Bloody Roar (PS1) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1997 3D versus-fighter for the Sony PlayStation, Bloody Roar.

Played through as Long on the default difficulty level.

Bloody Roar was originally released in arcades in America in 1997 under the name "Beastorizer," and was a collaborative effort between Hudson and Eighting (Raizing), the latter of which is known for license-based arcade-style fighting games as well as the shoot 'em ups they produced for Capcom's CPS2 arcade hardware.

The gameplay is similar in many ways to popular fighters of the time, with a 3D engine that feels a bit like Tekken or Virtua Fighter and an input scheme that reminds me of Street Fighter 2 with special moves often requiring quarter/half-circle motions on the D-pad.

What sets Bloody Roar apart is each character's alter-ego: once the gauge beneath the life bar has filled enough, you can hit the "beast" button and transform into your character's animal form. The anime-styled "henshin" animations look cool, and in addition to knocking back any opponent foolish enough to get near you while transforming, your character will gain access to several new moves and bonuses to strength or speed. The controls are simple - you get a button to punch, to kick, to transform, and to throw, and that's it. Like Virtua Fighter, the game relies a fair amount more on position and combos than it does on fireballs and hurricane kicks.

The game is also extremely fast and smooth. It's a very good looking game by 1997 standards, and the texture mapped characters all look quite detailed. It's one of the few PS1 fighting games that could push a consistent 60fps, and this makes a massive difference to the way it feels. The somewhat low-poly count character models are a worthwhile compromise. The controls allow you to easily string together fluid combos, and when in motion, the whole thing can look quite striking - remember what 60fps did for Sega Saturn fighters like Last Bronx and Fighting Vipers? You get a very similar result here. I loved the overall look, and the character designs are cool, even if the game's art is completely dated.

Speaking of dated, just check out that introduction! The prerendered CG intro is pretty hilariously awful looking, but it does set the tone pretty well, and the tune (like pretty much all of the music in the game) has a very distinct late 90s flavor to it, featuring waililng guitars and endlessly catchy pop-punk style hooks. Remember bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182? If so, the general style here should sound pretty familiar, albeit done with a slightly harder edge and far more talented musicians than either of those bands ever had. It suits the game very well, and almost makes it feel like a cheesy time capsule of sorts. I personally loved the soundtrack.

Bloody Roar was a fairly innovative game when it was released, and I'm not surprised that the game and series still has its fans today. Still, even though it got a number of sequels, the original Bloody Roar is my favorite. It's got a lot of "classic" appeal to it, it's accessible enough to pick up and play straight away, and it's got enough depth to keep you coming back for quite a long time.

Hudson and Eighting both had some extremely talented people working for them, and Bloody Roar is certainly a reflection of that.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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