By Isaac Sagoe (AfroMania), OnRPG Journalist

When it comes to fighting games this year, it has been a drought. Other than the release of Injustice: Gods Among Us on the consoles, there has been a lack of games to quench my brawling thirst. This goes double when it comes to fighters on PC. Now I understand that the PC is dominated by MMOs and FPS, but a lot of my best memories of PC gaming were playing crap shareware versions of fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat and knock-offs like Body Blows and One Must Fall (true PC gamers will know what I’m talking about and for you kids that don’t: google that *bleep*). With that in mind, it’s very interesting to hear of an ex-Capcom developer by the name of Tomoaki Sugeno (Suge9) tried his hand at bringing a fighter to the PC. Thus, we have been bestowed with Vanguard Princess, a 2D fighter about pixelated women that want to go all highlander on each other.

Right off the bat,  Vanguard Princess’ opening menu reveals a lack of modes. The start menu only gives players the choice of story mode (which is really an arcade mode) and 2-on-2 versus. With the control options available, players only have the option to use a keyboard or a  game controller, with both giving you the ability to configure your button layout.  There’s no option that allows players to adjust the video resolution so they can’t customize the game to fit their monitor’s resolution, and the fact that you’ll have to press F4 to go into full-screen mode and Alt + Enter to return to window mode is just inconvenient. And on top off that, the menu does not offer an escape key, which I am pretty sure is standard for almost every PC program, unless pressing the ESC key to exit a program is going out of style.

Jumping into the story mode, players have the choice between ten characters, as well as five assist characters that aid you in battle. They all fit under the standard generic anime female stereotypes. I had a choice between the casual Japanese schoolgirl, the conservative Japanese girl, the underage ten year olds and everybody’s favorite: The overly revealing sexy chicks (all of them ranging differently on the pixelated bouncing cleavage scale). The character sprites are clean in design and well animated, but I felt that they are a little too big, almost to the point that they take up the entire screen. While playing a match, the camera felt so up close to the characters that when combined with some of the animated backgrounds with bright color palettes, the lack of contrast would make it hard to follow the action. There were times in matches where my eyes lost track of my character for just a second, and that can be enough to cost you the whole match. Mix that in with some flashy rainbow pop special effects and you have a game where button mashing can be the best option when squinting through the blinding mayhem.

Even though Vanguard Princess characters come with their own unique playstyles, their differences are only there to mask the standard quarter-circles and charge moves found in every standard 2D fighter. This is not to say that familiarity is a bad thing, as fighting game fans will get a hang of the controls fairly quickly. There is diversity to be found when your have a pick of strikers, zoners and your up-close grapplers. Players are also aided by assisting characters that can deal damage, give you defense buffs, and grant you some vitality.  My issues with the core gameplay is that the move sets lack depth for players to really dive in, explore and experiment like you see in games such as Guilty Gear, BlazeBlu, and JoJo’s Bizarre adventure.  I also found out that the game’s practice mode could only be activated through the game’s versus mode.

Overall, Vanguard Princess is a bare bones fighter that lacks a lot basic essentials to be a tournament worthy game. Suge9’s visuals were the strongest element in a game with its polished character design, but it feels like the product was going by a standard anime requirement sheet, which makes it feel plain and uninspiring. Its overall presentation misses that “WOW” factor that makes fighting games enjoyable to play & watch. In the end, it feels like the  developer took the lazy route by not having a proper option settings or an exit button within the game’s starting menu. Even with its five dollar price tag, it’s really difficult to warrant a purchase with so much missing from its surface. With better used fighting games that you can find in a bargain bin, Vanguard Princess should spend more in the gym before stepping into the ring.

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG/MMOHuts General Manager

Ahn nyung ha sae yo!

Welcome to the world of Elsword. A world clearly designed with Korean Manhwas (style of comics) in mind. From the original Korean voice actors to the dramatic box frame special attack cutscenes, be prepared for an art style that throws Anime stereotypes at you from the first moment you step into game. In fact, let’s clear out said list of stereotypes while we introduce the six playable characters available in-game.

