By: Nate

At long last, Sega has a fighting franchise that is new and unique to the genre. Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is a fan-infused, 2-D fighting game. All of the playable and assist characters are taken from several Japanese and Sega game franchises such as Virtua Fighter 5, Valkryia Chronicles, and Sword Art Online.

The game features two types of story modes – Arcade Mode and Dream Mode. In arcade mode, players will play through a series of fights along with short bits of story. It is more fun than just playing survival or the other modes because of the tiny pieces of story, but it will only take a player anywhere from half an hour to an hour to beat each character’s arcade mode’s story. At the end of beating your first arcade mode, you will unlock new characters. Hint: They are from Virtua Fighter.

Dream Duel Mode is a story-based mode where all the crossover characters interact with each other in cutscenes. This mode is very exhilarating to watch and features over 60 different scenarios. Also, in Arcade mode, a player can choose from any of the playable characters to use. This allows for multiple playthroughs and lots of playtime. I thought that the stories for arcade mode were a bit short, but after playing majority of them, I thought as a whole they were wonderfully entertaining.

Gameplay is Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax‘s greatest feature. It is fast and easy to get a handle on and there is also a training mode that will help players learn combos and how to play the game. Players use A+B commands in order to perform “Armored Attacks” and use the D button attack for assists. There are many more types of attacks including Blast (A+B+C buttons) and Trump Card (A+C buttons). These attacks are unique and provide a fun and satisfying gameplay experience.

The graphics in Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax are not as luminous as 3D style fighters, but most players who are not used to it, will soon be quite fond of it. If not, then this may not be the game for you. The background environments are taken out of several cross-over titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Online, and Shinobi. These backgrounds had a major nostalgic impact on my gameplay.

As players play through the game, he/she can unlock bonus costumes, adjustments to their player card, and partitions from the light novel series that the game is based around. Another feature is the fact that players can cross-save across the PS3 and PSV versions of the game. There is an online mode for the game too, but I cannot really respond to how good it is because I hardly saw anyone online (I never was able to get into a match). Offline Versus Mode multiplayer is really fun though.

There are multiple modes that Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax features. Besides just story modes it has Challenge modes such as Score Attack and Survival. These two modes are pretty self-explanatory. In Score Attack, you want to defeat your opponents in a fast time and score as many points as possible. In Survival Mode, players will want to just survive and win each fight. As a player progresses through survival, the fights get more difficult. Finally, in Challenge Mode – Time Attack, you will want to try to perform high amounts of damage in the shortest amount of time possible.

Overall, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is a satisfying fighting game. It has great story mode features and allows a player to actually fight within them. In comparison, Persona 4 Arena hardly has any fights within its story mode. The art style may be hard for some to enjoy, but the vast majority of fans should appreciate the 2-D design. Finally, the gameplay features several easy and exhilarating ways to fight opponents across its several game modes. With its popularity growing, the 14 fighter and 23 assist characters roster should grow to even more characters in future Dengeki Bunko series games.

8/10 – For anyone who is a fan of unique 2-D Fighters and Sega.