(played for the bunker's fpga-tour)

really had a great time with this one. it does so much right; enemy design varies wildly, plenty of options to change up your combat style, and some really great music that adds to the whimsical look and feel of it all.

HOWEVER, the enemy damage output is absolutely insane, especially in later stages, and while the majority of boss fights had an apparent exploitable weakness, the boss rush leading into a ridiculously difficult final boss left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. super solid action RPG with a disappointing final two stages, just don't really think i should be getting two-hit killed by a boss and three-hit killed by normal enemies. still recommend it though, and especially glad that it got an english translation.

it's pretty astonishing how much they got right from the very first title, as far as the music and enemy design go, as well as setting what would be the "vanilla" jrpg story.
however, be aware that they REALLY are not kidding when people say this game is almost all grinding. i don't mean this as inherently negative --i actually enjoyed grinding out some enemies before i went to bed each night, and there's not much more satisfying than the level up jingle.

for anyone wanting to play the first in the series, i HIGHLY recommend checking out the patch "that's exactly
the same, only all enemies drop 255 experience and large amounts of Gold upon their defeat. This way, you have the option of skipping the hours of grinding and just seeing all the original game has to offer."
which you can get here: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/5554/

i keep trying and trying to get into tekken and i repeatedly just can't get the feel for it.
and i think i know why now.

it's cuz virtua fighter is so good!
every virtua fighter i've tried is a blast and this is no exception

continuing my dive down the snes/super famicom fighting game rabbit hole, i decided to checkout one of a few Ranma 1/2 fighting games for the system. fairly simple little fighter with your typical FGC inputs for special moves, four button setup, with a fifth acting as a taunt that powers up your character, allowing for stronger hits and a character specific desperation attack. it doesn't do much to reinvent the wheel, but it's a satisfactory fighting game experience with cute visuals and music. it seems like Hard Battle may be the more popular of the titles (hence it being played at EVO Japan in the past few years), so im lookin forward to checking that out as well!

i wasn't expecting this, but Endless Duel manages to not only be possibly the best 16-bit fighting game, but one of my favorite fighting games ive played as well. tight, interesting combat and controls with moves that are practically begging to be combo'd into each other. every single hit feels extremely satisfying, especially in combination with the sound effects, making every shot, slash, or punch feel that much better when it connects. flying around by pressing two buttons is great, special moves are easy to learn, music is fantastic. you've gotta play this one.

thank you JohnHarrelson for the recommendation!

i've played a bit of touhou 12.3 in the past and while i love touhou, i think i might actually prefer this one. while 12.3 tends to focus more heavily on spacing and projectile use, it feels like EFZ is more focused on tossing your opponent around the screen with huge combos. it's also been interesting to find out how many visual novel-based fighting games are ridiculously fun. maybe i need to get textractor setup and play some VNs....

if you wanna check out the game, the community discord has downloads and setup info. invite: https://discordapp.com/invite/aUgqXAt