Bloody Roar Extreme/FAQ

General

What is Bloody Roar Extreme?

Bloody Roar Extreme is a 3D fighting game with a strong focus on meter management and many 2D fighter elements. In Bloody Roar Extreme, each character has 3 forms: Human (which is weak), Beast (which is strong) and Hyperbeast (which is very strong but has a limited duration). Core gameplay revolves around trying to force situations where the player is in their Beast form while their opponent is stuck in Human form.

Does this game have online?

Bloody Roar Extreme is played online via Dolphin Netplay. A video guide on how to set the game up can be found here. An alternative guide for an older version of Dolphin can be found here.

What is the preferred ruleset for this game?

The preferred ruleset for Bloody Roar Extreme is as follows:

• Attack Level: 4 (Default)
• Handicap: 4/4
• Time: 60 Seconds
• Rounds: 3 Rounds
• Walls: either Default or Final (Up to the TO)

What does the Tier List look like?

While character placements within tiers vary from player to player, they generally look quite similar.

• Banned: Uranus
• S : Xion, Yugo, Cronos, Alice, Jenny
• A+: Gado, Shenlong, Fang, Long, Ganesha
• A : Stun, Uriko, Kohryu, Marvel
• B : Bakuryu, Busuzima

Tier List Breakdown (by Nubi)

