Bloody Roar 3 Review (Sony PlayStation 2, 2001)

Bloody Roar 3 was one of the early PS2 games I was really excited about. It’s release came and went, but wouldn’t you know, I never bothered to play it. It was the all too often case of being hyped for a game and then getting distracted by another instead. Later on I played the Gamecube release, but only for a short while. I always liked the Bloody Roar series though. My first exposure was via a demo disc for the PS1. It’s probably the most time I’ve ever spent with one of those. The whole beast mechanic seemed super interesting, and gameplay was fast and fluid unlike many other fighters of that generation. Well I’ve righted my wrong, and picked up Bloody Roar 3. We’re going to take a look at it. It’s time to get our beast on and take a look!

This game picks up some time after the second one ended. It doesn’t exactly clarify, but the characters haven’t aged so I’m guessing it’s at most a few years. The plot revolves around a group of demi-humans called zoanthropes. These have a natural human form, but can also transform into various beasts granting them great power. This group has long been oppressed by humans out of fear, but strides are being made toward peaceful co-existence. One day a mysterious mark appears on these zoanthropes. This increases their powers even further, but will ultimately result in their early death. Each member of the main cast sets out on their own quest to get to the bottom of this and figure out how to stop it.

Bloody Roar 3 has a decent roster. It’s a little perplexing though at first. You see, in the beginning you have the same exact line-up that you did in the second game. All eleven characters are playable once more. That’s a bit disappointing for a sequel, but I liked the cast and find them to be interesting enough. Plus eleven characters in a 3D fighter isn’t terrible. I was happy to discover that there are three additional unlockable ones though. Unfortunately they’re a bit strange. Rather than being based on typical animals one is classified as ‘unborn’ while the other two are iron mole (which is derivative because there’s already a regular mole) and a chimera. In my opinion this would have been a perfect opportunity to re-introduce characters from the original that didn’t make it into part II. Alas it just wasn’t meant to be.

The first disappointment is the fact that there aren’t as many game modes in Bloody Roar 3 as there were in its predecessor. Most notably (and on topic) is the story mode. I didn’t care tremendously for this in the past game truth be told. Still its absence is puzzling. The developers clearly tried to wrap this and the arcade mode into each other. Now, after selecting your character here you’re given a short blurb with some background information. After that there’s nothing. What’s more is the translation is pretty wonky this time around. There aren’t glaring spelling errors or anything, but the aforementioned arcade intros are awkward to say the least. A few times I had to re-read the text to figure out what the writers were trying to say.

Just like the two prior Bloody Roar titles part 3 is a fast paced 3D fighting game. The main gimmick here is that each character has a beast persona they can transform into when a meter is charged. During this time their strength and speed is increased. They’re also given new special moves and their basic attack patterns are altered. This means you basically have to memorize a character twice if you want to master them. It’s one of my favorite fighting game hooks. What’s more is that it hasn’t really been replicated since. It’s significant enough that it changes how the entire game plays, but also very functional and unique for the genre.

Besides this feature the Bloody Roar games have been pretty traditional fighters. Part 3 doesn’t deviate from this. The game is a one-on-one 3D brawler with an emphasis on combos. Like Tekken and Virtua Fighter the focus is on more realistic fighting grounded in martial arts. That sounds funny to say about a game where you transform into anthropomorphic animals. Sure, the action gets over the top when you’re in zoanthrope form but it never feels as outrageous and something like Street Fighter II. There are no projectile attacks so you can’t simply ha-do-ken a foe to death. Bloody Roar 3 demands you get up close and personal to knock away your foes health.

While I do love the beast transformations the best part of this game is how smoothly it runs. The characters animate wonderfully which makes it highly intuitive to memorize recovery frames and perform counters. In this respect the action is pretty technical, and with the beast transformations there’s technically twice the roster of characters. Unfortunately the moveset is a little shallow. This was more forgivable in the previous generation because Bloody Roar I and II used pretty standard mechanics for the time. On the PS2 fighters had moved forward. Because of this Bloody Roar 3 feels a bit left behind compared to the bigger fighters.

The simplistic control scheme certainly doesn’t help with this. Linking attacks is not overly difficult. You just have to figure out which ones can connect into what. Unfortunately there just aren’t a lot of special moves, and sometimes they feel a bit similar. Basic moves are performed by pressing either the kick or punch button and a direction. These are extremely flashy, but sometimes move the fighters too much. I really struggled stringing together the vertical strikes because often times they send you halfway across the screen. The sidestep is not as intricate as it is in something like Dead or Alive 2 or Tekken 4. This just isn’t significant enough to make as big a difference, and it’s not quite as intuitive.

Don’t get me wrong though. Bloody Roar 3 plays great. I love how flashy each is. You can pull off impressive looking combinations with little effort. Timing the beast transformation to use in just the right moment is a real treat too especially because it can knock your foe out of zoanthrope mode in an instant. The game is a lot of fun. The basics just aren’t as refined as I’d like them to be. Before Bloody Roar 3 came out we had already seen where the genre was headed. Rather than pushing forward this feels like a speed-bump. Simple mechanics like the side step and aerial strikes feel too sloppy for my taste. Everything else in my opinion feels fun if not a bit simplistic.

The second game got high marks from me for having a lot of different game modes. Unfortunately Bloody Roar 3 is a bit lacking in this respect. It doesn’t have the story mode, and the developers didn’t integrate anything else to take its place. The options are pretty standard for the fighting genre with arcade, versus, survival, and practice modes. Considering this was the first time the series was released on the high capacity DVD format it’s a bit disappointing. You can also alter options, but this is limited to difficulty, control, etc. I wouldn’t say Bloody Roar 3 is light on content. I did however expect there to be more to it.

Bloody Roar 3 however is very pretty. The characters animate extremely fluidly with a ton of tender loving care put into every frame. What’s more is it runs at a consistently high framerate. Character models are elaborate and well detailed. This is especially true when they transform into the beasts. You’ve also got that very specific Bloody Roar art style that still looks unique here. While there are anime overtones everyone looks distinct to the franchise and retains their trademark looks from past titles. The only disappointment I have with the graphics are the arenas. They seem a bit simple. Sure, there are moving parts, but each area looks a bit generic in my opinion. The soundtrack retains that techno pop twang of past titles. I still like it here, and although the music isn’t going to win any awards I still like it plenty.