Battle Fantasia

"Battle Fantasia: A comedy about a stick that talks."

Introduction: Battle Fantasia is a fighter which has a good base, but not enough content.

Story: Some world, in some point, has something going on. Actually, to be honest, I have no idea what the story is about. I have played the hell out of this game and I still have no idea what is going on really with each character. For the fighter list, here some examples.

A). A pirate who is looking for some guy who did something with someone with his sister.
B). A mage/priest who has sexual problems chases a small boy around the world.
C). A evil mage trapped in a staff wants to rule the world or something.
D). Some kid looks for adventure lifts up female fighters skirts as an attack and is really annoying.

Muddled and vauge? You bet. The problem with the story line is the terrible Japanese/English babble that is this games script. I'm not going to lie, if you love anime, then you may like this. The story line is pretty much every stereotype which you could imagine. Cat woman, man with mysterious past who wears a mask, sexual deviant nerd, a kid who rides a scooter/chainsaw. Some of the dialog is pretty funny, but nothing memorable.

Sound: The background music? Eh, ok. The Dialog? All Japanese. I wish there was an English option, but no dice. Sound effects sound decent.

Gameplay: For a fighter, it has a pretty good system. The parry system is great, the heat up mode is fun to use, and the cast is pretty much balanced for the most part. The achievements are fun to grab and the difficulty is pretty decent.

Problems? Well, let's start.

1. There is a lack of fighters. The roster is quite short.

2. There is a lack of depth, it's simple combo mashing game. Not much here in terms of technical play despite the awesome parry system. It's no tekken or the like.

3. Online mode is a huge empty room with zero people in it.

4. Story mode is bare bones. It's over complicated and vague to achieve the goals needed in order to make alternative paths for each character.

5. Lack of modes. Story, arcade, time attack, survival, practice. That is about it.

6. Not much of a point, but the endings are awful. You just get sketches/illustrations. Whoopdie doo.

Graphics: Bland. The animations are pretty interesting, there is no slow down, but it sure isn't pretty to look at. Backgrounds are fuzzy and models feel the same pain. Sketches unlocked even look boring and lame.

Overall: I'm not going to lie, it's a fun fighter. It's not going to topple street fighter or the like, but if you are a new player looking for a simple fighting game to play with buds and not too much into the genre, this is a great game.

It's easy to learn, fun, and simple. Hardcore gamers won't like it, but for people interested in a simplistic anime fighting game will get the money worth. It's not bad or terrible, it's just boring. If it just had a tiny bit more, this game would have been a hit.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/09

Game Release: Battle Fantasia (US, 09/16/08)