Boktai (series)

Boktai is a video game series developed by Konami for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS handheld consoles. The title is an abbreviation of the series' full Japanese title Bokura no Taiyō (ボクらの太陽) or Our Sun. (The name "Boktai" has come into regular fan use in Japan, as it is a common abbreviation scheme to use the first two kana of the major terms in two-word titles.) They are recognized for using a solar sensor that is a key element of gameplay. The Boktai games are produced by Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, who also came up with the initial game design and concept.

There are currently four games in the series. Of these games, the first two and fourth titles were released outside Japan, while the third game was never localized.

Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand

 * See Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand in Wikipedia for more details.

Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand (ボクらの太陽), is the first game of the series, released in 2003. This game uses a major attachment onto the game's cartridge, a solar sensor. This has major effects in gameplay, and a key element needed to progress further into the game. The amount of UV rays that the sensor is sensing currently is displayed on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. The sunlight is measured in blocks, with a maximum of eight blocks.

The main character, Django, fights with a solar-powered gun known as Gun del Sol (Solar Gun), which uses batteries which store energy (displayed at the bottom right-hand corner). This is solar energy collected via the sensor or various methods in gameplay. This energy can be stored in Solar Stations which the player can withdraw and use when sunlight is not available, like at night time. The solar energy in a Solar Station is limited to how much the player has collected. The system of storage also uses the amount of energy in a Gun Del Sol battery. Also, solar energy can be stored in the solar bank to gain interest and pay debt. The solar bank can store the same amount of energy as the solar stations, which doubles the sunlight you can have at one time.

Using stealth and Django's solar gun, the player can purify enemies known as boks, or undead. A shot from the back can stun them leaving them vulnerable to attack, or you can just sneak past. These enemies are found in various dungeons located in Istrakan, the City of Death, throughout the game.

Boktai has a built in clock, which enables the game to adjust to different times of the day, such as dawn, noon and evening. This also affects gameplay, which the environment changes with the clock, and different enemies may be active or dormant.

Story
In a place not too far from here and now... The End of the World approaches... The Undead appear, breaking the natural cycle of life and death. The evolution of species ceases... and one by one they become extinct. In the age of darkness in which people have forgotten the sun, the "Immortals"—the beings of the dark—have appeared and turned San Miguel, the City of the Sun, into a land of death. The dark curse has turned all species into the "undead". "Dark matter" has brought about the "undeadening" of all life. The man who was known as the strongest vampire hunter has fallen, and the people's hopes have been shattered. But one day, a boy who left San Miguel. This boy is Django—the heir of the solar gun "Gun Del Sol" and the last hope for humanity. In him flows the blood of the greatest vampire hunter of all time. He heads for Istrakan—the City of Death, to pursue his father's murderer. Can Django avenge his father's death with the use of sunlight as his weapon? Can he stop the undeadening that threatens the lives of all? Can he bring back Our Sun?

Connection with MegaMan Battle Network 4
In MegaMan Battle Network 4 Red Sun/Blue Moon, Django is part of a funhouse ride featuring vampires. The boss of the vampire robot, whose network contains a story following the adventures of Django fighting the evil vampire Dracky, is ShadeMan.EXE. Django and Otenko later appears in the Undernet as part of a mini-quest to acquire the "S. Sensor" item and activate the PileDriver. He hopes that the PileDriver will delete ShadeMan.EXE, who sleeps in a coffin before Django, regaining strength to revive. The Program Advance 'PileDrvr' is done by selecting the 'GunSol1', 'GunSol2' and 'GunSol3' chips at the same time on the chip selection screen. PileDrvr creates 2 large solar-generators, which each drain 400 HP from enemies between them.

Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django

 * See Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django in Wikipedia for more details.

Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django (続・ボクらの太陽 太陽少年ジャンゴ), also known as Zoktai, is the second game of the series, released in North America and Japan in 2004 and in Europe in 2005. It continues to use a solar sensor and a built in clock, but this time the amount the sensor can detect was increased to ten blocks. Unlike the first game, Boktai 2 is more of an Action RPG than a stealth game. Nevertheless, keeping the same qualities in Boktai, Hideo Kojima expanded characters and maps, enemies and weapons. A new feature, Solar Forging, allows the player to forge two weapons together to create a new, stronger weapon, sometimes with special abilities. The player may unexpectedly end up with a very special weapon, known as a 'R-Rank' weapon. During gameplay, the storyline temporarily shifts the player character to Sabata, who is Django's twin brother.

