Review: Battle Fantasia

Overview

With big fighting games like Street Fighter 4 being hooked up to people’s gaming IV lines, it’s not surprising that a large number of people have overlooked, or never even heard of, Battle Fantasia. Developed by Arc System Works, the same group that brought you the Guilty Gear series, Battle Fantasia is a colourful, light-hearted 2D fighter with as many whacky characters as a Dr Seuss book.

While I am not the biggest fan of fighting games, I was looking forward to venting some frustration on willing opponents and thankfully Battle Fantasia offered me multiple ways of letting off steam. With 12 different characters to chose from,  each with their own special moves/abilities, you are spoilt for choice and will find yourself wanting to play as the magical bunny who uses a bear trap while fighting, before you know it.

Yeah, you did read that right.

The first thing you will notice about this game is the sketchy anime-style environments and characters. Everything is very simplified (ala Eternal Sonata) and, for lack of a better term, “cutesy”. I’m an anime fan so I quite enjoyed the visual within the game, even when I did eventually spot the token cat-girl with her tendency of flashing her undergarments for all to see every two seconds.

The game does also boast 3D character models, quite similar to Street Fighter 4, but you are still limited to a 2D world so while it all sounds good and well on paper, you really don’t notice much while playing the game. If anything, while taking on my first opponent, I felt as though the characters looked very out of place. The best way for me to describe it would be the effect you spot in older films where actors are so blatantly standing in front of a green screen. It looks good, but something just feels a little out of place.

Battle Fantasia does have a storyline to play through if you are in the mood to read walls of text. The Story mode focuses on the tales behind the 12 characters and their individual battles against the “great darkness” that has appeared in the world of Battle Fantasia. Outside of the story, the game also offers Practice, Arcade, Survival and VS modes. These are pretty much self-explanatory and are only really worth checking out if you want to play against real people or you are an achievement whore.

As mentioned previously, each of the 12 characters have up to 10 of their own special moves and abilities that they can use to their advantage in battle. I’m not one who is able to memories the correct button sequences, so the only times I have been able to perform any of these special moves is when I went into “button masher” mode. There is a “Heat Up” mode, which is a temporary state in battle where you character (literally) goes on fire and all the moves are enhanced. Unfortunately for Little Miss Button Masher, the option to get my character heated up didn’t come up often enough for me so a lot of the battles are played  cat ‘n mouse style, with each side trying to goad each other into screwing up.

Another little annoyance (but maybe it is just me) about Battle Fantasia happens when you find yourself facing off larger opponents. Their HP (hit points) differs to your own, sometimes drastically. This can be a good thing occasionally, but I cannot tell you how many times I have rocked on into a battle with 1500 HP, only to face myself against someone who has over 3000 HP. A challenge definitely, but no one likes being pummeled five times in a row, surely?

While many serious lovers of the fighting genre, and those expecting a full-on RPG experience, maybe be left feeling very deflated by Battle Fantasia, this is a good game if you are desperate for something a little out of the ordinary that is not overly difficult and packed with deep plot lines. My advice would be to check out the pre-owned sections of bargain bins in a few months, because the high price tag on this game does come across as a tad cheeky for what it is, and for what it isn’t.

Review: Battle Fantasia Results