I came in blind,
but WOW!

This is a masterpiece unparalleled by anything else in industry.

This really Wonderworld reminds me of second best gameof all time, Shadow the Hedgehog.

I feel like speedy little rodent in the field while playing, pouncing upon all dancer who may dare intrude on my style!

Gameplay is Mario Odyssey but much more impressive than anything that baka Miyamoto could ever create.

Story impresses with deep seated meaning. It's like Hideo Kojima but with a Hat God Many peoples are blinded by hate and greed but don't realize love overcomes all.

Balan has been affected by such a tragic fate. Do not listen to those that are not sound of mind.

Try this game and become abundant in FUN!

After sucking Alpha 2's dick for a long time, I've to appreciate this more nowadays. Especially since this is Street Fighter's last hurrah to its Hyper Fighting roots that isn't the billionth Super Turbo rerelease.

Its probably the most juggle heavy SF and its the first fighting game to have "styles". A-ism is the most balanced while V-ism(too good) & X-ism(eh) aren't but thankfully got better in updates which nobody played. But I appreciate the crazy options

In general, I see this as the final evolution to THE 90s style of capcom fighter which I classify as fast as fuck with insane combos ala Marvel series, Darkstalkers and SF before 3.

So long, fast SF. I will miss you dearly.

Who knew a simple concept of an X-Men fighting game would have its whack-ass, coke afflicted DNA splerged on many fighting games to come?

Chain combo & EZ cancels
Hyper Jumps & Air Combos
Multiple levels of super meter

This unbalanced magnum dick of a button basher did it all.

Its one of those games if you're REALLY used to other action games, muscle memory can fuck you up. Especially when dodging is concerned.

Memorizing patterns is a bit of a must to master combat. Alternate between weaving or parrying. Whichever suits you best.

Pretty neat when you get used to it. Really does look like an action movie when you're good enough to make a consistent flow.

Can't say I care much on how upgrades are handled. Not a big fan of dumping 1,500 exp 5 (kinda 6) times in a row for a small counter after a dodge. It's unique, I'll give it that. But its not something I'd want in other games.

Thankfully, checkpoints are really generous. Even if you restart the level, the game saves all your unlocked shortcuts. Bad if you don't have enough upgrades but it's your choice to take the risk.

All 'n all, its pretty neat. VERY punishing at first but rewarding. Flawed but still solid.

Also I like how I can spare the bosses to get the good ending but not long ago I keep slitting some mook's throat. But those lives don't matter.

Its a fast pace, less tourney focused VF. Basically, if you know VF's basics, you'll translate fine here for the most part.

One revolutionary thing this game introduced.... WALLS! Cages! Shit that most 3d fighters use from here on. And they are pretty broken for some characters.
See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXgVbqsHS4

You got strings, moves that blow the opponent away and moves that specifically break armor (which no in-game movelist on any official release specifies.)
Throwing inputs are also simple (THANK GOD) compared to VF2. Just combine Punch and Guard. But for no reason, the throwing animation can hit from the farthest reach.

Game has armor. You can damage top armor and the bottom half. Have all armor broken (which there's a special input to do that) and you're a little faster, do a bit more damage.

Arcade a.i. is cheap as hell but that's par for the course with 90s arcade fighters. And it really gets cheap at the last 3 fights so you just gotta know more about the game( that means know the easiest exploit.)
Still no Mortal Kombat 2 or Art of Fighting 2 or even VF2 in terms of A.I. cheapness.

A bit of a sleeper "hit" in my eyes.

Better game feel, just as fast as the first game, some new mechanics that Virtua Fighter would pluck from 4 onward and one really dumb mechanic that you can turn off.

Game has more defensive options. I think this is where tech rolls and safe falls became fully fleshed out.

No default ways to side step but you gotta do Tech Guards (sort of this game's Parry) where you can do side steps among a bunch of other stuff like quick grabs, and actual counter attack etc.

