Now Playing: Bloody Roar 4

 Kind of a sequel? Kinda? Maybe?

 Bloody Roar Primal Fury has a contested place as a sequel, but nobody seems to doubt Bloody Roar 4's worthiness to the number... despite it recycling character designs and models from Primal Fury. And we lost Ganesha and Chronos for series' newcomers Ryoho, Nagi and Reiji.

 Regardless, I started career mode with Bakuryu and... everything feels off. I still don't quite get how to enter Hyper Beast mode and everything feels slow. The feedback you got from landing hits is also gone, and everything feels floatier and... looser. Not good.

 The new system that makes both Beast Gauge and Health bar needing to be depleted is garbage, seriously, human form is nigh useless and you can just spam Beast Mode by expending a little health.

 All in all... I'm not feeling it. I don't think it's quite as terrible as people make it out to be, but I wouldn't call it great either.

Review #484: Bloody Roar - Primal Fury

 Is it a port or is it a sequel?

Not a good cover, not at all.

 When talking about Primal Fury one question usually arises, is it a port or is it a sequel to 3? No place seems to agree, but after having played both games back to back, the truth is somewhere in the middle, leaning towards full-blown sequel. Y'see, while it feels like the same game, the art-direction has shifted completely, the storyline is completely different, every character sporting new designs and a few changed moves(But only a few, and only some characters), the mechanics have been tweaked a bit and there're about two new stages... reusing the rest from 3 and there're two new characters. Basically, it's more like a very meaty expansion pack than a true sequel.

 BR 3 was a bit light on modes, and Primal Fury set out to remedy this by offering an Arcade Mode, VS Player, Time Attack, Survival, Team Battle and VS Team Battle. 'Extra Modes' has been swapped with 'Cheats', which works like 'Custom VS' from previous games, only that it affects every mode. Cheats, basically, let you tweak a few things, like walls on stages, playing as super deformed characters(It returned!) or fighting at a higher/lower speed. The new characters are fairly interesting, Ganesha the Elephant and Chronos the Penguin... who's Hyper Beast Mode is a Phoenix. Enjoy these new characters, because as fun to use as they are, they won't return in the next, and final, game.

The new designs are hit or miss, but characters only have two costumes/colors now. Lame!

 The game plays pretty much the same as 3, on which I expanded on the previous blog entry, but Hyper Beast Mode has been change a lot. You no longer need to wait for a full beast gauge to unleash it, instead you can trade health in order to use it at any time. It lasts only 12 seconds, but you can use it as many times as you wish, and why wouldn't you, as much health as it costs to use, you can just use Beast Drives, which will heal you a little whether they hit or not. Hyper Beast does seem to do less overall damage than before, probably to make up for how easy it is to access it.

 Balance... is still pretty bad. A few characters have been tweaked a bit, mostly in order to add new counter moves, and Long does seem a bit toned down, but Uranus is still too strong when compared to the rest of the cast. Chronos too is pretty tough, but not because of his Phoenix Mode, not because he can actually rob you of Beast Gauge energy, but because his Penguin Form is so short that it's hard to hit him!

C'mon Xion, make those devils cry!

 The new art direction is very... animu, to say the least. There's an anime opening, and there are hilariously mute anime endings for every character, save for Kohryu and Uranus who get the short end of the stick here too. Character designs are a bit softer, some characters have been getting edgier and grittier by every game, but here they just... started wearing normal clothes? Look at Yugo, he went from an anime fighter, to a hardcore pugilist to a leather-jacker sporting Jin Kazama wannabe to a... skater dude? Well, to be fair, it's a bit hit or miss, Long looks better than ever, while Shina doesn't come off as badass as she did before, while in turn Alice doesn't look as animu as before. Your mileage may vary depending on the character.

 Primal Fury is... pretty much Bloody Roar 3 with a few new bells and whistles. While I think that BR 3 had the better art direction and Hyper Beast Mode worked better too, I can appreciate the efforts taken to balance the rest of the characters... even if making Hyper Beast Mode something so easy to cheese. Overall? A different flavor of the same game. Not necessarily better and not necessarily worse, just... different.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #483: Bloody Roar 3

 Xion was Dante before Devil May Cry was a thing.

The art isn't as dark as it used to be, but it's still neat.

 Bloody Roar 2 was pretty dope and took the series in a bold new direction with the grittier art-style and cooler character designs. But then came the PS2, and thus a new game was bound to happen harnessing the power of the new consoles. Bloody Roar 3 is everything a fan of the franchise would've wanted.

 As far as modes go, we've got Arcade Mode, now with hand-drawn prologue and ending stills, VS Player(No VS CPU, which sucks), Survival and Practice Mode. Fulfilling certain conditions, most of them involving Survival and Arcade Mode, you can unlock Extra modes, which are hidden beneath the options screens and have the series staples like No walls or everything-cancels-into-everything. Kids mode, big arms and big head modes are gone. The selection of Modes is alright, but man does it suck not having VS CPU. As for the character roster, every character returns, with a few new moves and new designs. There're three new characters, Xion the Unborn(A cockroach looking thing), Kohryu the Iron Mole(Bakuryu from the first game, plays very similarly to the new Bakuryu) and Uranus the Chimera.