The game takes place in San Miguel, Django's home town. As Django arrives he is confronted by a mysterious vampire who steals the Gun Del Sol (Solar Gun) and somehow uses it on Django. Unarmed, he makes his way through the dungeon and is greeted by Zazie the Sunflower girl. She bestows upon him the Sol de Vice (Solar Glove), which gives Django the ability to enchant ordinary weapons, like a sword, with the power of the sun.

Connection with MegaMan Battle Network 5
When a Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter is connected to a Game Boy Advance playing Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django, the player is able to connect to MegaMan Battle Network 5 (Rockman.EXE 5: Team of Blues or Team of Colonel for the original title) by entering the code L R L R L L R R R R L L SELECT START SELECT START at the Link menu. This places Django in an area with the vampire enemy in Battle Network 5, ShadeMan.EXE, who also appears for the person playing Battle Network 5. The object is to either attempt to defeat ShadeMan.EXE with each player's game before the other or to attack MegaMan.EXE (Rockman.EXE in the original Japanese version) or Django via special attacks through ShadeMan and reduce their opponent's HP to zero.

In the Nintendo DS version of Battle Network 5, by slotting Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django (or in Japan, Boktai 3: Sabata's Counterattack), the player may obtain the "Sol Cross", which gives MegaMan a Gun del Sol charge shot and several other abilities. 'GunDelSol' is also a Battle chip, and there is a Navi chip named 'Django' as well.

After Jormungandr is defeated, ShadeMan.EXE is available as an optional boss. After he's defeated, Django gains the MegaBuster. However, to use the "Charge Shot" function, the player must fight at least a few Crossover Battles, and trade the resultant points for a possible "Mega Power" protector. Other MegaMan armors are also available.

Shin Bokura no Taiyō (Japan only)

 * See Boktai 3: Sabata's Counterattack in Wikipedia for more details.

Boktai 3: Sabata's Counterattack (新・ボクらの太陽 逆襲のサバタ), also known as Shinbok, is the third game in the series, released only in Japan, on July 28, 2005. This game also uses the solar sensor, but it has changed its gameplay mechanics slightly. The main weapon is still the Gun Del Sol, but instead of attaching different frames, lenses, batteries, and grenades only lenses and frames are changed; plus, hammers and spears have been removed from the game, using swords instead. It also does without the overworld map seen in Boktai and Boktai 2, replacing it with a stage-select theme. Also, the Casket Cycle was introduced; this requires the player to go through a race-like event when first going to a dungeon, and also allows for Casket Cycle races between players over link mode. Boktai 3 also features a "Crossover Battle 2" with Rockman.EXE 6 (the Japanese version of MegaMan Battle Network 6).

In this game, Vanargand, an ancient beast known as an 'Eternal', which was sealed by the Lunar family long ago is awakened by the Dark Child and Moon Beauty Sabata. The beast attacks Sabata, and after short battle the Dark Boy is defeated by the beast. A new Immortal appears, Ratatosk, who uses his skills as a puppet master to cause Sabata to act against his will and join them in their quest to destroy all life.

Rockman.EXE 6 crossover
The Rockman crossover continues only in the Japanese version of Rockman.EXE 6 with Rockman.EXE, Colonel.EXE and Blues.EXE making cameo appearances as plushies, Rockman themed equipment, and a new "Crossover Battle 2" mode where Django can battle Rockman.EXE. This time the opponent is the Count of Groundsoaking Blood (where as in Rockman.EXE 5, it was ShadeMan.EXE).

The game also includes the Rock Buster from Boktai 2, and there are four Rockman themed accessories called Colonel Helm, Forte Mantle, Tomahawk Arm and Blues Leg. When equipped alone, Django's colors change to resemble the character, and with all four equipped he becomes blue to resemble Rockman and is able to use charged shots with the Rock Buster.