Elsword – Tiny kid wielding overly large sword to compensate for small dog syndrome?

Check and double check.

Rena – Huge breasted elf girl?

I see no problems here.

Aisha – Loli mage?

What story would be complete without one?!

Raven – Dark brooding swordsman with family vengeance issues?

This stuff writes itself.

Eve – Nothing says royalty from an ancient forgotten race quite like white hair on an incredibly young looking character.

Eve has this stereotype on lock.

Chung – Effeminate boy with cannon large enough to remove any doubts of manly courage?

Elsword was sorely lacking in this area. Luckily Kill3rCombo’s goons destroyed Chung’s civilization and people as encouragement to get him into the action at last.

Carmen – The baseball bat swinging fun loving girl that represents all things held sacred in ‘Murica!

OK I made that last one up, but a guy can dream! Art property of CarmenMCS

Each character plays how you would imagine to an extent. Raven’s fireball overcharge mechanic and Eve’s dual drone weapon systems are rather unique in the MMO industry but the rest have a playstyle to match their image. At least until you get into the various job classes.

Variety is the spice of life, and vital to a long lasting MMO experience

Elsword launched in the golden age of an era of gaming where the primary route to continuous content was new job classes. And while Elsword didn’t expand as horizontally as some of the earlier titles in the genre to introduce some 15+ characters, the job options they offered their starting six characters have a huge impact on your end-game playstyle. Aisha might end up a massive nuker or powerful support. Rena can follow the path of long range or hand-to-hand combat, or follow a tricky mixed bag. Each class has tell-tale visual differences that help distinguish them as well, a much needed addition that you’ll be thankful for when you get into the PvP.

Each tier has or in the very near future will have a secondary evolution at level 35 to add additional skills and combo options to your arsenal. Also if down the road you realize you’ve messed up and taken a route that doesn’t fit your style of play, the cash shop offers scrolls to switch your class without having to start over from scratch.

Hypercombo Finish!

When it comes down to it, no amount of cool classes or interesting character roster is going to save a brawler if it doesn’t play well. Thankfully Elsword offers a hearty mix of 2D fighting games, Smash Bros style platforming, and simplistic controls that can keep the initiated and arcade veteran alike happy.

Novices can casually grind through the game just by spamming X and Z, your two primary attacks, in various random orders along with the occasional skill to mix things up. Veteran players however can take these simple controls and memorize special combos unique to each character (and sometimes even unique to job classes within a character) to juggle both PvE mobs and enemy players in brutal fashion. This isn’t easy to learn and will take some dedication to do well even against monsters, but the rewards for spending the time to learn your character will pay off in end-game dungeons and PvP.

One issue with the combat that might irk fighting game fans and Smash Bros fans alike is the total lack of a default block option. If your enemy is aiming to strike you, and you can’t get out of the way, prepare to eat the dirt in true Manwha cutscene fashion. That’s not to say there is no blocking at all as some classes can acquire skills to deflect or defend against enemy attacks, but even then it’s going to cost you one of your vital limited skill slots to utilize. Again this is where knowing how your various skill combos work will come in handy as some have built in gap closers and dodges that will allow you to keep a combo rolling while avoiding counter-attacks.

It’s opinionated whether this is good or bad for gameplay as it does incentivize a more action packed offensive mindset that ‘he who combos first, wins.’ I personally think it removes one possible strategic action to an otherwise outstanding combat system.

Though one minor knit pick I can’t stress enough. Why does the mouse wheel work as zoom in town but not in dungeons? I can’t count how many dungeons I ran fully zoomed in on my character before I found the obscure map button used to manually zoom in and out. This is a UI disaster that needs fixed asap.

Though the view wasn’t half bad.

Continue to Part 2 – Gameplay, PvP, and Balance