At first glance the game is a beautiful masterpiece. All character models are drawn in high-res sprites. Backgrounds are done in 3D, and the blend of both equate to a wonderful convergence of visuals. The game is pretty to say the least. Each character also has a fun and quirky style reminiscent of Guilty Gear’s lineage of outlandish character stock. We have cat girls, huge breasted beauties, mechanical marionettes, and countless odd yet cool fighters. If you can find your own quirk, there is bound to be a respectable character to scratch that itch within the game’s 12 playable fighters.
Sound, too, boasts a caliber of oomph, which is usually accompanied by a mash-up of heavy metal riffs and classical music. While to some this might be an irritating soundtrack, I didn’t find it to be annoying and it blended quite well with the high-intensity fights on screen. The one thing that can detract from the experience is the constant yelling and yelping that accompanies each move characters make. Some are more irritating than others (Tao for example comes to mind–meow, meow, meow…) but overall, the battle cries aren’t excruciating, and after a few moments you drown it out into the background.
Gameplay itself is where the meat is, and with that you can take this game into two camps; the ones that will button mash, and those that will take the time to master the mechanics. It’s totally up to you how you approach the game, but to the dedicated they will find a rich experience to sink their teeth into. There are four attack buttons: weak, medium, strong, and Drive. The first three are self explanatory, the fourth, Drive, is a special attack that utilizes a characters special ability. While this array of button layout may seem tame compared to other fighters, in combination with quarter-circles, half-circles and the like, the game opens up considerably and the emphasis of quick dash and strike attacks takes over.
This is where the depth of the game shines as knowing what moves and attacks do what kind of damage and effect on the opponent and how it can create an opening for a combo string. There are also two gauges, one controlling your guard and the other your super. Combine these with cancels, grabs and others, and you have quite and arsenal to kick some…well you know.
Once you think yourself decent, take the downloadable game to its various modes. You have your mandatory training, arcade and versus mode. These are self explanatory, but there are others. Story is an interesting change to the formula for this genre, as there is an actual story to follow. Granted the story here isn’t amazing, but it is entertaining and the way the game forces you to choose different paths to unveil the whole story is interesting and a welcomed change to the usual we’ve seen before in this genre.
Along with story mode you have Score Attack (a variation of survivor mode) and Network, its online component. Online is pretty basic with player and ranked matches and you can watch a match along with four other people. The online mode is regular 1v1, but be forewarned, there are some top notch caliber people out there right now so you might be outgunned. If you have friends who have the game you can always set up a private match for a more balanced game. As of now, the online portion is very solid without any lag and most people whom I’ve come across have been cordial and stayed through the whole game.