[360] Battle Fantasia

Battle Fantasia is a fairly niche 2D fighter, created by those who did the Guilty Gear series, Aksys Games. Although there aren't any particularly new conventions in it and the fighting system may feel rather clunky to some people, the main draw here is the fantastic 3D graphics. Each character and stage is in high-quality 3D, although the fighting is still confined to the horizontal plane we've all come to know and love. A word of warning though, the character designs are quite ridiculous which may turn some people off, ranging from a tiny rabbit magician, to a metrosexual ex-knight.

In addition, the story mode has completely voiced dialogue with two main paths for each character and several variations to the skits depending on what you do in battle (eg. use a certain move X times). The whole world is set up to have an RPG feel as the characters display HP under their health bars as an alternate indicator as to their current survivability. However, fortunately or not, there are no real RPG elements other than the branching, interconnected storylines.

Gameplay mechanics are fairly standard, combos require skill over button mashing for the most part. The Heat Up mechanic allows for powerful tactics like additional attacks and enhancements to existing moves. The parrying system includes the option to wall bounce your opponent and perform long and damaging combos off the bounce, as punishment to those who become too predictable and a reward for those who can come up with creative combos.

As for bonuses, the unlockable colors and costumes are quite nifty, outfitting your characters with mecha colours and superhero garb to name a couple. Win poses are fairly in-depth as well, each character having a fairly humorous way of interacting with the fallen opponent. Of course, there's always those achievements for those of us that take the time to get silly amounts of hits in combos and fully complete the story mode and all that. Online play is also available of course.

Screens

Source: gamespot

Links
Official Site
Wiki

I'm curious as to whether there are any people here on GFF that play it as the online community seems to be almost non-existent for the most part given the limited exposure this title seems to have received. The game came out Q4 last year, but without much fanfare or publicity, and unfortunately only the X360 version at that. Regardless, it's still worth a look if you love 2D fighters and crazy character designs.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Too bad, I see at least one copy in every EB and Gamespot here as well as other places, left unpurchased. :/ That said, I also wouldn't recommend getting this at full price unless you really love nonsensical character designs, and their resulting nonsensical moves. $59.99 is too much if you're going to just play this once in a while as a fighter on the side and not appreciate the story mode paths and such.

Concerning lag, I'm usually not too concerned as the experience is different for everyone across any game. As long as the lag isn't like the crippling SCIV on PS3 kind I've experienced. This game is already pretty humorous as is.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by lemonmanko

game is nice i have to admit
but the online match service for it sucks
had to look for a match for a hour...that's just horrible in my book for a fighting game.

If you're playing Battle Fantasia these days, then I wouldn't mind having some matches with you. I've never tried the online and haven't played for months since I got all the achievements that are feasible for me. However, I still wouldn't mind throwing a few drills and meteor storms here and there.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.