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Million Knights (or KNights) Vermillion is one of the latest games from the creators of "Big Bang Beat", "Marisa no Kagi", "Fate Sword/Dance" (under their old label, Rapidfire), etc. It's also a game that I've had for a long time, but there's a reason I haven't made a video of it until now; it's a hot mess, with one of the most wholly broken fighting engines of any "serious" doujin fighter within the community, and that's saying something. At least their early titles like Fate Sword/Dance could be competitive to a small extent. This game is often ruthlessly ridiculed within fighting circles, especially when you consider how much trouble NRF went through to make "this". It's also seen as Milion KNights Vermilion.

With character designs being presented by Sogabe Shuji of "Senko no Ronde" and more recent Persona fame (P3, P4), music presented by MintJam, character animations being aided by Studio Tokyo Kids (famous for their work with anime shows such as Ayakashi and Gurren Lagann), and several prolific or talented seiyuu (Japanese voice actors like Eri Kitamura/Saya from Blood+, etc.) and a good bit of secrecy, this game seemed like it should've at least surpassed Big Bang Beat... but this is just another example of "all style, no substance". The game looks relatively clean (but uninspired) and the soundtrack is admiteddly the highlight of a title that should be all about gameplay, and it sadly doesn't really even meet their previous fighter, Big Bang Beat in terms of presentation or Fate Sword/Dance in terms of overall non-brokeness. It also doesn't help that this game is bugged/nerfed by patches (this was a similar concern for BBB).

I've heard a lot of criticisms about the visual designs and such of the characters. Truth be told, I don't find any of them particularly striking, but I have no qualms with them; they're just trending to what's hip in Japan right now-- needlessly outlandish folk. Example? Folo is basically Bridget's protégé. If you know anything about Bridget (of Guilty Gear), then I don't have to say anything else. Otto is 19...freakin' looks like he's been through hell...whatever, typical stuff like that used to annoy me, but I no longer care. The only decent characters to me (that surprised me a little) is Virginia and Smile. I'm shocked that Virginia is actually 30 and not 18 or 19 like most of the other "kids". Hooray for adult characters in video games! Smile is so hardcore-looking compared to everyone else and the other sissy-looking "males" that he doesn't look like he belongs...too bad his moves lack "inertia" or "force" in terms of presentation.

The audio? You won't hear me say much about it other than it's great. The voice-overs are good and the music suits each stage. Let's talk about what people really want to hear about: the gameplay. The game consists of a pretty small roster of characters who are mostly unimaginative, don't have a large assortment of moves (and they are almost all done the same for every character), and some are more broke than others.

The real problem is that all characters, while different, play mostly the same and each can execute really repetitive "loooooong" strings of combos that require absolutely no skill to do and are usually strung together by repeating two or three base attacks over and over and can be extended with the game's "Vermillion" system, which sets up a barrier preventing them from escaping, further exasterbating players. Don't be surprised to pull off regular combos that take 50% life and specials that take even more than that. I played with Virginia to represent where I currently reside and got "skilled" with her in only about an hour or two. Once I learned her, using most of the others came naturally and I practiced what I knew on the painfully predictable A.I.; the video was made shortly afterwards.

While the game can be fun for fighting newcomers, it's a rather bland fighter generally speaking. I put up a video for it just because I would've sooner or later. There is another playable character not shown here, Sven, who can be added with a (rumored to be) problematic patch, but I didn't use it. He seemed rushed into the game anyway.