Strange, weird, and distinctive...but it fits the anime very well.

Posted by Antonio on 16th Mar 2010

I should mention that I have yet to complete the playthrough of this game because the story mode is extremely long. I mean really, really long. Well over 200 fights to get through long. That is the only reason why.

Like I mentioned in the headline, it is strange and weird, but it works well for the theme of the tv show.

The graphics are not cel shaded but anime in appearance, of course. The characters look nice and are rendered in 3D, but with a sort of flat, cut paper look to them. Its hard to describe. You have to see them yourself to understand what I mean by that statement.
Even though the characters are 3D, they only move on a 2D plane. There is no stepping into the foreground or background movement.

The background stage areas are depicted just like the characters. 3D, but in a flat cut paper sort of way. The backgrounds are very stylish and befitting of the anime show.

The camera is mostly set at a snails point of view...meaning that the camera depicts the action at a point of view that is below the waist area...which goes to show how it is already not like most fighting games in the camera department.
But the camera also switches points of view. From below the waist line of the characters, to birds eye(above) them, to behind them. Very much like in the narutimate games, to give you an idea of how it moves around, depicting the action. It is never problematic at all and depicts the fighting in a very dramatic way.

The music is good and fits the showiness of the game well.
All of the important sections of the main menu are in english, so its somewhat import friendly. You might get stuck in some of the challenge missions in the story mode but you will eventually figure out what to do to complete the challenges.

Characters are interesting and quirky.
The difficulty is not hard, but challenging enough.
Nice specials, counters, parrys, and ultimate attacks. There is a soul meter gauge that unfolds to level three. Once you have "unfolded the third level...then you can launch your character's ultimate attack.

It is plainly a good anime fighting game. Simple as that.