Original Release: Illusion Soft, 2002, PC
Illusion Soft ventures into the 3D fighting world, one-upping cheesecake fests such as Dead Or Alive and Soul Calibur with clothing damage and forcible fondlings
Battle Raper (PC, Illusion Soft, 2002)
Where to Buy: eBay
Review by: Master-B
Illusion Soft had already published a number of 3D “sex sim” games when Battle Raper was released in 2002, but this one added the conceit to an almost passable PS1-era 3D fighter. It definitely wouldn’t have stood up on its own without the adult content, however; it looks decent enough (a little dated for the time but on par with good PS1 graphics) but sports a limited move set, few characters and bad AI.
It really would have gone unknown save for two things. One is that 3D sex games of any sort were still somewhat rare and a novelty at the time, and the other is the insistence on placing “Raper” right in the title. Which drew attention from all sorts of media outside of Japan that likely would have never even known the game existed otherwise.
It’s true that the game does contain rape, it’s just that it’s so graphically limited and handled in such a weird and absurd way it’s hard to take seriously (unless you’re really trying, for the sake of those Internet Outrage Clicks). But let’s start at the beginning. The roster is composed of four gals and a dude who looks just thrilled to have escaped Final Fantasy X. Everything is in moon runes so I’m not entirely clear on what’s going on, but the lone guy appears to be the villain (though also playable) and some sort of serial bio-enhanced raper experiment who has also been kitted out with a sweet cyber zeppelin by whoever is performing this research (WHO probably).
So the guy is the only character that does any real Battle Raping, the girls just sorta do Goldust-like humiliating wrestling moves to each other and a little heavy petting here and there. The Battle Raping actually turns out to be entirely optional, as the Grope Moves are not necessary to win matches (largely owed to terrible computer AI) and the video content of that nature only comes from losing each girl’s match with the guy.
The controls are very simple, a fortunate thing as the game autodetects gamepads but seems to spaz out and have all sorts of ghost inputs when a modern one is connected. With a keyboard, you can simply use the default setup of four primary arrow keys and Z-V for the various moves to make it through the game with no trouble. C and V are the attacks, X guards and Z was a little tough to figure out but some online sources indicate it locks your character onto a particular item type so that you can swiftly run to it.
Combat is easy, mostly due to the AI being very passive and predictable. You can get through the entire game simply putting a little distance between you and it and initiating an attack (many characters have long combo strings that automatically initiate) as it comes trotting in at you. The only time they are a threat is in the later stages of the Story Mode, in which allowing them to land one hit can set off an insanely long combo that eats a third of your life in one go.
This is all pretty straightforward, with no Battu Raipo coming into play unless you get into the grapple system. Grapples and special moves are executed by pressing Up along with both attack buttons, and what you get depends on the current level of your Special meter (filled by both giving and taking attacks). I’m still not clear on exactly how this works, but the lower levels seem to give you one of the grope moves – either a titty fondle or a Finger Blaster Special, and you’ll have to work the arrow keys right to dole out damage in the limited time window you get. The upper reaches seem to do an automated Titty Grambling Suplex, and at “MAX” the game pauses for some sort of Sephiroth spell special move. All of these can be initiated from seemingly anywhere (no matter the distance) and automatically hit with no chance of blocking, for both you and the computer, but are kept from becoming too cheap simply by not doing all that much damage. Really, with most characters it’s just better to pound away with their basic combos if all you care about is damage output.
All the in-game-engine hentai action is pretty unremarkable. You get clumsy PS1 polygon block hands just sort of waving over the general area of the girl bits, and this was back in the “no genitals allowed” period of Japan so the undergarments stay on at all times even as clothing is getting blown off. I really think the whole thing would have attracted no attention whatsoever, even possibly with the same name, if there wasn’t a fearful / crying close-up of the girl’s faces as assorted misfortune befalls them.
The more “hardcore” stuff is only encountered (counterintuitively) by bringing each girl to the fight with the FFX guy and then losing to him. That nets a CG video composed of short loops, but actually pretty good quality for the period, at least on par with Square’s PS1 stuff from just a couple years prior.
The videos and such are made available in an “Extras” mode and if that’s your only real interest, once they’re unlocked there’s little reason to continue playing the game at all as the gameplay severely lacks variety and doesn’t stand up on its own merits.
Links
Something Awful review
Videos