Brief Squirt - Bloody Roar 4 Review.
Developed by Eighting/Hudson.
Published by Konami.
Playstation 2.
Released November 11th, 2003.
Purchased copy.
Bald Polar Bear.
The game immediately feels like a massive step back from the excellent Primal Fury, Bloody Roar 4 is chock full of downgrades.
Players will notice how much slower and less responsive the game feel is, especially after playing Primal Fury, but this game is even slower than Bloody Roar 3.
Bloody Roar 3 was disappointing, but I can forgive its flaws because the developers most likely had to make compromises in the jump from the 5th gen to the 6th gen.
One trick Eighting picked up, was fast loading times, the game loads very quickly, and is comparable to Primal Fury’s load times, which is good.
I won’t bore the reader with an exhaustive list, but there are some smaller flaws I will go over.
The freezing warehouse stage has a bit of slow-down, which is baffling because Bloody Roar 4 doesn’t look that much better than Bloody Roar 3(they were both PS2 games).
The U.I. In the menus is ugly, but it still functions, I just have no clue why the usual list format was altered?
Hilariously, the new voiced-acted cutscenes remind all of us that this is a low-budget series; the performances lack emotional weight and intensity, and there are plenty of awkward pauses.
I fully understand why, in the past, they chose to stick with pictures and text.
Honestly I have no idea how such a lack of quality was acceptable, I could see the flaws in there other games, but it was very evident that a lot of love and care was poured into those games.
Nearly Extinct.
Bloody Roar 4 adds 3 new fighters to the series, Nagi(The Spurious[don’t ask]), Reiji(The Crow), & Ryoho & Mana(The Ninetail).
This new trio is okay, not really characters I would pick over my favorites, Ryoho isn’t even the one who transforms, it’s his partner who Beastorizes, which is a nice change of pace.
Ganesha and Chronos are absent for what I have to assume are completely arbitrary reasons, sure Ganesha sucks, but some people might like him.
I will say that I like how the total roster has been steadily increasing as the series kept going, and this game is no different, with a total roster of 18.
Staples like Long and Shina have to be unlocked, it’s understandable for Kohryu & Uranus, because they were always unlockable fighter before, but Shina/Long have no reason to be gated from the player.
The new characters are neat, but they would be better in a better game, and honestly everything about this roster was handled strangely.
The Circle of Life.
Career Mode is a new gameplay mode, that is structure a bit like the weapons master mode in Soul Calibur.
The player chooses a fighter, then takes them on a 2D map to complete a series of missions, to earn points, then spent those points on customization options.
A fighter can be customized with certain buffs, or even have their special moves switched out for another characters special move, and that custom fighter can be used in other game modes.
This mode is the primary method to unlock the rest of the roster, and considering how much grinding is required, really discourages me from playing this mode, even for new characters.
I would rather pull off an impressive feat like going on a 16-opponent winning streak, or clearing time attack in under 10 minutes, than to grind 200 “DNA” points until I have enough to buy extra characters.
This is the seed of a great idea, it’s just in a game with terrible fighting, which is a shame.
Trade-Off.
Everyhting about the fighting system in Bloody Roar 4 is completely destroyed by the new HP/Beast bar.
It may sound petty, but the new HUD is ugly and takes up too much screen space.
I don’t mind having the Beast Meter right below the HP bar, but it didn’t need to be so big.
I will praise the removal of the terrible Hyper Beast Form transformation, but the cost of removing it wasn’t worth it’s replacement.
Both fighters start with a full HP/Beast Meter, taking damage in human form depletes the HP bar, and taking damage in Beast form, & using Beast Drives drains the Beast Meter.
The issue is that depleting a fighter’s health causes them to automatically Beastorize, so there might as well be 2 HP bars.
Both fighters have to drain both meters before they defeat their opponents.
During a match both fighters will be constantly teeter-tottering between human and beast form, and most of the time involuntarily.
The player will most likely just transform immediately because it’s better to have the secondary meter drain, and reap all the benefits of a fighter’s beast form; a fighter with a full beast meter can also spam their Beast Drives if they land.
These meters are constantly fluctuating and having a FULL beast meter at the start rewards shitty players over skilled ones, and is an unnecessary overhaul.
Taint Lick.
Players will quickly realize that Bloody Roar 4 is a total downgrade from the very beginning;
The new fighters added, really the whole roster, is just a fusion of really odd choices, what these fighters add to this game would be better served in a much better game.
I love the IDEA of career mode, but I can’t be arsed to grind endlessly in repetitive missions until I unlock everything.
The HP/Beast Meter/Transformation functions were pointlessly combined into one broken mechanic, when the original system was perfectly functional: This completely breaks the fighting engine.
Bloody Roar 4 is not just a disaster, it’s also the worst way this series could have ended, all I can say is avoid this one unless morbidly curious!
RATING:
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