Illbleed: A Forgotten Classic with a Forgotten Spirit for Game Development

Recently I've been revisiting the classics of the survival horror genre, which is only now returning to its roots after over a decade of misrepresentation. Having played all the Silent Hill's and Resident Evil's countless times, I sought out some of the obscurities of the genre, and that leads us to Illbleed, an anomaly within an anomalous genre. There really is nothing like this game, it both frusturates and innovates by being completely unlike anything else. This won't just be an overview of an overlooked game, but a tribute to the overlooked love and passion from the man behind it.

Illbleed released in America on April 16, 2001, a little over two weeks after the console it was exclusive to, the Dreamcast, was discontinued by Sega. The game was a critical and commercial failure, with estimates of less than 50,000 copies sold worldwide. Most critics gave it mediocre scores, and even the typically lenient Famitsu gave it a 20/40. The studio that made it, aptly named Crazy Games, closed soon after its release. Nevertheless, the game has gained a strong cult following due to its unique gameplay and strange sense of humor. After playing it myself, I definitely feel it is worthy of re-examination.

To give you a brief idea of the "theme" of the game, check out this commercial: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Most survival horror games at the time emulated the Resident Evil formula: fixed camera angles, inventory management, pre-rendered backgrounds and a serious storyline. Illbleed basically has none of that. The game stars the members of a high school horror club, who venture to the horror amusement park Illbleed, which promises $100 million to anyone who survives the attractions. There are six attractions in the game, and they are all inspired by cheesy slasher flicks and American cinema's quirks. This includes goofy fake movie posters with bad tag lines. For example, there's one poster for a movie called "Godila" with the oh-so brilliant slogan of "SIZE IS PROBLEM", a nod to the 1998 Godzilla movie's "Size matters". You can tell the creators had genuine passion for movies and games, with various references to Tremors, Twin Peaks, Toy Story and other Sega games. The voice acting is hilariously campy, with awkward pauses and over-the-top delivery. In most games this would ruin the immersion, but it was a deliberate choice in Illbleed to enhance the B-movie atmosphere. The game is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and a ton of fun to play with friends, especially if you love horror movies.

The gameplay of Illbleed is needlessly complicated (but necessarily awesome :D). Equipped with a "Horror Monitor", you are tasked with cautiously going through the level, identifying traps and enemy encounters rather than running through the level with a gun like most entries in the genre. To identify traps, you use your senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell) which spike around traps. Marking them uses a limited supply of adrenaline, so you can't just mark everything you see. There might be 3 or 4 things to mark, but the senses give clues as to which one is right. For example, if your "Smell" sense is spiking, you should deduce that it is the moldy food on the table and not the sinister picture on the wall. This makes the game surprisingly cerebral and rewards the player for taking their time to examine the environment. If you fail to identify a scare, a ridiculous cutscene will play where the wall, light bulb, TV, tree, etc. literally scares a gallon of blood from the character. Some of the scares are pretty impressive, since a lot of effort was put into modelling the grotesque face of a tree for only one scare, which may or may not even be triggered by the player. The scares will bring down your health, raise your pulse, and raise your bleeding. Any of these things can kill you if you don't control them with items. The combat is frequently described in reviews as bad, but I would argue it is only as bad as every other horror game at the time, with the distinction of being unique. Basically, you are thrust into an enclosed space with your foe and have the choice of smacking him to death with a weapon (eliciting glorious squirts of blood), or mashing a button on a mini helipad to lower a ladder and escape. The helicopter and helipad are there no matter where you are, be it in a building or underground. Its completely nuts and makes no sense, but that's what makes it so awesome!

The game itself is very unique and cool on its own, but the main reason I chose to write this blog is to shed light on the spirit and dedication of the studio, and especially director Shinya Nishigaki. He only really made two games, Dreamcast launch title Blue Stinger and Dreamcast swansong Illbleed, but his inspired vision and approach to game design is something sorely lacking from today's industry. His father had a position in the movie industry that allowed Nishigaki to see European and American movies for free, and you can see that influence in his games. The man is quite the enigma, I can't find any verifiable photo of him and only one interview. He describes his small 20-24 man team doing work fit for 50. The development of Blue Stinger involved some 24-hour work days and less than a week off the entire two year development cycle. Blue Stinger was actually a big success, with over half a million copies sold. Sega immediatly asked him if he wanted to develop Blue Stinger 2, which would have been a guaranteed success, but instead he opted for the thing he and his team wanted to do: Illbleed.

In his last interview (conducted in 2004), he said he was working on a game in the spirit of his Dreamcast cult classics, but alas, Shinya Nishigaki died of a heart attack soon thereafter at only 42 years old. Xbox ports of Illbleed and Blue Stinger, although reportedly far along, were cancelled soon after.

The tale of Illbleed and Crazy Games is a tragic one, but it is not a story you often hear in today's industry. As budgets are rising, publishers and developers are less and less willing to innovate and bring out new ideas and IP's. I don't want to sound pessimistic and say that consumers are less willing to buy this content than they were before, but it's certainly a lot harder to profit off of unique, risky games today than it was in the PS1 era, for example. With the start of a new generation upon us, I can only hope that creative games that thwart all conventions can make a return. Be it indies or AAA publishers, let the creativity reign!

I will end with one last quote. Even though it led to the collapse of Crazy Games, Nishigaki never let the sales of Illbleed determine its success to him. He had this to say:

"If one person likes Illbleed, then to me, it’s a success.”