Battle Tryst

***Battle Tryst*** (バトルトライスト, *Batoru Toraisuto*?) is a 1998 3D fighting arcade game developed and published by Konami.

## Overview

In 1 player mode of this game, there is an alternative to points called "bounty amount," and the last three digits of this amount determine the hidden character who becomes the final boss.

The opening demo is fully animated. The ending demo for each character is also animated. The animation was storyboarded by film director Mamoru Oshii. The game itself was designed and directed by Shujiro Hamakawa, aka Shuzilow.HA. Also, Elein from the company's work *Gaiapolis* and Pastel from the *TwinBee* series have entered the game as hidden characters. The board used was the company's "Tarantula Board," a CD-ROM drive board based on the "3DO M2," which was to be the successor to the 3DO.

Despite extensive promotion of the game, including a cover story in Gamest, the game was not widely distributed and was not well-known. The game's graphics and hit detection did not match, and there were some cases where the hidden characters were removed from the game before the release of the time release.

## Plot

Various fighters fight for prize money on "Battle Tryst," a different kind of martial arts show broadcast in the near-future TV industry.

## System

Move the player with the eight-way lever, and use the three buttons (punch, kick, guard) for attack and defense.

The button layout is the same as in Virtua Fighter, with three types of buttons: punch, kick, and guard. As in the Tekken series, a time release is used. In addition, the viewpoint can be changed by pressing the start button during play.

In CPU battles, the bounty (score) for clearing a stage is set, decreasing with time and increasing with the number of hits in a series of moves. The boss character changes according to the third number from the bottom of the prize money. It is as follows.

*0-4 (Kitazima)*
*5-6 (Elein)*
*7-8 (Alex)*
*9 (Pastel)*

## Characters

### Playable Characters

* **Kika Griffon** *(Age 21) -- Nationality: British -- Height: 170cm -- Style: Martial Arts*
	+ A beautiful blonde woman in a red bondage costume. She is the main character of this work and a heroine. She enters the fighting competition "Battle Tryst" to find clues about her lost past.

* **Yamato Takeru** *(Age 18) -- Nationality: Japanese -- Height: 175cm -- Style: Ryukyu Karate*
	+ A Japanese man wearing a white kung fu suit and a practitioner of Ryukyu karate. He is traveling in search of a strong man. He entered Battle Tryst after seeing an advertisement for Battle Tryst contestants. One of his former companions is Alex.
	+ Although it is easy to assume that he is the protagonist of this work due to his appearance and setting, the real protagonist is Kika Griffon.

* **Bites Mackintosh** *(Age 28) -- Nationality: American -- Height: 185cm -- Style: Martial Arts*
	+ A former boxer who retired due to an arm injury. He used to work at his acquaintance's factory, but due to the recession, the factory is on the verge of bankruptcy, and he joins the Battle Tryst to help rebuild the factory.

* **Zankoku** *(Age unknown) -- Nationality: Unknown -- Height: 170cm -- Style: Kuroshin-ryu Ninjutsu*
	+ A mysterious ninja in a red costume who was taken out by the TV station that broadcasts the Battle Tryst.

* **Zhai Zhai** *(Age 16) -- Nationality: American -- Height: 155cm -- Style: Long Fist*
	+ Chinese-American girl working in an antique shop in Chinatown. She has studied martial arts since she was four years old and has never lost a tournament. She follows her friend to an audition and mistakenly joins Battle Tryst.

* **Gary William** *(Age 35) -- Nationality: Canadian -- Height: 190cm -- Style: Pro wrestling*
	+ Winner of the big tree throwing contest. He entered the contest to become an actor in Hollywood by competing in Battle Tryst.

* **Najeed See** *(Age 18) -- Nationality: Avalon -- Height: 160cm -- Style: Bojutsu (using tonfa)*
	+ She is a female artificial life form born from the genes of a fairy tribe called "Shi". She wears her long red hair in a ponytail and has pointed ears. She is skilled with her tonfa. Since many of the Shi are good-looking, many of them work as TV personalities, and she is usually a TV personality as well.
	+ The most distinctive feature, however, is the highly revealing attire: the upper half of the body is just an open-fronted vest worn over bare skin, while the lower half of the body wears pants that seem to slip down around the waist.

### Hidden Characters

* **Kitazima** *(Age unknown) -- Nationality: Unknown -- Height: 200cm -- Style: Original Tactics*
	+ A mysterious man whose body is spliced together like Frankenstein's monster, but he calls himself a samurai. He laughs as he shakes eerily and brutally beats his enemies to a pulp. One of the four hidden characters, he has the highest probability of appearing as the final boss. Despite his appearance, he is proficient in a variety of fist techniques.

* **Alex** *(Age 18) -- Nationality: American -- Height: 175cm -- Style: Ryukyu Karate*
	+ He is an 18-year-old American male who was a student of the same school as the main character Yamato Takeru. Therefore, like Takeru, his style is Ryukyu Karate.
	+ He has a large scar on his chest, but this scar was added after he left the dojo, and it is unclear why it was added.

* **Elein Shi** *(Age 18) -- Nationality: Avalon -- Height: 160cm -- Style: Bojutsu (using tonfa)*
	+ She was originally the heroine of "Gaiapolis," a vertical-screen action role-playing game released by Konami in Arcades. In the original, she is the last survivor of the fairy tribe "Shi" and a female warrior who uses a tonfa.
	+ In Battle Tryst, she has the same appearance as in the original, and fights with a tonfa as well.

* **Pastel** *(Age 14) -- Nationality: Donburi Island -- Height: 150cm -- Style: rhythmic gymnastics*
	+ Originally the heroine of Konami's "TwinBee" series of shooting games, the second arcade game "Detana! TwinBee". Initially, she was not given an official name, but was called "WinBee" because she was the pilot of the aircraft she was flying, WinBee.
	+ In Battle Tryst, she is intrigued by her cousin Light, a TwinBee pilot, to enter a tournament. She wears boxing gloves on her hands, and her 1P color is the same costume as the original. The 2P outfit, however, is an original costume that makes Pastel look like a fighter.
	+ Perhaps because she is the last hidden character to appear, the third digit from the bottom of the prize money must be 9 in order for her to appear as the final boss.

## Trivia

* Characters "Shemon" and "Rheter", based on Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont from the *Castlevania* series, were planned to appear in the game, as well as Madoka from the *TwinBee* series. Concept art for all three of them exists, but they were all sadly canceled.

## External links

* Fighting Game Glossary: ​​Battle Tryst
* Wikipedia (Japanese)