The Forgotten ArcSys Fighter - Battle Fantasia 

Damn, I didn't know Texans could confirm their dp's into dp from anywhere on screen. The more you know

I remember a conversion I had with Emiko Iwasaki in the mid-2010s. She was pretty bitter about her experience with Arcsys. She claimed she regularly got talked over and had to add a bunch of things to the game she didn't really want- she really wanted to make a more accessible game. I think she now works in MObile gaming. I hope she's doing well. This was the first fighting game with a woman lead designer.

I genuinely love Battle Fantasia. I wish Arcsys would have included a Battle Fantasia character in their crossover game Blazblue Tag Battle.

10:02 I mean, Texas is the origin of the DP (Dr. Pepper)

Coyori was voiced by Umeka Shoji, who also voiced the latest incarnation of Nekomusume in Gegege no Kitarou, making her a rare double catgirl voice actress. Come to think of it, Taokaka in Blazblue was voiced by Chiwa Saito, who also voices all the Tamamos in Fate, which are foxes so she doesn't count as a double catgirl...until you remember she was the voice of Xiaomei in Shining Hearts, who was also in Blade Arcus, another fighting game you should talk about. Therefore, I must conclude, I like fighting game catgirls.

I was aware of Battle Fantasia's existence but until today I had never seen any gameplay of it. I actually didn't even knew it was 3D.

It's amazing how massively important Battle Fantasia is. It didn't just inspire SF4 to go 3D, rather when they did the early alpha tests of SF4 it was TERRIBLE because of the controls. Then they saw a Battle Fantasia machine at the arcade and said "THAT. Do it like THAT." More specifically, the alpha version of SF4 used full animation which made the controls TERRIBLE. 3D fighter style animation in a 2D fighter sucks because all attacks had too many frames. SFEX and Slap Happy Rythm Busters got around this by making the animations play ridiculously fast, but Battle Fantasia chose to force 3D models to behave like 2D sprites, having each frame be hand posed (and I'm pretty sure the hitboxes are in 2D too). This DRASTICALLY improved play control and well...paved the way for everything else that came after! Without Battle Fantasia, SF4 would have been terrible and the entire fighting game renaissance may have never happened.

I absolutely love this game's visual aesthetic. It gives off the exact vibes of a classic PS2 era JRPG that would've become a beloved cult classic that people would still be talking about fondly for years to come. Also Freed's design was totally inspired by John Silver from the classic Osamu Dezaki anime Takarajima/Treasure Island (1978)

This game did something interesting with its boss fight (a super-powered DeathBringer) by essentially requiring you to enter Heat Mode in order to really do any damage to him, as you literally only do like 1 or 2 HP damage otherwise & he has super armor if you're not in Heat. It pretty much forces the player to actually engage with its mechanics & learn how each character's Heat Up works in order to defeat the boss, which is neat.

Lol, Arcsys said that they couldn't make Sin's flag wave untill Strive because of some limitations, yet here we se Olivia with waving flag in a game that released before Xrd.

They also made a Contra game. It kinda jank but it has the spirit for sure.

I've considered covering this game on multiple occasions but I'm glad you beat me to it, great video!

You can see how influential this game was, SFV v triggers are basically the heat up system. I don't think we'll get a sequel but maybe they could guest in gbvs

This was the game that made me love fighting games I had my parents drive me all over for the physical release and then I stayed up all night playing it. Seeing any love for it makes me ecstatic. Great vid as always guile!

16:9 moment...

The only time I ever saw this was in a super dingy salaryman arcade in Shinbashi, crammed in between some strip mahjong games and an old SF cab, and I got so intrigued because I had never seen it or something like it before. We got a couple of sets in but not to get any system mechanics nor move lists really. Still, it really made an impression, fun to see a video about it.

The Granblue comparison is really apt, and it scratches a few of the same itches (mainly early GBVS).

This looked so cool. Getting Power Stone and Soul Caliber vibes. Never heard of this thanks for covering it. This showed up in my recommendations.

Talked about this game with my friends last week, surprised how impactful this short lived game was. This was a delightful video for nostalgia’s sake. Thank you for putting this out. I’m hoping arcsys gives this franchise another chance.

