Legend of Raven / Yatagarasu
  

 
 
STORY:  The year was December 25th, 1926. Japan was on the verge of welcoming a new era... the era of "Koubun". Instead, a revolution broke out, led by those who hoped to revive the Land of the Gods, Japan, and return her to its former glory. The Prime Minister's cabinet, the police department, the Zaibatsu families, the mass media... the flow of information to the outside world was immediately suppressed. Out of options, the old government resorted to creating a group of elite assassins, called the "Yatagarasu" in order to maintain order and suppress the rebellion. These government agents have become known as the "Government's Dogs" by the general populace. Now, they are on the move towards "Iga-sei", which is said to still function as the government's intelligence hub.

 

Cute katana-wielding girl, check.... Creepy grappler dude, check.

  
PREVIEW
Originally a Japan-only 2D fighting game, Yatagarasu was first released for PC in 2011. The game was created by Circle Edge, a 3-person team made up of former SNK talents, which include: Kotani Tomoyuki (art director & 2D sprite artist), Umezono (designer), and Shiza (game engine designer).


In early 2013, Nicalis (publisher of indie titles such as Cave Story & La Mulana) announced Yatagarasu for the Nintendo 3DS, but then decided to move the project over to the PS Vita due to an "overwhelming response from the fighting game community". In August 2013, Nicalis announced Yatagarasu will arrive on Vita under the new name, Legend of Raven. The portable version will include updated features such as GGPO netcode, an original soundtrack (created by The Dirty Youth), new parallaxing backgrounds, and ad-hoc versus play. In November 2013, Legend of Raven was announced for PS4 and Xbox One, complete with GGPO netcode. For the PS4/Vita versions, Legend of Raven will be a Cross Buy / Cross Play enabled title. That means you'll get both versions for the price of one and can play others online across systems.

 

Yatagarasu will bring a traditional 2D fighting game experience to the Vita.

 

Yatagarasu's
gameplay is comparable to King of Fighters and especially Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, with user-selectable super moves, EX special moves which extend juggles, an innovative "button locking" parry system, and similar pacing (even a few of the movesets seem to resemble some familiar characters we know and love). The game has a 6-button layout: 2 punches, 2 kicks, and 2 parries (high & low) and features 8 selectable characters. Also featured in the gameplay system are super jumps, dashes, chain combos (with light attacks), LP+LK throws, and a universal slow unblockable move (HP+HK). The game also introduces a
unique damage mitigation system, where tapping the attack buttons to correspond with incoming attacks limits damage taken.

In 2013, the original developers of Yatagarasu held a successful Indiegogo campaign, raising enough to release a sequel called Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm. Three new characters, balance changes and updated gameplay systems appear in the sequel.
 

Page Updated: September 22nd, 2017
Developer(s): Circle Edge
Publisher(s): Nicalis   Console
Rice Digital  PC
Designer(s): Kotani Tomoyuki, Umezono, Shiza
Platform(s): Arcade, PC, PS4, Playstation Vita, Xbox One, Steam
Release Date(s): Aug. 13th, 2011        PC
Feb. 12th, 2015         Arcade - Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm
July 7th, 2015           Steam - Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm
TBA(?)                            PS4, Vita, Xbox One
Characters Crow, Kou, Jet, Chadha, Jyuzumaru, Hina, Shimo, Hanzo

Featured Video:

Related Games: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Chaos Code, Skullgirls, Arcana Heart 3, Persona 4 Arena, Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend, Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma, Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core Plus, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Aquapazza, King of Fighters XIII, Xuan Dou Zhi Wang, Under Night In-Birth, Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, Akatsuki Blitzkampf, Daraku Tenshi - The Fallen Angels, Martial Masters
  

Gameplay Engine  
Story / Theme  
Overall Graphics  
Animation  
Music / Sound Effects  
Innovation  
Art Direction  
Customization  
Options / Extras  
Intro / Presentation  
Replayability / Fun  
"Ouch" Factor  
Characters  
BOTTOM LINE  
 

 

First Impression:

Since 2012, the developers weren't too consistent announcing release dates (and platforms)... alas, the game was delayed many many times, with added confusion surrounding its localized release. 

The last I heard, it's unknown if Yatagarasu is ever going to come out for PS4, Vita & XB1. I'm looking forward to trying it out someday if I can easily download it on PS4 or PS5... someday.

~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen

 
 

      
crow-yatagarasu.png (100744 bytes)         hanzo-yatagarasu.png (99848 bytes)         jyuzumaru-yatagarasu.png (88676 bytes)         shimo-yatagarasu.png (125213 bytes)
 
kou-yatagarasu.png (292154 bytes)         hina-yatagarasu.png (368260 bytes)         jet-yatagarasu.png (315642 bytes)         chadha-yatagarasu.png (273090 bytes)

 
 

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