Who can tell me what good can come from taking several characters from different franchises and putting them into a game? No, we’re not talking about Super Smash Bros. We’re talking about Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax and these light novel stars are ready to throw down with each other! I’m not one to condone violence, but who wouldn’t want to see their favorite anime and light novel characters duking it out? Hey, don’t give me that look!

When I started a fight to try out some characters in Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, the first thing that came to mind was the old 2D Street Fighter games. The graphics in Fighting Climax closely resemble the old 2D games due to this game also being a 2D fighting game. The graphics are sharp and do look nice, especially for a port of an arcade game. The moves and animations of the characters are really flashy as well, so you’ll be seeing a lot of different colors with most of the attacks. As far as the stages are concerned, there isn’t any background interaction, so players can enjoy their favorite stages without worry of some threat from the stage itself. You’ll also see 2D pictures of the characters when cut scenes are playing during the Story Mode to show who is involved in a scene and also at the beginning and end of a battle.

As I always like to say, a game isn’t just graphics. The soundtrack plays a big part in the game, too. That stays true for Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax as well. Many of the tracks are upbeat with a fast-paced tempo, but that’s to be expected from a fighting game. There’s also some tracks which resemble Japanese pop and you’ll be able to tell when you hear Japanese lyrics to certain songs. On that note, keep in mind that all of the voice acting is done in Japanese. There’s plenty of English subtitles so players can follow along, but the Character Selection screen and the Title Screen lack subtitles, so you’ll be just as lost as me when someone says something, unless you speak Japanese, of course. This may be a turn-off to some players, but I think the Japanese voice acting better captures the essence of the characters. I’ll stop there to avoid any sub vs. dub arguments.

Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is similar to many other 2D fighting games. Your main goal is to reduce your opponent’s health bar to zero and knock them out, thus netting yourself a victory. It’s up to you to use your character’s different combos to achieve this goal, while also avoiding your opponent’s combos and attacks. The main story is told through the Arcade Mode and once you pick your character from among the cast of twelve playable characters, you’ll find yourself fighting for the dreams of everyone against the monster who wishes no one to have dreams or hopes. There’s two different stories players can experience, with the Arcade Mode being the original story and the Dream Duel being new for the console port. Fight hard, and don’t let your dreams be just dreams!

Before we can dive into anything else, you’ve got to go through the Main Menu. Once you leave the Title Screen, you’ll be on the Main Menu and there isn’t anything complicated or hidden about it. The first option you’ll see is the Story Mode, which houses the two main stories players can experience and I mentioned those in the previous paragraph. The next option is the Versus Mode and here you can go 1 on 1 against a computer player or a friend if you have an extra controller. Next up is the Network, where you can go online and compete against other players. The Challenge Mode allows players to enjoy different game types with special rules, such as Score Attack or Survival. The Training Mode lets you practice different characters and set special rules, such as infinite Climax Gauge or have the computer dummy perform an action. Customize lets you customize characters colors or change your online plate by purchasing different things with points earned from other modes. The Special Mode lets you check out different visual art for characters or music tracks and the Options lets you change different settings in the game. Pretty standard list, really.

Fighting Climax is far from complex. The battle screen will show your character and the enemy character in your respective corners. You can choose which side of the screen you’ll be on when you select the game mode you would like to play. The health bar is displayed next to each character’s portrait to the top left and right of the screen. Your job is to deplete your opponent’s health bar before they deplete yours and this is where the fun begins. Your primary attacks will be Weak, Medium or Strong attacks and they are labeled as A, B, and C, which translates to the (Square), (Triangle) and (Circle) buttons, all respectively. You can press the (Square) button to perform a quick but weak combo, while pressing (Square) then (Triangle) then (Circle) will perform a quick three hit combo. You move your character by using the Left Analog Stick or the Directional Pad. Pressing forward twice quickly will let your character dash while pressing back twice will make character do a back step. If you press up or down quickly, your character will maneuver through the air faster as well. The (R1) and (L1) buttons are used for combinations of the three attacks, with (L1) being the A and C combo and (R1) combining all three buttons. You can jump by pressing up on the Directional Pad or Left Analog Stick and if you hold back or away from your opponent, your character will automatically guard. It took me a long time to figure out how to guard.

