Psychic Force

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Psychic Force is an obscure fighting game series by Taito, unique in a way that the battle take place in a cubic space enforced with magical energies. Though it opens up for complete 3D battle, it utilizes a 2D battle system, except there's no ground and that your character constantly floats and dashes. Like the later Touhou fighting games, your character is able to throw projectiles on long range, or get close enough for close range attacks. You can also dash to 'graze' through weak projectiles, but stronger attacks cannot be dashed through (unlike Touhou fighting games where even the strongest projectile can be 'grazed').

The story of Psychic Force is pretty much a Follow the Leader series of the X-Men, except that you replace 'Mutants' with 'people with Psychic Power'. These people, called 'Psychiccers' are shunned by normal people in general and that they're forced to face hate and discrimination on a daily basis, but an organization of Psychiccers called 'NOA', led by a young man named Keith Evans, rises to make sure that no Psychiccer are forced to face the harshness of the world. Unfortunately, the members of NOA tend to take things to the extreme, causing a small group of Psychiccers to form a resistance against them known as 'Anti-NOA' so that they can oppose NOA's extreme ways. Of course, there are some fighters who are not affiliated with the two groups, yet they still hunt down the Psychiccers, claiming them to be a dangerous threat to the world.

The first Psychic Force game features this cast of characters:

  • Burn Griffiths: The main protagonist of the series who happens to be a hotheaded American member of Anti-NOA. Psychiccer of Fire. Burn happens to be an old friend of Keith and wants him to abandon his extreme ways.
  • Emilio Michaelov: A young Russian boy who is a member of Anti-NOA. Psychiccer of Light. Introverted and is fearful of his power.
  • Wendy Ryan: A happy, up-beat Australian girl who happens to be a member of Anti-NOA. Psychiccer of Wind. Tends to act like Emilio's Cool Big Sis in order to help him out. She's also on a personal mission to find her missing older sister Chris.
  • Sonia: A mysterious blue-haired woman who works as a member of NOA. Psychiccer of Electricity. She harbors a crush on Keith, and is hinted to be rather robotic. Turns out she is Wendy's older sister Chris Ryan, who was kidnapped and rebuilt as an android by Wong.
  • Brad Kilsten: A German man with a Split Personality disorder. At one point he's a gentleman who scoffs at fighting, but let him see some blood and he'll turn into an Ax Crazy Psycho for Hire. He's a member of NOA and is the Psychiccer of Gravity.
  • Richard Wong: A bespectacled Chinese man who happens to be a member of NOA and is the Psychiccer of Time. He usually serves as Keith's consultant and strategist, but is one hell of Magnificent Chessmaster, manipulating everyone and everything for his own personal gain. Possibly the Big Bad of the entire series.
  • Rokudo Genma: A Japanese monk who's unaffiliated with any of the forces. He relies on Shinto monk magic and is convinced that psychic power is a double-edged sword, thus he's trying to rid the world of all Psychiccers.
  • Gates Oltsman: An American cyborg who's not affiliated with any of the groups and that he fights with any armaments and upgrades of his cybernetic body. An unexpected Psychiccer attack had severely injured him and killed his wife and daughter, thus he became a cyborg in order to get his revenge against all Psychiccers.
  • Keith Evans: The leader of NOA who happens to be the Psychiccer of Ice. Despite his extreme ambitions, Keith comes off as being a very charismatic person and manages to attract one of his followers, Sonia. Keith's goal is to create a perfect utopia for Psychiccers and that he seeks to recruit and convince his old friend Burn to help him out in his quest.

Psychic Force was then followed by a Dreamcast sequel called Psychic Force 2012, which later got a PS1 port titled Psychic Force 2. The story takes place 2 years later after the first Psychic Force, whereas Wong broke away from Keith and formed his own group called The Army, whose ambitions are far more extreme than NOA (Now called Neo NOA). Three characters: Sonia, Brad and Genma were removed from the roster but received their own Spiritual Successors. The three of them would eventually be brought back in Psychic Force 2 as exclusive characters to that specific title. The sequel itself would also sport out a brand new cast of characters (and some returning ones):

  • Might: The second protagonist of the series and Sonia's Spiritual Successor (he controls lightning). A 'Psychiccer Hunter' who makes a living by killing all other Psychiccers.
  • Patricia Myers: Nicknamed 'Patty', she is Might's closest friend (but it's not quite known if she's also a Psychiccer Hunter). A brand new addition to the cast, as she is the Psychiccer of Tones.
  • Wendy Ryan: Returning from the first game, she is now looking for the missing Burn. It's also possible that part of her ending is canon, in which she accidentally killed Sonia/Chris, but unlike her ending, Sonia never came back.
  • Genshin Kenjoh: Very much identical to his Spiritual Successor Genma, he is a monk magician who uses Shinto monk magic and tries to rid the world of the evil that is Psychiccers. He's also on a personal mission to rescue a young Shinto miko named Shiori from Wong and the Army.
  • Carlo Belfrond: A new addition to the cast who happens to be the Psychiccer of Water. Carlo is Keith's new subordinate and supports his goal of a Psychiccer-only world. He has a little sister named...
  • Regina Belfrond: Carlo's little sister who happens to be a Psychiccer of Fire, but NOT Burn's Spiritual Successor. Other than serving Keith and supporting his ambition, she seeks to impress her brother as well.
  • Gates Oltsman: Another returning face, he now works for Neo NOA after Keith captures and reprograms him. His ending in the previous game was canon too: Keith was actually the one behind his family's massacre, but Gates didn't know about this when he was being brainwashed.
  • Emilio Michaelov: A third returning face from the first game, but this time he's in a completely different situation. Emilio is now in Wong's army and has been brainwashed into some sort of Ax Crazy boy. However, his good self still struggles to emerge.
  • Setsuna: A new Bishonen addition who is a Psychiccer of Darkness and serves as a part of Wong's Army. However, like Wong to Keith previously, Setsuna wants to usurp Wong's place and take control over The Army.
  • Gudeath: Somehow a Spiritual Successor to Brad (controlling gravity), despite being sooo slow. Gudeath is a member of Wong's Army and thinks that the world has no need of the weak and is out to eliminate weak Psychiccers.
  • Keith Evans: Still the leader of Neo NOA as he continues his conquest in creating a Psychiccer-only utopia. Although with Wong defecting, he got a new opposition that even disgusts him.
  • Richard Wong: Now the leader of his own organization called The Army, Wong seeks to topple both Keith and Neo NOA so that he can advance his own goal of world domination.
  • Burn Griffiths: Even though he went missing after the events of the first Psychic Force, Burn had soon re-emerged in order to stop the plans of both Neo NOA and the Army. He's also continuing his own personal mission of convincing Keith to give up the idea of creating a utopia for Psychiccers.

Psychic Force, while not commercially successful at the time of its initial release, did gain a cult fanbase. It also spawned a 2-episode OVA.

Tropes used in Psychic Force include:
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