"Long ago, in the age of the untamed west..."
Kura 5: Bonds of the Undying is a PC fangame set within the Boktai universe and developed by ChickenHat. It follows a pair of protagonists, Solar Girl Annie and Vampire Boy Emil, and their budding teamwork against the insidious machinations of a new batch of Immortals known as the Nightmare Clan.
The game is hosted at itch.io.
At present, four of its five planned episodes have been released, with the concluding episode intended to be released at an undecided date in 2024.
This game provides examples of:
- And Then John Was a Zombie:
- For the introductory stage, Annie gradually shifts from human into undead as a result of an Immortal's bite. She gets better.
- Emil gave up his life as a human to become a vampire in the name of vengeance against the Nightmare Clan.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: During the climax of Chapter 4, Guildmaster Lydia becomes a playable character.
- Auto-Revive: If a move would inflict lethal damage, having a Mandrake item in your inventory will revive whichever of the two characters are currently active with some of their health.
- Charged Attack: As usual, some models of the Solar Gun can perform stronger than normal shots if the attack button is held down.
- Crossover: Von Linnell's theater features a special portal to the Cyberworld, including a battle with ShadeMan and two virus summons for Annie.
- Ghost Train: One of the dungeons takes the form of a train that kidnaps the passengers to convert them into the Undead.
- Loan Shark: Doomy returns from the original three Boktai games. Combining her old function with that of Lunar Knights' Alice, she provides a continue upon death, is able to revive a fallen party member, and can reset a room's puzzle for a fee. In the event that the player's debt is too high to be repaid with money on the day she comes to collect, Doomy will make Annie and Emil, the latter now transformed into a chicken, run in a hamster wheel until they charge enough energy to pay off the rest.
- Multiple Endings: Depending on when the Immortals are killed, the game has three endings: Day, Twilight, and Midnight.
- Old Save Bonus: San Miguel features a machine that summons Toasty from Lunar Knights, who will accept passwords from clearing the three difficulties of said game.
- Clearing Easy Mode unlocks the Stellennium, a renamed version of Aaron's Knight Solar Gun, for Annie.
- Clearing Hard Mode unlocks the Vanargand, Lucian's Dark Blade, for Emil.
- Clearing Nightmare Mode unlocks Mini-Toasty as a summon for Annie.
- Summon Magic: Annie is able to summon several different creatures that can provide help in combat and other effects. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Buddy the Vorn, which steals items from enemies
- a cockatrice, which turns enemies to stone
- a siren, which heals negative status effects and changes its form while in the rain
- The Power of the Sun: Well, it is a Boktai game.
- The Gun del Sol is used by both Annie and Oakley to combat the Undead, using sunlight as the source of energy for the magic machine's bullets.
- The Pile Driver is also a means by which both are able to purify Immortals, preventing them from resurrecting after being defeated in battle.
- Rare Candy: A civilian in San Miguel named Frederick will sell, and sometimes gift, coffee to Annie and Emil, which permanently raises their maximum Energy stat.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Much like Django, Emil is able to draw strength from tomatoes as a substitute for blood. Some other items, such as peppers and Kaamos Mushrooms, serve a similar purpose.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: The player is potentially able to kill Zed or his allies in the Aqueduct's malfunctioning trap. Doing so locks you out of completing any side quests here, closes Zed's shop, and makes any surviving members hostile.
- Wave-Motion Gun : The Pile Driver returns as the means of purifying Immortals with the power of the Sun (or Darkness, if used by Emil at night).
- Young Gun: Annie fulfills this role in the same vein as Django and Aaron. Unlike those two, however, it is brought up that she's very stretched thin as a result of being the sole resident of San Miguel able to use the Pile Driver, and being overworked has caused her no small amount of stress that she tries to hide from the people who depend on her.
