“Another Story” – A Collection of OverBlood 2 Stories
Everybody knows there was an OverBlood 2 book, right? And I’m not talking about strategy guides…
オーバーブラッド２ アナザー・ストーリー (translated into English as; “OverBlood 2: Another Story”) – was released in 1998 and is a 288 page novel featuring five short stories that further explore the world, characters and story prior to, during and after the events which take place in the game.
To get a better understanding of what is inside the book, below is a translation of it’s introduction:
After playing a game, listen to the soundtrack and read the novelization. Through various media, the excitement you felt from the game is amplified. There are many ways to enjoy games. This is surely because the lingering impression of the game’s story burns the characters’ faces firmly into your mind, enriching your image of the game.
“OverBlood 2 Another Story” is a playful novelization that will double the fun of the game. This book is a collection of short stories created by five authors who took on the challenge of creating a new story for “OverBlood 2” by expanding on the images they got from the game, while still taking inspiration from the original.
Each of the five stories here has a different protagonist and a different situation. The characters who were only depicted in fragments in the game are given more depth as protagonists in this book, and the story unfolds on a slightly different timeline than in the game. Each story also includes a little bit of information about “Overblood 2” that was not told in the game.
It seems like each little bit is revealed, making the original world of Overblood 2 even more intriguing.
“Overblood 2” is a 3D active adventure game consisting of seven episodes with the grand theme of “the future of humanity,” and the game concept is to liberate the player’s actions. I think this book is a special anthology that was born precisely because five authors were able to write with the freedom to use their own imagination, while keeping with the game concept. And I think it conveys to readers that “Overblood 2” is not only a story about “another future” for humanity entrusted to the protagonist Akano, but also a story of meetings and partings between various people connected to the town of East Edge in the year 2115.
The stories included, and their respective writers, are as follows;
- “Memories of Nina” by Fumi Nishitani
- “Night of Clowns” by Yuichi Ishisa
- “Challenger’s Seat” by Junichi Sugiyama
- “Avenger of the Sadowless Summer” by Nagae Jin
- “Rainbow Rose” by Kazima Shinjo and Suri Kinjo
So, what are the stories about? Unfortunately I haven’t had time to complete a full translation of the book (although it’s on my to do list), so for now the best overview of the five stories featured that I can offer comes from a Japanese fan website produced way back in 1999. While only brief, they do provide some insight in to each story;
Memories of Nina: Nina is the younger sister of OverBlood 2’s main protagonist, Acarno Brani. During one of Acarno’s flashbacks in the game, we see his sister being kidnapped while the two are young children. This story is said to explain why Nina was taken away and features a classmate of hers named Robin. The Japanese fan site describes this story as being a sad one.
Night of Clowns: This story is follows Dr. Veltor Curtis and dives in to why he was being spied on, and who by.
Challenger’s Seat: A story centred around Junk Blade racing that is set around the same time as the events in the game. It’s said to feature a champion racer named Rody and his rival named Keemo.
Avenger of the Sadowless Summer: Set some time after the events which took place in OverBlood 2, one of the planet’s air cooling towers begins to malfunction. Chris Lanebecca is called by Hosaka and when he hears about the situation (so perhaps their in-game romance didn’t work out?), and the pair discover that the pagoda has been taken over by terrorists who refer to themselves as the “Black Christmas Gang”,. According to the Japanese fan site; “all of the main characters appear in the story”.
Rainbow Rose: This story is set in downtown East Edge City and explores the orphans that reside there. Little other information is given by the Japanese fan site, which describes it as a “tear-jerking story” which “has a slightly different atmosphere from the others in this collection”.
With the second game being the final entry in the OverBlood franchise, it’s fascinating to see that Riverhillsoft gave us one last piece of media to flesh out the game’s world and it’s characters. At some point in the future I will get around to translating the whole thing and putting it in to a PDF that can be distributed. When will that be? I don’t know…
Want to discuss anything OverBlood 2 related? Please, send a message.