and heiress of an elite military family.
• Lila Hart (リラ・ハート, 18 years old female; v.b. Kyoko Hikami): A popular galactic idol.
• Metical Flair (メティカル・フレアー, 16 years old female; v.b. Michiko Neya): First child of the royal family on planet Braune.
• Naira Savage (ナイラ・サベージ, 22 years old female; v.b. Ai Orikasa): SDF officer.
• Rupiah Rood (ルピア・ルード, 20 years old female, v.b. Naoko Matsui): Descendant from a long line of thieves.
• Koron Steiner (コロン・スタイナー, 19 years old female; v.b. the late Yuko Mizutani): SDF sergeant. Her voice actress was marked as deceased in mid-2016 (around 19 years after the game’s release) following breast cancer.
• Kina DiBiase (キナ・デビアス, 12 years old female; v.b. Satomi Koorogi): The last MISS to appear on stage 7 after being cleared with the six heroines described above. The youngest selectable navigator, a girl with green hair tied in pigtails with big glasses. Aboard the Gardual [sic] will dramatically improve the performance of the aircraft.
• Alois Gardona (アロイス・ガルドナー, age unknown male): Military chief and main antagonist of the story, who plots a coup d’état against their oppressors on Blau to bring power back on the planet.

Development and release

Bulk Slash was developed for Sega Saturn by CAProduction, who previously worked on projects such as Hagane: The Final Conflict and Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire for Super Famicom and PC Engine Arcade CD-ROM² respectively. The game made use of pre-rendered graphics for its sprites, similar to Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country series. The title was published by Hudson Soft exclusively in Japan on July 11, 1997. To promote its release, a radio commercial was created by Hudson Soft. It was re-released under the Satakore budget label in Japan on August 20, 1998.

Following Hudson Soft’s demise on March 1, 2012, it is possible that Konami now owns the Bulk Slash IP, 15 years after its release. The game never left the Japanese market. Here’s a link to the game’s soundtrack on YouTube, as Tsuyoshi Sato composed the game’s soundtrack. The retro gaming community would play this video game either on the Sega Saturn or a Sega Saturn emulator. Even though, this copy of the game is very rare to find due to the shut down of emulation sites.