reviews

Ok first of all, forget about the 1up review of the game right now. That review was bad, and lacking. No information about the actual game aside the "bad camera" and "bad character design" so forget about it.

So I bought the game yesterday along with Infinite Undiscovery, and I haven't touched IU at all ;)

First point, the game isn't a real fighting game, it's much more akin to Power Stone than anything else. But with that said, it's also a bit deeper than Power Stone.

As far as game modes available goes, you have the standard Story, Arcade and Vs mode.

Story would select a character, and progress through a quick story that last about 7 1 round fights. And it's done.  Each time you finish, it unlocks a new character until all 12 "soul keys" are united, don't ask what that means, I only did 3 ;)

Along with those modes, come the Castle mode.  Think of it as the mission or swordmaster mode from Soul Calibur, where you do missions "exploring" the castle of dracula, unlocking accessories and other extras as you go along.  Each characters has their own Castle, and the missions are different for each.

Missions are pretty varied too, from defeat all enemies, to collecting or destroying a set number of items while you have buff/debuffs etc.  It's rather enjoyable.

There's also the WiFi battle, which unfortunately I didn't have time to play, but from what I heard it's actually pretty neat, and you can accessorize your favorite characters with any accessories you unlocked.  (Grant Danasty just looks adorable with a rose on the side of his head)  ;)

You can also unlock some extras if you link the game up with Ecclesia on the DS.  It unlocks Shanoa's storymode, as well as Aeon (the original character for the game) and a few accessories.  All of them can also be unlocked by simply playing the game so it's not a necessity.

As far as gameplay goes, I'd say it's pretty decent and a little bit deeper than I though it would be.

Fighting is similar to Smash Brother in some sense, where "a" is used to do standard strikes, but if you tilt the analog in certain directions, it changes the combo.

"y" is used to attack with Sub-Weapons (each characters have a different sets, like Simon have cross, knife, holy water, while Trevor have cross, axe, holy water, etc)

holding "y" launches a more powerful attack.

the L trigger is used for defense while the R one is to jump.

Left analog is to run around, while the right one is to dodge.

X is used to launch Hyper attacks, which deals a lot of damage, but leaves you wide open if you miss.

There's also a system of canceling moves using sub-weapons or jumps that is explained in the tutorial.

The camera isn't controlable, but in most cases I didn't have any issues with it, it always centers toward the opponent, which sometimes can be a little bit troublesome if you're right behind it, so you can't see yourself.

Button mashing won't get you very far, because the last hit of a combo, if not hurting the opponent, will leave you wide open for a counter attack, so there's a good deal of strategy involved because you do need to know your timing.

the Musics are a mix of remix of old tunes which are pretty great, the voices are serviceable, and decent. You can always switch to Japanese voices if you like.

The character designs may look a bit odd, but that's because they used Takeshi Obata(Death Note/Hikaru No Go) as the designer, but I find them interesting anyway.

the graphics are average at best though, and could have been a bit better for a Wii game, but there isn't any glaring graphical issues here.

All in all, if you're unsure about it, I'd say rent it first.  But I don't regret my purchase of it.

Also, if anyone are interested in seeing the game in action, I'll most likely broadcast it tonight on JTV at around 7 to 8PM Eastern time.

http://www.justin.tv/zantagor

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