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Square throws another fighting title into the video game market. Although it has many innovations, the actual game might not please hard-core fighting fans. Sure it's easy to pick up & understand. It's just that the more advanced combos are too difficult to remember & to pull off most of times. And you don't really need them. You can easily make you way through with the few simple combos you can retain. Not to mention those cheesy supers that can score you a weak win. The backgrounds are a little small, but that's made up for with having multiple tiers & special box items. Thankfully the graphics are top notch. Running at an incredible 60 fps & with a good attention to detail. Such as flowing water & flapping capes. Unfortunately the characters aren't all that exciting either. Mostly your run of the mill stuff with Kazuya look a likes. Luckily there are a few unique ones like the woman with the Yo-Yo & of course Cloud, Tifa, Yufi, Vincent, & Sephiroth from the mighty Final Fantasy VII. These will probably be the only characters you play with anyways. The best part about this game is in the extra stuff they threw in. Best being the Quest Mode. Similar to Tobal No.1's Quest Mode, but more in depth & challenging. You build up your characters while traveling through many a city & fighting all sorts of strange monsters. Hey it's a RPG too! There's also the Beach Rounds which they have you performing the sorts of games you would normally play at the Beach. Like Dashing for the Flag & Sand Running among some of the activities. The developers even tossed in a Foot Race portion, but isn't nearly as exciting as the other modes. The game is okay, but not that great. The only real reason you'd want this game is for the Final Fantasy characters & the fabulous Quest Mode (import is in japanese text mind you). Fighting fans seek elsewhere.

the Breakdown (10 good to 1 bad)

Category	Rating	How & Why
Graphics	9	Smooth Animation & Final Fantasy Characters / Small Backgrounds
Music	7	Nothing Special / Somewhat Heroic
Gameplay	7	Easy to Learn / Way too Difficult to Master
Innovation	9	Not a Good Fighting Game / But you got to Love that Quest Mode
Replay	8	Fighting Portion is too Easy / You'll Be Playing all the Extra Games Instead

Overall 8.0