Vanguard Princess

There are never enough times when I'm impressed by a game I've never heard of before. Usually I'll just see a screenshot somewhere, be ever so slightly intrigued, find out what it is and then how I can play it. Which is exactly what happened with Vanguard Princess. Of course, it helped that it's a 2D fighter, I'm always more receptive to those than say, the latest generic shooting game with angry bald guys in the future.

Thankfully, it's one of the many games in the freeware doujin category, so finding a copy was relatively easy. Unfortunately little is known about the developer (or indeed, developers), as there's some really impressive sprites and music in this. The main thing known is that the lead behind the project is an ex-Capcom employee, which you could argue is a good start!

I'm yet to try every character in it, but so far, most have either been reminiscent of existing characters in fighting games as is the norm, or something new entirely, slightly similar to Street Fighter 3 in some senses. For example, the character I've currently settled on using, Kaede, has a variety of wall jumps, uses slashing attacks and spends a lot of time being pretty, very similar to Vega from Street Fighter. Whereas Luna, a scantily clad buxom mecha pilot is like no character I've used before, as all her attacks seem very contextual and occasionally get delayed. It's early days yet, but there's quite a lot of potential with these characters.

One big difference however is the idea of having an assist character. These usually follow you around in the background until you've built up enough charge on a separate meter to your super bar, at which point you're able to command them to do a variety of attacks or counters. There are only four, but my experience with them so far has been a good one, especially as an escape to a long combo. Most of them however are young girls, most of which look like rejects from magical girl shows.

Mentioning the looks of characters reminds me however. It's clear that the character designer knew what sort of market would play this. Which is an obvious observation to make really, but the characters are clearly aimed at anime and fighting game fans. The entire roster is all female, and usually in fighting games the women often wear clothing that's at least a little revealing. But as for Vanguard Princess, the most conservative bit of clothing in it is probably a skirt that goes to knee level.

That's probably beside the point however. It's really good fun to play, and a new 2D fighter these days is a rarity. Despite being a doujin game, the animation is probably better than a lot of commercial efforts. It looks great in motion, the music is catchy, and it's got some depth in it. It's going to be a good game to stay indoors with over these sunny days!