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Hello everyone! How are the battles in the demon-infested feudal Japan from the last entry going? For this new we are going to switch genres once again, and we are going to go back to the 2D VS genre with another Japanese game that gathers several franchises in a single game. The game is called (catch your breath) Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax Ignition. Let’s see what this fighting game made in Japan has to offer.
Developed by French Bread and Ecole Software, and published by Sega for the Japanese arcades under the arcade board Sega RingEdge 2 in 2014, Dengeki Bunko (and all what comes after that) is just another of those 2D VS fighting games that gathers in a single game several characters from different franchises just for the sake of watching them beat the crap out of each other. This time around, we have several characters from the light novels published by Dengeki Bunko, a Japanese publishing company, plus a couple of characters from Sega. For those of you who might not know French Bread, it is worthy to mention that it is a Japanese developing team specialized in fighting games and the creators or Melty Blood, a Japanese doujin fighting game that became so popular that was finally ported to the Japanese arcades and the PlayStation 2, and which is pretty popular among the VS fighting games aficionados despite the fact that the game has never been published outside Japan, so we are talking about guys that know their thing when it comes to throw some pixilated punches. Although the game was originally released exclusively for the Japanese arcades, it was later ported to PS3, PS4 and PSVita in Japan, America and Europe. In 2015 the game received the typical “enhanced” version called Ignition, and which will be the one I will be talking about in this entry since it’s the most complete one. However, the Ignition version has never been released outside Japan, or at least not yet. As I was saying before, the roster of Dengeki Bunko is made up by characters that come from different light novels published by Dengeki Bunko. However, most of these novels have never been published outside the land of the samurai, so unless you are really into imported Japanese light novels, you won’t recognize most of the characters that form the game’s roster, with the exception (perhaps) of Akira and Selvaria, who come from Sega’s Virtua Fighter and Valkyria Chronicles respectively, and Asuna, Kirito and Yuuki, who come from the manga/anime franchise Sword Art Online, which is pretty popular at the moment and of which Bandai-Namco has published several JRPG games already, both, inside and outside Japan. The game’s roster includes a total of 20 playable characters (14 in the previous version) and 30 support characters. The playable characters are:
Akira Yuki Ako
Virtua Fighter And you thought there is never a girl online?
Asuna Rentaro Satomi
Sword Art Online Black Bullet
Emi Yusa Kuroyukihime
The Devil is a Part-Timer! Accel World
Oreimo Sword Art Online
Both from A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun
The Irregular at Magic High School Heavy Object
Selvaria Bles Shana
Valkyria Chronicles Shakugan no Shana
Durarara!! Toradora!
The Irregular at Magic High School Ro-Kyu-Bu!
Strike the Blood Sword Art Online
As you can see, there are characters for all kind of tastes. However, opposite to what we can see in other fighting games I have talked about in this blog, the differences between the characters of Dengeki Bunko won’t be so noticeable, at least not right way, and this is due to the game’s design, which focuses and making the things as easy as possible. Although Dengeki Bunko never reaches the level of simplicity of games like, for example, Dragon Ball Budokai, where you could say you are basically controlling a single character with a 100+ different skins, all the characters in Dengeki Bunko have a very similar control scheme, which means that, in control terms, all characters play almost the same. However, each character will have their own distinctive techniques and stats, so as I was saying, it never reaches the level of simplicity of the series starring Son Goku. The basic controls of Dengeki Bunko are the following:
On top of a very similar control scheme for all the characters, the developing team decided to add other features to make things easier for the newcomers, such as the possibility of unleashing combos but just mashing the weak attack button. These things could make many of you think Dengeki Bunko is just a game for the casuals. However, that couldn’t be any more far from the truth, for Dengeki Bunko is not a simple game, but a simplified one, which is completely different, thus the game also includes many other game mechanics that help to add more complexity to the title’s accessible gameplay. Some of these mechanics are:
- EX Moves and Climax Arts: these are the most power attacks of the game. At the bottom of the screen we will see the typical power gauge. By using part of this gauge we will be able to perform more powerful versions (know as EX moves) of our special attacks. At the cost of the full gauge, we will be able to unleash also the Climax Arts which are powerful devastating combos that are the equivalent to Street Fighter’s 4 Ultra Attacks and which will be accompanied by flashy animations.
