(LAST UPDATE: 12/24/2009)
Developer(s): Arc System Works
Publisher(s): Arc System Works, Aksys Games (NA), 505 Games (EU)
Designer(s): Emiko Iwasaki
Platform(s): Arcade, Playstation 3, PSN, Xbox 360
Release Date(s): April 26th 2007 (
Arcade), May 29th 2008
( PS3), September 16th
2008 (
360), March 6th 2009
(
PS3/360), December 24th 2009
( PSN)
Characters: Marco, Urs, Olivia, Watson, Ashley, Cedric, Donvalve, Coyori, Freed, Face, Odile & Dokurod, Deathbringer
Related Games: Blazblue, Sengoku Basara X, Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core
Review: Battle Fantasia is a 2D fighting game by Arc System Works, brought to life using colorful 3D graphics with "RPG inspired" characters and backdrops. Running on Taito's Type X2 hardware, it is the first game to use Taito's Vewlix arcade cabinet, which allows the game to run in resolutions as high as 720p. The home versions also run up to 720p, and look nearly identical to the arcade version. With a diverse roster of 12 playable characters, Battle Fantasia retains that classical 2-dimensional gameplay, but boasts "next gen" 3-dimensional visuals.
Battle Fantasia brings you into a colorful world filled with vividly detailed backgrounds, a soundtrack that provokes memories of some of your past favorite role playing games, and features a cast of characters that inspire and at first glance, would make any RPG fan think "Hey, haven't I seen you in some RPG before?" Hit points come directly off of the characters as they are hit, and ascend upward (ala Final Fantasy style); with the character's total hit points displayed under their life meter. All of the in-game menus are incredibly sharp, presenting a sort of "storybook" appearance. The character selection screen shows off gorgeous full-body character art placed in front of some cool yet subtle background animations, accompanied by an equally satisfying "HD" world map and VS screen. Battle Fantasia also pulls off an entertaining yet simple story mode, with large character busts that come alive with a handful of well done animations and some excellent voice acting... Surely one of the best looking story modes in a fighting game I've ever seen.
Once you get past the great visuals and immersive setting of Battle Fantasia, you'll find a rather deep gameplay system that has it's roots in classic 2D fighting games. Battle Fantasia feels more like the later of the Street Fighter or Samurai Shodown series than the fast paced, air-dashing friendly Guilty Gear series that Arc System Works is known for. All characters have a good selection of priority attacks, alternate priority attacks, special moves, and some satisfying super moves that pan-in the camera for dramatic effect (and it works). The pace of the gameplay is slow and steady for the most part, but certain characters can pull off some kickass fast-paced combos as well. There's also a solid parrying system in place which allows nearly all moves to be parried, including super moves (ala SFIII series). "Heat up" mode is also available during gameplay, which uses up your characters super meter, and gives characters enhanced special attacks and/or movement along with increased attack power... Some characters also recieve assistance from their animal friends while "Heated up."
No doubt, everything for a solid 2D fighting game is in place with Battle Fantasia... But there are further details present that really allow this "2.5D" fighter to stand out. Character "facial animations" (some of which are hilarious) take advantage of the 3D graphics engine, and really correspond with what's going on during the fight. One of the only complaints I have is that characters, while standing or walking around, don't seem to be looking at each other and just appear to be "staring off into space" in most cases. Character taunts are also quite satisfying for the most part and all characters even have taunts "randomly" just for standing still (different for standing and crouching)... Not something that you usually see in a fighting game, and for all characters at that. Overall, character animations are fantastic; but there are a few quirks worth mentioning. I might be nitpicking here, but most characters seem to "skate" around when walking forward and back because the movement speed is faster than the actual walking animation. Some other animations are a bit awkward, but that seems to be a trait of a few of the characters themselves... The somewhat "quirky" characters are one of the only things holding this game back from being near "perfect."
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- Review is for PS3 (JP Import) version of Battle Fantasia - |
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8.5 / 10 |
Closing Comment:
Overall, Battle Fantasia is a successful 2D fighting game in a
next-gen world... It brings together a new cast of characters to try out,
most of which are instant classics; but some of the more "sleeper" characters
could have been developed a bit more. No doubt you'll find a character
or two that you'll love using and will fit your style perfectly, but more
than likely, you'll also come across a few characters that you absolutely
hate. 
They truly
are a mixed bag of personas, which isn't a bad thing, and hopefully they
will get a chance to develop more in a sequel or cross over perhaps...
I must say though, I would have liked to see a few more "villains" in the
game, because the roster does seem lacking when it comes to "bad guys."
In all it's
glory, Battle
Fantasia does seem to somewhat be geared towards a younger audience, but there are some key gameplay elements that are far
from "kiddie," and would appeal to more hardcore fighting game fans (generally
older). 
The
roster of 12 characters is pretty standard for the first fighting game
in a new series, but with a setting as good as Battle Fantasia's, one could
only hope for a larger variety of characters to choose from. With that
said, I'm definitely hoping for the sequel and would like to see what else
Arc System Works can do with this new franchise, because there is a lot of potential here.
~F.Yagami,
Webmaster
of TFG
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