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KISHIN DOJI ZENKI FX: VAJRA FIGHT (PCFX)
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Publisher: Hudson Soft.
Developer: Hudson Soft. Released: December 1995 (JP). Genre: Third-person shoot 'em up. Posted 3rd July 2020. By Tom Clare © 2020 |
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It’s easy to forget just how popular the PC Engine was during the late eighties. In the west, it was the import console of choice. In its native Japan, the diminutive powerhouse would outsell the Mega Drive. But how quickly fortunes change. When NEC rolled out a successor, the PC-FX, in 1994, the console’s hardware was geared towards its video capabilities and not polygons. In failing to cater for 3D, they effectively backed the wrong horse. The format was a commercial disaster. Its price-point was higher than that of the competing PlayStation, whilst the console was as ugly and ungainly as the PC Engine was sleek and compact. Dig around the wreckage of even the most dismal of console life-cycles however, and you’re sure to find at least one game that offers a glimpse of what might have been.
For the PC-FX, that game was Kishin Dōji Zenki FX: Vajra Fight. Based on the anime and manga series Zenki, this brief but immaculately-realised hybrid of styles shows off its hardware to best effect. An explosive opening FMV, utilising assets from the TV series, helps set the tone. You have the choice of playing as Chiaki Enno, a girl who looks after an ancient shrine with her Grandmother, or Zenki, a flame-haired guardian spirit who alternates between a small, semi-powerless form and an unstoppable force, when summoned to his guardian state. Playing as melee-minded Zenki results in an experience that’s more typical of a roaming beat ‘em up, albeit on a flat plane. Play as Chiaki however, and her projectile weapon lends things the flavour of a run ‘n’ gun, with shades of Rolling Thunder. Vajra Fight also exhibits platforming elements and a number of one-vs-one encounters, merging them with great aptitude and fluidity.
There’s no question, the visuals are the show-stopper here. A host of beautiful, crisp backdrops and impressive character animations capture the vibrant energy of the anime. The presentation is bolstered considerably by an excellent and extensive range of enemy sprites. There’s a little bit of everything here; spooky skeletons whose bones bobble around and reassemble, ghostly samurai spirits, giant hornets, gloopy sewer monsters. There are commendably few palette-swaps, level-to-level. This high standard is maintained across an elaborate range of sizable boss characters too. There’s a boss fight every couple of minutes, encompassing a dizzying range of monsters, ninjas, lizard-men, even a mechanical monstrosity built from scrap cars, who gives chase during an edge-of-the-seat sequence late on.
Vajra Fight manages to blend storytelling and action with a seamlessness that hadn’t been achieved in a game of this sort. Despite the ample use of dialogue and video box-outs during play, loading times are minimal. One of the strongest levels sees you battling through a sewer, all the while being taunted by a mysterious entity, soon revealed to be a giant serpent, in another tremendous boss encounter. Atmospheric moments such as these come thick and fast; one minute you’re winding through a train filled pursued by a scythe-wielding wraith, the next you’re carving through floors of a dilapidated underground car park, and before long navigating a rickety building site. It’s a shame there’s no dialogue subtitling (it is, after all, a Japanese game made for the domestic market), but with English-language menus, there’s no barrier to enjoying the game.
Vajra Fight manages to blend storytelling and action with a seamlessness that hadn’t been achieved in a game of this sort. Despite the ample use of dialogue and video box-outs during play, loading times are minimal. One of the strongest levels sees you battling through a sewer, all the while being taunted by a mysterious entity, soon revealed to be a giant serpent, in another tremendous boss encounter. Atmospheric moments such as these come thick and fast; one minute you’re winding through a train filled pursued by a scythe-wielding wraith, the next you’re carving through floors of a dilapidated underground car park, and before long navigating a rickety building site. It’s a shame there’s no dialogue subtitling (it is, after all, a Japanese game made for the domestic market), but with English-language menus, there’s no barrier to enjoying the game.
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Despite the PC-FX’s six-button controller, Vajra Fight plays very much like the 16-bit roaming beat ‘em ups it’s inspired by. There are attack and jump moves as well as the usual combinations thereof, plus a block function which comes in handy during a lot of the boss fights. As well as these, there are some throws when in-close to your assailants and a double-tap allowing your character to sprint. It’s not as versatile as Streets of Rage, nor as frenetic as Gunstar Heroes, as there’s a notable absence of double-team moves or useable weaponry, whilst numerous unskippable dialogue exchanges break up the flow a little. However, two-player co-op is plenty of fun, especially as the two characters are very different.
One cool touch inspired by the TV series is the use of the guardian bracelet, which appears as an item drop during boss encounters. The power-up manifests slightly differently, depending on the character with whom you are playing. Chiaki will summon Zenki to deliver a single, powerful charge attack, whilst Zenki enjoys the considerable benefit of growing to his guardian form, lending him a significant increase in both reach and attack power.
One cool touch inspired by the TV series is the use of the guardian bracelet, which appears as an item drop during boss encounters. The power-up manifests slightly differently, depending on the character with whom you are playing. Chiaki will summon Zenki to deliver a single, powerful charge attack, whilst Zenki enjoys the considerable benefit of growing to his guardian form, lending him a significant increase in both reach and attack power.
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Vajra Fight throws a lot of different styles your way and it's plenty of fun when played with a friend
It’s just a shame Vajra Fight is so short. Whilst it packs in a veritable whirlwind of scenarios and effects, it can be beaten in as little as thirty to forty minutes. Two very different characters, three difficulty settings and a highly enjoyable co-op mode goes some way to saving the day, but with sky-high import prices indicative of its curio status, cost and relative value are likely to remain a sticking point for collectors.
Kishin Dōji Zenki FX: Vajra Fight is a fascinating time capsule, emblematic of its console. In being tied to what was, by the time of release, a sinking-ship in the PC-FX, it’s a license of unusual quality that will go unappreciated by gamers at-large. There is a silver lining to the game’s exclusivity, however. It stands as a singular, shining example for a format that would become swamped by an ignominious tide of hentai titles and dating sims. Without Vajra Fight, we likely wouldn’t have had a reliable yardstick to determine what the hardware might have been capable of. On this evidence, it’s a shame the PC-FX didn’t follow in the footsteps of its predecessor. It might have become a haven to the kind of 2D arcade ports that were increasingly being edged aside by the emergent 3D dreams of the PlayStation and Saturn.
Kishin Dōji Zenki FX: Vajra Fight is a fascinating time capsule, emblematic of its console. In being tied to what was, by the time of release, a sinking-ship in the PC-FX, it’s a license of unusual quality that will go unappreciated by gamers at-large. There is a silver lining to the game’s exclusivity, however. It stands as a singular, shining example for a format that would become swamped by an ignominious tide of hentai titles and dating sims. Without Vajra Fight, we likely wouldn’t have had a reliable yardstick to determine what the hardware might have been capable of. On this evidence, it’s a shame the PC-FX didn’t follow in the footsteps of its predecessor. It might have become a haven to the kind of 2D arcade ports that were increasingly being edged aside by the emergent 3D dreams of the PlayStation and Saturn.
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VERDICT
"Vajra Fight is a fascinating time capsule that blends storytelling and action with a seamlessness that's uncommon in a game of this sort... It's just a shame it's so short" OVERALL: 7/10 |