I
adore this game.
Ehrgeiz, better known as that
quirky fighter with Final Fantasy VII characters is a 1 on 1 3D fighting game. This is a game that, before I had a PS2, had always wanted to play. I
loved Final Fantasy VII, PC version, and seeing the Magazine ads "He is back, and he is not alone" with a page-sized Cloud was oh so
enticing. Yes, the FFVII characters were added since the game lacked any kind of
brand recognition, and it needed something to make it stand out from the other,
superior, and well-stablished fighting games.
Ehrgeiz system is kinda
unique, for instance, you have free movement around the arenas, some even feature higher places you can jump on to, and the camera does a great job at keeping
both characters on the screen, as they run around the arena. Blocking is done by standing still, which blocks highs and mid attacks, or by crouching(Default position when "targeting" the enemy), which blocks lows, there are
other defensive options, like interrupts which are done by pressing Special just before an special move hits you(These look really
cool) or rolling.
For
offensive options you have Low, Mid, High and Special attacks. Special attacks consume a
non-chargeable gauge that starts full every round, after it´s wasted, you get a different attack. One really
neat feature, is how most characters have totally unique Special attacks, Godhand can place mines or shoot, Cloud pulls out his sword(And gets a new moveset!), Jo becomes a Werewolf, etc. There are two other buttons, Targeting, which targets your enemy, and the jump button. Attacks are very
responsive, but moving around can be a bit
cumbersome, it´s not too
precise which will make you miss some attacks, unless you are targeting.
The game also has
plenty of extras. There are 4 different minigames, although I didn´t find them too fun. One of them is just survival mode though, but there´s an Othello clone, a racing mini game and a Beach flag catching thing. they are passable at
most, but they are
there. There´s also a really cool extra: Forsaken Dungeon. It´s a
mini-RPG of sorts, there´s some semblance of story, but it´s just there as window dressing. The game itself however is
very engaging, it plays more like a
rogue-like than anything, and you are to challenge a 21 floor dungeon as one of two characters. It may sound short, but it´s
really challenging and incredibly fun. If you want to save, you are charged a lot, and money is quite hard to come by, and you´ll need it, for repairing your equipment to potions, which are a must and are
expensive, unless you want to try your luck with monster drops. And like any good Rogue-likes, there are traps, you might find yourself trapped into a room with no healing items and broken weapons.... If you die once, you get to rescue your character with the 2nd character(Which you must level up individually, and there´s no storage, so no items, unless you care to buy from the expensive salesman). Die before you get to your partner?
Game over. And there´s also the fact that stat growth is affected by what you eat... yes, this "mini-game" is
surprisingly deep, engaging and fun.
The graphics are very good, with
exceptionally good
animations, the movements are very
fluid and look great. The music is nothing special, but it´s worth noting that there are remixed versions of FFVII´s main theme and victory theme, so
I can´t complain. The character designs range from odd to
strange. There´s a Taekwondo fighter whose leg dissapeared(Yup), so he outfitted his stump with a robotic leg that shoots rockets(I´m not making it up), a guy with a prosthetic arm, which conceals a gun, and he even removes the arm and
bashes his enemies with it! While all the characters are really unique, in
both design and moveset, most Final Fantasy characters are clones. Zack is a clone of Cloud, Yuffie is a clone of Sasuke, Vincent is a clone of Godhand and Tifa might be a clone of Prince Doza, but I´m not too sure.
I think that Ehrgeiz is
not a good fighting game, but it is a
great game, it´s very
fun and fast, and it has a bunch of extras, including an amazing mini-RPG.
It´s a
9 out of 10.
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