#638 Ehrgeiz (ARC) Bosses (1/3): Cloud playthrough.
0A playthrough of the hidden boss Cloud/Guardian in Dreamfactory/Square's Ehrgeiz for the arcade.
Ehrgeiz is made by Dreamfactory, a close associate of Square's which would eventually also go on to do the cult classic The Bouncer for them as well. Ehrgeiz definitely attempted to stand on itself at first, but effectively doomed itself to novelty due to one thing in particular; the inclusion of characters from the game Final Fantasy VII. While they acted as a nice little bonus in the arcade version (Cloud and Tifa are hidden bosses, and aren't known by their actual names unless playing as them), in the console port they become something of a main focus, with no less than four more characters from the game added to it. I will of course be tackling the PS1 port as well, as it would be a waste not to.
The arcade version of Ehrgeiz is still a bit wonky, so I apologise for that. The main reason for this is because it was published on a Namco arcade board - which are always some of the most legendarily difficult to emulate. When it comes to arcade games, Namco is the equivalent of a celebrity who everyone loves, but behind closed doors is a total asshole. Great, enjoyable games which will make you tear your hair out when attempting to emulate or hack them.
Luckily, no hacking was required for this, as all three bosses in this game (hidden bosses Cloud and Tifa, and final boss Django) are time-released into the game. The bonus boss, the red Scorpion, is unhackable in this version (it just produces an unspeakable monstrocity when you attempt to hack him), but he is hackable in the PS1 port so I make up for that there.
Ehrgeiz is actually a somewhat deep game, with a lot of potential footsies and combos at use by characters. The problem is that it dooms itself to simplicity due to its arena-combat gameplay, similar to the problems I had with Power Stone 1. There really isn't enough finesse or refinement here to make for a proper competitive fighter, despite the sheer amount of work that went into every character. That said, it is a fun little distraction.
If it seems like I'm avoiding talking about Cloud, that's because there isn't too much to say about him. He has a few decent combo attacks, but nearly everything else he has is rendered a bit redundant by the fact that he can use his buster sword at will. A huge attack, with a wide range, which easily combos, which hits for high damage, and the only real penalty is that you might need to wait for his power meter to recover if you run out. Which, of course, is pretty easy in a game with movement this loose. Cloud's buster sword combos cut the enemy to ribbons, and there isn't too much point in using much else at his disposal, although he does have a couple of decent air combos which work well against the faster enemies. As a result, he sort of trivialises the game to an extent, and it feels like there's a deeper system here, attempting to surface, which just can't be brought to fruition because of certain attacks just being so much better than others, and in a game where the looseness of the control allows for cheap hit-and-run tactics.
As another bonus, I was successful enough with Cloud that I'm also able to show off the Cloud and Tifa bonus fights in this video, which as you'll see contain both the FF7 fight music and the classic FF theme, as well as stages set in a Mako Reactor in Midgar. I presume the sheer amount of effort it took to do this was on the hopes that it would make the game more popular, but boy did it end up eclipsing it of its own originality.
That wraps it up for Cloud. Next up is the other hidden boss of the game, Tifa.