History VideoGame / TheBouncer

->''"Pardon my past discourtesies… I will forget the past… I no longer care about the indignation I have suffered!"''

It was developed by [[Creator/SquareEnix Square]], and launched two days before the Christmas of 2000 for the then-new UsefulNotes/PlayStation2. The game did not do nearly as well as they hoped, although main character Sion seemingly lives on through his visual {{Expy}}, [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Sora]].

* ObviousBeta: Additional stages and the ability to use {{Improvised Weapon}}s were meant to be utilized in the game, but were cut shortly before release. The game was also pretty much just a test to tweak and finalize a usable graphics engine for ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''.

* CameraScrew: The camera loves to zoom in real close so you can focus on beating down one or two targets at a time. Thing is, this is a game where other enemies and even the bosses will totally blindside you from off-camera as a result, and you have nothing but sound cues to know it. With no manual camera control, this can be a real problem. There's also a couple navigation segments in the game where the camera becomes real uncooperative, to the point of having to possibly run towards it to force to turn around to see exit points.

* TrueFinalBoss: On your ''fourth'' consecutive playthrough, [[spoiler:Dauragon will get up for one final showdown with new abilities.]] This is a problem since just like the normal FinalBoss, you ''still'' don't regain any health inbetween phases, which means you could be running on empty by the time you reach this. Go down and it's back to phase one all over again.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: If, during the sequence when the three are forcibly separated by Dauragon, you follow Koh's path, you mostly end up trying to pass as a {{Mook}} while wandering the Mikado building.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Dauragon is implied to be this by Kaldea, taking out his anger and sorrow on the world for turning its back on him until it was too late to save his sister.

* DontYouDarePityMe: If Sion learns who Kaldea is, after defeating her in combat, she states that the reason she chose to stay with Mikado was because she saw how sad Dauragon was beneath his ruthlessness and stays by his side out of pity. Hearing this, Dauragon impales Kaldea with his chain, snidely remarking that he doesn't need such "pathetic sympathy from a bionoid".

* BonusBoss: Leann and Wong, both of which are firmly plot characters unless you [[GuideDangIt meet the conditions to fight them]] in the ending as Koh and Sion, respectively. They come with their own movesets, and DefeatMeansPlayable for the multiplayer, which is probably why these fights exist in the first place as a way to play as them.

* GuideDangIt: Sion's bonus fight against Wong, which requires you to make sure to '''not''' use him in certain battles. This means you ''absolutely'' have to do this on a NewGamePlus run, as one of the fights that Sion has to be played as in is [[spoiler:the FinalBoss fight against Dauragon]], where an underleveled character will just ''not'' cut it.
** Technically, Koh's bonus fight against Leann also counts, but the conditions are much more simple, as [[spoiler:you simply have to choose Koh for all possible fights, as well as the mid-game RashomonStyle sequence]]. This ''does'', however, have the chance to go south, as it's entirely possible to accidentally have him sit out of the [[spoiler:Unmasked Mugetsu]] fight, where one of the three player characters has to pilot the air-carrier they're on, leaving the other two to fight the opponent.

* SecretCharacter: Apart from the main trio, every other playable character has to be unlocked by way of story progression, usually by way of DefeatMeansPlayable. Three proper examples of secret characters include Wong and Leann, who are fought as post-game [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] after fulfilling certain conditions (explained in GuideDangIt), and [[spoiler:Topless Dauragon]], who only shows up as the TrueFinalBoss in a player's third consecutive NewGamePlus run.

* EscortMission: A particularly frustrating one part-way through the game. This game plays this trope painfully straight, and makes a mission that should be a breeze into an absolute nightmare. This is also one of the longest stages yet.

* TooDumbToLive: Dominique in her EscortMission. She will gladly stand in between you and a hostile robot that's trying to kill you, and eat an attack that takes away half of her health... then stand right back up and do it again.

* AbsoluteCleavage: There's no real reason why Kaldea's shirt is wide open and baring her chest, besides being yet another Nomura design.

* DanceBattler: Echidna.
* DarkActionGirl: Again, Echidna.

* SecretCharacter: Apart from the main trio, every other playable character has to be unlocked by way of story progression, usually by way of DefeatMeansPlayable. Three proper examples of secret characters include [[spoiler:Wong and Leann]], who are fought as post-game [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] after fulfilling certain conditions (explained in GuideDangIt), and [[spoiler:Topless Dauragon]], who only shows up as the TrueFinalBoss in a player's third consecutive NewGamePlus run.

* KillSat: The evil MegaCorp's big new energy source of a solar panel satellite is a giant ''laser cannon''? Yeah, no surprise there. The bigger shocker is that [[spoiler:Dominique is rigged as the starter key to the whole system.]]

* AbsoluteCleavage: There's no real reason why Kaldea's shirt is wide open and bearing her chest, besides being yet another Nomura design.

* HopelessBossFight: There are a couple fights that are exceedingly hard to win the first time you play. They become much easier after a few runs, though.

* ReplayValue: In a bit of a RashomonStyle approach, Sion, Volt and Koh have different scenes and dialog for whoever you pick per battle, complete with certain scenes being significantly extended or altered. Mid-way through the game, who you pick shows their perspective of their own exclusive level each and requiring another playthrough to see the others unless you load a save. Each gets an ending of their own, though Volt and Koh's can arguably tie together compared to Sion's. And certain secret bonus boss fights and cutscenes only happen if you achieve secret paths by doing things like not taking Sion to certain fights [[GuideDangIt without an indicator to which ones]], or by using Koh extensively. NewGamePlus lets you carry your character levels into successive playthroughs to both see more scenes and get a chance at the TrueFinalBoss, but then the problem of the LevelScaling can settle in if you're not careful.

* LevelScaling: Arguably one of the first modern games to use this gameplay mechanic. Enemies grow in power and health depending on how many skills you've leveled up, though they don't change to raising your stats. It's a good idea to try to level the stats first, and then either raise the skills and accept the challenge that comes with them, or ignore them so that NewGamePlus runs don't have the other potentially-underleveled characters dealing with nastier foes out of the gate.

* ReplayValue: In a bit of a RashomonStyle approach, Sion, Volt and Koh have different scenes and dialog for whoever you pick per battle, complete with certain scenes being significantly extended or altered. Mid-way through the game, who you pick shows their perspective of their own exclusive level each. Each gets an ending of their own, though Volt and Koh's can arguably tie together compared to Sion's. And certain secret bonus boss fights and cutscenes only happen if you achieve secret paths by doing things like not taking Sion to certain fights [[GuideDangIt without an indicator to which ones]], or by using Koh extensively. NewGamePlus lets you carry your character levels into successive playthroughs to both see more scenes and get a chance at the TrueFinalBoss, but then the problem of the LevelScaling can settle in if you're not careful.

* BonusBoss: Leann and Wong, both of which are firmly plot characters unless you [[GuideDangIt meet the conditions to fight them]] in the ending as Koh and Sion, respectively. They come with their own movesets, and DefeatEqualsPlayable for the multiplayer, which is probably why these fights exist in the first place as a way to play as them.

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Sion, after the disappearance of Master Wong and the death of Kaldea. This gets undone when Volt defeats him.]]

** Amusingly the TrueFinalBoss of [[spoiler:Daurugon getting up for a ''third'' fight]] is this, as he abandons all of his ideas and awakens an EleventhHourSuperpower out of nowhere solely to embrace the ultimate fight in a hotblooded showdown.