With recent fighters like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom rocking the Wii, and upcoming brawlers like BlazBlue Portable and Super Street Fighter 4 to look forward to, it can be easy to overlook and forget some of the lesser fighting games. Recently I just picked up a little-known 2-D fighter for the Xbox 360 for only ten bucks. It’s called Battle Fantasia, and I thought I’d talk a little bit about it here because of its lively cast of characters, always a plus in a fighting game.

Of course, just because I’m honoring Battle Fantasia doesn’t mean it’s really any good. It’s made by the same folks who did Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, but uses 3-D graphics instead of hand drawn 2-D ones, so it loses a bit of its charm. And while the characters are colorful, the graphics sure don’t show it, with bland earth tone hues of mostly browns. It’s also not a very beginner-friendly fighter, with a last boss that’s incredibly cheap and impossible to beat. Not a whole lot of gameplay modes either. Story Mode is exactly like Arcade Mode except with more text.

At any rate, Battle Fantasia has a fairy tale medieval fantasy storyline, with a great evil being born again after getting defeated by legendary heroes long ago. Typical stuff. Anyway, here are the characters in the game:

Urs

Yep, that’s his name. It’s funny when the Japanese narrator tries to pronounce it. Sounds like he’s passing a brick! Urs looks like a young knight character, but instead of a sword, he has a weird weapon that looks like a futuristic piece of power lawn equipment. And like a weedwhacker, his taunt move has him revving it up like a pull crank lawnmower! His taunt move is actually pretty useful, though, because if you can crank the weedwhacker enough times, Urs automatically goes into Heat Mode. Heat Mode is the game’s EX meter that fills when you take and dish out damage. When it’s full you can push all the buttons and your character engulfs in a flaming aura and has access to more powerful blows and attacks temporarily.

Marco

He’s just a little kid, the son of the old great hero and Urs’ little brother. His sword and knight helmet is much too big for him, and he ‘tawks wike dis.’ In Heat Mode, he summons a baby dragon to attack. Very funny and silly character.

Olivia

She’s a princess and fights with a spear with a flag on it. Her attacks are graceful and there are lots of hearts and flowers in her win poses. When she’s in Heat Mode, birds and woodland creatures surround her.

Ashley

Blech! I hate emo pretty boy anime characters. This guy looks kind of like a vampire, too. Double ick. So we won’t talk about him much. He can make his purple cape turn into couch he can sit on in his taunt move, so that’s kind of cool.

Cedric

Ewww, this guy looks like an androgynous acolyte priest. He looks too woman-y to be a guy. Short shorts and feminine legs and all that.

Coyori

One of my best friends likes catgirl characters, but I can’t really get into them. They’re usually too fan-servicey or too dopey and silly. And that’s saying a lot considering most game characters I like are silly and dopey. Coyori is a catgirl waitress who literally mops the floor with her opponents. Only two cool things about her is that she uses her tail like a helicopter in some of her moves, and she manages to keep that platter of food in her hand upright at all times, even when she fights!

Freed

He’s a pirate character with a HUGE hook for a hand that he uses to bludgeon his foes.

Face

He’s an assassin who uses a lot of gunslinging attacks. His text makes him sound like he’s got a western accent. He wears a hooded mask but it doesn’t look like a head could fit under there. Some may say his mask looks like a KKK hood, but I think it looks more like a banana peel!

Donvalve

He’s a huge fat character who used to be king of a steam powered dwarven city. He has armor and a steam powered backpack to help him pull off quick moves and jumps so he isn’t so slow. He’s kind of like a steampunk cyberkinetic Santa Claus!

Odile and Dokurod

She’s a dark goth evil version of the princess character, but she’s actually just a puppet controlled by her weapon, a spear with a talking skull at the end of it. Very weird character and the skull has a chipmunk-sounding voice!

Death Bringer

This is the last boss, but you can play as his first form. He’s like a lamer version of Nightmare from Soul Calibur. In his final form, he has five times as much energy as you. And you can only significantly damage him when you’re in Heat Mode. Needless to say, I can’t beat him.

Watson

Yay! I saved my favorite character for last! He’s a bunny rabbit who’s also a great wizard. Aside from a flippy jump attack, he doesn’t hit enemies directly. Instead he makes shapes out of constellations that hit his foes. He also has funny opening and winning poses. He’ll wake up in a carrot patch before fighting, and when he wins against Cedric the priest(ess?), he’ll whip out a chalkboard and start lecturing him! It would be neat if Watson had his own game, and it was something other than a fighter, like a Klonoa style platformer or something.

Easter Conclusions

And that’s all I feel like saying about Battle Fantasia. I mainly wrote this blog so I could have a rabbity character up near Easter-time. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Both the religious and secular aspects of Easter are fun. I like how they get creative with Easter products. And all the pastel colors remind me of my favorite video games, like Kirby. In the comments section, let me know who your favorite video game bunny characters are. Mine are Max from Sam & Max, as well as Jazz Jackrabbit. Also, what’s your favorite Easter candy? Easter has the best candy. My favorite is Bunny Munny. It’s cheap Nestle Crunch rip off coin shaped chocolates. It had pictures of lammies and duckies and bunnies with monetary values on them. Little brother Jeff and I used to use them as betting money for poker (don’t worry, we shared the winnings). I don’t think they make them anymore, though. Haven’t seen ‘em in a while. So until next time: Happy Easter!

Tags: Game Reviews