Battle Fantasia coming to the PS3/Xbox 360 in May

I was browsing the Shoryuken forums this morning and came across this thread. According to the Famitsu scans that were posted (I'm sure they were probably pulled from Ruliweb or 2chan, but I haven't had a chance to verify that), Arc System Works is bringing Battle Fantasia to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in May. Though Battle Fantasia has fallen out of favor a bit with competitive fighting game fans, from what I played, the game was still a satisfying vs. fighter with a completely different feel to Arc System Works "traditional" releases.

For those who are unfamiliar with the game, Battle Fantasia is built using 3D polygons and cel-shading, however it is all played via a 2D plane (similar to how Street Fighter IV is following the same "mold"). Unfortunately, despite creating one of the better looking fighting games I've seen in quite a while, the game itself suffered from some inherent flaws (there is some reported issues with its hit connection) that limited its appeal for long term potential. I hope that Arc System Works may be revisiting the game a bit to create a more solid home experience.

With that said, this game acts as a friendly reminder to all PS3 owners out there - your console is region free. Considering that I'm not quite sure the likelihood of a US publisher wanting to take a chance on one of Arc System Works' "failed" experiments, this may be one of the best games to take advantage of the lack of region coding for the system.

Insomnia.ac had a location test report posted about Battle Fantasia from back in October of 2006 which had quite a few images and videos of the game in action. Even though it was reporting on an earlier arcade build of Battle Fantasia, it is well worth a read through if you are wanting to see some basic impressions of the title.

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