One of the few things I keep myself to the ground lower than a dog for are indie fighters, or at least fighters not constrained by the ideas and whims of target audiences. While all media have audiences in mind if the artist wants their work to be seen, the balance between pure, unfiltered vision and wanting people to get it, enjoy it. That is what creates a niche, what games can rely on.

E’s Laf, or EsLaf1 if you’re willing to get technical, was a 2d “doujin” fighter, created as a passion project, funded by non-conventional means or given out for free. The first game was notable but not noted enough, E’s Laf 2, or the demo variation on the future full product is a massive improvement over the last installment and, as a whole, a wonderful treat of an anime fighter. This review will be a review of the game and its mechanics, then the characters as a whole, once the general outer shell has been studied.

In the demo alone, there is not a large amount of content to enjoy if you are playing alone, an unfortunate thing to spell out. Local multiplayer is fully functional and heavenly to say the least, I cannot word it enough that it is, pretty okay, there isnt a lot of things one should or could say about it. You can also host, but you cannot join lobbies or individual lobbies, that is locked off in the demo. Visually this game is not only an improvement but one of the best looking indie games I have seen in a long time. Music wise, it's ok, while overall the music is great, there is only one stand out piece, being the character select, there also isnt a lot of it.

The first character, or the main roster pick, the easiest to play character, “Main''(マイン) , who I dont think has his name right on info because the dev team used google translate from japanese to english, is like Sol Badguy, in an almost 1 to 1 sense. No installs, sorry. With his kit being long ranging and mainly overhead, it's best to balance your range a little, keeping an ideal distance and pressure up while trying to knock and juggle. He’s good, just not super fun, compared to the rest of the cast.

My impression of Sicsa ( シスカ ) was thats he would be a more ranged magic user, the website is not in good English, I get the gist but really, alongside some magic, she mainly uses quick movements to create openings, then uses her sword dash moves to mix things up. She is a bit better, less brain-dead than Main but I like Main’s design more, nothing else to say here, out of the three, while theyre all solid, she is the middle ground.

I didnt expect to fall in love with Qdora’s(クドラ) moveset. I really didnt. I saw “trap” as her character type and expected the idea that she is slower, ranged based and relies on the opponent being baited or making openings through mistakes, I was solely wrong. Qdora is fast and aggressive, with claw-like attacks you can push your opponents up and right, then set up seals as traps. Being the highest skill bar she is also the most fun I had in the demo. She is my least favorite design though.

Just the demo alone is worth playing through at the moment, for free you get a game with solid multiplayer connection, great artistic vision and a reminder of how anime fighters should move and play. It is free right now, here is a link. ( http://eslaf.main.jp/2/06dl.html ) However, there is barely any information and all official information is poorly translated and rarely supported.