Evangelion Battle Orchestra is a game that every Evangelion fan should play.

User Rating: 8.5 | Shinseiki Evangelion: Battle Orchestra PS2
By kenshinhimura16 | Review Date:
Evangelion is an extremely popular anime, but mostly with a more grown up audience. Featuring a really complex story with a rushed ending and 2 OVAs (and more on the making) plus some more mangas with side stories. Evangelion: Battle Orchestra, though is not the only Evangelion game, but, from the whole series, it can be marked as the most entertaining to play. Battle Orchestra is not as the N64 Evangelion game, though you will still be playing as EVAs here, there is no relation to the series, except for some minor cutscenes, that actually have little relation to the "real" story. At first, Evangelion looks like a simple game, it comes packed with the standard Story Mode; Rumble Mode and Survival Mode (called Endless Battle); as for combat, you have 3 types of attacks, that can be comboed into bigger attacks. You have the classic jump button, and you can execute it twice, and you have a defense button. But this is only the surface of it. I must admit that at first, the game was plain simple, but its not until you hit the HARD setting that the game can challenge you. While playing on hard, you will actually loose 70% of the times, and that same rate can be applied as your possibilities to succeed in the battle too. Yet you have some secret weapons that you can execute to aid your EVA in battle. The most basic form is side stepping/rolling. This will help you clear out of battle, or engage in battle too from behind. But the most important aid comes from the AT counter (which is basically a counter move). The AT counter is a really close combat movement, and though you can execute it for most of the attacks, if the enemy is not close to you, he will not be affected.
The real attractive of the game comes from the style of game. Who would have though that Evangelion would make a good Super Smash Bros wannabee? I guess nobody, yet Brocoli, the dev team manged to pull a nice experience. As in the SSB games, you can play with up to 4 other player (you included) in the rumble mode, with similar options as in SSB. Be it team battle or free for all. An addition to the SSB schematics is the inclusion of special moves. You can execute the first SM with 50% of your synchronization bar charged (similar to MP/AP) or you can do your SM by awakening (Evangelion terminology used when an EVA went berserk) and do a more destructive SM.
The character rooster is by far the best feat of the game. Featuring almost every angel and all the Evangelion units from 00 (orange) to the Mass Production model. The character rooster is sure to please any fan of it. A new commer is the new Evangelion model commanded by no other than the last angel, Kaworu. The real problem with the characters comes from the unlocking system. First you must accomplish some requirements, like finishing story mode on Hard, and then comes the real problem, to get the character you have to buy it from the store. Now, most of them are real cheap options, but those you know are powerful (Kaworu, Berserk 01) are really expensive and will take you some time, but believe me, that when you use the berserked 01, you wont regret that time.
The most interesting mode, and in my opinion, one of the best feats of the game is the Endless Battle Mode. This mode is the survival, if you get to higher numbers you will be able to unlock 2 Angels too abçnd lots of cash. The uniqueness of this comes from the fact that the scenario loads only once, and then the enemies will pop up one after the other and you will have to fight them, with short rests between fights and few recovery items. This mode will put your techniques into test, though as with 99% of the games, when you need to survive, you will have to go the "cheap" way.
The game is not perfect though, and though I may end up giving it a good score (since I love it, mostly as a fan of the series) its not on the terrible side either. The first prblem you will notice is the lack of time spent doing the scenarios. Yes, you will recognize them, since they are all taken from the show, yet they are extremely poor on the design side. A really let down to tell you the truth, especially when the Eva designs are so beatifully done. The second issue will be the returning problem: paralysis when hitted. This is a ghost that haunts many fighting games, expecially those that are from sure sells side, as this one. It will get really bothersome, especially when on the survival mode. The music suits the game, but I would have preferd to have the original OSt, considering the N64 game had it. At least the voices are from the original cast. The last issue you will notice is the item effects and explosions. As with the SSB games, you will have items here to use as you see fit, from the standard proxy mine to the Lance of Longinus or the powerfull N2 Bomb. They are really nice to use, since they can give you the edge in battle but its sort of a let down to see so early PS2 days explosions.
The whole design of the game is good. Most of the stuff is taken from the show, so those who know it will see lots of really polished details as the NERV Magi room, or the Eva Catapults. The game is a great experience for those who are fans of the universe that Evangelion involves, but may turn to the bring side for those who are not. The whole idea of giant robots battling will seem stupid to some people, specially in USA were they are less tolerant about Japanese culture and anime. But if you are looking for a game that transports the Evangelion characters to deadly arenas in giant mech fights, then you might as well give it a shot.

Critic Score: 6.5/10
My Score(fan point of view): 8.5/10

Of course the final score is my score since its my opinion. The critic score is my new idea to show you a more real approach to it.
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