S Tier These characters all have great damage and great neutral with strong mobility, utility and useful Hyperbeast Forms. Xion: An already strong character without the 3B Cancel Loop, he sits at the top with it. Crazy damage on normals and throws are combined with blades that have no hurtboxes, giving him great range on everything and making him uncontested in the mid-range. His downsides are his mobility and his health: Xion's mobility is a bit worse than the other S tier characters' and he takes a lot of damage when hit. However, his all-around amazing normals can make up for these with how well he can control space. Yugo: This character does everything! His pressure, damage, mobility, mixups and punishes are all top notch. He can rush down, can play keepaway/hit-and-run, can weave in and out of combat ranges with ease, has one of the best Command Throws in the game (if not THE best) with huge range and access to a huge damage combo, has tech traps, Guard Break setups, Heavy Guard traps and, of course, the dreaded 8f slide. His mobility is some of the best in the game: his sways and weaves are amazing and people don't realize just how good they are. He takes less damage than the other S tier characters and his Hyperbeast is exceptionally strong, being outdone only by Alice and Cronos' own Hyperbeast Forms. Cronos: Everyone's favorite character to whine about, which mostly comes down to lack of matchup knowledge and lack of understanding of game mechanics; that said, he is still a very strong character with good mobility and good normals. The character is heavily weighted toward his Hyperbeast: he gets one of the best Hyperbeast Forms in the game but the worst Beast Form by far, meaning he has to play different to most other characters. This, in turn, means people have to play around him differently, which can take them out of their comfort zone. In Hyperbeast, he is an absolute monster: his mobility and normals are boosted and he becomes a combo machine; this means he has to play around Hyper Burst windows, build meter in neutral, activate at a good time and maximize damage. His lack of blue health regeneration in neutral due to not using his Beast Form can be a problem for him, and due to focusing more on Hyperbeast, he can't Hyper Burst from combos as much as other characters. Alice: Another character that can do both rushdown and keepaway effectively, Alice's low rushes will devastate anyone not prepared for them. With her overall fantastic mobility and great pokes, she can frustrate her opponents and then just shmix them to death with her strong high/low mixup game. Has the best jump in the game, which makes dealing with j.6B extremely annoying. Alice also has lots of frame traps and heavy-hitting combos, all bolstered by outright THE best Hyperbeast in the game, far surpassing that of even Cronos'; she is able to delete entire health bars in seconds thanks to her Power Legs trait, which grants a massive damage boost to all her Kick attacks (and a few non-Kick ones) as well as granting all of them Guard Break properties and Counter Hit effects. With this active, she can chip her opponent down in seconds from fast, light pokes such as 3KK (which now hit for unreasonably high damage and shatter their Guard) or just outright nuke them with j.6B in the blink of an eye. Jenny: Has some of the highest damaging air combos in the game as well as some of the scariest air mixups and resets. Her ground mobility is slightly worse than the other S Tier characters', but is more than made up for with her air mobility. Jenny has access to flight, which includes hovering, changing her jump arc, air dashing, instant air dashes... which all allow her to escape many situations other characters cannot while also offering her a unique way of approaching her opponent. Jenny's air normals are amazing and she gets far more air attacks than any other character, giving her a lot of options. Her ground normals are also great and allow her to play neutral well; alternatively, she has the option to apply pressure with her Twist stance. Her Hyperbeast is great, offering her much better conversions off stray hits while also allowing her to steal life, letting her make some pretty crazy comebacks. A+ Tier Similar to the S Tier, these characters all have a combination of great damage, mobility, utility and neutral. Generally speaking, they're just slightly lacking in some areas or have less useful Hyperbeast Forms. Gado: A super hard-hitting character, Gado is able to deal massive damage with relatively short, simple combos. Rather deceptively, Gado is surprisingly mobile for a big body character, with both a good backdash and a great wavedash. Excels at whiff-punishing and can deal high damage from simple high/low or strike/throw mixups. Has lots of Guard Breaks and takes less damage than most of the cast, and his Command Throw is extremely scary, especially when his opponent is cornered. His defensive options, however, are limited when he himself is backed into a corner, so he ends up fighting for space a lot. Shenlong: A glass cannon character who hits hard but dies fast. Has one of the best Beast Drives in the game and can easily confirm into it in various ways. He has the infamous elbow, which is great both in neutral and for applying pressure, as well as a very good strike/throw game, lots of Guard Breaks and Cancel Points. Although he's a 6-Ring user, his 6-Ring is less useful than the other 6-Ring characters' due to having larger gaps, though he can bait and punish interrupt attempts with various enders. Fang: A sort of simplified version of Yugo. They share some moves, with most of Fang's shared ones being worse versions of Yugo's; the unique moves he does get, however, are quite good though. His Wolf Strike rekka is useful for getting in on people and applying pressure, and his Wolfgang Silver Beast Drive can take people out of their (Hyper)Beast Form. His movement is not as good as Yugo's as he lacks the sways, and his punish game is weaker due to not having access to Yugo's Flicker stance, but he still hits quite hard. He has Yugo's amazing Command Throw, but can't follow up with as big of a combo as Yugo. His Hyperbeast is as great as Yugo's, as he can do the same sort of stuff with it. Long: Extremely well-rounded character who can do everything well but excels at nothing. Has one of the best wavedashes in the game, along with two separate 6-Rings and a massive amount of possible string combinations as a result. He can chip people down with constant knowledge checks, but can struggle to get meaningful damage when not by the wall. Has the highest Beast damage modifier in the game, which helps to mitigate his general lack of launchers or reliable combos. Ganesha: Incredibly slow and sluggish but super hard-hitting, Ganesha is an offensive grappler who can have trouble getting started, but is hard to stop once he gets going. Ganesha will struggle hard if he gets put on the defensive: his mobility is the worst in the game, his Guard Attack is awful and his other defensive options are also limited; Ganesha will resort to his Hyperbeast often, as it gives him much needed Super Armor. On the offensive, Ganesha can be a scary character to deal with: all of his normals can be canceled, giving him a lot of mixup potential and letting him setup for his massively damaging 3K loops. A Tier While still good, these characters generally have larger holes in their kit or gameplan than the S tier or A+ tier characters and have more bad matchups as a result. Stun: Defensive grappler and a wall of a character. Takes the least damage in the game, has a good selection of normals (though they are a bit slow) and can play the mid-range game fairly well, letting him lame people out. If he can score a knockdown, he can gain momentum and pressure thanks to his strong oki. Uriko: A lightweight pixie character who excels at rushdown and close-range pressure, she can get good damage of certain setups. However, she is prone to being zoned out and struggles to get in on some matchups. Her range is poor and, though she has some tools to help her get in, they can be quite predictable. In addition to this, a low Beast defense modifier means she gets knocked out of Beast Form fairly quick (though she builds meter fairly quick too). Kohryu: Fast, annoying and generally hard to kill, Kohryu is the bane of many players; unbeknownst to many, however, Kohryu has many weaknesses (especially when it comes to offense) and has to work for damage, having very few ways to open people up or score high-damage combos. He often resorts to having to chip people down with pokes and playing the hit-and-run game, making it very difficult for Kohryu to achieve a comeback if the opponent gets a large life lead. To make things worse, Kohryu has the lowest Beast damage modifier in the game, though his Beast Form does grant him a sizable range boost to many of his best pokes. It is also worth noting that Kohryu gets some of the best anti-airs in the game, able to shut people down with ease if they jump. Marvel: Generally good normals means she can fight well at mid-range and also do well up close with 6PP pressure, but her lack of a throw mixup really hurts her close-range game. Marvel has one of the best Beast Drives in the game, as well as lots of feints and counters for mind games and lots of moves with pushback. Marvel also has good damage, but it can be inconsistent or situational at times. B Tier These are characters on the weaker side; while still viable, they generally have one or more glaring flaws that hold them back. Bakuryu: Shares many of the same problems Kohryu has while being nowhere near as tanky. His command run offers slightly better mixup potential and his unique, ground AoE-based moves are decent combo starters if they hit; however, he still struggles for damage and openings. Busuzima: Often placed lower on the tier list, though he is not quite that bad. Busuzima is a character who has to make lots of reads and has to work hard for damage, often at risk to himself. He also suffers from having poor mobility and one of the worst backdashes in the game. However, it's not all bad: Busuzima has a huge amount of Cancel Points and is able to stagger strings longer than any other character, making him deceptively tricky and letting him mix people up quite well. He also he has some of the best range in the game and is able to zone people out while in Beast Form with his stretchy limbs. Lastly, Busuzima has 2 strong Command Throws and a great tick throw game. However, his low damage, low mobility and low health do ultimately hurt him.

