Bloody Roar 3

Overview

The dawn of the new millennium saw the rise of a new race. Shrouded in secrecy for generations, the growing numbers of this new species forced them into lớn revealing themselves to the world at large. Known as Zoanthropes, they also have sầu another moniker: Beastmen. Capable khổng lồ transforming into a savage, feral animal size, these Zoanthropes have always moved in secret, hidden in shadow. They"ve sầu had great struggles and have nearly gone lớn war before. Just within the last few years, two conflicts would have sầu threatened khổng lồ engulf the world in war, had it not been for the brave actions of a few Zoanthrope fighters.

Now, a new threat has emerged. Strange symbols, known only as the Sign of the Beast, have sầu appeared on the bodies of certain select beastmen. This symbol grants them amazing power, making them an unstoppable force compared lớn normal fighters, but always sentences them to lớn a quick and mysterious death. Gabởi, Long, and Yugo have all returned, along with others, lớn search for the cause of the "Sign." Each follows a different path, but they all seek to discover the cause of this curse spreading throughout their kind. Afflicted with the sign themselves, how long will it be before they too are destroyed?

The fighters feature such characters as Yugo the Wolf, a street brawler who always fights on the side of good. There"s Gabởi the Lion, a freedom fighter who went on khổng lồ lead the Zoanthropes on the UN Council, và his daughter Shimãng cầu the Leopard, a mercenary fighter. With more esoteric fighters like Buzusima the Chameleon và Stun the Insect, there"s plenty of fighters lớn suit anyone"s tastes.

Bloody Roar 3 is the newest release from a series of excellent games, all created under the Bloody Roar name. A 3D fighting game, Bloody Roar 3 sets itself apart from the competition by letting you play Zoanthropes, mighty fighters who shapeshift into various animalistic forms. Engaged in an all-out brawl, you"ll take on other competitors, one-on-one, until only one is left standing. A traditional fighting game with a slight twist, Bloody Roar 3 has a lot to lớn offer.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Bloody Roar 3, like most fighting games, gives you a simple control set with which you will be able to lớn pull off some of the most flashy and impressive moves ever seen in the genre. You"ve sầu got buttons for punching, kicking, throwing, và most importantly beastorizing. Beastorizing is what they Call shapeshifting in this game, and you"ve got one whole button dedicated lớn it. Press that shiny little button và suddenly your character has become a hulking beast capable khổng lồ breaking bone & rending flesh. The top four buttons on the controller aren"t used specifically, and can be programmed khổng lồ handle multiple button presses (such as Punch+Kick+Beast to lớn perform a beast dive sầu move). Those four buttons come prephối to lớn allow you khổng lồ sidestep, beast dive sầu, or throw, but can easily be changed. One gripe of mine is that Bloody Roar 3 doesn"t take advantage of the analog controller, only using the directional pad for movement.

There are a large variety of stages to play on, all of which have destructible sides allowing you to perkhung finishing moves that hurl your enemy out of the ring. As you progress through the single player, or survival game, you"ll fight tougher & tougher enemies, until you"ve gotten khổng lồ the end, where you"ll fight a trùm that"s as hard as they come. This is one of the bigger drawbacks of BR3 as, like its predecessors, it can become unreasoningly difficult in a short amount of time. If you"re high strung and don"t like have sầu to lớn continue from save a lot, you might want lớn take it really easy when try to lớn beat the single player game.

When you actually get khổng lồ the fight, you"ll find that Bloody Roar 3 flows very well for a fighting game, allowing you to fight intuitively và string combos easily, while still leaving enough to learn that you"ll be entertained for quite some time. There are even two characters that can only be called "Combo Monkeys" -- flowing from move lớn move very well, at the expense of doing fairly low damage. Still, even the big fighters lượt thích Gabởi the Lion have sầu a good amount of combos & special maneuvers, letting you get inlớn the thiông xã of it without having to worry about being too slow.

