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Ayakashi [妖～あやかし～] Game Sample - PC/Doujin

1,863 views · Published 25 May 2011 · 10:09 · Indexed 28 October 2026

Channel: Vysethedetermined2 · 2011 · Gaming

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NOTE: Go to 2:40 for gameplay.

Nicknamed "Ayakashi", "妖～あやかし～" (also known as Mystic Illusion) is a free Taisho-era FM2K game that features eight (playable) fighters, a few interesting game mechanics, voiced characters, and a story. The game takes place around the time Japan is on the verge of modernization and major scientific advancement, with humans believing more in what can be proven and less in old myths or legends. It's at this time that the world of monsters and illusions is in danger. While largely invulnerable to death or physical harm by humans, the monsters (primarily the "Youkai" and other worldly beings, dubbed Mystics) thrived off of humans' awareness and staying within their mememories as beings to be revered. With this relationship, humans unknowingly provided spiritual sustenence to the youkai thus maintaining the status quo and providing meaningful coexistence. However, with the human world rapidly advancing and myths and legends fading from memory, the youkai decide they must do something to get the human's attention (if the youkai are forgotten, they believe they will fade away, leading to the one true path to death). 

With this notion, two factions arose: One faction that would make humans aware of their presence by any means necessary (which includes outright violence or killing) and sought to revive the legendary "Nine-Tails Youkai" to subjogate humanity, and the other faction felt they should make their presence known but to do so discretely (after all, many of them vaguely resembled humans and felt there was common ground). This group felt the easiest way to do this was to attract young, impressionable humans in the hopes of getting their trust and build a strong bond of coexistence (where they could have children of their own and pass the tales of youkai down from generation to generation). However, the two groups could only agree to disagree, which eventually led into a fight between the mystics known as the "Youkai War". In this game, you will hear about these events from the perspective of various youkai. Some characters in this game would be brought back and/or revised in the sequel, Ayakashi 2. Ayakashi is influeneced by "Ushio to Tora".

This game's fighting is fairly derivative of the average FM game: a pretty loose combo system, more exaggerated specials, and a few system mechanics. Almost every character even has a starter combo which can be done by hitting light attack a few times (which the sequel does not). Aesthetically, it is similar to its sequel (opting for a more strict Japanese approach for intros, story-telling, even the counter for combo hits and special gauges) but the characters are not as unique in the way they fight. They're nice, but not as diverse as the sequel. For instance, "Ichimaru the Oni" (a character I use in both videos) is more of a combo character and less of  a grappler, and most characters have some kind of combo potential even if they don't necessarily call for it. However, there is one character who can fight with or without a weapon and has completely different moves for each style, which is nice. I've only noticed two special game mechanics. One is when too many attacks are deflected (hitting each other's blows), a gauge fills up and causes the screen to turn blood-red temporarily. I'm not entirely sure what it does, but I think attacks are stronger. The other is that when you reach max special gauge, your base attacks change and you can execute unlimited level 1 specials temporarily (you have a limited amount of time to excute a max level special). Moves are generally executed the same as in the sequel (more like MK or "Mortal Kombat") but are a little more forgiving. Most super attacks are over-powered.

Graphically, the game looks okay, but the characters themselves look a little strange at times (they are much smaller than those in Ayakashi 2). The music is simple and pretty generic (the sequel reuses a few tunes, but largely sounds WAY better). The characters are voiced, but say less than in the sequel. It's generally expected that the game would be lacking in several ways compared to the sequel, but this is a good thing as this fighter isn't bad and shows that the devs improved significantly at what they do when they made Ayakashi 2. This game is over 40MB for the EXE and over 50MB for the ZIP. You can get this game at:

http://www53.tok2.com/home2/oborozukimono/

Enjoy.

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