Illbleed

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
You'll vomit with excitement! You'll puke with pleasure! You'll shit with fear!
—Advertisement for Illbleed

Illbleed is an obscure, tongue-in-cheek Survival Horror game for the Sega Dreamcast that parodies American horror B-movies. It follows a group of horror movie aficionados (borderline Emotionless Girl Eriko Christy, wannabe psychic Michel Waters, average Joe Kevin Kertsman, and dim-witted Boisterous Bruiser and slasher-movie fan Randy Fairbanks) who receive guest passes to Illbleed, a horror amusement park built by reclusive movie director Michael Reynolds, who has filled his park with six terrifying attractions based on his movies, and promised to give one hundred million dollars to anyone who makes it through all six attractions without chickening out. Kevin, Michel, and Randy are gung-ho, but Eriko smells Hype Backlash in the making and opts out... until her friends fail to come back from their trip to Illbleed, and she's forced to investigate...

Players control Eriko as she travels through the six attractions trying to rescue her friends, facing foes ranging from the horrifying (like the vengeful, flamethrower-toting Gale Banballow in "Homerun of Death") to the ridiculous (the "Cake from Hell" in "Killer Department Store"). Each of the six stages is laden with traps that can harm Eriko, release monsters, or will just attempt to scare her to death. Fortunately, you have a special "horror monitor" that allows you to detect and tag traps (though use of the horror monitor is limited by your character's "adrenaline" level).

A let's play of Supergreatfriend can be found here.

Tropes used in Illbleed include:
  • Abusive Parents: Eriko's father put her through scare tests on an incredibly consistent basis when she was five. Though, if the picture after the credits is to be believed, and some of the dialogue, there was a time he cared for her.
  • All There in the Manual: Other than Eriko (who is actually given a bit more backstory in the manual), the backstories of the other characters aren't explored in the game at all.
    • The manual also explains the origin of Dummyman and some of the enemies in the game, along with adding a bit more backstory to the attractions in the game (with the exception of Reynold's Museum).
  • Amusement Park of Doom: Illbleed is so dangerous that, if Jorg is to be believed, over a hundred visitors die there every day.
  • Bittersweet Ending: In the second playthrough of the game, Eriko mentions, at the endgame, that, because of Michael Reynolds, her father, she lost her sense of fear, and wanted to get that back. After her dad finally manages to scare her, he ends up dying. Eriko says that he may have finally scared her, but he lost himself in the process. The end credits even change from "Time to get Ill" to a more somber version of the main menu theme to the game.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: The wall between the characters and the attractions themselves is broken in a few places. You beat one of the (animatronic) bosses by killing its operator (who may or may not be animatronic himself). In another level, you enter the boss arena only to meet a pair of maintenance workers who are repairing it. Also, there's an entire level based around the murders of several park employees, ostensibly by the villain of that level's attraction. The player is a potential suspect, and the game suggests that your "abnormality", as evidenced by purchasing Illbleed, is what drove you to commit the murder.
  • Brick Joke: Fall-Down Bear appears in the first level when you defuse the TV trap there. Another TV-related trap in "Killer Department Store" features him again, if you don't defuse the trap. Axes can make him fall down too.
  • Call Forward: There's a cardboard cut-out of Cork in the toy section of Cashman's Department Store.
  • The Cameo: Dogs Bowser appears in the toy store being advertised and as a corpse in "Killerman".
  • Crapsack World: So we're talking about some crazy horror movie director who makes an entire theme park dedicated to basically killing people. How does he not get put in jail? Furthermore, events later in the game seem to point towards the fact no one is at all against the concept of the theme park, let alone the number of people who die there...
    • Not to mention that, according to Jorg, "more than a hundred visitors die in this park every day", as well as Illbleed's "morgue" in the "Killerman" level which appears to be one giant pit the size of a warehouse filled with what appears to be rotting bodies.
    • You can bring people back to life by paying 75,000 for a SURGICAL OPERATION to restore them to life, good as new. Not paying to bring the people back to life shows just how much they care.
  • Creepy Doll: Cutey Mary.
  • The Ditz: Randy; it's made even worse if you fail to find his brain before turning him back from being a woodpuppet.
    • Could classify as Body Horror, but adds as a gameplay bonus. He got less points to deactivate traps, making him ideal for a Self-Imposed Challenge. His dialog is also just pure blubering.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: Played with in the "Killerman" event. Midway through, you're asked to finger a suspect for the role of Killerman (if you're right, you win more money). Besides the proper suspects you've encountered, the choices for who may be the murderous Killerman includes... Killerman, and the player. The latter is explained that playing Illbleed drove you insane and made you go on a killing spree.
  • Engrish: From "The Revenge of the Queen Worm" stage, there are billboard advertisements for fake movies. Most of their taglines are in poorly-written English, including such gems as "GODDLA: Size is problem".
  • Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Everything. If it's in the level, it can probably come to life and menace you.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: One of the generic "mook" monsters is the Monkillers, creepy ape-like goblins.
  • Fan Disservice: Getting Eriko's friends killed so you can get her nude skin. Seriously. Also her father during the final boss fight comments on how much she's grown.
  • Fanservice: If the player let's Eriko's friends die, her clothes get's ripped to the point of nudity. Also one scene in the second level may count depending on what character the player chose.
  • Final Boss: In the "bad" and "good" endings, you get to choose one final boss from a list of three. They are listed here in order of difficulty:
    • Dollarchura, the boss of "Killer Department Store" that you originally defeated by stealing his controls and making him jump into walls until he died.
    • OHNOMAN (yes, in all caps), a headless fellow with jaunty striped pants who attacks you with a pair of sickles.
    • Bullstinger, a mutated and more powerful version of an enemy from one of Crazy Games/Climax Graphics's earlier Dreamcast games, Blue Stinger.
    • And in the "true" ending, you have to fight Eriko's deranged father, Michael Reynolds, first as a giant zombie head that randomly rises from and submerges into a giant pool of gray liquid and shoots rainbows out of the cut in his head, and again as a bat-winged, demon-faced, wiggly-arm-tentacled brain that emerges from the giant zombie head after you kill it.
  • Five-Man Band: The main characters and Jorg.
  • Fright Deathtrap: All the levels are positively covered in traps. They are not immediately fatal with each one varying in how scary it is, but running into too many in a row will cause your character to die of a heart attack. To prevent their layout from being too predictable, each trap is not guaranteed to be active/inactive during a run of a level.
  • Gainax Ending: The "true" ending. 'Nuff said.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: Eriko's "fearlessness" translates into her being the only character to recover immediately upon knockdown, while all other characters need a Shock Bracer to do that.
  • Gimmick Level: Every level past the first seems to have a gimmick.
  • Insult Backfire:

