Battle Fantasia
When Battle Fantasia first came out I avoided picking it up only because I assumed the PS3 version would soon follow (No matter what system you love, you can’t deny that the 360 d-pad is flawed and makes playing fighting games very frustrating). So I waited, and waited, and waited, and then forgot all about this game. It wasn’t exactly produced in large quantities so I didn’t even really see it on store shelves to remind me that it was out.
The game did spring back to mind when Blaze Blue was announced. And since I am sooooooo excited for Blaze Blue I decided to finally check it out.
The game is developed by Ark System Works, who are mostly known for their 2D fighter series “Guilty Gear”. Guilty Gear came at a time when 2d fighters where completely dead, and showed that with today’s technology, 2d fighters can look absolutely amazing and still play (arguably) better than the best 3d fighters.
Battle fantasia is a bit of a departure from Guilty Gear in that the game created with fully 3d character models and backgrounds, but plays like a 2d fighter. The games character designs are quite as crazy as Guilty Gear either, but there are some pretty interesting characters.
Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way.
The game looks good and the music sounds great. The controls are smooth. There are 12 characters and their voices are in Japanese, but considering how annoying they already are I’m happy there’s no English dub. Each characters move list is extensive.
All the standard fighter modes are included. Story mode is really fleshed out. You can choose any character and play through their story. The story itself is pretty lame, but there’s a lot of it there. All the stories fit together and there’s tons of background and discussion text to read through if that’s your kind of thing. You can also only play a fight or two and then switch to another character or just quit. The game saves your progress with each character, and shows you how far along in their story you are. This is pretty neat as it give you a good sense of how much of the story mode you’ve played through and which characters you haven’t tried yet.
Finally the combat itself… awkward. That’s the only word to describe it. Almost none of the characters do a straight punch or kick. Their attacks go at the weirdest angles. Most punches (or slaps, lol) hit at a 70, or 80 degree angle. You practically have to be on top of the enemy to land the attack. Kicks aren’t much beater and special moves are almost as bad. Super moves at least seem pretty regular, and that’s what you’ll end up using most of the time.
This could make for a very strategic fighter, but the game just isn’t popular enough to consider learning its inner workings. If you have a group of friends really interested in it, then it could be really fun times. Though since I doubt you’ll find many other players this game doesn’t warrant the learning curve required to master it.
Stick with Guilty Gear or try the new Street Fighter games (4 or HD Remix).
Like this game? Order it online
