Those who have played Bloody Roar in the past and liked it, may or may not like this one. It keeps some of the game play in there but enough was changed that it seems that it could have been its own series. The voice acting/ synch is still horrible, and some of the characters voices are different from the previous- and for the worse. They added more blood, lots more. They also modified character movemen, for me it was easier to handle as long as I didn't play 3 before switching to 4. There is still much room for improvement (mainly in the story line movies). The story is choppy, they expect you to know what all is going on and some how the characters that were looking for answers got their answer and understood what was being said, even when they weren't given any information. I'm sorry that we had rush you and make you fight seemed to be the answer to everyones problems. It's a good thing that I don't play fighting games for story, for playability. This one is easy to play and pick up on. Just, can't something be done about Mana's voice. And if you like stories, forget it. It has great gameplay, and lots of blood. That is really all. I just wish that if they put so much time into translating the movies to english, that they would fix up the synchronization of the clips. Here's an even better idea: just leave it in Nihon (Japanese) but put in subs. Just hope they don't screw that up.

Bloody Roar 4 is actually the 5th bloody roar game (6th if you count the arcade game Beastorizer) to be released. There was Bloody Roar, and Bloody Roar 2 for the Playstation, Bloody Roar 3 for PS2, Bloody Roar Primal Fury for Gamecube, and now Bloody Roar 4 for PS2. And while it is a great game, I'm just not so sure that it deserves five stars.

Unlike Bloody Roar 2, there is no real story version. (even though the story version in Bloody Roar 2 was kind of weak, it was kind of a cool premise) Granted the arcade version does lead you through a bit of story at the end, but it is long, drawn-out, and slightly confusing/anti-climactic.

On the otherhand, BR4 does have the career option, which gives you an arcade fighter meets RPG type of feel where you earn DNA points, and can buy extra activities to better your character (who you can later play in the other battle modes...similar to the Weapon's expert of Soul Calibur 2).

BR4 does introduce a few new characters, but the only one of mention is Nagi, the female psuedo-counterpart to Xion, the unborn. (Although I have NO IDEA what she is supposed to be...and calling her "the spurious" doesn't help that matter) The new character that is a duo, with a big guy and really tiny girl (who changes into a dog), is hard to play, and easy to beat...not an exciting addition. The crow is OK, but in my opinion doesn't compare to the phoenix/penguin combination (yes, this was just one character) of BRPF.

There are 5 characters to unlock, which is cool, but I know that at least 2 of them are repeat characters from previous games (I won't say who). The career mode seems to be where you unlock all of the characters (so far I've unlocked 4 there)...based on how many DNA points you have for ONE character.

All in all, the game is a must buy for Bloody Roar fans, and a should buy for any arcade fighting game fans. It delivers interesting characters, good animation, (bad dubbing), and a nice challenge.