Battle Fantasia - We've got Motorcycle Swords!

LibrarianThorne

What is Battle Fantasia?
Battle Fantasia is a 2.5D fighting game, like Street Fighter 4. Gameplay is classic 2D stylings with 3D backgrounds and characters. The game is developed by Arc System Works, of Guilty Gear and Fist of the North Star fame.

What does it look like?

Pretty. Proofs be under the spoiler tag:

What's it out on?
Arcade, PlayStation 3 (JPN and EU only, soon to be on PSN in North America), and Xbox 360.

Street Fighter comes out in like 2 weeks. Why should I get this game?

You should get this game because it's very, very different from SF4. The game is visually bright, with a color spectrum not often seen in games of this generation. On top of that, the character design is completely awesome, featuring giant Dwarven kings, creepy stalker priests, and a kid with a sword/motorcycle.

Ok, I'm in. This does have online play, right?

Did you think I'd make a thread if it didn't? Game on lists below:

Xbox 360
LibrarianThorne - LibThorne40k


Edit: If people have the PS3 version, I'll make a list and update here in the OP.

urahonky

Oh shit this looks good. It's already out too?

Aroduc

It's been out for almost 6 months now. Two years if you count initial arcade release.

That it's received no buzz at all should give you an indication of its actual quality.

Drem

It's funny you make this topic now!

Maybe it'll get a reduced price version as a downloadable game. If it actually happens, anyway.

LibrarianThorne

Aroduc wrote: »

It's been out for almost 6 months now. Two years if you count initial arcade release.

That it's received no buzz at all should give you an indication of its actual quality.

Have you played the game? If no, take your piss out of my cheerios.

The game is just plain fun, and a real departure for Arc System Works. It's a lot slower than their other big fighters (Guilty Gear and Fist of the North Star), which changes the game a lot. The Heat Up system is very SNK-ish and I get the feeling there's a lot of depth there that I'm not seeing.

As to why it has no buzz, it's a bright, cheery fighter without enormous chested female characters. That it hasn't caught on in the hardcore scene doesn't surprise me at all.

Dyvion

LibrarianThorne wrote: »

As to why it has no buzz, it's a bright, cheery fighter without enormous chested female characters.

No enormous chested female characters?! Awww...

Saw Coraline today... I think I'm turned off of enormous chested for at least a week anyway.

I played another bright and cheery fighter (but it had enormous chested chicks in... well at least one anyway) on the ps2 last summer... I can't think of its name at all, but it was a ton of fun. Lots of schoolgirls fighting over the fate of the world.

If I happen upon this anywhere I'll snag it... I love me some 2.5d fighting action. (Impatiently awaiting SFIV)

e: Arcana Heart!

e2: Just watched a trailer on gametrailers... Wow... a Gunslinger, a small rabbit with a gigantic magic hat... the obligatory cat-girl... I'm gonna be keeping my eyes peeled for this one.

e3: The super attacks in this are amazing... one guy did an attack called 'secret desire' (muahahaha) and one of the female characters grabbed a male character and started dancing with him for her super? attack... awesome.

JonnyBot

I'll be buying it in about a week. Gotta get paid first.

Aroduc

LibrarianThorne wrote: »

Aroduc wrote: »

It's been out for almost 6 months now. Two years if you count initial arcade release.

That it's received no buzz at all should give you an indication of its actual quality.

Have you played the game? If no, take your piss out of my cheerios.

The game is just plain fun, and a real departure for Arc System Works. It's a lot slower than their other big fighters (Guilty Gear and Fist of the North Star), which changes the game a lot. The Heat Up system is very SNK-ish and I get the feeling there's a lot of depth there that I'm not seeing.

As to why it has no buzz, it's a bright, cheery fighter without enormous chested female characters. That it hasn't caught on in the hardcore scene doesn't surprise me at all.