Three of the coffin bike options are called Blues Chain, Colonel Gear and Rock Emblem, and one of the bike colors is Rock Blue. When Rock Blue is selected, Django is replaced by Rockman.EXE in courses.

Boktai removal
Due to previous Boktai titles having low sales in the US, Konami has not planned to release Boktai 3: Sabata's Counterattack for English localization. Therefore many Boktai references were removed from MegaMan Battle Network 6, such as all Django and Hakushaku (The Count of Groundsoaking Blood) Chips. The battle with Hakushaku and Django's appearance is also cut out, and the "Immortal Area" was removed as well. Oddly, all of the GunDelSol chips (except GunDelSol EX) were left in, and the Django poster above Lan's bed was kept. While it appears that the chips have been removed entirely from the game, using a cheat device reveals that the framework of the chips still exist, and are selectable in battle (Hakushaku is labeled as "HackJack"). Some of the removed chips could be obtained without cheats using the Gold Mystery Datas. However, the chips lack their pictures in the preview window, and it appears that the Boktai sprites have been completely removed from the game. The chips crash the game upon use, but if one uses the Django V1, V2, and V3 chips together, the "Crossover" Program Advance will still function, however Django's sprite is replaced with a glowing white dot. The Otenko chip will also work, but as it has no sprite, he will not appear on the field. GunDelSol EX also work perfectly fine, only lacking an icon. The "Crossover Battle 2" gameplay mode was also removed, but it can still be accessed through the use of a cheating device. However, the mode is barely playable, due to graphical problems while running the mode.

Lunar Knights

 * See Lunar Knights in Wikipedia for more details.

After skipping the third game, Kojima Productions decided to localize the next game, Bokura no Taiyō: Django & Sabata (or Boktai DS) as an unrelated product. The main characters, Django and Sabata, were renamed Aaron and Lucian respectively. According to producer Kensuke Yoshitomi, this was done to distance the fourth game from the earlier Boktai games, due to the lack of a solar sensor.

Shooting Star Rockman crossover
The Rockman series crossover continues in this game. By linking to a Japanese copy of MegaMan Star Force (Shooting Star Rockman), Sabata and Django can fight Ox Fire (Taurus Fire in English), one of the enemy FM-ians, as a hidden boss. If they are successful in defeating him, War Rock (Omega-Xis) can assist them as a seventh terrennial. Boktai DS can also send and receive items and messages from Shooting Star Rockman, and there are some items which can only be obtained in this fashion. This feature was removed from Lunar Knights.

Manga

 * See Solar Boy Django (manga) in Wikipedia for more details.

Solar Boy Django is a manga by Makoto Hijoka loosely based on the Boktai storyline. It does not follow the plot of the games directly, although it does include many of the characters, such as the Count and Sabata. An English version of the manga is currently available from a Singapore manga production company. In 2007, Elex Media Komputindo licensed the manga for the Indonesian market with the title Jango the Solar Boy.

Boktai in other media

 * The Boktai universe made several appearances in Capcom's MegaMan Battle Network games.


 * Metal Gear Ac!d 2 includes references to Boktai in the form of a Gun del Sol weapon with accompanying Django and Otenko as well as a Solar Bank and Dark Loans card. There is also a Sabata card, though the picture on the card is of Sabata's sprite in Boktai 2.


 * The Gun del Sol was also a playable card in the original Metal Gear Ac!d. Jokingly, it had an 'Anti-Immortal' effect listed, with a footnote to the effect of 'No Immortals appear in this game'. However, it is still a powerful weapon since it deals high damage and can be loaded with any type of ammo, despite its need to be charged for 10 COST before use.


 * In another Konami game, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the Gun Del Sol (in the Knight frame) appears as an obtainable weapon. To get it, the player must defeat the FROGS in Act 1 and each of the four members of the Beauty & Beast corps' in their beast forms without killing them (i.e. using tranquilizer weapons), and then obtaining collectable dolls which appear in the stage afterward. After doing so, the gun will be available upon completion of the game. Also, the theme for Shin Bokura no Taiyou is an unlockable song to be played in the game's iPod.


 * Because of Django's numerous appearances in the later Battle Networks, Star Force, and even a time where MegaMan appearred in the Boktai world, it could be possible that both worlds are parallel universes of each other.