Characters have three different costumes and/or colors to pick from.

 The gameplay remains the same, two attack buttons(Punch and Kick) as well as the beast button that turns you into a beast as well as doubling as another attack button while in beast mode. Beast Drives, AKA Super Moves, return, but now with universal motions for every character as well as two of them for each. Sidesteps are turned on by default now, and the game plays way faster than before, something I welcome quite a lot. The biggest game changer is Hyper Beast mode, once your beast gauge is full, press R1+O+Square to enter Hyper Beast Mode, which lasts 12 seconds and once time runs out you lose your beast gauge, but makes you incredibly overpowered for 12 seconds, letting you spam Beast Drives non-stop, yes, the supers that normally should turn you back into a human and heal some of your health back.

 While Hyper Beast Mode makes every character overpowered, there's no escaping the fact that the game, as a whole, isn't very balanced. Long, Xion and Uranus are simply too strong when compared to the rest of the cast, although I've heard that every character has access to some very simple infinites...

That's not Guyver... I think.

 Bloody Roar 3 is the culmination of the beautiful mess that the series is. Any attempt of being a balanced fighter is gone out the window in favor of offering fast-paced button mashing action. It's the most markedly unbalanced it's ever been, but it's also the most fun it's ever been. The series will never appeal to some people, and that's fine, because there's definitely a place for this game.... but it'd be nice if they could tone down a few characters, yes?
 8.5 out of 10

Review #482: Bloody Roar 2

Furries rejoice!

Hey, there, Gado, I heard you are the new final Boss now?

 Bloody Roar 1 was a very original fighting game back in the day, I mean, you could turn your humans into furries versions of themselves. It was definitely a button masher, not much depth to it, but it was fun to play thanks to the long combo strings each character had and the simplicity of it all. Bloody Roar 2 is exactly the same in that regard, it's not deep, it's very simple... but it's also a load of fun.

 The game offers these modes: Arcade, an 8-man ladder, Story, a 6-to-8 fight ladder accompanied by fantastic hand-drawn stills, Survival, self explanatory, VS Player and Custom VS. Custom VS can be played against another player or another CPU, and it's a mode in which you can alter a few mechanics, like turning on side-stepping, making everything cancel into everything or having characters look super deformed, these options must be unlocked, however, by fulfilling a few conditions like clearing Arcade without using a continue. As for characters, Yugo the Wolf, Alice the Rabbit, Gado the Lion and Long the Tiger return, Jenny the Bat takes Fox the Fox's place, while Stun the Insect and Busuzima the Chamaeleon borrowed some moves from Greg the Gorilla and Mitsuko the Boear, then there's a teenage Bakuryu the Mole, the successor to Bloody Roar 1's Bakuryu. There're three other new charactes with new moves, kinda, Shina the Leopard, Uriko the Half-beast and Shenlong the Tiger, who actually uses Long's BR1 moveset. It's a neat 11-character roster

This game's aesthetics are fantastic.

 Bloody Roar 2 plays pretty much exactly like the previous game, there's a punch and a kick button, while circle is used to turn into your beast form, and then acts as a third attack button. Beast Mode lasts as long as your beast gauge has some energy in it, but you lose it as you get hit, once out of Beast Mode you must fill the entire gauge again, by landing hits, in order to transform again. Beast Rave has been removed entirely, and in its place are Beast Drives, devastating super moves that drain your gauge completely and turn you back into a human. Beast Drives are much better than Beast Rave, if you ask me.

 Bloody Roar 2 looks much better than the first one, animations are smoother and the character models are prettier. Moves flow much better into each other, and it feels like a faster game. The character designs are much better too, I don't miss any of the characters that didn't return since their successors are much cooler or interesting.

Japanese fighting games don't tend to have this much blood in them.

 Bloody Roar 2 is so much better and polished than the first game that it makes it hard to go back to 1. Sure, it's missing a few characters, but I'd rather play as any of the newcomers from the sequel, plus, Beast Rave didn't work too well while Beast Drives are an interesting new mechanic. The game is still a button-masher, however, so people looking for something deep should look elsewhere.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Bloody Roar 2

 How can a roar be bloody? You spit blood as you roar?

Gado looks just like Rugal now.

 I don't know on which game I spent more time playing back when I was younger, Bloody Roar 2 or 3, but dang, is 2 good.