Yes. I have. It's slow, unbalanced, and about as deep as puddle on a 100 degree summer day. You can do it all and see it all in about 15 minutes of play. There are no new quirks to the engine. It has a tiny roster. And characters have very few moves.

It's like they took a fighter from 1995 and made it really really pretty, if you like that style. So basically, it's a fighter for people who haven't played a fighter in the last decade and a half.

That enough piss for you?

Edit:
Oh right, and the completely broken okizeme and the irritating damage outputs. Can't forget those.

Ah_Pook

the ps3 demo was ok fun and it looks really pretty but it didnt seem like a game with much lasting appeal. plus its not well liked by the fighting community, and with HD Remix and SF4 in the mix i would imagine the online action is nonexistent at this point. if its cheap enough (and by cheap enough i mean like $10) i will probably buy it on PSN, but i doubt its going to be cheap enough.

B:L

LibrarianThorne wrote: »

What's it out on?
Arcade, PlayStation 3 (JPN and EU only), and Xbox 360.

But Aroduc basically summed it up. They fixed a lot of the balance issues, but not enough. The game is really lacking in both character count and charm. It's not a BAD fighter, it's just outclassed by what's available right now and upcoming ones as well.

LibrarianThorne

B:L wrote: »

LibrarianThorne wrote: »

What's it out on?
Arcade, PlayStation 3 (JPN and EU only), and Xbox 360.

But Aroduc basically summed it up. They fixed a lot of the balance issues, but not enough. The game is really lacking in both character count and charm. It's not a BAD fighter, it's just outclassed by what's available right now and upcoming ones as well.

Eh, I can be happy with 12 really imaginitive fighters. I'm really liking the grappler because he has interesting ins and a nifty, Potemkin-style of play. I prefer that to Zangief, who I love, but hasn't really changed in 20 years. The gunslinger character (Face?) is just asstons of cool all around, as well. About the only character that's boring is Deathbringer, but that's because I don't think his moveset is big enough and his normal strikes are sort of lame.

What the game ahs in spades is sheer tons of charm. I'm using to get a couple of my friends (guys who like fantasy stuff and D&D but haven't given fighting games a chance) into the genre, and in that respect it's wonderful. Also, the story mode is pretty hilarious.

Sure, the game's not incredibly deep, but I'll be damned if it isn't a blast to play. That's what counts to me, at least, especially when it comes to fighters.

EDIT: To Aroduc: I've been playing fighters for the last fifteen years pretty consistently. I own every single game in the Street Fighter franchise but 1 and the Movie. I own MvC2, CvS2, KOF 02/03/06/XI, VF5 Online, DoA4 (which I consider truly shite, but really pretty), Garou, Guilty Gear XX#Reload and Slash, and more besides. The game is fun as hell to a guy like me, so I wouldn't say that people who've played fighters in the last fourteen years won't appreciate it.

JonnyBot

Don't worry Lib. You'll have me to kick around while I learn the game.

Jubeh

This game is rad. I actually saw you playing it, and was about to make fun of you.

You know

In jest.

But yeah, I'll play with you.

LibrarianThorne

Jubeh wrote: »

This game is rad. I actually saw you playing it, and was about to make fun of you.

You know

In jest.

But yeah, I'll play with you.

Do you have it?

Jubeh

Yeah my buddy has it. Our games are more or less interchangeable though.

Aroduc

Hey, you're the one who whined when I insinuated that it was a terrible game that the already niche fighting audience has eschewed. If the biggest compliment you can bring to bear is "it's really charming" then it shouldn't be any surprise that people stop caring about it after maybe an hour or two.

setrajonas

I'm not trying to comment on the quality of the game since I haven't actually played it for myself, but in the month I've been here in Tokyo, it's interesting that Battle Fantasia is the only major ArcSys game I've yet to see in an arcade. I've seen Accent Core, a couple of Hokuto no Ken and even one lonely Sengoku Basara X machine, and tons of BlazBlue obviously, but no Battle Fantasia. *shrug*

chamberlain

Alright, you got me. I'll give it a whirl. Gamefly queue is backed up again, though, so it may be a while.

