Bastard!!'s quite the unusual fighting game for the snes. It certainly makes quite the first impression: the visuals are really awesome, levels are like 3d fighting arenas, everyone's cursing here and there (they say "bastard" about 4 or 5 times btw), a lot of destructive spells filling the area, yadda yadda.
Unfortunately, when you actually play this game the problems with it become immediately apparent.
Bastard!!'s gameplay isn't particularly that fun as much as the visuals may want you to believe. It mostly boils down to using your basic projectiles to hit your opponent according to the direction they're moving towards. But by God is it actually hard to hit them. Characters usually move fast enough to avoid getting hit by most projectiles, so trying to only use the basic projectiles in a fight would probably take more time than necessary (I remember as a kid it would take me about half an hour to finish each fight in story mode lol).
What you really need to do is use your special spells to beat your opponent. A few are kinda useless but for the most part they do a great deal damage to end a fight in about a few minutes. You can also try doing a melee attack by moving to the other side and hoping you come across the opponent, and yes its not really easy to do. Sadly, as good as the spells are the button inputs for most I found way too complex for my liking. I'm not particularly great at fighting games, so perhaps more experienced players would be better able to handle them, but personally I just opted to use the Easy Spell Input hack, which makes it easier to activate spells. Regardless, depending on how skilled you are this game will take you like 30 minutes at least or 6 hours at most. Bleeeghh
When it comes to the story, this game provides minimum details. It's not a big deal considering the main focus is the gameplay, but if you do want to experience a more detailed story then I would suggest the manga or animes. The dialogue does come across quite funny though, considering all the cursing and lack of much context.
As said before, the game looks visually impressive. This extends to the portrait art and out of battle sprites as well, all of which look good. The font of the english fan translation I found a little hard to read, but no doubt it fits with the aesthetic of the game and series in general. Music's also great, a lot of tunes I found really catchy.
Overall, Bastard!!'s worth a try if you're interested in checking out more unique or unusual fighting games, or are a fan of the series.
Unfortunately, when you actually play this game the problems with it become immediately apparent.
Bastard!!'s gameplay isn't particularly that fun as much as the visuals may want you to believe. It mostly boils down to using your basic projectiles to hit your opponent according to the direction they're moving towards. But by God is it actually hard to hit them. Characters usually move fast enough to avoid getting hit by most projectiles, so trying to only use the basic projectiles in a fight would probably take more time than necessary (I remember as a kid it would take me about half an hour to finish each fight in story mode lol).
What you really need to do is use your special spells to beat your opponent. A few are kinda useless but for the most part they do a great deal damage to end a fight in about a few minutes. You can also try doing a melee attack by moving to the other side and hoping you come across the opponent, and yes its not really easy to do. Sadly, as good as the spells are the button inputs for most I found way too complex for my liking. I'm not particularly great at fighting games, so perhaps more experienced players would be better able to handle them, but personally I just opted to use the Easy Spell Input hack, which makes it easier to activate spells. Regardless, depending on how skilled you are this game will take you like 30 minutes at least or 6 hours at most. Bleeeghh
When it comes to the story, this game provides minimum details. It's not a big deal considering the main focus is the gameplay, but if you do want to experience a more detailed story then I would suggest the manga or animes. The dialogue does come across quite funny though, considering all the cursing and lack of much context.
As said before, the game looks visually impressive. This extends to the portrait art and out of battle sprites as well, all of which look good. The font of the english fan translation I found a little hard to read, but no doubt it fits with the aesthetic of the game and series in general. Music's also great, a lot of tunes I found really catchy.
Overall, Bastard!!'s worth a try if you're interested in checking out more unique or unusual fighting games, or are a fan of the series.
Reviewed on Jul 10, 2022