Is this game a port of Bloody Roar 3?

No, it is not a port. It is a sequel. IGN is to blame for this confusion.

For a detailed list of differences between Bloody Roar 3 and Bloody Roar Extreme, click here.

Isn't this just Bloody Roar: Primal Fury?

It is actually an updated version of Bloody Roar: Primal Fury. That said, the confusion is very understandable.

There is a total of 4 different versions of the game, most of the version differences being based on the region in which the game was sold:

• The original release, Bloody Roar: Primal Fury, was the first revision of the game, launched in North America before anywhere else; the European version was the last released and is identical to the US version. This version is notorious due to its broken sidestepping.
• The Nintendo Gamecube version of Bloody Roar Extreme, exclusive to Japan, fixes sidestepping and includes other minor bugfixes, in addition to slightly rebalancing the game. This is the first version to include Fang as an unlockable character. The Japanese XBOX version of the game inherits these fixes and features enhanced graphics as well as CGI cutscenes.
• The international XBOX versions of Bloody Roar Extreme feature the enhanced graphics and the CGI cutscenes, include Fang as a playable character (though without English-dubbed voice acting) and make Cronos and Ganesha available by default, but are otherwise identical to Bloody Roar: Primal Fury; as a result, these versions do not have any of the game-changing updates introduced in the Japanese Nintendo Gamecube version.

Who is Fang?

Fang is a guest character from Bloody Roar: The Fang, a manga series based on the Bloody Roar franchise which takes place in an alternate setting to the games; he is that universe's version of Yugo. Mechanically, his moveset and playstyle are much closer to Yugo's original Hyper Beast Duel incarnation before he was changed into a boxer character in Bloody Roar 2 onward.

Which character is best for beginners?

Bloody Roar Extreme is a technical game, but a few characters are easier to pick up than others; for example, Gado, Fang and Uriko are relatively simple. New players should avoid the Six-Ring characters (Long, Shenlong, Uriko) to avoid picking up bad habits. At the end of the day, players should pick whichever character they like, without forgetting some characters require a lot more effort to play than others.

Below is a quick list on character difficulty, as well as a brief overview of each character's playstyle:

Esoterics

What type of notation does the community use?

The community uses numpad notation in conjunction with in-game nomenclature.

• Kick is notated as K.
• Punch is notated as P.
• Beast is notated as B.
• Guard / Throw is notated as G.
• Hyper is notated as H.
• Near Side are Far Side are notated as L-Step and R-Step, respectively.

Below is a layout that assumes the player is facing right (layout is in reference to an arcade cabinet, not the buttons of the GameCube controller, but the principle stands):

  7  8  9          ( P )( K )( B )
  4  5  6         ( G ) \    \    \
  1  2  3              \Punch Kick Beast
                        Guard

What is the terminology used in this game?

More information about the terms and definitions frequently used in the context of the game can be found in the glossary.

Wait, Fang doesn't have an alternate costume?

Under normal circumstances, Fang does not feature an alternate costume of his own. Because of this, he cannot be normally selected for mirror matches. While he does have files that would theoretically allow him to wear one, these consist simply of an unfinished model for Yugo.

Via a Gecko code, it is possible for both players to select Fang, although with both players wearing the same outfit (in Training Mode, the aforementioned unfinished model will be used instead); the code also carries the side-effect of allowing two players to select the same outfit in mirror matches for every other character. The code needed is written below:

Code
C20541FC 00000003 80C50058 2C060005 40820004 38C000FF 60000000 00000000

What's that about a Debug Mode?

The full developer Debug mode exists intact in the game and can be accessed with a Gecko code Debug Mode allows players to view all frame data, hitboxes, flags, etc. As well as all sorts of other things and even make modifications to the game itself.

The code needed is written below:

Code
0405AEDC 60000000 0400AD24 4803FDE1

Press Start while in Training Mode to activate.

Fight Debug Menu Controls

• START = Debug Menu On/Off & Go Into Sub-Menu
• Stick Up/Down = Select Sub-Menu & Debug Option
• Stick Left/Right = Change Value
• Z + START = Abort (Return to Title Screen)

Fight Debug Camera

• Z = Skip One Frame & Reset Camera
• R/L = Zoom In/Out
• Hold L+R = Hide Debug Menu
• D-Pad = Strafe
• C-Stick Up/Down = Look Up/Down
• C-Stick Left/Right = Rotate Left/Right