-Final Vendetta feels like the really old-school, quarter-stealing type of games, and the biggest reason for that IMO is that it's pretty stingy with resources like food and weapons. Even the original Final Fight gave you more to work with, and that game wanted you to die as many times as possible so that you'd need to spend 12 credits ($3 at that time, closer to $24 now) in order to finish it.
-Another thing that reminds me of those old-school brawlers is that when an enemy decides they want to hit you, you're getting hit whether you like it or not. Between their attacks coming out too quickly to react to, having crazy priority (it feels) over your attacks and even grapples, and the aforementioned lack of weapons to outrange them or food to recover from their attacks, you're stuck in a war of attrition that you're probably going to lose. Even with blocking and dodging, you still have to be psychic to be able to not take damage from attacks, just like in Final Fight. And I remember a lot of people looking down on Streets of Rage 4's lack of blocking and dodging at the time it came out, but that game's designed so that you don't ever need to block or sidestep to avoid taking damage. Enemies telegraph their attacks fairly, and you get plenty of resources to get the better of them with. And since I'm used to games in this genre not giving you a block button, I'm not used to how Final Vendetta seems to want me to hold block all the time by default. (Except for all the enemies whose attacks can't be blocked, or the ones who attack you from behind, naturally.)
Yep, and it was even worse before the patch update. The 4th boss could knock you into an instant grab stun loop with no way to get out. Usually playing as Miller was near impossible to beat with because of it. Honestly, you're better off evading than blocking. Evading especially works the best for the final boss in his second phase. The only time I block are when the Raven ladies (darker variations of the night stick chicks) use their exclusive jump kick. The block works every single time, or they end up missing 98% of the time any way when blocking.
-The worst part of the game is in the third level, where it pops up a warning symbol and a siren... right as you get run over by barrels from the right side of the screen. You can't not be on the right side of the screen to advance it, so there's no way you can react to it in time. The only way to react to those barrels is to have played the game enough times that you know exactly when they'll appear, so that you can already be jumping when it happens. It does this multiple times, and none of them can be fairly dodged on reaction. "Hee hee hee! Free damage for me! Om nom nom nom nom nom nom!" What makes it even more unforgivable is that the later levels pull out the same warning siren for environmental hazards... that it actually is possible to dodge on reaction. Meaning the devs were able to do it that way, they just didn't feel like it in Stage 3's case.
First time, it is a biatch. It's worse on Ultra difficulty, because you don't get the warning symbol and siren, relying purely on the aduio while the hazards are off-screen. Once their memorized, they rarely become an issue. In stage 4 with the cranes, just keep running forward non-stop and they will never hit you at all. I was amazed about this exploit, when finding it on my own!
-I also have no idea if the game drops inputs or if there's something I'm doing wrong, but sometimes I press the attack button and no attack comes out, especially when I'm jumping.
I've had this happen some of the time as well, but it was at its worse pre-patch update. It rarely happens now, but it is annoying when it does. Which is odd, because Steam got the update first, and those on console had to wait almost a month for the update. By the time the game came to XBOX, it didn't need the patch, because Team Numbskull ported over the patched version to SERIES X.
. And speaking of moves, the movelist feels fairly limited despite the addition of a second attack button that only occasionally does things, and the game doesn't feel bothered to explain when it can do things outside of one case (edit: found the manual, which does explain all the possible moves, at least). And when I'm grappling enemies, my character feels pretty happy to just let go of them when I don't want him to, and I'm not sure what inputs he's basing that decision on.
The game does have plenty of hidden moves, but they do old-school design of "figuring it out" on your own, with only giving you some vauge hints or details. Duke is actually the easiest to use. For example, Duke has a flash dick he can do by dashing, and then hitting the second attack button (the same one that is used to kick an enemy on the ground). I never had my character lose grab, aside from Miller. He seems to the one to be most inconsistent with his grabs. I never lost a grab with Claire either, so this might be a Steam issue. All the characters do have a back attack a la
Streets of Rage, so you'll never get hit from behind again. It's assigned to L1/LB. There is even an hidden forward directional input that gives you a combo ender. You can mix and match these combos as well. The game really wants you to experiment and find things on your own. On one hand I respect such as design, on the other, it is frustrating the developers don't give you enough and are to high on the old-school design. They really want you to play over and over, until you can achieve that 1CC run.
-Final Vendetta does do one thing differently from everybody else: no continues. If you get a game over, it's right back to the beginning for you. This, I feel, is unnecessarily cruel even for trying to evoke the feeling of playing a game like Final Fight. Sure, Streets of Rage 4's arcade mode also has no continues, but that isn't the only mode in that game.
Ultra Difficulty gives you 2 lives, and no extra lives to gain or be found. BTW, extra lives are also hidden behind certain background objects. Once again, it was even worse, because scoring 1 million point would not gain you extra lives before the patch update. Only Casual Difficulty gives you unlimited continues. And that difficulty came in with the patch update.
-Oh, and the level ranking system could do with a little more transparency about how it's calculated, other than 'if you died even once this level, you get the worst rank' (edit: that's in the manual too, apparently you need to be quick and avoid getting knocked down by enemy attacks). And since extra lives are based on points, and your level rank gives you bonus points if it's good, losing lives prevents you from gaining lives.
It was even worse pre-patch because two knockdowns would automatically knock you to A or B rank. I will give the update for being more lenient in this regard. Dying would still result in giving you an automatic E though. So that I get.
I know that there are other difficulty levels, but I get the feeling that all they do is make enemies easier to kill and deal a bit less damage, without fixing any of the core issues that I have with the game: enemy attacks I can't react to, controls that I occasionally feel like I'm fighting against, and generally just not being on the same level as Streets of Rage 4, or even Shredder's Revenge which I also have. Probably going to ask for a refund. Sorry BM, I'm not blaming you or anything, it's the thought that counts.
Nothing wrong with that, and at least you can get a refund. Not possible on the console versions. I did did achieve a 1CC No Death Run with Claire and Duke on Hard, so I got what I wanted and got 100% Trophies for the game. BTW, there is a level select, so you can to the last stage inside the Mansion, if you want.
One last thing:
-To unlock the hardest difficulty, you need to beat the second-hardest one with a specific character. I'm not sure why you can't just do it with anyone and it must be Miller.
That is nothing more than padding and false replay value. For first time players, I always tell them to find a co-op buddy and have one of the two pick Miller so you can get Ultra Difficulty the first time through. There's an even easier method by level selecting if you died on the final stage, so you won't have to go through the entire game again. Miller's problem is his attacks have too much wind up, even for a Mighty Glacier character. Even though he moves faster someone like Max Thunder, Floyd Irara, or Mike Haggar, they have way faster attack or punching speeds than him. Which makes no sense! Boris from
Violent Storm moves faster and attacks faster than him!
The only other thing I can give this game is that the soundtrack slaps hard! But yeah, I can see why you're not a fan.