Eriko: How dare you! You're a maniac. Out of your mind!
Michael Reynolds: Aha, music to my ears!

  • Invincible Minor Minion: The zombies in "Killerman", who are, it's suggested, not part of the attraction, but the real deal.
  • Jump Scare: And they aren't limited to just scaring.
  • Kill It with Fire: Gale Banballow in "Home Run of Death". He's horribly burned, and lugs around a flamethrower with an attached tank of fuel.
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The sixth level is filled with these, from main hero Cork Inda being a cross between Woody from Toy Story and Indiana Jones from the boss, Zodick the Hellhog, being an obvious Shout-Out to Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Let's Play: One by Supergreatfriend, where he shows the various characters and scares in the game whilst questioning the game's internal logic.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Eriko's dad is Michael Reynolds, the mad genius behind Illbleed.
  • Mad Artist: Michael Reynolds.
  • Mascot Mook: The Crash Test Dummies and their leader, Dummyman
  • Money Spider: Cashman. Sorry, couldn't resist the joke.
  • Monster Town: The hub world has atleast three characters who consistently try to kill you in the attractions tending to shops.
  • One-Winged Angel: The True Ending's final boss Michael Reynolds when, after being defeated as a giant zombie head, transforms into a demonic tentacled brain with bat wings.
  • Recurring Boss: Dummyman takes a swing at you every now and again.
  • Rewatch Bonus: In the intro, Eriko is being chased by a monster. If you play through the game again after getting the true ending, you realize what the monster is: It's Eriko's dad, Michael Reynolds!
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Gale Banballow again.
  • Scare Chord: One accompanies every "scare" effect.
  • Sequel Hook: The True Ending has one, involving another horror land called "The Arcade", which, if you look closely, not only bears a suspicious resemblance to the Illbleed tickets, but also has Michael Reynolds' name on it...
  • Shout-Out:
    • Cork from "Toy Hunter" looks like a cross between Woody from Toy Story and Indiana Jones, with William Riker's beard thrown in for good measure. His robotic companion, Potedon, also has the same markings and color scheme as Buzz Lightyear's chest, buttons and all.
    • Also, the boss of the next-to-last level is a demonic Sonic the Hedgehog, complete with rings. Sometimes he'll even do Sonic's old "uh-uh-uh" finger waggle.
    • "The Revenge of Queen Worm" seems to be a big shout out to Tremors, due to worms being able to detect you if you're on dirt.
  • Stripperiffic:
    • On a second playthrough, do not save any of Eriko's friends. As Eriko advances through each stage, she loses progressively more clothing with each one. By the time she hits the "true" final stage, she's dressed in bandages and extremely tattered undergarments.
      • Related to the plot, disturbingly enough: the game's announcer is so turned on by her that he jumps down and starts the final battle. Which is made a lot worse when it's revealed that he's her freaking father. Oh, Illbleed.
    • Lose every friend including Jorg, and Eriko will be clad in a few mud splatters and blood stains.
  • Stupidity Is the Only Option: In "Woodpuppets", you encounter the area where people are turned into the eponymous creatures. You have to jump in and become a Woodpuppet to progress in the level.
  • Surreal Horror/Surreal Humor: What the game basically runs on, though it relies on the latter more than it does the former.
  • Together in Death: Non-romantically, but Old David and his pet worm Rachel can be seen as this. A strange mixture of creepy, darkly amusing and sad.
  • Too Awesome to Use: Averted: your inventory is emptied at the end of every level, so you have no reason to sit on your items.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:

"Here's your favorite Sexydoll. She'll comfort you!"

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