Review #299: Aquapazza - Aquaplus Dream Match

 Not for everyone.

 I'm gonna cut straight to the chase before I get into the nitty gritty: There's a very specific audience, or niche, for this game, a niche I don't fall into, which is something to keep in mind before playing this game. Do you enjoy modern anime culture-- the one filled with waifus and moe? Then you might get into this game more than I did, but even then, this game is unlike other Anime fighting games, like Blazblue or Arcana Heart, this game is fairly slow, with little in the way of aerial approaches or combos, but a heavier emphasis on footsies.

 On the outset, the game offers two different story modes, each one netting you a different ending for each character(Eat that, Street Fighter V). They follow the same structure though, 8 matches, fight Multi the robot girl at the middle(4th fight), your rival at the seventh, etc, but the dialogue is different, as well as the ending, as previously mentioned. As for the story... I couldn't get into it. This game is as anime as it gets, no surprise there seeing how it takes characters from Aquaplus' visual novels. Most of the girls have a one-track mind for their 'beloved' or 'goshuyin-sama', some may call 'hag' another one, which will enrage her, also the flat chested girl will comment on another gal's breasts. Heck, she even answers 'Why do you bring my breasts into this?', and let me answer you with 'What where you expecting, respect? This is a Japanese game!'. Every lass, which make up 10 of the 13 playable characters, acts in very moe way, with high pitched voices and talking about insipid stuff. If you are into the whole anime-moe-waifu culture, you might get your kicks out of them, I simply drifted between uninterested and downright bored.

 Then there's Score Attack, where you go through a gauntlet aiming to score the most points possible, Online matches, Offline VS CPU or VS Player and finally, Training Mode. It's a decent selection of modes, which is more than Street Fighter V can say. As for the character roster, there's 13 playable characters and 13 support characters. Only 3 of the 26 characters are guys, which I actually liked since in most fighters either it's the other way around or it's limited to only girls. Most characters come from the ToHeart franchise and Utawarerumono. I actually like Utawarerumono(The anime based on the Visual Novel), and you get four characters, arguably the four coolest. As a matter of fact, I'd argue that there were cooler characters than Oboro, but they made Oboro look cool in-game. Worth mentioning, movesets felt very limited, there's about 3 special moves per character, and the amount of supers varied between each, plus, six normal attacks(Weak, Medium, Strong) standing, crouching and jumping. There's not a whole lot of tools to use. That said, characters are fairly unique between each other, albeit there's nothing you haven't seen on other fighting games. Heck, Hakuowlo actually borrowed Geese Howard's counter! And I really liked how the red-haired schoolgirl was the game's grappler.

 The game does little to stand out when it comes to mechanics. You pick from 13 playable characters, and then from 13(And a hidden variation of one of them, for a total of 14) support characters. Support Characters have about two moves, and all 13 of them have different attacks, properties and uses, so you could potentially pick 13 variations for a single playable character. One thing I gotta give them props for is how different characters feel from each other, down to how they dash or sidestep. Some run, some do a jumping step, some do a vertically ascending dash, etc. There's a few borrowed blocking mechanics(Think... Marvel VS Capcom 3's Advancing Guard), and something they called 'mood', which is basically Guilty Gear or Blazblue's penalty system for players that play passively. As you can see, the story: Unoriginal. Characters? Stereotypical. Mechanics? Not a single original bone. And this is why I said that the game does little to stand out.

 Unlike most anime fighters, the aerial game is very weak here. Few characters(Only one comes to mind as a matter of fact) has an air dash, a very few have double jump, and there's not a whole lot you can do on the air. That said, it's fairly easy to combo onto a falling character, from the ground. Still, this game expects you to play a footsie game, but as I mentioned previously, I felt that movesets were rather limited, so it's not like there's many ways to approach or poke, and approaching from the air didn't seem very effective, as far as I could tell. And I could very easily be wrong, as I took it very casually.

 Seeing characters I liked from a show I loved back in the day, Utawarerumono, was certainly a treat, but this game certainly isn't for me. It's not a bad game, but it's one that very by the numbers, and the anime-waifu-moe-visual novel appeal just doesn't do it for me. That said, there's nothing really 'wrong' with it, what it does, it does relatively good. I know there's an audience for this game, sadly I'm not part of it.
 6.0 out of 10