Who here always wanted to be on the other side of the tracks? Where you can be the toughest dude in your school and get massive respect. However there is a price for becoming so powerful…you have to fight for it. If you can make that dedication to prove yourself everyday of your life taking on other street thugs and battling their Bancho’s (Bancho means Boss), well this is the title you have been looking for. I find it interesting that this particular title was imported from Japan as an English title. Keep reading for more information.
The game starts off creating a name and place where you are from in Japan; also picking your own school name. Whomever you decide to be you are on a school trip to a historical but fictional city Kyouto. The whole idea of this game is to either follow your itinerary or ditch the school trip and venture off battling other school rivals and taking over territories. This is a light sandbox title with of course a time limit to get back to your hotel room before 19:00 hours or 7pm curfew. Keep in mind that you only have 7 days to venture out on this trip with everyone. The story is pretty interesting to follow where you are the anti-hero helping others while trying to maintain your reputation. As you beat each boss you will obtain their cell number to call them for help. That is right you defeat the boss you get their fighting abilities and they become your lackey, to me that’s a fair deal.
The fighting mechanics are decent to get a custom too, there are times it can be a bit stiff. There is an rpg element where you will have to distribute points in endurance, attacks, health, defense, and speed. The only place you can customize is in your room or traveling to another area. Although when you travel to another area you can only change your moves and the moves are not to be taken likely they are brutal. You have choice of combos, special finishers, takedowns, ground pounds and of course the choice of chi energy stances when you replenish after doing a special or charged attacks. To initiate a fight you use your stare beam on opponents. Depending on the opponent they will stare back and that’s when the “QTE” starts and you have to make a certain sentence to intimidate your foe. When you execute the right lines you will be rewarded with landing the first hit. Now if you fail to connect the right words the opponent will get a crack at you first, so pay attention! Once you have decided on your desired fighting style it is time to go out and join the school group and of course deviate from the others to start fights. There are also police officers to contend with and if you are arrested they will strip you of everything and leave you bald with a track suit only.
Speaking of terms of your over all look you can change that as well and depending on the clothes you choose will give you more room in your inventory slots. Now you’re probably wondering about cost and yes you will have to cough up some yen to pay for all this stuff. Do not worry because when you fight you take the other opponents items that they will drop and mostly it is tons of money. So not only do you beat the crap out of everyone you also take what they own, sounds like a win to me. There are weapons in the game from boukuto’s (Wooden Swords) Metal bats, 2×2’s (it says that in the game), and brooms. There is a penalty for using weapons where you will lose in your fierce meter.
Bring on the replay value section of the game! There is the ad hoc feature in Kenka Bancho where you and a friend can take on Japan in co-op game-play. Another feature is “Night out Mode” where you can break curfew and sneak out to take on Yakuza members walking out in the street. To be honest not a smart idea, however you are on a quest to be the toughest teenager in Kyouto. I find the ad hoc feature to be a blessing since the new PS3 feature of “ad hoc party” is out and you can play with people around the world.
The bad points the game is that it is a sandbox with limited options. You tend to walk around trying to pick a fight with your eye beam stare and most of the time unless it is a new area the enemies will be too afraid to fight you. It also gets repetitive doing the stare down and connecting certain intimidating words in a fight. You can not avoid that when fighting a boss, however you can just jump an opponent or just start a random beat down. The choices you will make for example pleasing a female classmate who has a crush on you, but can not express it (typical anime style). A set of choices will come up whether to fight someone in front of her or not; honestly you going to fight them anyway but find out what happens when you do.
Final judgment call is it is a buy. The game has ad hoc, customization, good storyline and a lot of choices with replay value to boot. If you have an open mind I would say give it a try! The game is out now and I hope you give it a try. As always enjoy the holidays and stay frosty gamers.
