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	Atlus
	Atlus (JP) Sega (outside Japan)
	Action Adventure
	Sega Dreamcast
	Japan November 25, 1999 United States of America April 26, 2000 Australia 2000 Europe July 19, 2000 (Spain) July 21, 2000 (rest of Europe)

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Maken X is an action adventure game developed by Atlus and released for the Sega Dreamcast on November 25, 1999 in Japan. It is notable for being the first fully 3D game developed by Atlus, as well as the first game to be directed by Katsura Hashino. It was later released by Sega on April 26, 2000 in North America with a European release coming later in the year, this release featured significant localization changes.

A remake of the game named Maken Shao (魔剣爻) was released on the PlayStation 2 on June 7, 2001. This version of the game would be localized as Maken Shao: Demon Sword and released in Europe by Midas Interactive Entertainment on July 23, 2003. Unlike Maken X, the European release of Maken Shao is identical to the Japanese version aside from the conversion to PAL and text being localized. This version of the game was also released on the PlayStation Network by Midas Interactive on February 27, 2013, but was later taken down sometime in 2016 for an unknown reason.

Blurb

English

Slash or be slashed Cut into the fastest, most furious first-person combat action adventure ever! You are Maken X [sic], a supernatural sword, with the ability to not only slice into your opponents bodies, but also to take possession of them through "brainjacking". Battle against ruthless enemies, collect handheld weapons, and slash your way through 20 massively dangerous levels.

Synopsis

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Version Differences

International Release

The international release of Maken X had several alterations that were decided in advance by Atlus to help the game appeal better to a western audience. Except for the alteration of swastikas, all of these changes are not present in Maken Shao and Maken Shao: Demon Sword.

• EX Specials now require a small percentage of the Maken's health. EX specials can no longer be used while at critical health as a result.
• Several characters were redesigned to tone down religious elements in their design (Shaja, Youthfu), cover up nudity (Iron Maiden) or remove implications of animal abuse (Mud Dog).
• Every depiction of a swastika in the game was replaced with the 無 (mu).
• The names of Hakke Andrey and Hakke Marguerite's EX Specials were changed from Chikatilo Knife and Krupp Fire to Flying Blades and Energy Fire Ball respectively to make their inspirations less apparent.
• The Info section which provides information on terminology, characters and locations in the game was removed.
• The dragons on the sides of the title screen are mirrored.
• All of the torture illustrations depicting human torture found in the London stage were changed to the B.S. Reconstruction Soldier's insignia.
• References and depictions of alchohol present in Amsterdam and Sicily were removed.
• Blood was removed from the Transylvania stage. The pools of blood and bloody rain in Hakke Daru's arena are changed to regular water.
• The stained glass windows in Vatican City are changed.

Maken Shao: Demon Sword

In 2001, Atlus announced and released an updated release named Maken Shao for the PlayStation 2. This version of the game would later be released in Europe as Maken Shao: Demon Sword on July 23, 2003 by Midas Interactive Entertainment. Maken Shao: Demon Sword was later rereleased as a download-only game on February 27, 2013 avaliable from the PlayStation Store but was delisted some time in 2016 for unknown reasons.

Maken Shao introduced several changes from the original Dreamcast release, including the addition of a Sound Test and Gallery modes which can be accessed after unlocking specific endings.

• The perspective is changed from a first-person view to a third-person view.
  • As a result of this change, the player can no longer jump over enemies to dodge certain attacks. To compensate for this change these attacks are now unblockable and are telegraphed by the enemy briefly flashing white before attacking.
• Items are found in crates instead of being out in the open and are no longer used immediately upon collecting them, instead being stored one at a time and being used when the Triangle button is pressed.
• Several common enemies, such as the Sangyokai 32E Claw and Iron Maiden, have a small cutscene when the player encounters them for the first time.
• The Brain Jacking mechanics have been reworked, and now used a Domination Percentage instead of the Brain Jack Ranking. The Domination Percentage allows for characters that are Brain Jacked to learn new moves as the Domination Percentage increases.
  • As the Brain Jack Ranking has been removed, the player now earns Image when defeating enemies, which can be used to "buy" characters in order to Brain Jack them.
  • Many character's movesets were reworked with the introduction of the Domination Percentage. Gou Inaba, Samuel Smith and Bahlinka now have EX Specials which are unlocked once their Domination Percentage reaches 100%.
• Hakke Daru and Bahlinka are no longer immune to projectiles, although they keep their immunity to being petrified.
• The censorship of swastikas seen throughout the game in the Europe stages and present on the outfits of Hakke Marguerite and the B.S. Reconstruction Soldiers that was made for the non-Japanese releases of Maken X is retained in Maken Shao. This is the only alteration from those versions of the game to be kept.

Listings

Development

A work in progress build of the game's English localization dated to February 9, 2000 was released online on September 2021 by Hidden Palace as part of a larger dump of Sega Dreamcast prototypes. This build is mostly identical to the retail release with the game's dub, character design changes and censorship in place but still has a few differences from the final build. The script has been localized fully into English but still contains various spelling errors and Hakke Youthfu is still referred to by his original name instead of Yusuf. The gameplay recordings used for the attract mode demos when idling on the game's title screen are out of sync. While these gameplay demos were rerecorded for the final version, the original broken demos can still be viewed in the retail builds through the Debug Mode's Level Select.

A kiosk demo build of Maken Shao compiled two months before the game's Japanese release was released online at an unknown date. It features three levels featuring a set character and stage for each. Completing any of the demo's stages, dying, or spending at least 5 minutes idle will bring up a "Thanks for Playing" screen advertising the game's release date.

Trivia

• The game's working title was ブレインジャック (Brain Jack).
• The song used in the game's Sicily stage was later arranged and used in the Digital Devil Saga series as the song Blade, used during the hunting mini-game.
• Inside the data of Maken Shao and Maken Shao: Demon Sword are five blooper-style audio files of some of the game's voice actors recording their lines that are unused.

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	魔剣X	Maken X
French	Maken X	Maken X
German	Maken X	Maken X
Italian	Maken X	Maken X
Spanish	Maken X	Maken X

References

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