Two new characters added to the base roster. Charlie and Emi. Two corny character that fit right in with a wack ass fighting game. Both having "stances". Charlie can hop on his BMX and Emi.... sits on the ground? Its generally fun stuff and I prefer this over the first game to be quite honest.

Too bad cuz this game's obscurity rivals that of Last Bronx and a pretty terribly bare Dreamcast port (TWO YEARS after it hit the arcades.)
Thankfully, you can play it on Fightcade 2 but yeah.

Shit's fun.

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I thought this fighter was overly animated trash til I started getting into it. Its from an already strange FG series mechanically and then it gets stranger even from its predecessors.
Can't say I blame people for thinking this. Still feels a bit slow but not as sluggish other than how quick getups work.

Shit has wake-up sweeps, juggles & juggle moves, characters have different weights, wall carry, pre-canned strings a Crush system in 96!
Not the most graceful execution (or good on paper) in my opinion but not outright kusoge for what it tries to do.

I'm in a bit of a tight spot. I got to play a game from a manga franchise I'm not very familiar with. I was hoping it wasn't the usual licensed trash. In some cases it isn't, but in a bunch of places it is.

It's a hack 'n slasher and... it's a bit of a sleeper at times. Not because of anything involving depth, but that's another issue down below.
But there are some decent swords and combo upgrades. You pretty much have two styles, Single sword and dual swords along with a machinegun hand and cannon leg. The manga's premise keeps the gameplay from being completely bare. I like increasing my stats for the body parts from finding the bastards that took em.
The bosses are pretty cool albeit easy. The game in general is pretty easy which I don't treat as a negative since combat isn't exactly the best. I REALLY like how with boss fights, you can switch camera modes to focus on the boss or return to the regular camera. Not a lot of games I can think of that do this.
The upgrades really show their use, like being able to dash after you get your left leg (which I'm guessing one review below mine didn't reach yet) and it getting faster as you get more connecting body parts that increase speed. It can encourage you to revisit chapters to look for the hidden Fiends. Despite the fact that half of the hidden Fiends are clones of ones you fought in story, I still like the thought. But with revisiting lies my biggest problem....

Here's my big con, lots of areas are too big with a whole lot of nothing! And big areas mean a lot of walking and running which are more annoying to revisit for some chapters. At the very least, you can go in any area of the stages but damn. Even in the story, I'm just not a fan of these open spaces where there could have been actual levels. Pretty much stretching the game to be longer than it should.
Platforming can be finicky at times which I almost expect with these types games at this point.

Final verdict? This game was ALMOST good. Almost. Its a game I can tell that had quite a bit of love put into it and plays decently especially near the end. But has a some drawbacks that plague a shovelware action game at times. Probably would've given it 2 and a half stars but I at least had nice introduction to this franchise.

I like this game.

Now for the my more complex thoughts.
Its a cool little platformer/ beat em up indie that fills the checkboxes for an insanely violent piece of machismo. It also fills a small niche of actual martial arts (like being able to do katas and such.) Not to say the game is realistic by any means but martial arts otaku will be able to appreciate the touches.

It has small rpg elements where you do training and buy items to increase your attributes. Most games that include these elements also have extra skills to unlock but this game pretty much has them all from the get-go which I appreciate for a game of this nature and length. This is the kind of game where the tutorials don't teach you everything, but you'll absorb all a lot of the small aspects of the gameplay in very little time. Especially if you're the experimental type.
I also like how they don't hide their appreciation for fighting games and FGC lingo. There are quite a lot of useful moves to choose from, even the meter-less ones.
This game is pretty short but has a lot of things to go back to making the initial price worth it.

For cons, it can get a little unstable. No crashes or anything, thankfully, but I've encountered plenty gameplay oddities.
Something about the how the game feels, like jumping/juggling, seems a bit too unwieldy.
Many times I get punished for mashing during crowds but a lot of the time I get by just fine by mashing.

So yeah. This is a pretty nice game if you want a crazy fast brawler with plenty of post-game content. I really do feel Sokaikan can do a lot better for a sequel or something similar in the future being their first game and all. I'll definitely be making some revisits for this one until that arrives.