Bloody Roar 4
STORY"Throughout time, life forms on this planet have evolved and prospered. Some life forms do not evolve, but what is the cause behind the choices on who evolves and who dies? Gaia is a life form that is the entire earth, and it has a self-balancing nature and it is a way that the environment can be controlled. Mankind has taken on many forms though Gaia, though natural selection, as well as the Unborn: the life forms that would have survived if they evolved. Exactly one year ago, during the X-Genome Code Incident, there were many riots on earth by beasts that were not in the XGC. Soon it all ended and no one knows the true cause of it, but people began to blame it on a Stone Seal. The seal is locked away, but the riots have increased even more so. What is the cause behind it all, and can this be stopped?"

Bloody Roar 4 character select screen.

REVIEWThe fifth installment of the series, Bloody Roar 4 brings back 14 veterans from the now 7-year-old series. Three newcomers also join the fray, including: Nagi, Reiji and Ryoho & Mana (fighting together as a unit). Bloody Roar 4 is the second in the series to appear on the PS2 and the first in the series to receive an "M" rating. Bloody Roar 4 is easily the best looking title in the series, although the character models were actually borrowed from the Gamecube version of Bloody Roar: Primal Fury. The background designs aren't too bad, but a weird "magic barrier" confines the action to a square box... yeah, don't even try to make sense of it, it's just there. One of the stages also has a ridiculous amount of slowdown (which ironically makes the game more fun in my opinion). lmao.

If giant bunnies VS giant pink chameleons is really your thing....

Bloody Roar
's gameplay engine was never really taken seriously among hardcore fighting game players, for obvious reasons (and other reasons I've touched on in past reviews). The gameplay in this installment is much of the same... and in this case, that's a bad thing. The repetitive & downright sloppy gameplay is still far too dependant on connecting your super move and changing into beast form so you can deal out more damage. I also strongly dislike how you're forced to get up as soon as you're knocked down. No, you can't even "play dead" in Bloody Roar 4. How ironic... because that's a trick that animals (and most fighting game characters) should be able to perform, right?

Each character has only one super move... and it's insultingly easy to execute and connect. Since the gameplay is so heavily dependant on super moves, it also becomes quickly tiresome after watching the same old boring sequence over and over, and over, again. Some of the priority moves & special moves in this game look decent, but the animation can't hold a candle to other 3D fighters. The all-important ouch factor lacks "oomph," as many attacks just don't seem to hurt at all. Characters also appear quite stiff and robotic during their win poses, as seen in the most recent prequels. In a nutshell, I got tired of playing this game in about 10 minutes. Anyone up for some TEKKEN 5, SoulCalibur 2, or Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution? Because my brain cells are starting to hurt just looking at this game.

...then HURRAY for more of this!

Bloody Roar 4's modes include: Arcade, Versus, Time Attack, Training, Sparring, Survival, Com Battle, Career and Options. Besides the standard fare we've seen before, BR4's Career Mode offers something somewhat different from the norm. Players can take a character of their choice through a legion of battles. DNA points are earned upon winning and can be used to buy power-ups like strength and defense bonuses. Players can also purchase new Beast Drives and combos if they can't seem to win using the standard 1-button mash-combos and gimmicks. Needless to say, BR4 is lacking as a console fighting game package when compared to many other fighting games of the early / mid 2000's.


Page Updated: May 26th, 2021
Developer(s): Hudson Soft, Eighting
Publisher(s): Konami
Designer(s): Masaharu Tokutake
Nobuyuki Irie
Shoji Mizumoto
Tetsu Ozaki
Platform(s): PlayStation 2
Release Date(s): Nov. 11th, 2003   
Nov. 28th, 2003   

May 27th, 2004   
Characters Yugo, Alice, Long, Shen Long, Uriko, Gado, Bakuryu, Busuzima, Jenny, Shina, Stun, Uranus, Xion, Ryoho, Nagi, Reiji

Featured Video:

Related Games: Bloody Roar, Bloody Roar 2, Bloody Roar 3, Bloody Roar: Primal Fury, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Soul Calibur 2, Virtua Fighter 4: EvolutionTekken 5

Gameplay Engine  3.0 / 10
Story / Theme  3.0 / 10
Overall Graphics  5.0 / 10
Animation  5.5 / 10
Music / Sound Effects  3.5 / 10
Innovation  3.0 / 10
Art Direction  2.5 / 10
Customization  2.0 / 10
Options / Extras  4.0 / 10
Intro / Presentation  5.0 / 10
Replayability / Fun  2.0 / 10
"Ouch" Factor  3.0 / 10
Characters  2.5 / 10


 3.3 / 10



Final Words: Bloody Roar 4 is one of the worst 3D fighting games I've ever played. That's saying a lot, because I've played some doozies. Sometimes when I look at that 3.3 score... I ponder... was I being too generous? The early and mid 2000's saw some amazing evolution and rebirth for many fighting games, especially 3D ones like the latest TEKKEN and SoulCalibur installments. If anything, Bloody Roar 4 was a shallow and disappointing step backwards in just about every aspect. 

As a series, Bloody Roar was perhaps showing some signs of progress... with average yet "playable" modern incarnations like BR3 and BR3: Primal Fury. Sadly, Bloody Roar 4 is more of the same, but not even as good as before. A few characters in Bloody Roar 4 are potentially likable in some ways, but most are just laughable and mostly awkward. More-so, the simplistic, bland, and stiff gameplay was the nail in the coffin for this series. 

If you were playing Bloody Roar 4 on PS4 instead of "getting gud" at some of the more popular PS2 / Arcade 3D fighting games of 2003-2004, you were definitely missing out on what the fighting genre had to offer at the time... Hard Pass.
~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen