Part 1: PROLOGUE: The Dragon of Gion

Today we meet some new people, explore the town, and learn the basic game mechanics. Future videos will not be this long (expect 30 to 45 minutes for most updates) but I wanted to get the prologue out of the way and make sure we got into some fights. Also the opening spiel I do in the first minute of video is mainly for Blip.tv's benefit, so if you've read the OP you already know that information. I'm going to include a vocabulary section in these update posts to cover any Japanese words that are left in the videos. All of these will always be explained in the video commentary, but this way people can have access to the meanings at a later date if they forget or just if they find them easier to remember this way.

The "action" of the Prologue is pretty much just an extended fetchquest with a hand-to-hand fighting tutorial thrown in. You won't be missing anything story-wise if you just skip from the conversation with Itou (around 16 minutes in) to the closing cutscenes (around 55 minutes in). Again, skip from 16 to 55 if you don't want to do a lot of reading, running around, and listening to me blather on. I also realize that the text stays up way too long in this video. The Sandcastle advised me it went too fast in my test post so I lengthened it, but I guess I went overboard. Future updates won't have that problem.

Some historical notes:

Japan's Sengoku Era (aka "Warring States Period") lasted from the mid-15th century to the beginning of the 17th century and was essentially a succession of battles with various warlords vying for control of the country and the title of shogun. A lot of historical figures that have been used and abused by videogame developers for decades, such as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, were active in this period. The Sengoku came to an end when the western forces who were loyalists of the recently deceased pseudo-shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi battled the eastern forces of the powerful lord Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sekigahara and were defeated. Attempts to overthrow Tokugawa's rule continued for several more years, culminating in the Siege of Osaka in 1614, in which a Tokugawa victory effectively destroyed all remaining resistance to his new order. However, the Battle of Sekigahara, which took place on October 21, 1600, is considered the point at which the old era came to an end and the new so-called Edo Period began. This era would last for another two and a half centuries of almost total peace.


Words to Know:

kakemawari
This is a kind of bodyguard or bouncer that fancy shops and brothels in the Edo Period kept on staff. They might collect payments from customers, toss out drunks, try to round up clients, fight off thugs or rivals, and perform other "hands-on" jobs of the like.

yuujo
Literally meaning "playgirl", this is a general term for a high-class female entertainer and courtesan. Their primary role as performers- singing, dancing, drinking and playing parlor games- is the legacy that gave birth to the geisha many years later, the latter being different only in that they do not trade in prostitution.