 Apparently, the game's reception was... lukewarm to say the least, people said that it was the same game but with more characters... but it isn't. Kinda.
 First of all, they got rid of the sillier characters(Fox, Greg, Old Bakuryu and Mitsuko(Which I think was the only interesting design of the four)) and replaced them with newer, cooler characters like Bakuryu 2, Jenny the Bat, Shina the Leopard(Quite badass), Stun the Insect and... well, Uriko is kinda cute and Buzusima is weird, but the game needed a weirdo. The artstyle is so much better, the game looks so much better, moves flow into each other much more smoothly and the game feels much faster.

 Like, the game isn't so different from the first one, but all the little enhancements and tweaks do add up for a much better game. And, by the by, this game totally fits into my October Halloween Extravaganza, I mean, I've braved Vampires, Skeletons, Deadites, Ghosts and even Natural Disasters, now I have to take on werewolves.

...and werelions. And wereleopards. And weremoles. And insect people.

Review #481: Raw Danger!

 Open the floodgates!

Just so you know, the Localization Team made everyone blonde because 'Murica.

 Welcome to Raw Danger, a survival game in which you must survive a flood catastrophe. It's a very original and unique game that's pretty much one of a kind on the PS2, barring the original game of course.

 The story takes place in an Island City, in which a dam breaks and the whole city starts falling apart. There're 6 different scenarios and 6 different characters, all of them intertwined and taking place throughout the 24th, 25th and 26th of December. What really makes this game special is how choices you make affect the subsequent chapters. Each chapter has a ton of choices for the player to make, some are merely cosmetical or superfluous, while others can either impact how the present chapter pans out or things about the remaining stories. Heck, there're a couple of different endings for every chapter as well as the overall ending, and depending on what you do on the first chapter, you will get an alternate chapter 6 with an alternate character. Frankly, the story itself gets sillier and generic-er as the conspiracy starts unraveling but, but the way the game treats your choices makes it very enjoyable to go through, it's always fun seeing how something you did before is affecting this other character. Which also means that there's a very high replayability factor here.

There's rarely a dull moment in Raw Danger!

 What you should know before taking the plunge is that the game is very wonky at a technical level. The game is very, very ugly but to its merit, it completely nailed the atmosphere it wanted, everything looks and feels cold, damp and wet, so bonus points there. But even setting aside how ugly character models are, the clunkiness extends to the gameplay, as you'll notice that collision detection can be a bit off at times. The game is very forgiving, and the poor collision detection can either work in your favor or against you. Oh, and pushing objects around is horrible, luckily it's not something you'll be doing very often. And then there's the framerate, which can get pretty horrid pretty often, all the rain and water effects do take a toll on the poor, ol' PS2.

 But if you can look aside its technical flaws, you'll discover a very enjoyable survival/adventure game. There are no enemies to be beaten, although villains are involved, you don't have any means of offence, instead, your main objective is surviving. There's no traditional health meter in here, but rather, you must keep your Body Temperature(BT) in check, as the rain and/or the flooded streets will dampen your colds, in turn making your BT decrease faster. As it lowers you'll lose the ability to run, and eventually, fall unconscious(Meaning, Game Over). Luckily, the game is very forgiving, at least on the normal difficulty setting. Savepoints are rather frequent, and they can dry all your clothes and fill your BT gauge to the top, hassle free.

Water's your biggest in the game.

 There're a ton, and I do mean a TON of items laying around that you can pick up, but do be careful, carrying capacity is limited. Heck, often times you're better off leaving items on the ground, as you'll come back to a few places with the other characters, and you don't want to leave them without supplies, now do you? There're a few Trash Containers in which you can deposit items for other characters to pick up if they come across the same container, or drop them with a recurring NPC. As for the items, they come in a wide variety, you've got the mandatory key items require to handle obstacles, there's food that can be cooked for a temporary BT protection, as well as heat pads or energy drinks that also prevent your BT from lowering for a while, as well as various clothes. Clothes are either cosmetics or some do offer some extra protection from the water and cold.

 Overall, Raw Danger is a fantastic, unique game on the PS2. All the choices you can make, all the items there're for you to collect and the interesting mechanics make for a very engaging experience that makes no two playthroughs the same. That said, you've got to be willing to forgive its technical shortcomings.
 8.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Raw Danger!

 And not it's time for natural disasters.

Look at their hands!

 It's still October, and I've fought Skeletons, Vampires, Psychic nutjobs and zombies, but there's one type of horror I haven't delved in yet.... Natural disasters. I actually wanted to play Disaster Report first, but it's a bit hard to find, so the sequel will do for now.

 I just spent 30 minutes, a few more if you count the tutorial, and damn boy, where has this game been hiding all my life? The entire set-up was brilliant, the whole party thing, having to act like a waiter, a ton of different decisions(Some that alter how things play out!), attention to detail(I grabbed the bag before the game told me so, so guests asked about it!) and then, the arrival of the flood. The pacing and the setting make for a sublime first impression.

 Movement is a bit clunky, to be fair, and moving stuff around(That step ladder!) is an absolute nightmare, but I think the game's charm and originality will pull through its technical problems.