Shoutouts to the story / singleplayer mode, having one of the most ridiculously difficult boss fights I ever had the displeasure of going through Honestly kind of soured me on the game, back when I played it on PC +6 years ago. I always did thought it played really well, and I'm glad you were able to highlight it for others to try out Guile! Cheers 🤙

One thing you forgot to mention when you (briefly) brought up Blazblue is that it was meant to be an easier version of Guilty Gear, because ArcSys assumed GG's high skill floor was killing its potential for newcomers. Seeing as Blazblue was infinitely more successful before GGST, they were probably right.

Kinda funny you didn't mention the "story mode" which in all fairness is just the arcade ladder but every fight has a small visual novel to explain stuff... But as somebody who found the eu ps3 version CIB for 10 euros i kinda hoped you'd mention some of the more unironically funny moments that happen in it such as Marco's super sentai episode, Urs being terrible at ordering soda because he forgot he spent all his money earlier and Freed being attacked by a child because he liked petting Marco's dragon... oh and the random as hell Dragon quest joke when Dokurod finds Marco "saving his progress" in his evil church of Stock scary sound effects. I DID NOT MAKE ANY OF THESE EVENTS UP.

I REMEMBER THIS GAME. After searching around dustloop I saw this game and was like "oh I wonder what this is about" and went down the rabbit hole and almost bought it. It seems really cool but no rollback is a _really_ hard sell in this day and age. Good to know that there's still a dedicated community surrounding it tho.

This game is awesome. As a filthy Donvalve main, I was honestly surprised when you said his grab range is so short. I guess it is but I don't really notice because his ability to get in is so strong.

Props to everyone who paused at 0:59 to make sure they could name all the games. I couldn't.

GUILEWINQUOTE BACK WITH FUCKING BATTLE FANTASIA!? WOOOOOHOOOO

Glad to see a video about this made by you. This game I think needs more credit and attention. Also that moment when Watson is pretty much a mix between May, Faust, Testement, Platinum the Trinity, and Nine the Phantom

The game literally just went on sale, so I'm taking this as opportunity to try it out!

I played this back when it came out. I liked it quite a bit. I remember seeing it in bargain bins for only $10 not long after. I should have bought it.

God, the goofy shit that was Battle Fantasia. I had fun with it and was one of the few I had for the XB360

This really feels like a predecessor that led to granblue vs, a lot of the same concepts for the gameplay when comapred to the average arcsys anime fighter, and also both are them are settings that are very tropey inspired by classic jrpgs.

This looks amazing!!! Thanks for showing obscure gems

Battle fantasia was great i picked it up when it came out and i enjoyed it a lot. Its great to see someone else talk about it sonce it seems that it is but a forgotten relic of fighting games

We never forgot! This is a well done video! Thank you for bringing new attention to this gem. It's one of my personal favorite fighters. I have also felt the comparisons between Battle Fantasia and Granblue Fantasy Versus, I'm glad to not be the only one!

I thought this was a fever dream, I didn't even realize this game actually existed. I remember going to this one 'Arcade' after school that was just a room full of consoles with a couple of attendants that helped you set up the games if you needed it, and playing this specific game while drinking from that weird type of juice shaped like a barrel, Hug I think it was. I played Paper Mario there, too.

This game is so much fun. A true gem I played a lot to know the characters and story when I was getting into fighting games. Endlessly charming

I had this game on Xbox 360 and Arcade Infinity (RIP) in SoCal had a cabinet. First played it at a friends house on PS3 when it was only an import

Literally was playing this game with my friends This game is such a gem I hope it gets a rerelease one day and another chance I would love more fighters like this it’s so beautiful

One of my absolute favorite fighting games and I'm so glad for this video.

