Playable dullahans.

[WorgenHunter]

I know there's a plethora of games that have dullahans as bosses or standard enemies, but I would love to see a game where you can actually play as one. If there's any game, any of you know about that let's you play as a dullahan, I'd love to hear about it! And if not, maybe we can come up with some ideas as to how game devs could incorporate them into their game as a playable character.

 

[Ironclash]

I'm not sure about actual dullahans as described in the lore but I do know of a few instances of characters with detachable heads being playable.

- There's Decap attack for the Sega Genesis but I doubt that's what you're looking for really.

- Alisa from the newer Tekken games has detachable limbs and takes off her head for a move or two.

- Neverdead has some sequences where you roll around as just a head.

- There are a few playable segments in Lollipop Chainsaw where you get to take over a headless zombie and use the body to clear blokkades and stuff though these are mostly just QTE's if I remember correctly.

Besides that there are some games like Headlander that also let you take over bodies temporarily but i'm not sure if there's an RPGor proper action game where it's a playable character.


As far as finding ideas of cool things to do with it, I'd look mostly towards how Castlevania games handle them. Shouldn't be too hard to make an action game with puzzle elements for example featuring a Dullahan.

 

[Aerosteam]

Skullgirls - Ms. Fortune.

Fighting game character, part of her backstory was dismembered all around the body. While playing as her she can detach her head and throw it somewhere else in the stage. It stays in place and attacks the opponent while the body retains full control.

Not exactly the mythological thing you're looking for but it's something.

 

[Saelune]

...What is a Dullahan? Cause it sounds like a British neighbor.

 

[Aerosteam]

...What is a Dullahan? Cause it sounds like a British neighbor.

Close. It's Gaelic folklore, a horse rider who carries their own disembodied head. I think it's where The Headless Horseman came from.

 

[WorgenHunter]

Skullgirls - Ms. Fortune.

Fighting game character, part of her backstory was dismembered all around the body. While playing as her she can detach her head and throw it somewhere else in the stage. It stays in place and attacks the opponent while the body retains full control.

Not exactly the mythological thing you're looking for but it's something.

Funny enough, she's my favorite character in that game, lol. I don't know why, but I just really like the idea of being able to throw your limbs around and stuff. Even more so when I learned about dullahans. Still, it's a shame that so few games have dullahans/dullahan like playable characters. I feel like you could do some really cool things with them.

 

[DoPo]

The closest thing I can think of is the game Ghost Master - you actually play as an entity that controls ghosts and related supernatural stuff (multiple ones in a mission). One of the underlings you can use is a headless horseman.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

NeverDead [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeverDead]... ish.

You're an immortal whose removable body parts is a huge part of the game. I think there's a lot of head rolling moments.

 

[Marik2]

I swear I saw this question on /v/

 

[balladbird]

One of the various recruitable demons in most SMT games since SMT IV is a dullahan, although that may not be hands-on enough for your criteria.

Sadly, until the day we get our Durarara hack 'n slash game, the pickins are a little slim.

 

[Winnosh]

You can always play a tabletop game like D&D Just pull one from the Monster Manual and give it class levels. Or play it straight from the book.