Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Review

Player(s): 1-2
Extra Features: local and online multiplayer (1-2), leaderboards

Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is a 2D fighter with a mix of characters from several different animes and manga. The mangas include Strike the Blood, Sword Art Online, Toradora!, Durarara!, Oreimo as well as many others. Players can choose a fighter and an assist-only character to battle against other players both local and online. The only manga that I was familiar with while going into the game was Sword Art Online, but the game also has a few SEGA franchise characters and areas that I was familiar with as well. I'm not a big fan of the Guilty Gear or BlazBlue series, so I can't say how it compares to them, but the game reminds me of the overall look and gameplay of Capcom vs SNK.

I guess it would be the overall graphical look of the game that reminds me of Capcom vs SNK. The game has 2D sprite characters that fight on 3D backgrounds. The animation isn't quite up to the quality of many 2D fighters that I've seen lately (limited frames), but it still looks quite good. You can't really tell that this is a PS Vita game that you're playing on the PS3 like I can easily tell with other games such as the last Sword Art Online.

Each fighter has three main attacks for normals: weak, medium and strong along with a support button where they can call from a list of several different assist characters that can be chosen from the character select menu. Light, medium and heavy attacks can be chained for a combo and light attack can be tapped several times in a row for an auto combo with each fighter. Fighters have around three special moves each. Just about all the time, the moves are done with a fireball motion forward or backward. Sometimes characters have additional attacks that can be done after each special move or the special move can be done in the air. Fighters all have two climax arts that are basically super attacks. All climax arts are done with either a half circle forward or back motion and require 2 stocks of the climax gauge (super gauge). Each fighter also has a "trump card" that can be used twice per match. Trump cards allow activation of a certain skill that each fighter possesses. For instance, Kirito will dual wield both of his swords while his trump card is activated.

All fighters also have an impact skill and impact break. Impact skills offer fighters extra moves for dashing attacks, countering or knocking opponents into the air. Impact breaks allows players to trigger a combo after the first hit - the second hit of the attack sends the opponent into the air for a possible air combo. By pressing all three attacks buttons you can perform a blast that will knock back any unblocking opponent and start to fill up your climax gauge. Players can only perform a blast once the blast gauge below the health gauge is fully charged. Along with all the fighter attacks, assists have two attacks as well. You can press the assist button while remaining neutral for one attack then press the assist button while holding in a direction for a different attack.

From the start, the game has a cast of 12 characters and Akira (from Virtua Fighter) can be unlocked once the game is beaten. There are 21 assists to choose from by default and Pai is unlocked as an assist after finishing the game. The game has a total of ten stages that are all from SEGA franchises. You have stages from Valkyria Chronicles, Virtua Fighter, NiGHTS, Sonic the Hedgehog as well as other SEGA games. All backgrounds are in 3D and offer some very colorful scenery. Sonic's stage is full of obstacles courses, rings and shrubbery while the stage for NiGHTS has a clock tower and many buildings all with a moonlit background. Each franchise stage is represented rather well.

The game has two types of story modes. Arcade story mode will lead you through the game's main plot until you reach and defeat the final boss. Dream Duel is another story mode where your character will encounter many of the other fighters and interact with them. Dream Duel basically focuses on character interaction rather than the main plot of the game. Character images and speech bubbles are used for all interaction in between fights. The voicing is all in Japanese with English subtitles. The overall story is pretty well done for an anime fighter. Thankfully, the game doesn't get too focused on lengthy character interaction to where it gets boring. All conversations seem lively and to the point for the most part. The characters in the game definitely show a lot of personality in both story modes.

Along with story mode is the usual local versus, network (online play), challenge, training, customize and special modes. Network mode has your usual ranked match and players matches. Players can search for lobbies to join and watch as a spectator while waiting in lobbies. Matches seemed to play smooth with no noticeable lag while playing online. Challenge mode offers a score attack, time attack and survival mode for single players. Customize allows you fix up your character icon, title, character colors and other customizations by spending your CP built up from other modes. Special mode allows you to view characters art, biographies, music, replay data and novels covers.

If you're in the game for the overall character look and personality, then you'll probably find something to like in Dengiki Bunko, but if you want a deep fighter, you're best off looking elsewhere. My main complaint with the game is that it has a shallow feeling to it. Just about every fighter has the same move set. All special moves are done with the same input and characters don't have any extra normal attacks. No fighter has extra normal attacks that can be done by holding the button in a direction and tapping the attack button and every fighter's special moves are done with either a half circle back or forward along with a button tap. All basic attacks and special are different, but each fighter feels too familiar and transitioning in between them gets a bit boring because of that similar feel. I had a lot of fun with the game mainly for the characters that I was familiar with, but I couldn't get past the feeling that the overall fighting engine seems too shallow for my taste. Dengeki Bunko is still a game worth checking out if you're a fan of any of the manga characters, but it feels too shallow to stick with for long.

The Good:
+ Good lineup of anime characters that definitely have personality
+ Catchy music
+ It's awesome to see Akira in 2D

The Bad:
- Fighters feel shallow when it comes to special attacks and normal attacks