Starting June 12th, 2019, Filipino indie studio Ranida Games will launch their fantasy fighting game based on Filipino historical figures called BAYANI – Fighting Game into Early Access on Steam.
The game can be added to your Steam wishlist right now by visiting the Steam store page, where the game will go live tomorrow. Alternatively, you can download the demo right now ahead of the game’s launch into Early Access by visiting the official BAYANI website.
Ranida has also been demoing the game at various events taking place throughout the Philippines, including the Pinoy Gaming Festival 2019 and at the Coliseum Summer Tournament 2019 event.
The game itself takes a fantasy approach to Filipino history by turning historical freedom fighters and political activists into over-the-top fighters, as you can see in the animated trailer below.
Obviously you probably have no clue how the game actually plays based on that animated short, which was nicely done for the studio to be a small Pinoy group working on the project.
They do have a second gameplay trailer that showcases more of the general gameplay mechanics, including the neutrals, the combos, the specials, and the super moves. You can check out the minute long compilation of gameplay clips below.
Alternatively, there’s an entire four minute gameplay video available showcasing an unedited match between Joe and Tonio, where you can get basically get an idea of what the general pacing, specials, zoning, and combos are like.
The game reminds me a lot of a Filipino version of SNK’s highly celebrated Last Blade in terms of historical elements and celebrating a country’s rich history of combat. You can check out the full gameplay demonstration below.
As far as polish is concerned the team still has a long ways to go. Audio processing needs cleaning up, and higher quality sound effects would probably make the impact of the moves sound more convincing.
There are also a few glitches with the air-combo timing. The character initiating the combo can get stuck in the air for a bit too long, which gives the opponent a wide opening to completely destroy the person stuck in the air.
The toughest part of the design looks like it’s been handled well, though, and that comes in with the player movement, the animation fluidity, and the transitional blending between frames. All of that looks good and appears to be implemented competently.
Hopefully they work on the sound effects (especially adding a lot more when it comes to the “wooshing” and “swishing” effects that are absent when you see some of the specials taking place). It’s tough to get an idea of what else they need to fix until we see more of the gameplay, but that will happen when the game goes live into Early Access over on the Steam store.
(Thanks for the news tip Mad Lucied)
