Battle Fantasia Review

The latest fighting game to come from Arc System Works, the creators of Guilty Gears and BlazBlue is Battle Fantasia, which looks more like a fantasy RPG than a fighter. Like the majority of games that come from Japan, Battle Fantasia started off in the neon glow of the Japanese arcades. With other games out in the market, and coming of Super Street Fighter IV in a few months, does Battle Fantasia have what it takes to go up against the pack?

There was once a time when the world was engulfed in darkness. Mankind fought six battles to save their world, but lost every single one. All hope was lost for humanity... Many turned to God, and began to pray. But one day the darkness was finally driven back…Before the swords of four heroes. Light returned to the world, and with it came peace and serenity. The world was divided into two major countries: The Magic Kingdom and the Steam Empire. The people prospered like never before. But in recent months... Strange things have begun to happen the world over... Rumors spread among the people... That something dark and dangerous is fast approaching... And they call it...the "Scion of Ill Presage"... But in this dark hour... Fate has once again brought together warriors from all over the world. Some, in the relentless pursuit of justice... Some, listening to their instincts... And some, acting on their conviction and faith. But all determined to fight for their own ideals... As the battle looms near, a new tale of heroes begins to unfold.

This is the back story to Battle Fantasia. Now I have played a couple of fighting games that the story I understand a bit, but Battle Fantasia’s story is as vague as you can get. From what I can get from it, an ancient evil has been reincarnated after being defeated years ago and now fighters have to defeat or help it along. This is really a basic story not really found in most fighters. While others have a tournament or a weapon as the back drop, Battle Fantasia is just simple and straight forward: defeat the bad guys/good guys.

Battle Fantasia is fighter mixed with elements of an RPG. Now these elements are small and do not affect game play, they are just name changes. For example, the life bar shows the number of HP left, and the mana bar on the bottom is the super meter. Other than those few changes, it plays just like past Arc System Works games: a five button layout with four buttons for high and low attacks and one for counters and parries. There are only 12 characters in the game, which to me I thought was a bit small roster for a fighting game. They range from a bunny, a cat girl to human children, a pirate and to me one of the best looking characters, Deathbringer, a giant evil walking suit of armor. Each character has their own individual move sets, counters, throws and parries. The actual fighting though is a little stiff and takes a bit of time to learn. Pulling off specials attacks and combos is a breeze, but seems a bit too easy and will have players just button smashing instead of trying.

The graphics for Battle Fantasia are a mix bag. For the cut scenes, the fighters are hand drawn 2D, and have a sort of manga sketch look, which is really cool. As for the actual fighter, Arc System Works went with 3D character models with 2D hand drawn back grounds. The look of it is really novel and enhances the aspect of the fantasy RPG aspect, giving it an almost cell shaded/manga look to it. Although not as good as how Street Fighter IV pulled it off, the graphics on Battle Fantasia are well suited for its theme. As for sounds, good thing there are subtitles for the cut scenes because the whole dialogue is in Japanese. Now I would normally see this as a good thing, but there is no option to hear English voices. To have that would have been a welcomed addition, if only to make fun of the horrible VO acting. The music matches the tone of the game’s setting light hearted for open spaces, gloomy for villain’s appearances etc. It’s not the most orginal soundtrack but it does put you in the mode for a bunny beat down.

For being short on fighters, Battle Fantasia has a bit of replay value. After completing a character’s story mode, there are others to play though. There is also the standard Arcade Mode, Survival Mode, replay theater, and of course the all important Vs and Vs network. The Vs. network mode can be lagging at times and matchmaking is a bit of problem, but otherwise enjoyable once setting into a game. There’s also trophies and concept art to unlock by playing the game multiple of times.

I did enjoy Battle Fantasia, and it’s a really nice looking game. But I feel that Aksys could have put a little more effort into it. There are other games that are better, including Arc System Works' own Gulity Gear game, but this is a good substitute. It may not be a contender for fight game of the year or consider for EVO play, but none the less, if you need something to play that’s easy to learn and to pass the time, give this a shot.

- Mike V.

article id: 899 | poster: OG