Fight of Gods — The Fighting Game The World Has Been Waiting For!
No doubt, the recently released indie fighting game, Fight of Gods, truly took the world by surprise. When the game first hit the online gaming platform Steam back on September the 4th, the newly launched fighting title was quickly met with much praise from gamers, and even caught the attention of some notable YouTubers, such as Maximilian Dood, who did a number of play throughs for the game. But just as quickly as it began to gain fame, it also found itself at the center of controversy, being banned by several governments as authorities moved to block the game. Here we’re going to take an in-depth look at this incredible fighting game that has left the world intrigued, as well as the controversies surrounding it.
The Background:
Fight of Gods is a 2D fighting game that was built on the Unity engine. It features characters themed after an assortment of Gods, Holy Spirits, and Mythological characters. In all, there are a total of ten characters to play as, including Gods based on Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology, as well as Holy Spirits such as Jesus and Moses. It also looks as if the developers are planning to add additional gods to the game as development progresses.
Each the game’s characters have there own strengths and weaknesses, with some being faster and having a longer reach in their attack maneuvers, while others are more burly and have the advantage of strength, but at the cost of speed. The characters aren’t necessarily the most balanced in this game though, as some have clear advantages over others.
Each character also has a set of standard fighting maneuvers, as well as combo attacks, and all feature a super power attack that when unleashed can do an incredible amount of damage to their opponents.
The only catch is, some characters can only execute their attacks within a fixed radius as compared to the position of their opponents, meaning they really have to be standing within direct proximity to actually make their super power attacks work. If they should miss, their super power meter is drained, then giving the advantage to the opponent.
The game features 2 meters for each character. The first, the green meter at the top, is the standard power meter, which when completely full can be executed with the single press of a button, and gives players as more power and agility for period of time, until the meter wears down. The second meter is the super power attack meter.
The Characters:
Jesus: The central figure of Christianity, who’s commonly regarded as the Son of God, who died for his people, and was resurrected after his crucifixion. He’s a well balanced character in the game, he’s fast, and has a decent reach in his attack maneuvers. His super power is the Holy Light attack, in which he beams himself up into the air in a flurry of golden light that knocks back his opponents.
Zeus: The Greed God of the sky and thunder, who was better known as the kind of gods of Mount Olympus. In the game Zeus is a large, burly character, who’s quite slow in his attacks, though he can do a great deal of damage to his opponents if they get close enough to him. His standard attacks our powerful punches, followed by lightning thunder bolts he zaps his enemies with. His super power attack is the Thunder Rain, where he grabs his opponents and unleashes a flurry of punches, sending them flying across the screen with a massive final punch.
Moses: A prophet in the Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Moses famously parted the Red Sea to defend his people from the Egyptian army, and he received the Ten Commandments atop Mount Sinai.
In his super power attack, Moses raises the ten commandments and states, “Show Me The Power”, as he parts the seas, sending waves crashing upon his opponents. Moses has the advantage of attacking from a distance in terms of his power attacks, as he doesn’t have to be directly near his opponents to deliver damage. Although, the further he resides away from his opponents when executing his super power attack, the less damage he will do.
Anubis: An Egyptian God who was known historically as the protector of graves, and the god who permitted souls into the afterlife. Anubis resembles the body of a man with the head of a canine.
Anubis is one of the most well balanced of characters in the game. He’s really fast, he has good reach in his attacks, and he appears to have the advantage over the larger, more burly characters in the game. His super power attack is the Pharaohs Curse, where a scale appears on the screen, along with the head of a mummy.
Buddha: Guatama Buddha is highly regarded symbol of the Buddhist religion, and known as an enlightened teacher, or Sage (one with the wisdom of which a philosopher seeks).
Buddha’s character appears initially as a golden figure in the game, who floats in the air attacks his opponents from speed and dexterity. When is power meter is full, a rainbow encircles his character, signaling an increase in his strength and abilities. His super power attack is the Buddha Dharma, in which Buddha rises high into the air and completes a swooping attack with his hand as he falls back to towards the ground.
Guan Gong: More commonly known as “Guan Yu”, he was a Chinese general who fought for the ancient warlord Liu Bei during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Guan Gong remains a highly regarded deity in the Chinese religion.
He’s one of the slower characters in the game, although not the slowest by far. His attacks have quite a reach thanks in part to his giant blade he slashes away at his enemies with. His super power attack is the “Dragon Spirit”, in which he unleashes a flurry of slashes upon his opponents. His attacks in general are also among the most damaging of all characters in the game.
Athena: The Greek Goddess of Wisdom and War, the ancient Greeks constructed the Parthenon, a temple atop the Athenian Acropolis to commemorate her.
Athena is equipped with a spear and shield as her weapons of choice. Despite her weaponry, she often doesn’t appear to have the reach in her attack abilities you would initially expect. For this reason she tends to have better fighting abilities at close range. Her super power attack is the “Warriors Faith”, in which she unleashes multiple jabs from her spear upon her opponents.