Mr_Grinch

I played a japanese demo of this when I first got my PS3, which was about a year ago now. I found it dreadful. Horrible characters and a really bizarre "plot" for the single player bits.

For some reason, iirc, I had to kick the crap out of a bunny, and in between fights there was an absolute TON of dialogue.

chamberlain

Mr_Grinch wrote: »

I played a japanese demo of this when I first got my PS3, which was about a year ago now. I found it dreadful. Horrible characters and a really bizarre "plot" for the single player bits.

For some reason, iirc, I had to kick the crap out of a bunny, and in between fights there was an absolute TON of dialogue.

This alone makes it worth at least a nights play.

LibrarianThorne

chamberlain wrote: »

Mr_Grinch wrote: »

I played a japanese demo of this when I first got my PS3, which was about a year ago now. I found it dreadful. Horrible characters and a really bizarre "plot" for the single player bits.

For some reason, iirc, I had to kick the crap out of a bunny, and in between fights there was an absolute TON of dialogue.

This alone makes it worth at least a nights play.

The bunny may or may not have a special rabbit wizard's hat. I dunno, I found him absolutely hilarious.

Grinch, the dialog can be mostly skipped, and you don't even have to do story mode at all if you don't want to (as far as I can tell, it doesn't unlock anything except concept art).

Also, Aro, if all you're going to do is rag on the game why the hell are you in the thread? Sure, it's not a highly technical piece of work, but the game is fun and that's what matters. You don't think it's fun, I get that, and you've stated your opinion so shut the hell up unless you plan to play online with some people.

Speaking of the online play, it's pretty solid. I just had fourteen matches with Bones NYC and they were pretty lagless, but we're in the same state so I'm sure that had an impact.

Mr_Grinch

In my opinion whilst I found the game dreadful (but I was really entertained to find a thread for it this long after I played the strange demo with no English language) it's definitely worth a rental. It's just so....odd!

Jubeh

People

People play the story mode?

Mr_Grinch

Jubeh wrote: »

People

People play the story mode?

In my defense the demo I played WAS in Japanese so I wasn't quite sure what I was doing

BonesNYC

I picked this up over the weekend and got in a few games with LibThorne.

I really had fun with the game. It's game mechanics are straightforward and easily described by "the bunny has a fireball and a dragon punch"

Each guy has 4-5 specials and a couple of super moves that can be used when a meter is built up. A simple pick up and play game with friends for sure.

Pros:

There is a bunny magician (note: his wizard hat is split in two to accommodate his bunny ears)
Simple pick-up and play mechanics
one of the characters "Face" looks like Earthworm Jim to me. Pistols, huge body, little pointy head that he can attack with.
One of the kids throws is a punch to the nuts.

Cons:

likely lacks real depth but I think the roster size (12?) is fine.
brutally cheap final boss.
no one is playing online
laggy

acidlacedpenguin

if I see this for relatively cheap next time I'm in a store that sells video games I'll give it a shot.

PikaPuff

hearing about leveling up the bunny wizard made me think this game let you create a character as well as level them up.

i'm guessing there's no create a character, but what did you mean by leveling up?

Fig-D

That's just Watson's mechanic. He gains xp by connecting hits and his "spells" (special moves) get stronger as he does so. He's the only character that works that way. He starts off doing shit for damage, but after a third level up he's doing trap to air combos that take half your life.

If he lives that long. He's kinda fragile.

Red or Alive

Not to necropost, but GAME (the retail chain) have this on sale for £20.

Unfortunately, the PAL release is, bafflingly, missing the story mode spoken dialogue (which was in Japanese anyway... ) and all the alternate story paths.

And considering the game's main selling point is that it's a fighter with a half-decent story, well, it's rather a shame.