So I was thinking of Red Earth / Warzard lately, as everyone does at a few points in their lives. And I'm thinking that this might be it. Like, in the alternate universe where competitive fighting games never became the standard and Yie Ar Kung Fu still defined the genre, this game would be seen as a classic.
A lot of Warzard's feature seem like they were be welcome in a normal fighting game.
- Multiple playable characters with their own special moves, normals, throws, combos, all the normal stuff we've seen come to expect since the Street Fighter II days.
- Button variations of super moves. For example, Kenji the ninja's knife launching super can have the knives fly at a 45 degree angle down (light), homing knives that fire upwards before hunting down the enemy (medium), or a slower firing variation where the knives shoot forwards from a ring in front of him (heavy).
- Super jump. This is Marvel vs. Capcom style, and the game expects you to use it. I don't think you can complete the statue-breaking bonus state without it.
- Ultimate guard. Pressing a punch and kick button together has the character go into a defensive stance that negates all damage. It actually lasts a fairly long time, but you can't cancel out of it as far as I know.
- Ultimate counter. The game's version of alpha counters. You can do these for free, but they can only be done following an ultimate guard.
- Pursuit attack. Like in Vampire Saviour, there's a special attack that lets you hit enemies when they're on the ground. It seems to be difficult to land though.
- Fatalities. This is one of only two Capcom games to have some form of them. When Leo or Kenji finish off an enemy with certain attacks, they can chop them in half. Kenji also gets a move which lets him rip out an enemy's heart and crush it if used as a finisher. The heart looks different for some enemies.
But then it has a whole bunch of features that make it clear that single player was the game's focus and versus is a side show.
- Moves are locked behind level up. Every character starts off with two special moves, and there's no way to use all of them in versus mode without grinding up in single player.
- Elemental resistance are a thing, and are also gained by level up. I assume enemies have resistance as well, because Leo is able to get different elemental swords and switch between them.
- There are items that you can pick up during a fight. There's always one in the center of the arena, but past that it's random. This includes health, and the elemental gems used for super moves (including a character non-specific elemental one).
- A whole bunch of giant, unplayable enemies. There are twice as many unplayable bosses as there are player characters.
- A lot of enemies have attacks that cover the full screen attacks with big chip damage. It's because the game expects you to super jump, but it's still way better than any of the specials you have.
- A lot of the enemies have tons of super armor, can fly, or something else that would make them ridiculous even if they were playable.
Because we now live in a post-Street Fighter V world, I feel that I have to discuss the marketability of this game's single player. And honestly, I don't think it could do well outide of an arcade. It has multiple endings meant for New Game +, but even with that, I don't think there's enough content to justify it as a single player game. For people who are too intimidated to play against other people, the game is probably too hard to build up their confidence. I think it would need a more robust RPG-like mode in a home release, like Weapon Master from Soul Calibur II or World Tour from Street Fighter Alpha 3.
A lot of Warzard's feature seem like they were be welcome in a normal fighting game.
- Multiple playable characters with their own special moves, normals, throws, combos, all the normal stuff we've seen come to expect since the Street Fighter II days.
- Button variations of super moves. For example, Kenji the ninja's knife launching super can have the knives fly at a 45 degree angle down (light), homing knives that fire upwards before hunting down the enemy (medium), or a slower firing variation where the knives shoot forwards from a ring in front of him (heavy).
- Super jump. This is Marvel vs. Capcom style, and the game expects you to use it. I don't think you can complete the statue-breaking bonus state without it.
- Ultimate guard. Pressing a punch and kick button together has the character go into a defensive stance that negates all damage. It actually lasts a fairly long time, but you can't cancel out of it as far as I know.
- Ultimate counter. The game's version of alpha counters. You can do these for free, but they can only be done following an ultimate guard.
- Pursuit attack. Like in Vampire Saviour, there's a special attack that lets you hit enemies when they're on the ground. It seems to be difficult to land though.
- Fatalities. This is one of only two Capcom games to have some form of them. When Leo or Kenji finish off an enemy with certain attacks, they can chop them in half. Kenji also gets a move which lets him rip out an enemy's heart and crush it if used as a finisher. The heart looks different for some enemies.
But then it has a whole bunch of features that make it clear that single player was the game's focus and versus is a side show.
- Moves are locked behind level up. Every character starts off with two special moves, and there's no way to use all of them in versus mode without grinding up in single player.
- Elemental resistance are a thing, and are also gained by level up. I assume enemies have resistance as well, because Leo is able to get different elemental swords and switch between them.
- There are items that you can pick up during a fight. There's always one in the center of the arena, but past that it's random. This includes health, and the elemental gems used for super moves (including a character non-specific elemental one).
- A whole bunch of giant, unplayable enemies. There are twice as many unplayable bosses as there are player characters.
- A lot of enemies have attacks that cover the full screen attacks with big chip damage. It's because the game expects you to super jump, but it's still way better than any of the specials you have.
- A lot of the enemies have tons of super armor, can fly, or something else that would make them ridiculous even if they were playable.
Because we now live in a post-Street Fighter V world, I feel that I have to discuss the marketability of this game's single player. And honestly, I don't think it could do well outide of an arcade. It has multiple endings meant for New Game +, but even with that, I don't think there's enough content to justify it as a single player game. For people who are too intimidated to play against other people, the game is probably too hard to build up their confidence. I think it would need a more robust RPG-like mode in a home release, like Weapon Master from Soul Calibur II or World Tour from Street Fighter Alpha 3.
