7th Dragon 2020: Sympathy for Chisa Inomiko
(an LP EOV Anniversary Project)

Watch the game's opening movie more clearly here.

What's 7th Dragon?

The 7th Dragon series is the weird offshoot brainchild of Kazuya Niinou, the director of a game you might have heard of called Etrian Odyssey (and none of its sequels). Both series, as a result, are create-your-own-character dungeon crawlers. Where 7th Dragon stands out is its heavier emphasis on storyline and characters, and starting from its second game (this one), a unique sci-fi aesthetic to contrast with other, more high fantasy dungeon crawlers.

Oh, and also, only the last of the four games in the series ever got an English release, so barely anyone has heard of the series.

Okay, then what's 7th Dragon 2020?

7th Dragon 2020, and its sequel, 7th Dragon 2020-II, are the second and third games in the series, forming a duology with several recurring characters and mostly the same gameplay, barring a few additions in II. Since they essentially tell one continuous story about the same people, this LP will be covering both games.

Why do the protagonists look different from everyone else?

This is a narrative LP—since the protagonists in the original game are silent, blank slates, in the grand tradition of dungeon crawler LPs, I've taken the liberty of creating a cast of characters who will be going through this story with you, the viewer, and acting as the heroes. I dearly hope you'll enjoy their stories as much as you do the game itself.

The art for the characters is wholly custom-made, by the amazing Kat Langomez, AKA KiraKiraKat, whose Twitter you can find at this link here.. Thanks, Kat. Appreciate you.

Chisa seems a little familiar.

You may recognize some continuity from a previous LP that I helped on: Etrian Odyssey V. I would, of course, never ask my audience to read an entire other LP to read mine, but if you have read it, you'll likely recognize some continuity and references here and there. It's that LP's fourth anniversary, you know. Happy birthday, LP EOV.

Who are you?

I'm Kinu, and I'll be your host through this game. I'll also be joined by my cohost, Rea, the author of the aforementioned EOV LP.

Basic gameplay commentary will be formatted like this.

My personal comments will be formatted like this.

Rea's comments will be formatted like this when I'm not using her commentary like some sort of freaky flesh puppet.

As a final note, this game deals with some pretty heavy subject matter. Canon-typical themes include child abuse, human experimentation, a whole lot of people dying in horrible ways, racism, and PTSD as typical of the horrors of war.

The narrative of this LP drills down into some more specifics as part of its added segments and hammers harder on some of these things. In general, it's a narrative that deals with some heavy subject matter, too, often moreso, especially in the fully-prose Reminiscence segment about the party's backstories and the Year Between, an interquel between the first and second game.

If you have issues with triggers of anything under those umbrellas, please practice due diligence and prioritize your health over the funny Let's Play. If you do feel like you need a more specific set of warnings, click the dropdown note below for some more specific warnings:

The protagonist possesses dissociative PTSD and anxiety and has at least a few panic attacks across the game. Her Reminiscence features her abusive and homophobic family, as well as an instance of forced isolation.
One character, as a minor, has a physically abusive guardian and is frequently rendered temporarily homeless at a young age.
A recurring plot point in the second game is an antagonist who attempts to coerce suffering people into mass suicide.
Many, many instances of parents losing their children and children losing their parents.