Bloody Roar

Bloody Roar is a fighting game developed by Eighting/Raizing, and released in 1997. It started out as an arcade game, under the name 'Beastorizer' in North America. After popularity grew with console games, Hudson Soft ported Bloody Roar to the Playstation 1. Bloody Roar series differs from other fighting games as every character has a beast mode. This is the first game in the series.

Profile

Bloody Roar
Developer	Hudson Soft (playstation) Raizing (arcade)
Publisher	Sony Computer Entertainment
Director	Kenji Fukuya Susumu Hibi
Producer	Haruhiko Ikeda Masato Toyoshima
Designer	Shinichi Ōnishi
Programer	Yuichi Ochiai
Artist	Mitsuakira Tatsuta Shinsuke Yamakawa
Writer	Osamu Kagoshima
Composer	Tomoko Miyagi (arcade) Takayuki Negishi (PlayStation)
Release	Arcade July 7, 1997JP PlayStation October 31, 1997NA November 6, 1997JP March 1998PAL PlayStation Network April 30, 2008JP August 20, 2009NA
Genre	Fighting game
Modes	Single player, mutiplayer
Platforms	Arcade, Playstation, Playstation Network
Rating ESRB	Teen Animated Blood, Animated Violence
Ratings	ELSPA : 15+

"Unleash the beast within."

— Official tagline

Bloody Roar (ブラッディロア), known as Bloody Roar: Hyper Beast Duel in Europe, is a fighting game developed by Eighting/Raizing, and released on July 7, 1997. It started out as an arcade game, released under the name Beastorizer in North America. After popularity grew with console games, Hudson Soft ported Bloody Roar to the Playstation 1 on November 6, 1997. A North American version was released and received the original Japanese title instead of its American Arcade's title on October 31, 1997. Afterward, a European version was released in March 1998.

Bloody Roar series differs from other fighting games as every character has a beast mode that can be used to use new attacks, recover some of the lost health, and generally to be faster or/and more powerful with their attacks.

This is the first game in the series, which later spawned four sequels on multiple platforms.

Plot

"The unrelenting call of the wild courses through my body. The tremble of these fingers cannot be stopped. The real me...The facade of a man crumbles and my true self awakens with a primal scream."

There are people known as Zoanthropes that have the ability to transform themselves into animal hybrids at their will. Tylon, a bio-corporation, experiments on Zoanthropes in an attempt to turn them into military weapons. The multinational organization uses its creations as advanced troops in global military invasions.

Yugo, a wolf Zoanthrope, is trying to avenge his father who was previously killed in a war against Tylon. In his journey, he meets Gado, an old comrade in the arms of his father. Together they promise to destroy Tylon, liberate all the hostages, and put an end to Tylon's brutal experiments.

However, It's not counting on Uriko, the secret weapon of Tylon. Uriko is a young girl who was brainwashed by the corporation and with the power to transform herself into a powerful Zoanthrope, the Chimera. The battle against Uriko has proven difficult but Yugo was not only supported by Gado but, also, Alice, a previous hostage of Tylon who knew Uriko before her brainwashing, and Mitsuko, Uriko's mother. As they teamed up, Yugo, Gado, Mitsuko, and Alice succeed to restore Uriko's conscience and freeing her.

Following this victory, Gado annihilates the Tylon HQ and reveals to the world their experiment but also the existence of the Zoanthropes, introducing the humanity into a new era.

Gameplay

Bloody Roar's control system was a simple combination of the traditional fighting game set up with a five buttons gameplay (Punch, Kick, Beast, Cancel, Rave). A combination between the Punch, Kick and Beast buttons could create different attack moves while combining both together (Punch and Kick) would trigger a unique 'throw' move.

Its originality came with the use of the 'beast' button. Under the life bar, was a beast gauge. When filled up, pressing the beast button would transform the player character into their powerful and more agile animal form. The transformation starts with a shockwave that can push away the opponent. Once the character transformed, the beast button could be used as a part of the attack arsenal. Attacks on the beast form would deduct from the beast gauge, though would still do some damage to the life bar on a decreased level. The beast transformation would end when the beast gauge was completely depleted.

