Some of you may remember Sega announcing a brand new fighting game at Tokyo Game Show 2013 last month. Titled Dengeki Bunko FIGHTING CLIMAX, this crossover fighter features characters from properties published by ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko light novel imprint. While the original announcement only included two characters (Shakugan no Shana’s eponymous main character and Asuna from Sword Art Online), Dengeki Online recently revealed two more fighters who will be joining the fray.

Mikoto Misaka, one of the main heroines from A Certain Magical Index, and Kirino Kosaka, the female lead of Ore no Imoto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (colloquially known as Oreimo), are set to expand the playable cast with their own unique fighting styles. While the former is a powerful esper that is capable of controlling electricity in her series, the latter has been pulled from a more comedic work, which should lead to an interesting and unconventional moveset.

Four support characters were also announced in the Dengeki article. The first announced pair will see fellow characters from their main series get in on the action (Wilhelmina Carmel and Leafa from Shakugan no Shana and Sword Art Online, respectively), as will Mikoto and Kirino (Toma Kamijo from A Certain Magical Index and Ruri “Kuroneko” Goko from Oreimo, respectively).

Basic Controls

The game uses an 8-way joystick and 4 buttons. The buttons are A (Light Attack), B (Medium Attack), C (Heavy Attack) and S (Support). Movement options are dash, backdash and double jump.

Battle System

Support – S Button calls in support characters. The effect differs by character.

Impact Skill – A unique attack performed with A+B or ↓+A+B. The first hit has a guard point, so the move can be used as a counterattack. Many are also effective as part of combos and can be used like a special move.

Kirifuda (Trump Card) – Pressing B+C unleashes a powerful attack that consumes 1 lightning mark. Many of these attacks have invincibility during start-up or function as overheads, so they are very easy to connect and also have high damage. While they primarily are counterattacks, they can also be used as a finisher. Each side starts with 2 lightning marks at the beginning of the battle, regaining 1 mark at the start of a round. The maximum count is 2.

Blast – Pressing A+B+C consumes the Blast icon while activating various effects. When used while taking damage it acts as a combo breaker, but from a normal state it boosts the character’s ability. When used during a combo it launches the opponent straight upwards, allowing for a follow-up as they descend. The Blast icon regenerates after a fixed amount of time.

Extend Action – Performing a normal or special attack and holding the button will change the move. What techniques change varies by character.

Potential – A unique skill possessed by each character. They activate when certain conditions are fulfilled, e.g. “Damage is boosted when health is low”. Each character has a number of hidden conditions.

Climax Gauge – The super gauge. The meter fills when performing actions like attacking and guarding, but also automatically builds when doing nothing at all. Up to 5 bars can be stocked. Other than super attacks, the gauge is used for special attacks such as EX special moves.

EX Special Move – Performing a special move with the S button consumes 1 bar of Climax Gauge while unleashing a more powerful version of the move.

Climax Arts – Super moves, which consume 2 bars of the Climax Gauge when activated. Each character has 2 Climax Arts.

Reflection Guard – Pressing any button during a guard pushes back the opponent while consuming a small amount of the Climax Gauge. Use when pressured by the opponent to create space.

Quick Combination – A combo automatically performed by pressing the A button repeatedly. A → B → C → Impact Skill → (when meter is available) EX special move does a basic combo.

Master the Supports!

This game’s biggest feature is support. One support character is selected separate from the playable characters (any combination), and can be freely summoned during a fight. 1 button calls in support, who releases a unique move before exiting.

Supports recover after a fixed period of time and can be called again, but the recovery speed differs by character. Supports recover in 4-5 seconds at the longest, so can be summoned over and over, stress-free.

1 bar of Climax Gauge can be used to cancel an attack and call an assist. Using a flow like Light → Medium → Heavy → Assist → Special → Assist hits → Air combo, various combos can be created based on the player’s ideas.

A Simple Fighting Game Anyone Can Enjoy

Play impressions from Dengeki Online’s Kaneking.

The impression I got from playing is this is an extremely simple fighting game. Complicated systems have been excluded as best as possible. The game speed is also rather fast, never feeling sluggish at all.

The commands are tentative, but there were no so-called DP motion commands, and I was able to perform them all with ease. The game adopts a popular system of late that allows even someone who has never played a fighting game before to do a combo by pressing A repeatedly. You can say it’s a very approachable game.

On the character screen, the system voice speech is very abundant. You’ll hear speech by just staying on the select screen. There are a lot of things in the game that can only be found by playing, like the characters’ special victory quotes when winning with a big life lead.

Another impression I got is that all the characters are very trollish (laugh). The insults from the Dengeki Bunko heroines are great and quite hilarious. There really aren’t many fighting games with abusive lines like that. There’s already teasing during the exchange before the fight. It’s a crossover game, but it felt like the characters are battling with each other without holding back, and I thought that was really great.

Source: Dengeki Online, tip via Kurushii, translation by USD