MY INTRO TO BLOODY ROAR
Originally I found this game - BR2 - in an arcade in Falmouth sometime in 1999. I was being introduced to the game by a 9 year old girl who was completely dominating everyone who came in. There was this one dude who was a bit older than her that was putting up a fight. I was somewhat fascinated by the game and by the fact that a girl was pwning everyone else - and she saw that I was interested and bid me sit and taught me to play. From there I moved leaps and bounds ahead of her, spending days and weeks by a friends house where his wife would cook for us while we played BR2 day and night - leaving only for the necessary stuff and baths. Needless to say we mastered the game almost completely, with the RKS and variations for Long, Shen-Long and Uriko being the only things that gave some fight. From there we had tournaments and such with the winnings going between only those of us who actually played the game at a certain level.
I LIKE THE GAME BECAUSE......
Unlike most other games it is one of the few that is very easy to pick up and play. Difference with the BR series and other games like MK, SF or SC is the fact that the gap in skill difference is much wider. By this I mean that in BR unless you were in the top tier the winnings could go either way with persons who were not up there. A novice could even beat a seasoned player by button mashing as combos were easy to pull off with some characters - but this would definitely not work on a top tier player. With the other mentioned games - especially like SC - one would have to graduate from his tier in order to even think about beating someone who is more skilled than he is - even by chance. Though this view is arguable, the truth is that there are few other games that a novice can beat a seasoned player.
HATRED FOR FRANCHISE AFTER 3
To make it short the other ports were dumb. The story was somewhat OK IMO but the whole lack of skill needed to "look good" in the game was really retarded. All you have to do is either hold or mash the block button and you would dodge everything and get out of grabs even............sheesh...........talk about LAME. For this I hardly play anything above BR3, but when n00bs whine I still pwn them at 4, Extreme and Primal Fury.
BLOODY ROAR 1
BR1 was a decent fighting game to come out IMO. Unfortunately there were a lot of other games old and new that held the sway at the time. Games like GoldenEye, Gran Turismo, FF7 and StarFox made it hard for something like BR to get spotlight. Some persons who played games like Soul Blade/Soul Edge which later went on to Soul Calibur would delve into the BR series but leave once the newer SC games came out.
This featured the "beast" system, ring out, side-stepping and a "rave" mode. Also - little known to some players - Long had the ability to do the RKS and enter/exit his beast mode. Heh. Continues right through the franchise.
The game was nice but you could cheap someone by exploiting the ring-outs. If memory serves me right I believe you could disable that in the options until the last round or finishing blow.
In this game I can use most persons, but as I was introduced to BR2 before BR1 my attitude was more along the lines of finishing the game for story than mastering the characters. If I get back into it though I promise it wont be easy to win.
BLOODY ROAR 2
BR2 was quite a step up from BR1 in the graphics department. The removal of some characters and introduction to new ones. Most of the features remained the same, but there was no option to change the ring-out status which is now only done if the last hit sends someone crashing into the boundaries, and "rave" was replaced with the "beast drive" which was like your ultimate killing move. Wouldn't really kill but does a load of damage if it hits.
The ability to cancel your moves was greater, the chaining of combos was beautiful, and the fact that you could make your own combos using the base was excellent. Much like BR1 and unlike most other games where you were stuck to a combo set by the game, you could make your own combos with almost any button mashing. Of-course if you knew the entire move-set for each character that would make your winning a whole lot easier.
BR2 is the game that I had mastered with literally a handful of persons able to beat me. This one I could use all characters equally well and my best characters devastatingly well. Might take a little time to get back to this game if you challenge me on this, but pray I don't fall back into the knowledge I had before.
BLOODY ROAR 3
Up to this point the story wasn't so bad. BR1 had Mitsuko looking for her daughter Uriko and BR2 had things in reverse. There were individual stories but it seemed like this was the main one IMO. BR3 however seemed more focused on the "Tabula" than on Tylon Corp which was like the source of the problem in the previous two. The stories here vary depending on what you do with few having bad results in the ending.
BR3 refined a lot of stuff from the previous ones and completely removed the side-stepping feature and replaced it with a dodge feature. This now required much skill as dodging was accomplished by pressing or holding forward/towards your opponent during hits and tapping the block button in sync with the hits being pulled off. If you did not get it right you would suffer the hits. In the previous ones side-stepping was accomplished by tapping forward/towards your opponent while they are hitting at you provided it's not a strong/power move. This took a bit of getting accustomed to, but once it was in then going back to the older ones proved hard. BR3 also gave each character two beast drives and a good amount of new moves. Some new characters were introduced as well, but to this point the game still remained relatively balanced for all players.
Though I did not master BR3 I can say that the win/lose scenario was similar to the previous two. Taking the knowledge from BR2 and putting it to BR3 made it difficult for persons to win, plus learning the new moves and taking advantage of some of the new beast drives made this even more fun.
BLOODY ROAR BEYOND 3
After BR3 I hated the setup as stated above. The whole block button does it all was really lame. In some cases mashing the block button would also dodge AND pull off a hit on the opponent. Not feeling that at all. I stayed away from those after BR3 but the stories looked good and the moves and suits looked oh so lovely - LOVING the new additions to Long's RKS and the Black Yugo in wolf form with the glowing red eyes looked so menacing when putting on a beating. Seriously if that one factor was removed and I could also play the game using a PS1/2 controller on all consoles I would play it. BR4 had an interesting story IMO, but again the whole lame about the game made me stay away from it.
A CHALLENGE?
If someone wants to either spar or test their skill against mine then you're free to do so. If you're not from the group I spar with, taught, or a student of my student and mange to win against me I'll consider buying you lunch that day or straight giving you JMD$500 to do whatever you want. I know that the best gamers in JA are spread out in different parishes, and right now I'm waiting to either go back to Canada or the US and play some hardcore gamers like my friends Apex and Clarence, and though I'll probably lose against them in the games of their choice I'm sure I'll either win or put up an excellent fight in any of the BR series.
SOURCES
Sources are all me with some reference taken from the "Additional Reading" links below where I had to take reminders of the games that came out at the time and the release years and such.
ADDITIONAL READING
http://www.bingegamer.net/2008/top-ten-games-of-1997/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Roar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Roar#Characters
http://www.csoon.com/top10097.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...oar_characters <- This For More Story Info.