Vanguard Princess: Senjin no Himegimi also known as Vanguard Princess, is a 2D fighting game developed by Tomoaki Sugeno, an ex-Capcom artist. Sugeno uses Enterbrain’s Fighter Maker 2nd, an update to the original version and boasting visuals akin to those of a full-price commercial release. The first edition was released on June 26, 2009 for free via Tomoaki Sugeno’s website and the game’s modes are limited to Story and Versus Mode only.
Since the game’s initial release, Vanguard Princess has seen a number of version updates. The latest game version is 1.08 released on January 14, 2011 with bug and balance fixes. The major addition is extra animation for each character when they are about to perform special move. An English version was released by eigoMANGA on October, 2012 which included several censorship and gameplay updates. The localized version is not a freeware, however, but a portion of every purchase is donated to recovery efforts of the 2011 Earthquake in Japan.
In a not-so distant future, worldwide conflict and strife have brought the world into chaos. During a global war, a passenger plane was shot down by accident which killed everyone onboard except for one young girl who remained unharmed. Before long, she grew up to be a beautiful woman. But as time passed, mysterious powers began to awaken from within her.
Initially, she was brought to a private research facility. But when “The Government” learned about her powers, they wanted to harness them for military purposes. She had the ability to manipulate the laws of the universe in anyway she saw fit, which they called “Tactical Sorcery”. She also possessed great fighting skills which “The Government” wanted to exploit as well. So she underwent a series of cruel human experiments.
At some point, the experiments triggered her powers to reach critical mass, causing what they called an “Astral Impact”. The shockwave from “Astral Impact” spread throughout the world and mystically bestowed many young girls with the powers of “Tactical Sorcery”. The girls were recruited to battle in the frontline and soon became an inspiration to soldiers everywhere. Out of respect each were referred to as “Vanguard Princess”.
One year after the world began to experience peace, the mysterious woman returned; now calling herself the “Enforcer of Reason”. She vows to destroy all of mankind. And now every girl who’s called a “Vanguard Princess” goes out to independently investigate the threat. Each hoping to met other gifted girls; friend and foe alike.
Vanguard Princess plays much like most standard 2D fighting games such as Street Fighter series. The game involves assist characters that help main characters in battle. There are four assist characters and a hidden assist version of the boss character being selectable only by chance while using random select. Each assist character have different moves depending on what direction is used. With the aid of their partners, player can increase their chaining and effective combos.
In battle screen there are several indicator that should be known by player:
Health bar, Display character current health.
Calcium Break, The Calcium Break serves as a guard meter indication. Blocking attacks will cause the meter to rise. When the guard is fully broken leaving the character spinning and vulnerable to attack. Having your guard broken also results in your Assist meter being broken temporarily.
Stun Meter, Similar to Calcium Break, getting attacked causes the stun meter to rise. When in a stunned state, your character is completely vulnerable to attacks and cannot use assists.
Grasp Indicator, Located at the bottom center of the screen, indicates whether or not player can execute a grab.
Assist Meter, Indicates the current level for the support character. The meter will be depleted when using support attack or any attacks are blocked. The Assist Meter is broken if player take damage during their support character’s attack or if the guard is broken.
Special Meter, The meter required to perform “Liberty Art” or “Super Move”.