Game Information

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: September 30, 2003
Genre: Action/RPG
Also On: None
Website: Boktai.com

Did you ever in your life sit back and think, I need a videogame that I can play with the Sun? Yeah I didn’t say son as in your child (if you have one). I’m talking about that goodness, gracious, great ball of fire in the sky. Simply put “The Sun is in Your Hand” in this GBA Action/RPG created by Mr. Konami himself Hideo Kojima. Ok I know you’re thinking, what is the story behind a game when you play co-op with the Sun? Keep reading sonny it’s not as stupid of an idea as you think!

The story of the game follows Django (D-Jan-Go not D-Jango), a vampire hunter who must venture through deep, dark dungeons to rid the world of evil demons. His ability to hunt down vampires during the day is far superior to his ability to hunt them down at night. Since obviously vampires are weaker during the day and much stronger by night. Boktai is the first game to integrate light and real world conditions into the adventure’s storyline. In Boktai, the amount of time that the player spends with the game in the sun will have a direct impact on the hero’s powers, the strength/weakness of the enemies and consequently, the overall outcome of the game. In other words you’ll have better luck playing at the beach!

The mysterious & huge world of Boktai is strewn with numerous castles and dungeons that are riddled with enemies, including spiders, zombies, vampires and more. While some enemies can be destroyed using a "solar gun" that streams an ultra-powerful light beam. While the game definitely has a main focus on using the power of the sun, the designers do penalize players from sitting outside for too long. Sit in a strong sunlight for an extended period of time, and your gun will begin to overheat as you use it...until it becomes unusable for about three minutes. Other enemies can only be destroyed by exposing them to natural sunlight. That is done by well…playing the game outside. Pray for a sunny day with no clouds in sight or you just might run into “death” a little early…Before the adventure starts, players must input the time into the cartridge’s internal clock, as well as tell the game in which time zone you’re located. At the start of a game, players can choose to rename their character, as well as set the difficulty to make the action and puzzles easier or more challenging.

If you need to play the game indoors (Johnny come inside you can’t play outside alone), you can utilize power areas that store excess sunlight for just such a case. If your weapon needs a recharge, you can find one of these spots to withdraw your stored sunlight, or utilize special fruits that will do the job. But, boss battles almost always requires players to go outdoors in the sun, since the rooms have special skylights that players can both lure the vampire into as well as absorb the energy into their guns. That’s kinda bad for players in the winter time when the sun doesn’t come out much. Hopefully Konami will come up with something to help with this problem.

Key Features