- Reflection Guard: this type of defense will allow us to push back our rivals every time we block one of their attacks, allowing us to catch our breath.
- Blast: just underneath the life gauge we will see the Blast Icon. When it icon activates, we will be able to use the Blast skill, which is divided in 3 different types: Power-Up, Combo and Escape. The Power-Up Blast will raise our attack and defense attributes while refilling also our power gauge. The Combo Blast will send our rival flying up in the air so we can unleash a combo. Finally, the Escape Blast will allow us to unleash an energy explosion that will take down our rival to allow us catch our breath or escape from a tight spot.
- Trump Cards: just about the power gauge we can see some icons. These icons are our Trump Cards, and they will allow us to use the special attacks or skills of the characters. There are 2 types of Trump Cards: Shock and Awakening. The Shock Cards will allow us to perform a powerful attack that cannot be blocked and they will inflict a huge amount of damage. The Awakening Cards will allow us to activate special skills that will improve certain stats of our characters for a limited time. We will also be able to use the Trump Cards while performing a Climax Art in order to increase the damage dealt.
- Assist Characters: just like in other games I have talked about in this blog such as Vanguard Princess, Nitroplus Blasterz or Blade Arcus, Dengeki Bunko also includes the option to use assist characters during the combats. Each character will have their own skills that will be more or less useful depending on our main character and our playing style.
On top of all this, the game also includes other typical actions of the genre such as the Cancels or Guard Crush, thus offering a deep combat system that will surely please the most hardened veterans as well as the newcomers due to its user friendly approach.
Regarding the game modes, Dengeki Bunko includes all the modes you could expect from a title of the genre, such as the Story Mode, where we will participate in a series of combats as the story is told between the combats via conversations among the characters, the Versus Mode, where we will be able to fight against our buddies in local matches or against CPU controlled opponents, the Network Mode, which is the online multiplayer mode of the game, the Challenge Mode, where we will have to fulfill a series of requirements in order to complete the different challenges, and finally the Training Mode, where we will be able to practice all the different techniques and combos of all the characters.
Finally, we have the graphics of the game, which are pretty good, although they don’t reach the level of the always mentioned Guilty Gear, BlazBlue or Street Fighter. The characters boast colorful sprites full of details that reflect perfectly the personality of each of the characters, as well as really fluid animations. While the roster doesn’t include many characters from Sega, the stages where the combats will take place, which will be in 3D, are inspired in several of Sega’s classic franchises such as Sonic, Shinobi, Virtua Fighter, Valkyria Chronicles, Phantasy Star, Nights o Virtual On, among others, which will surely bring back some nostalgic memories to the most veteran players.
Dengeki Bunko is definitely a good fighting game that tries it’s best to make the things as easy as possible for the newcomers by simplifying certain aspects of the game, something that could put off some veterans. However, Dengeki Bunjo is by no means a simple game. French Bread has really managed to deliver a deep combat system that has something for everyone. Perhaps it would have been nice to see some more Sega faces in the roster to make the game a bit more attractive to the western audiences, although that doesn’t mean the current roster is not good. You can get the previous version for PS3 (here) and PSVita (here), or the new updated version also available for PS3 (here), PS4 (here) and PSVita (here). However, the updated version only available in Japanese, although due to the nature of the game, the language shouldn’t be an important barrier in this case. Anyway, if you are looking for a different way to “throw some Hadoukens,” you should definitely give a chance to Dengeki Bunko, for I’m sure it won’t disappoint you. Enjoy!
GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN_B3Db9ZVI
TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX5axLfgpUQ
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