While in Beast mode your character will automatically recover a portion of their health, the recoverable amount depends on how much damage you have taken and is displayed as light blue on the health bar, about 40% of an attack damage will be blue health.

Also, within the beast form, the rave button became available - this is the early version of the 'hyper beast' form which would appear later in the series. The rave button eliminated recovery time between combos and gave the characters ten times the speed, though this was at the cost of the beast bar. When it ran out, one hit could break the beast transformation. Battles would last for two rounds (three, culminating in a 'Final Round' if both characters scored a win in each of the first two rounds) and end with a 'K.O.' when the life bar was completely emptied.

In terms of defensive gameplay, Bloody Roar offers various systems. A character can execute a Guard Attack, an usually slow attack that start-up in an upper-body defensive move, or a Guard Escape, where he can sidestep after guarding an attack. Also, many opponent's attacks can be canceled with a Guard Move but each attack has a cancel point where the cancellation is impossible for the opponent. You can also avoid your opponent's mid and high attacks by ducking (doing a Lie Down Stance), be careful ducking makes you more vulnerable from low attack.

The Recovery system allows the character to recover after being launched into the air (Air recovery) or knocked down (Ground recovery) to escape or to use a landing or rising attack. In certain conditions, the recovery is unable, for example, when a character is knocked into a spiral falling animation.

Development

Beastorizer

Title screen

Bloody Roar was originally developed as an arcade game. It was later adapted for the PlayStation. The arcade version was released on July 7, 1997, and was titled Beastorizer in North America. The housing in which the arcade game's hardware resided was a horizontal cabinet type.

The Arcade appears totally the same as Bloody Roar, but with simplified screens and credits and a unique mode arcade with the possibility for a second player to interrupt and oppose the first player.

The controls, however, are a slight bit more complicated and should be cell to an 8-way joystick and 6 buttons. Though some machines are said to have only 3 buttons since the original "Grab/ Throw" move was just the "P+K" combination.

Many attack properties and strings differ from Bloody Roar in Beastorizer which has also no Rave or canceling systems making it a much more straight forward and simpler game than its counterpart.

Eventually, the game did in fact change its name to "Bloody Roar", supposedly due to more proper translation purpose.

PS one Classics

Bloody Roar was later released as a PS one Classics on the PlayStation Network (PSN) on the Japanese (on April 30, 2008) and the North American (on August 20, 2009) markets. This re-release gives the opportunity to download Bloody Roar from the PlayStation Store for play on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (but it is not compatible with PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV like other PS one Classics).

Game Features

• Arcade - Challenge 8 contestants controlled by the computer before the Final Fight against Uriko. Win all the matches offers a ending cinematic peculiar to each fighters.
• VS - (Versus) You can defy another player or the computer in a match.
• Extra - Others fighting modes.
  • Time Attack
  • Survival
  • Practice
• Watch
• Records
• Beast Rave (On/Off)
• Options
  • Game Options
  • Sound Options
  • Memory Card
  • Art Gallery
  • Bonus Mode

Characters & Locations

List of Characters Starter Fighters Alice the Rabbit  · Bakuryu the Mole  · Gado the Lion  · Greg the Gorilla  · Hans the Fox  · Long the Tiger  · Mitsuko the Boar  · Yugo the Wolf Unplayable Fighters Uriko the Chimera List of Locations Starter Stages Colosseum  · Seaside  · Nuclear Plant  · IronWorks  · Ruin in S.A.  · Sunset Bridge  · Under Highway  · Desert Unlockable Stages Large Stage  · Small Stage Special Stage Tylon Lab

Reception

Aggregate score
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	78%
Review scores
Publication	Score
EGM	8/10
GamePro	5/5
GameSpot	7.7/10
Honest Gamers	4/10
IGN	8/10
Joystick	86/100
OPM (US)	3.5/5
PSM	4/5
The Fighters Generation	6.2/10

Bloody Roar received generally positive reviews from critics.