God the character art looks amazing! Kinda wish they used those for the portraits over the clean stuff Also, I wonder if this game was gonna get a PSP port, as the graphics and general design (even the distance of the camera) really reminds me of that system

Maybe it is right to call that a concept ahead of its time. It feels like, besides the natural struggles of the 2d fg genre, the scene in the late 00s was not prepared to receive a brand new game that looks like its a fg adaptation of a jrpg. The overall fg culture was (naturally) shaped in a way to easily accept the classic games and whatever else looked like the classic games. Then it took a while for the scene to become more flexible and receptive to different concepts. Maybe having moving on from the arcade roots was a factor too, including SF4 having brought many newcomers without old school fgc biases. That reminds me of another product of cultural change in the genre that had a strong impact, that is that early fgs focused on basic character designs and basic character types. Even weird ones like Blanka still was basic in a way. And the males were buff and had a strong "fighter aura", just like the females were athletic and had the same fighter aura (Chun Li, Cammy, Sonya, Kitana, Mileena, King, Mai, Sarah, Nina, Anna...). But after the mid 90s we slowly started seeing subversions from those stereotypes. There were more males and females lacking the classic fighter aura and who look like regular people, and skinny guys, and actual young boys and girls, and elders who dont look like strong fighters. That direction was pushed notably by SNK and Arc Systems in the 90s, and only became stronger since then.

Incredibly underrated fighter that deserves more love since there isnt anything quite like it Fantasia had a Vanillaware feel which gives it bonus points of being cool

You are a legend for shining a light on my favorite fighting game of all time.

I actually had this game. I didn't have anyone to play it with and had no idea how to play since I was total trash at fighting games most of my life, but I liked the art style. If I remember correctly, Urs and Marco are brothers.

In another timeline, we'd have two Battle Fantasia visual novel spin-offs, a mobile RPG tie in, and a tag game with BF and Falcom characters.

I remember getting this from Anime Expo. It was fully in japanese so I had no idea what was going on completely plot wise and the only thing that really helped me understand was the voice acting since I was used to hearing Japanese as opposed to hearing it. I remember playing it quite a bit and doing everyone's story modes, but I think it was around this time I was realizing I liked fighting games with wackier modes than the usual modes. But I really liked how the characters played and unique aspect they had.

7:50 Ohmigosh, that is so cute! 🥰 9:10 Torbjörn & Obelix combined into one character. 😮

Played this game yesterday with my friend. Ngl this was fun, kinda sad that there is no sequel

Battle Fantasia is sick, in particular Donvalve is one of my favorite grapplers in any game. Every day I hope for #BattleFantasiaRollback

its nostalgic immediatly, as it looks like every 2005-2010 f2p mmorpg. Gotta love it.

I once saw this weird game on my local arcade, played one match with my friend and forgot what it was called. I just couldn’t find the name anywhere online. Thanks for bringing this up.

I remember seeing this at a used game shop 10 years ago, had never heard of it before but I picked it up. This game really charmed the pants off me, probably my favorite fighter on the X360

I loved this game when I played it on the PS3. The art style was so beautiful. It was the first Playstation Plus game I downloaded when I bought my system. It has a special place in my heart.

This game's artstyle always looked neat to me. As soon as I saw the revised version on steam I added it to my wishlist

One of my favorite fighting games ever made as soon as PSN hosted it for me - YEARS. Love it. WATSON!

Catgirl! WE DESPERATELY NEED THIS GAME ON EVERY NEW CONSOLE IN THE WEST NOW!

Ono has stated that SF4 wouldn't have happened without Battle Fantasy. There is a gematsu interview where he goes into detail about it.

Would love to see the Battle Fantasia sales go up on Steam just because of this video :)

Just in time for a new GuileWinQuote video! I have heard of Battle Fantasia in the past... and only because there's a boss-only version of DeathBringer that's really strong.

It also bears mentioning that Freed has a super named HEAT MY JUSTICE

Both the 2D art and the models are both excellent. I'd love to see a Tactics-style RPG with these characters and whatever else was left on the cutting room floor!

I remember having fun with this game on the Xbox 360. Thanks for the video!

Great video! Even though I've only seen this game a couple of times, I have a somewhat weird nostalgia for it. Really hope Battle Phantasia will reach a wider audience someday

Keep making these! It really helps me as a future dev!

And just like that I added the Revised Edition to my Steam wishlist.

I used to work in a video game store in the Xbox 360 era and I kept looking at this on the shelf. Never did pull the trigger, I probably would have liked it though.