An important aspect of battle is knowing your strength and also having some backup. Fighting Climax allows players the use of a support character to aid them in battle. Supports can be summoned during the battle by pressing the (X) button and they each have two attacks they can use. Players can choose which attack by either pressing (X) by itself or pressing forward then (X). You can see which support you picked by looking under your character’s icon. The support character’s icon will be present and it also shows whether or not your support is available by greying out after calling the support or being fully colored if they are available. Supports are a great help in battle and each support brings something different to the table. Learn your supports well and use them to combo with your main character’s combos to create some devastating techniques.

One of the most important gauges on the screen is the Climax Gauge. You’ll find it at the bottom of the screen and it fills over time or if you’re being aggressive. You can hold up to five stock in the Climax Gauge and use it to augment your Special Moves to do more damage or unleash a devastating Climax Art to deal some heavy damage to your opponents. You can also use the Climax Gauge stock to perform a Support Cancel which calls in your support character mid combo to deal some extra damage. The Reflection Guard uses a certain amount of gauge based on the situation and can be used by pressing two of either the (Square), (Triangle), or (Circle) buttons. Keeping a few stock in your Climax Gauge is never a bad thing, so try to stay aggressive, but don’t get yourself killed over it.

Difficulty is rather subjective in a fighting game, especially when it comes to online play. Thankfully, difficulty only applies when talking about the computer-controlled opponents. You can change the difficulty in the Option Menu found at the bottom of the Main Menu. You can change the difficulty from 1 to 5, with 1 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest, obviously. This changes the difficulty for the entire game rather than just one mode, so you can keep the difficulty set to something you find suitable. It doesn’t hurt to practice and increase the difficulty over time so you can continue to have fun playing the game once you’re too good for a certain difficulty. Of course, you’re more than welcome to take your skills online and challenge the world once you feel you’re good enough. If someone beats you without you being able to even touch them, that’s on you though.

Like any good fighting game, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax features several different mechanics for players to make use of in order to get the best of their opponent. To start off, let’s discuss the Blast Indicator. You’ll find this little gauge underneath your character’s health bar at the top of the screen and it fills pretty quickly over the course of a fight. When the indicator says BLAST OK, you can press (Square), (Triangle) and (Circle) to perform one of three actions. If you use the Blast from a neutral position, you’ll power up and receive a boost to your attack and defense stats, as well as increased Climax Gauge recharge. Press the buttons while you’re attacking to perform a Combo Blast and launch your opponent. This also allows you to follow up with combos you couldn’t normally perform. The last option available is an Escape Blast, and this knocks your opponent back to allow you to escape or recover from being attacked. The Combo Blast was the most difficult to pull off for me, but the results of a well-used Blast technique are satisfying.

Everyone needs a backup plan for when a situation doesn’t go as planned and this goes double for people in a fight. Say hello to your Trump Card. Each character has their own unique Trump Card they can use in a fight and you can activate it by pressing (Square) and (Circle). You only have two uses of a Trump Card and you can track how many you’ve used by looking at the little lightning bolt symbols above the Climax Gauge. Activating a Trump Card will cause the symbol to expand into a gauge and stay active for a short period of time. You can tell what type of Trump Card your character has based on the color of the symbol. Blue symbols represent ability-enhancing Trump Cards, while the red symbol represents an attack-based Trump Card. You only recover one Trump Card if you lose a round, so try to limit your use of them, especially if you’re winning because of them. Alongside the Trump Card is the Potential, and like Trump Cards, each character also has two unique Potentials. These are activated by meeting certain conditions during battle, so be sure to check each character’s combo list.

All in all, I’d say Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax isn’t a bad game at all, but it doesn’t stand out much either. In my opinion, it appeals more to the fans of the series represented in the game rather than any hardcore fighting game fan. I do like the fact that it appeals to a more casual fan base with the simple controls and mechanics, which really helps players who are fans of the light novels and anime portrayed in the game, but may not be really good at traditional fighting games. Overall, I’d recommend it to those who really enjoy the different series shown in the game such as Sword Art Online or Durarara, but if you don’t, I think you could find other things to play.