Lastly, there"s the beast mode, allowing you to lớn experience the strangest part of the game. As you fight, you"ll build up your beast meter. When it gets to lớn a certain point, you"ll be able khổng lồ transform into your beast mode, which turns your beastorize button inkhổng lồ a new attack button (for slashing and biting style beast attacks), grants you regenerative ability, và increases your tốc độ và damage. If you let your beast meter build up to its maximum, a glyph will flash across the screen, và your beast meter will start flashing. With the right button press, you can enter Hyper Beast Mode -- this transforms you into your beast mode, highlighted with an ethereal glow. In this mode, your tốc độ & damage dealing ability increase massively & you can persize an unlimited amount of beast dive modes. However, it only lasts 12 seconds, và after it ends you won"t be able to transform for the rest of the fight.

Since I"ve been talking about it so much, I"ll mention Beast Dive modes. A very special finishing attack, these moves can only be performed while you"re in Beast Mode và, if they go off, perkhung a devastating preprogrammed bộ combo complete with flashy special effects. These attacks are usually very cool lớn look at and inflict huge amounts of damage. Once you"ve performed a Beast Dive sầu move sầu, you"ll revert lớn your human size, whether or not it went off.

Multiplayer

As always in fighting games, two human players can compete in a bare-fisted knockdown drag-out brawl of epic proportions. A simple interface lets you control character, maps, & option selection, allowing you to lớn stage small tournaments from the safety of your own trang chủ. Allowing only for one-on-one fights, you won"t find much in the way of optional extras, save sầu for a few extra game modes that can be unlocked by finishing the single player portions of the game. You can use one of the extra game modes lớn play Sudden Death Survival (where one hit is all it takes khổng lồ knock you out) or Hyper Beast Battle (where you"re locked in Hyper Beast Mode). Aside from those extra modes though, there isn"t much more of interest in the multiplayer, as all it boils down lớn is a one-on-one fight.

But then again, that"s why everyone plays fighting games, right?

Graphics

As one of the first fighting games out for the PS2, I can honestly say that the graphics in this title are impressive in the extreme. High chất lượng character models & motion capture make this game very appealing to lớn the eye. Each character has a multitude of effects, from absurd amounts of detail (like the close-up on Yugo"s pupil in the intro) lớn light, airy clothing that blows & ripples in the wind.

Some of the graphics don"t appear to lớn have had as much attention as others, as some of the distant background shots can appear slightly pixelated at times, but this is usually made up for by the details in the nearby scenery. On one of the stages, you"ll fight atop an aircraft carrier, complete with wind that blows your clothing in a certain direction, & fighter jets that launch off of the dechồng in the background.

Audio

Surprisingly good is the term I keep thinking of, especially given the lukewarm treatment that many console games receive for their soundtrack. Sound effects are simple and blended well enough khổng lồ stay in the background, where they belong. Whether soft or hard, you"ll hear và, if you"ve got the force feedbaông chồng feature turned on, feel the impact of hits, as well as the traditionally cinematic treatment of punches, kick, and the occasional yell. The soundtraông xã is where Bloody Roar 3 shines. A rock treatment in the extreme, BR3 gives you a fierce, energetic score khổng lồ listen to lớn while you"re pounding the crap out of an enemy.

Relation to lớn Prior Installments

My greakiểm tra disappointments when compared to lớn the first two Bloody Roar games are twofold. First, even with all of the secrets & hidden characters unlocked, it didn"t seem like BR3 had enough hidden elements to lớn satisfy me. I"d like to lớn see at least two more hidden characters, as well as background stories và finishing info for all of the secret characters. Along with the lachồng of secrets comes a general downplay of the storyline for the game. The first two games had a lot of background story that you discovered as the game went along. Bloody Roar 2 even had short interludes between every fight that explained why each fighter was fighting the other fighter! With only intro & ending sequences for each character, I felt a little cheated.

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Bottom Line

Bloody Roar 3 is a great update of the original Bloody Roar games, especially given its showcase on the PS2 system. It takes a platsize lượt thích the PS2 to bring out the qualities present in these games, with great graphics & powerful sound. Although there isn"t much new in BR3, I was satisfied enough simply to lớn have sầu a PS2 version of my favorite old games. Many people who have sầu played out traditional fighting games can easily find new life in Bloody Roar 3, with its eccentric cast of characters & new take on old gameplay styles. Lacking in some story elements, Bloody Roar 3 is nonetheless a good addition lớn any collection, one that I can easily recommkết thúc.