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Battle Fantasia
Publisher: Aksys Games/Taito
Developer: ARC System Works
Genre: Fighting
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Platform: Xbox 360
Reviewer: Eric
 Thanks
to the Xbox 360 some of the best Japanese games are seeing the light of day. One
of these treasures is a little fighting game known as Battle Fantasia, a fighter
that first came out in the arcades over in Japan. After quite some time this
fighter is getting ported in the United States, but was the wait a bit too long?
I don’t think too many people know that this game is out, which is the main
problem with the game. Online play suffers big time with only Japanese players
filling the scene that is if they are still playing the game. There was a good
gap in-between the Japan and United States release of Battle Fantasia. If you
can manage to play this one online then you will have a lot of fun, maybe enough
until Street Fighter IV comes out. Until then all you have is what I am about to
talk about.
The graphics in this game are a mix between 3-D backgrounds and 2-D characters.
This is a mix you don’t see too much anyone since everything is in 3-D now. A
fighting game having the guts to act like this is a winner in my book, I love
classic 2-D fighters, especially from the team that brought us Guilty Gear 2.
All of the characters moves are simple to do so anybody can pick this title up
and know what they are doing. More advance fighting game fans might find this
too dull. Characters have less than a handful of moves; the only real way to
show off your skills is by pulling out a massive combo. This is quite easy to do
have a little practice; Battle Fantasia doesn’t exactly have a huge combo list
either.
The character select screen has a great range from typical sword characters to
waitress cats. I really wish I could say the choices are limitless, but after 30
minutes of gameplay the character select screen starts to look too small. Even
the backgrounds start to look bad too, the same thing happens all the time, no
real stage has character. It would have been cool to see something going on in
the background instead of typical motions from the few background characters.
 Story mode is a neat feature in this game. Each character (there are 12 total)
has to complete 100% in their story to get the true feel, and to get some well
earned achievements. Different paths can be taken, simply be loosing certain
matches at the right now. Nothing really impressive, but it does give some
replay value.
During story mode you can also get the chance to earn new outfits for certain
characters. After each completion of the story you will also earn some special
goodies, again nothing that great, but I won’t spoil anything. It was nice for
the developers to add this into the game but I would have rather of seen more
characters or one or two more moves for each character.
Battle Fantasia is flawed in some aspects. Smaller characters seem to have the
upper hand in battle. Most movies will go right over the character, but at the
same time smaller characters have less health. In the end it really doesn’t
matter since the smaller character always win, that is if you are not fighting
the last boss. Get ready for one tough battle, Battle Fantasia’s last boss is
way too hard.
Final Verdict
With 3-D fighters taking over the market it is nice to see a game like Battle
Fantasia come out. The game does have some pretty big flaws, but with more
people learning about the game then the biggest flaw, online mode, will be
fixed. Battle Fantasia is defiantly worth while if you are a fan of 2-D
fighters; make sure you check this one out before Street Fighter IV comes out
next year.
Rating
7.75 out of 10
Battle Fantasia Trailer
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