The game has sold 390 000 copies in Europe and North America . Its biggest competitor around it release date, Tekken 3, has sold 7.16 million of copies around the world .

Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot stated that the game's graphics were "every bit as good as the arcade version" .

Douglass Perry of IGN noted that the graphics had "great shadows" and "detailed textures in both the background and on the characters", but added that while the character design was "cool-looking", it was not "addictive or moving". Gerstmann said that the game "runs fast and very smoothly" and that the game's moves are "very dynamic, resulting in a lot of oohs and aahs as a wolf bites a chunk out of his opponent's neck and blood spurts everywhere, splattering on the ground." Perry noted that the "high frame rates and a speedy graphic engine enable moves to be executed quickly and without wait." Gerstmann passed the music off as "typical fighting game fare", while Perry admitted that he "actually [liked] half of the tunes, while half of them sound like they've been ripped off from forgettable '80s heavy metal tunes." Gerstmann said that the sound effects were "really great", while Perry noted that the only character sounds he found annoying were those from the character Alice, comparing her to both a "broken record" and Demonica from the Nintendo 64 video game Dark Rift.

The game's success resulted in its re-release for The Best range on October 14, 1999 and another one on the PlayStation Network in Japan on April 30, 2008 and in North America on August 20, 2009.

Promotion

Two differences TV spot was diffused one for the Japanese market and another for the North American market.

Japanese Bloody Roar Commercial

North American Bloody Roar Commercial

Packaging Artwork

PlayStation PAL Release

Playstation PAL Release (back)

Playstation PAL Release (CD)

PlayStation NA Release

Playstation NA Release (back)

Playstation NA Release (CD)

Playstation JAP Release

Playstation JAP Release (CD)

Beastorizer Arcade Station

Official Artworks

See: Bloody Roar Official Artworks

Unlockables

• Custom Appearance - Beat the game with no continues on Level 4 or above.
  • Giant Characters: Hold L2 while you select your character.
  • Meaty Arms (When the option is unlocked): Hold L1 and L2 while selecting your character.
  • Big Head: Hold L2 and select your character with CIRCLE or X
  • Kid mode: Hold R2 and select your character with CIRCLE or X
• Afterimage Mode - Beat the game with everybody to access afterimage mode. The game is the same, but your character will have a shadow behind him.
• Bonus Options - Beat the game on level 4 or higher to unlock more options on the Bonus menu.
• Change Camera Angle - Beat the game with Alice, level 4 or better. Now you can change the camera angle, but not during battle. You can only do this at the option screen.
• Invisible Walls - Beat the game with Fox, level 4 or better, to play without the walls showing. The walls will still be there, it's just that they're clear.
• Large Arena - Beat ten opponents in a row in the Survival Mode to increase the size of the battle field.
• Life Recovery - Beat the game with Bakuryu on level 4 or above for regenerating life bars.
• No Gauge Mode - Beat the game with Yugo, level 4 or better.
• No Guard Mode - Beat the game with Gado, level 4 or better, to play your games without any defense.
• No Lightning - Beat the game with Long, Level 4 or better, to stop the lightning effects when doing certain moves.
• Play as Sailor Alice - Beat all the 8 different fighters in Time Attack Mode under ten minutes to change Alice's outfit.

Trivia

• In the Art Gallery, we can see some unused characters like a Blond woman cat Zoanthrope, an Native American bull Zoanthrope, ... See the Official Artwork session for the pictures in question.
• By inserting the Playstation disc into a normal CD player and skipping to the second track 2, the CD will play the Bloody Roar main theme.

External Links

• Wikipedia: Bloody Roar (video game)
• FAQ on Game Radar
• Bloody Roar (Eighting) Official Site
• Arcade game manual
• Playstation game manual