Developer: Dream Factory Publisher: Squaresoft Released: March 6, 2001 Genre: Beat ’em up
The PS One completely dominated the market during the 32-bit era thanks to the cheap costs of CDs and great third party support. No third party was more important to their success than Square Enix. As the premier Japanese RPG developer they supported the system like no other but also expanded into other genres like shooters and fighting games. So when the PlayStation 2 was announced many were eager to see how their first titles would turn out. The Bouncer showed promise initially but once gamers got their hands on it the game’s flaws were evident. This is an interesting title but for all the wrong reasons.
The Bouncer stars Sion, Volt, and Kou, three……bouncers who work at Club Fate. When masked agents from the Mikado Group kidnap Sion’s girlfriend Dominique the three team up to save her from the mysterious solar power conglomerate and its sketchy leader Dauragon Mikado.
Square spent copious amounts of money to make the Bouncer a premier title. The game is full of lavish CG and real time cutscenes almost every few minutes and is dialogue heavy. Clearly they think they have an interesting story to tell. In reality the game’s story is a poorly paced mess due to a number of factors. Important character information and backstory is relegated to the loading screens. Problem is the load times are brief and you can’t read them. You can switch characters between each segment and the dialogue and such changes. This causes problems in telling a coherent narrative as there are exclusive cutscenes per character that are missing in a single run. This means characters end up in situations with no explanation as to how. The ideal is to play through it three times to get the full picture but it simply isn’t worth it.
The Bouncer uses the Active Character Selection system which allows you to switch characters for every battle. Each “stage” consists of one or more short fights against a number of CPU thugs before moving on. Even though you control a single character with a few exceptions you will always fight as a group. As cool as this may sound it presents a number of problems. Experience is earned per character and even worse you only gain experience for the enemies you kill. These points are used to boost your stats (life, power, and defense) and to buy new moves. You cannot grind out experience which means you are better off focusing on one character rather than switching around. There aren’t enough enemies to build your team simultaneously for the difficulty bump that comes later. The system encourages multiple runs but there is one problem: it’s boring.
To put it frankly combat in the Bouncer is a mess. Most battles takes place in an enclosed arena against a few opponents. The controls are relatively simple, with the face buttons controlling low, medium, high, and jump attacks. The extra skills you purchase are activated with a combo of the attack + extra skill buttons. How hard you press each attack button determines the form of attack for further variety. In practice however very little of it is practical or even matters. Enemy AI is brain dead and susceptible to the same attack. Enemy variety is also lacking, with seven or eight enemies total throughout the game. With no lock-on it is hard to focus on one opponent. That leaves each battle a random mess that feels unsatisfying.
Under normal circumstances combat would become more engaging as you earn new skills. But experience is so hard to come by that you will either buy skills early but die quickly or boost your stats and spend most of the game using basic attacks. It is impossible to buy everything in a single run so the game wants you to start a new game that carries over your purchases. Having to play through 80% of the game to feel competent is not satisfying. At that point all that remains are boss battles that are simple. There are only two slight deviations in gameplay that do not involve fighting; one of which is the only time you can roam freely. The game reeks of a title that spent more time setting up its story than on gameplay. The cutscenes are longer than the time you spend fighting!
The lackluster gameplay leaves little incentive to bother trying to find any replay value. Even though the game is short it is a slog to get through once, let alone three times for the full plot. Survival pits you against ten waves of enemies, essentially a horde mode. The only difference is you can’t heal as there are no items in the game. Battle royale mode is a free for all for four players. You can unlock characters from the story to use here with their unique move sets. But that means playing the game multiple times which I don’t see anyone doing willingly.
At this point you are probably wondering why the Bouncer garnered so much attention. That would be due to its visuals. The Bouncer was one of the earliest showcases for the PlayStation 2. The game has an intense post processed look and goes heavy with motion blur. It gives it a striking look that was a cut above most titles around that time. Character models are exceptional and expressive and the game throws around 8-10 enemies at once with no drops in framerate. Together with the soundtrack and good voice acting you can see why many took notice of the game early on.
In Closing
It is too bad the game did not live up to the hype. The Bouncer is a disappointing title that tries to hide its lacking gameplay behind extravagant production values. It does not work. This is a title you can easily skip and miss nothing in the process.