Sif: A goddess in Norse Mythology, she is said to be “The Goddess of The Earth.” She’s also known as the wife of the thunder god Thor. Scholars have long hypothesized that Sif’s golden hair represents fields of golden wheat, and that she may be associated with fertility and family. Her name literally means “Relation to Marriage.”
She is a fast and incredibly powerful character in the game. Her speed reach of attacks gives her a huge advantage over her opponents. It appears she is able to utilize long-chain combo attacks better than any other character. Her super power attack is the “Bumper Harvest”, in which she raises her hands into the air drops a flurry of golden wheat that knocks her opponents. Her super power attack isn’t that powerful though.
Amaterasu: Better known as Amaterasu Omikami, she’s said to be a direct descendant of the Japanese Imperial family, and a important deity in Japanese religion. She is the keeper of the three sacred treasures of Japan, which represent three primary virtues, valour (her sword), wisdom (her mirror), and benevolence (her wisdom).
She’s typically more skilled at long range attacks, thanks in part to her bow and arrow she harnesses as her weapon of choice. On the other hand, she’s not so great as short range attacks, which often leave her vulnerable. Her super power attack unleashes multiple arrows into her opponents from multiple angles, and they do quite a bit of damage as compared to the super attacks of most others in the game.
Odin: This one-eyed, long bearded God, was better known in Norse Mythology as the god of death, war, healing, royalty, and knowledge.
A tall imposing figure in the game, Odin is extremely powerful, harnessing a long razor sharp spear known as “Gungnir”, as his weapon of choice. He’s also quite slow in his attacks, but he harnesses a number of magical power attacks, including one where he unleashes a dog on his opponents, along with a wind attack, among others. His super power attack is the “Berserker’s Rage”, in which he plunges his spear as hard as he can into his opponents, causing incredible damage as a result.
Features: Fight of Gods offers both single player and vs. modes of game play. Everything from the characters to the incredibly detailed fighting stages are visually appealing, and the controls for most of the characters feel very responsive, with a few quirks in terms of pulling off the super power attacks. We personally found using a directional pad on our controllers to be more responsive than with the use of the more often sought analog stick when attempting to pull off both long-chain combos and special attacks.
Battles take place in the most incredible places, from the Parthenon, to the Garden of Eden, the attention to detail in background imagery is spot on! Unfortunately, the game lacks in terms of online playability. Vs. mode only works locally, and this is real bummer for fighting game enthusiasts, who often prefer to compete online.
It’s also possible we could see the game’s developers Digital Crafter, eventually add online functionality in a future update. Plans are also in place to add additional characters, and from the looks of the game’s Steam page, it appears developers are listening attentively to the wants and concerns of their audience.
The Controversy: Several governments, including those of both Malaysia and Thailand have moved to block the game from access in their countries. Thailand apparently wasn’t too happy with the peaceful Guatama Buddha being depicted as a fighting game character. Malaysia too wasn’t too happy with the game, in effect blocking the entire Steam platform initially from access in its territory until the game was removed from access.
Q: Were foreign governments justified in their ban of Fight of Gods, and were the developers wrong for the ways in which they depicted what are essentially highly regarded gods and holy spirits?
A: Yes, foreign governments were rightful to ban the game from access, as they definitely have a right to be offended by the depiction of their religious deities in certain circumstances. On the other hand, its true that the developers of Fight of Gods made no attempt to depict these religiously regarded entities in a demeaning manner. What matters here is intent, and it appears the developers made every attempt to depict the religious entities they included in a responsible and respectful manner. Otherwise, we would not have reviewed the game and passed on it entirely.
Q: Does this mean the developers were wrong?
A: No. Again, what matters is intent, and there was no intent to offend, harm, or demean anyone, including religious figures. What government and religious entities find to be insulting is rather a matter of perspective, but its the intent that defines the result. Its normal for humans to have varied perspectives both positive and negative regarding certain topics and situations. This should be expected. Being the intent was to portray these characters in a positive manner, the developers technically weren’t wrong either.
Conclusion:
Fight of Gods has so far turned out to be a well rounded fighting game, with fairly responsive controls for the most part, and its underlying characters and the amazing abilities they boast make this a fighting title worth playing for hours on end. Despite the game’s lack of online multiplayer functionality, and a few quirks in terms of controls, the developers at Digital Crafter definitely deserve recognition for their efforts to produce such a great functioning game.
Given so many disappointments from AAA gaming studios in recent years, especially in terms of fighting games, Fight of Gods seem to fill a much needed gap in the fighting game genre. The game made use of cinematic sequences for each of the characters special maneuvers, and they managed to do so without the game feeling unresponsive as a result.
This was the issue I personally had with games like Street Fighter 4 when it first came out. Capcom had the graphics down, but the inputs suffered from serious lag, and it didn’t even feel like I was playing a game at all. It was all cinematics, and hardly any responsiveness in game play.
All being said, despite the controversies surrounding it, and the lack of online multiplayer modes, I honestly feel Fight of Gods is as compelling of a fighting game as one ever could be, and I give it an 9 out of 10 rating backed by Gamers Bay.
Written and published by Daniel Imbellino, co-founder of Gamers Bay! Connect with us across the web to stay up to date with honest gaming news and reviews!
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