| Just go download this character. Now.
I guess that won't really do for a review, so I'll explain. This character has some of the best graphical effects, sounds, and sprites I've ever seen in an original character. TARUSE has made masterful use of MUGEN's scaling and rotation abilities in ways I've not seen since the days of Testp. And the character plays pretty well, too.
As I've mentioned, sprite-wise, Reika is very impressive. Her animations are very fluid, and the effects are expertly done. She's got animations for close attacks and different attack animations for jumping up or forward, and two different animations for being KO'd. That's more than you'd find in many professional games.
The sounds are excellent as well. TARUSE found an excellent voice actor for Reika - the voice samples sound professional, and there are a bunch of them. The sounds for slashing and hitting are also good. Not much more you can say about it, really.
Reika's gameplay is excellent as well. She has four main buttons: Punch, Kick, Slash, and Strike. The Punch, Kick, and Slash buttons work like you'd expect, but the Strike button works like the Forward + Kick attacks in Last Blade - they send the opponent flying against the wall. She's got a decent number of special moves and techniques, like a dodge and guard cancel attack.
One of the nicer touches is the Sword gauge. Any time you attack using your sword, you'll drain the Sword gauge at the bottom of the screen a little. When it gets too low, your attack power will go down, but you can press a button to call for a new sword and pick it up, which will refill the gauge. The only downside to the Sword gauge is that it can be covered up by the lifebars you're using in MUGEN, but you can usually see the flashing kanji symbol to tell you to call for a new sword anyway.
The super moves are probably the coolest part of the character, though. They all feature a neat, skippable scene of Reika talking before they execute, and they even use a custom set of lifebars when they hit. Very cool. Reika's level 3 super, however, really must be seen in action. The zooming is pretty damn neat, and it makes me wonder why I've never seen anyone else do something like it.
If there's anything you could hold against this character, it's that she's not very combo friendly. But that's not a big issue. Go download her now, unless you're some kind of loser who doesn't want good characters.
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Check out Reika's level 3 super here! (1.12meg .rar file; contains an .avi file)
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