Bloody Roar

A 3D fighting game best known for its "Beast" system, where each fighter has the ability to transform into a half-human half-animal creature with enhanced fighting abilities.

PlayStation

Arcade

PlayStation Network (PS3)

PlayStation Network (PSP)

Overview

Each martial artist has their own half-beast alter-ego.

Bloody Roar, also known as either Bloody Roar: Hyper Beast Duel (in Japan and Europe) or Beastorizer (in the North American arcade release), is a 3D fighting game developed and released by Eighting/Raizing (along with Hudson) for arcades (using PS1-based ZN-1 hardware) on July 7, 1997.

Similar in its basic gameplay to other 3D fighting games at the time, Bloody Roar is unique as players fight as "zoanthropes": martial artists who can transform into powerful animal-human hybrids (similar to werewolves) to gain a temporary edge in battle. This "Beast" system, which uses its own special gauge, was later built upon in the game's multiple sequels.

The common theme of the story involves the Tylon Co., a multinational corporation that seeks to brainwash zoanthropes for a more sinister purpose.

The game later received a home release for the Sony PlayStation, developed and published by Hudson in Japan on November 6, 1997, with an overseas release on March 1998 (with the North American version published by SCEA and the European version published by Virgin Interactive). This version features numerous unlockable gameplay options (including the ability to manually side-step and become super-deformed) and was later digitally re-released for supported PlayStation Network consoles (as a PSone Classics title) on April 30, 2008 in Japan and on August 20, 2009 in North America.

Gameplay

The game uses three buttons: one Punch button, one Kick button, and one "Beast" button.

The main attraction of Bloody Roar was the ability to activate the Zoanthrope's transformation abilities and become an anthropomorphic animal of some form. To transform, the player had to fill up their beast-gauge, located underneath the health bar. The beast-gauge would fill up slowly over time, however, it could be filled faster by successfully damaging the opponent. Taking damage from an opponent or hitting a guarded opponent would also increase the beast-gauge, only less so than hitting and damaging the opponent.

The beast-gage had two stages; the blue stage and the flashing multicoloured stage. The player could only transform when the multicoloured gauge was active. To get to the multicoloured stage the blue gauge first had to be filled. When the blue beast-gauge was full it'd then be replaced by the multicoloured beast-gauge and the player could then transform any time, no matter how full the multicoloured gauge was. Filling the multicoloured gauge did have its advantages, though:

The Zoanthrope could remain transformed for longer as the Beast-gauge is depleted through received damage, and once fully depleted the player would revert to human form.
Some of the damage that would be taken out of the health is instead taken out of the beast-gage, so having a fuller beast-gauge would effectively increase the player's health.
Rave mode [a mode accessible after transforming] and its duration were directly linked to how full the beast-gauge was.

The advantages of transforming were more than just aesthetic, the player's character would be harder hitting, gain extra attacking moves via the circle button, access to Rave mode, and would increase in weight. Also, worth noting is that upon transformation a player would regain some health over-time. The health bar was split into three colors; dark blue is the health that has been depleted that round, light blue represents where your health will recover to [over-time] after transforming, and yellow is the actual remaining health.

Rave mode, mentioned earlier, was a boost on top of the transformed shape that would increased the player's speed. The player's speed increase was an all-round speed increase - meaning not only did the player move faster, but also their animations and recovery times between attack-combos were faster. Rave mode drew its power from the beast-gauge and would deplete the gauge over-time. After it is fully emptied the Zoanthrope would remain transformed but would be one hit away from reverting to human form.