Introduction

Art by twitter user @AwrySquare. Headers and update banners by fellow goon shadowmar.

The Bouncer is a cinematic beat-em-up released in Japan in 2000 and 2001 in the rest of the world. The game was announced alongside the unveiling of the PS2 and was widely hyped up, as it was Square's first game for the next generation of consoles. Developed mostly by DreamFactory, the geniuses behind Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring, along with a little help from Square itself, the game was meant to showcase in part the advances in graphics and storytelling capabilities of this hot new gem called the PlayStation 2. By seamlessly blending cutscene and gameplay, as well as branching choices, this game was sure to spawn an amazing new franchise for the next generation of gamers. It ultimately received mixed reviews and sales.

The story is about a bar called Fate on a street called Dog Street, as well as its bouncers: the heroic Sion, the giant-with-a-gentle-heart Volt and Kou, who is a misogynist. All three of them have mysterious pasts and the fists to destroy any in their way. When Sion's probably girlfriend Dominique gets kidnapped by ninja, it's up to our lovable gang of bouncers to find out the mystery behind Dominique and why megacorporation Mikado is so interested in her, and hell, maybe even find out a little something about themselves.




My name is FutureFriend and welcome to THE BOUNCER, an experimental beat-em-up full of baffling design decisions and an obnoxious focus on replayability. Joining me this time are ChorpSaway, TieTuesday and AndyAML, who all are bouncing enthusiasts. My co-commentators have only seen bits and pieces of the game, so hey no spoiling! As for me, I'm the only man insane enough to have unlocked all of the Bouncer's cutscenes. We'll be providing cut and uncut commentary (although, the cut version means you'll hear us for 30 seconds through the entire LP).



Hey, didn't Square make this game?
Yes and no. While members of Square like hotshot character designer and future karoshi victim Tetsuya Nomura did work on this game (this game's protagonist is infamously a Proto-Sora from Kingdom Hearts), and while the company published it, a large amount of the work was done by a company called DreamFactory, who became indentured servants of Square after putting Sephiroth in Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring.

Are you getting all the endings and showing us all the cutscenes?
I'll try to. As far as I know and as far as my research went, I have all the endings. However, nearly all of the resources I found have conflicting opinions on how to get all the secret endings. Also, I will be showing off every cutscene as much as I can, with some being ignored for better flow.

Hey, doesn't this game have the character's backstories in loading screens?
It sure does! They go away quickly and are unreadable, so I will be providing them at the end of this very same post!

Is Volt the devil?
Yes.


1. No Spoilers! Now the Bouncer is no Finnegan's Wake, but I would like this thread to be friendly to those wanna experience The Bouncer for the first time.












Sion













Volt













Kou