I've never heard of this game. Now I have something new to bring to the boys this weekend! Thanks Mr. WinQuote

I wish that when i bought this back in 2009, i had the appreciation for fighting games that I have now. Definitely slept on this one, appreciate the look back on it!

I'm grateful for this upload literally because it just reminded me I have this game on Steam 🙏

I know I had this on my Steam wishlist for a good while. It was one of those many games I got morbidly curious about but never committed to buying. Might have to change that not buying part. I love the style here!

Watson main here. I'm so glad you talked about this game. I've never clicked on a video so fast.

This game’s look is great, reminds me of some Square games back in the day.

I loved this game. Sadly I lived out of state from all my old fighting game friends, so I had no one to play with.

Wow, I can’t believe I missed this! I would have loved this back in 07’.

Good work! Please, continue cover unique fighting games. Waiting for Destrega and Gleam of Force(1 and 2)

I remember seeing a cabinet for this game at the Round1 in Vancouver, Washington a few years ago. Not sure if it's still there, but it was fun to play!

If an ASW vs. Capcom crossover is made, BF chars must be in. Marco, Freed, Face and Death at least.

I freakin love Battle Fantasia, dude. I really wish it came back somehow. Whenever someone's interviewing Daisuke I really hope they're gonna ask him about it. Now, with how popular ArcSys is, it's a perfect opportunity. I guess it's *too* similar to GBVSR, but, you know, once the game runs it course, then maybe... And can we talk about Donvalve? ArcSys beat Blizzard by almost a decade with that design. AND they kinda, almost (not really) beat themselves with Olivia and Sin. You know, with both of them using flagpoles. Both this and GG2 came out in the same year, so... also i hate playing charge characters but freed is 100% my guy bro HEAT MY JUSTICE

This was a very underrated fighter. I wish it had gotten a follow-up.

I'd be happy to see you take a look at The Black Heart. It's one of my personal favorites.

what?! how didn't I know this and imagine this in a new modern remake/update 😍

3:47 bruh, I dont think anyone would make that argument. with that said, good video. I appecicate this game getting some love.

I'll never forget DEATHBRINGA!

I remember getting this last year and really enjoying playing Odile.

Battle Fantasia is a gem

These character models remember me a lot of Pangya, similar art style and all.

ohhhh yeahhh guile baby

Interesting that the creators of sonic drift and family go cart racing have also dabbled in fighters

I thought this game was a fever dream I had once I played it *one time* at a friend's place for like an hour and never saw or heard anything about it ever again.

never heard of this game but the art style looks identical to a free MMORPG would play in like 2009

Oh snap - I got this months ago for a couple dollars on (probably) Fanatical. It's a good time, especially with the right friends.

i played this game before i knew anythin about fighting games and i ended up likin the pirate guy with the wooden hook.

Leeeet's fkng go! New video from Guile

This game looks super cool, and luckily it didn't end up on just the 360 or PS3 forever. Also, there is no way that Urs has a cool multifunction chainsaw weapon that isn't at least good. Since we are on the topic of niche fighting games, I got 2, which are Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Wii. A 3D fighting game like the Naruto GC/Wii 8ing games that has a unique card vent system and rider canceling for long combos. Chaos Code-New Sign of Catastrophe-is a solid fighter with a system that lets you choose 2 of the 4 moves so you can mix and match for almost any fight (2 for specials and the other 2 supers) also has a neat color customizer. I hope y'all can check them out especially Kamen rider for the wii.

You're the first person who's brought attention to this game! It's a pretty good game that never got a fair chance! I got Blaz Blue at the time as well and didn't like it at all, so i played way more Battle Fantasia at the time!

I got my hands on it at an awkward time when I was swamped with choice for fighting games, so I never got around to giving it the attention it deserves. As a big fantasy buff and a fighting game fan, it definitely could have been a big hit with me.

Finally another human that knows about this game

i always love these cool lil spotlights on obsuce titles!!!!

1:00 - I love to see all those SNK fighting games ♥

All I know about this game is that you can "why don't we play it instead" lobby message in xrd