Import Review: Ikki Tousen Eloquent Fist

What if your destiny was already cast upon you and what if no matter what you did....you were fated to die? It's a real bummer to be punished for something you did in a past life. Well, if you had seen how these voluptuous ladies from the afterlife fight, you might change your mind! Based on the hit manga series by a different name "Battle Vixens" and the hit anime series of the same name "Ikki Tousens" comes Eloquent Fist for the PSP. For now Eloquent Fist is an import-only title, but one that might be worth your time. Readon to see why in our review.

The game follows the story line of Sonaku Hakufu and her Nanyo Academy followers. For those that don't know, the story focuses on seven district schools forever battling each other in harsh situations. The reasons behind the constant warfare are these little jewels called "magatama's". Each of these jewels shows other opponents their fighting levels and some hold their past lives spirit. Since that is the case they are destined to live out the old history battles and share the fate of the demon within. Well only a select few hold that terrible burden of being eaten alive by their dragon spirit, however there is nothing like seeing hot females in school girl outfits kicking butt and losing clothing in the process.

Now that we are all up to speed on the story, lets get down to the game shall we? Eloquent Fist is a pretty simple beat'em up. You have story mode, arcade mode, vs. and other extras. To be honest, Eloquent Fist reminds me of Streets of Rage but with better graphics. This is a side scroll with massive enemies coming at you while you are trying to get from point A to point B without dying too much. You have three offensive buttons square, triangle, circle and there is only the X button which you use to jump. If you combine L button with square you can perform a one hit kill which can be used multiple times before the meter runs out. Be aware there is no real strategy involved you just have to have good time and quick thinking before you get toppled by the aggressive party.

Being an import title, the whole game is in Japanese; however you can navigate through the menus pretty easily. They have full voice acting and text at the same time so you may want to brush up a little on Japanese to understand what is going on. The storyline is way too short and is no different through the different teams you use, which makes the game very repetitive. All of the enemies perform the same patterns and moves. Once you get to the main boss it is a waiting contest. If you don't move in they won't move and if you do attack you can win just by cheesing the character into the corner. Now if you lose three times you get to see a nice picture of the female you used with her clothes ripped off, but honestly it should have been added during battles to keep up the same idea as the manga books.

As a fan of the series I am not impressed at all by what the developers have done with this title. The fighting system is way too simple compared to what we have seen in the books and anime. If anything it should have been a straight up fighting game like Bleach or Naruto. Choosing to make it a simple side-scroll-beat-up-all-enemies before finishing the level was a lazy move. So I say wait for the price to go down or just get bleach or tekken to fill your fix for fighting, because I am very disappointed on the way they decided to make a good fighting series into this mockery. I am going to give Ikki tousen Eloquent Fist a 2 magatama's out of 5; Stay frosty gamers!