Definitely Awesome game. I've played fighting games with my friends in arcades before, but the genre never clicked into me other than Smash Bros. However, this game easily dragged me into the franchise: its characters, especially Faust.
Each character has their own unique and complicated design, but never passes the line of having too much detail. When I looked at the characters, knowing nothing about the game, I was able to pinpoint what each of the characters do. For example, May a sailor, Faust a doctor, Potemkin a soldier of sort, Sol a rogue, Nagoriyuki a Samurai/Lone Warrior, etc.
It's graphics are also amazing. It may not be the first game to mix 2D and 3D, but it certainly did a fine job making the characters feel alive. Though, I do not play too much games, so I cannot say too much on this matter.
I'm also surprised that the developers decided to add in a theme for each character. Not a big fan of the official sound track, but they aren't horrible. I definitely see myself listening to it time to time. I think each theme is appropiate to the characters they are assigned to, matching their personality, tone of design, and very rarely, their playstyle.

However, a game is never perfect, as the game has its own flaws. It's story mode is simply a 4 hour-long animation and nothing else. If it is called a story mode, I would expect the game to allow certain fights in moments of conflict, and now progress until I get the outcome that the game wants. Arcade mode is a way to obtain lore and play the game at the same time, but the information that gives out is very liminal and hard to tie in with the main story. Still, the biggest problem for story mode is the animation itself. The animation is too sloppy and rigid, it isn't natural and doesn't have a flow. Previous games suffered from the same problem, but I would excuse them for being dialogue-based (progressing as the player presses a certain button after reading the dialogue). Despite its flaws in story mode, I doubt this will affect my rating on the overall game. I do understand how hard it would be for the animators to properly render a 4 hour movie and the actual animations for the game. I would much prefer play the current game than a version where the animators focus less on the game.
I'm also quite shocked with the limited characters we can play, and the other 5 are DLC characters which we have to may $30 for. It would mean that nearly a quarter of the fighters are locked behind a $30 paywall, which is quite pricey compared other games I've played. Would I say this is a fair trade-off for each character's own theme? I doubt it.

Overall, I never had any expectations for the game as I recently became a fan, but I could confidently say that this game would live up to its hype. I've introduced Faust to my friends and they were instantly hooked by its character design and got the game. They've also been enjoying the official soundtracks and the lore as well.

I would rate the game at a 8.5/10. I highly recommend newcomers to look into the character design before jumping into this game.

Definitely Awesome game. I've played fighting games with my friends in arcades before, but the genre never clicked into me other than Smash Bros. However, this game easily dragged me into the franchise: its characters, especially Faust. Each character has their own unique and complicated design, but never passes the line of having too much detail. When I looked at the characters, knowing nothing about the game, I was able to pinpoint what each of the characters do. For example, May a sailor, Faust a doctor, Potemkin a soldier of sort, Sol a rogue, Nagoriyuki a Samurai/Lone Warrior, etc. It's graphics are also amazing. It may not be the first game to mix 2D and 3D, but it certainly did a fine job making the characters feel alive. Though, I do not play too much games, so I cannot say too much on this matter. I'm also surprised that the developers decided to add in a theme for each character. Not a big fan of the official sound track, but they aren't horrible. I definitely see myself listening to it time to time. I think each theme is appropiate to the characters they are assigned to, matching their personality, tone of design, and very rarely, their playstyle. However, a game is never perfect, as the game has its own flaws. It's story mode is simply a 4 hour-long animation and nothing else. If it is called a story mode, I would expect the game to allow certain fights in moments of conflict, and now progress until I get the outcome that the game wants. Arcade mode is a way to obtain lore and play the game at the same time, but the information that gives out is very liminal and hard to tie in with the main story. Still, the biggest problem for story mode is the animation itself. The animation is too sloppy and rigid, it isn't natural and doesn't have a flow. Previous games suffered from the same problem, but I would excuse them for being dialogue-based (progressing as the player presses a certain button after reading the dialogue). Despite its flaws in story mode, I doubt this will affect my rating on the overall game. I do understand how hard it would be for the animators to properly render a 4 hour movie and the actual animations for the game. I would much prefer play the current game than a version where the animators focus less on the game. I'm also quite shocked with the limited characters we can play, and the other 5 are DLC characters which we have to may $30 for. It would mean that nearly a quarter of the fighters are locked behind a $30 paywall, which is quite pricey compared other games I've played. Would I say this is a fair trade-off for each character's own theme? I doubt it. Overall, I never had any expectations for the game as I recently became a fan, but I could confidently say that this game would live up to its hype. I've introduced Faust to my friends and they were instantly hooked by its character design and got the game. They've also been enjoying the official soundtracks and the lore as well. I would rate the game at a 8.5/10. I highly recommend newcomers to look into the character design before jumping into this game.