Red Earth

From Capcom Database Wiki

Intro

Red Earth, known as Warzard in Japan, is a fighting game released in 1996 for arcades. It was the first game to run on Capcom's CPS-3 arcade hardware. Despite being quite common in Japan, it was only minimally distributed overseas.

Despite the game's obscurity, some of its characters have appeared in other games outside the series as playable characters. This includes Capcom Fighting Evolution (Leo, Kenji, Hauzer and Hydron), SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos and Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix, (Tessa in both, plus cameo appearances, notably Hauzer in Ryu's ending.)

Red Earth and other games that used the CPS-3 hardware were very advanced both graphically and from a gameplay standpoint, but were not accepted well by arcade operators due to the high price and fragility of the hardware. As of 2007, there has been no console port of the title, making it the only CPS-3 game that never made it out of arcades.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Heroes

[edit] Villains

Kongou- Kongou was once a mere human named Tanuma from Zipang. He was a portly merchant with no fighting ability, but then he met Scion, who bestowed upon him the ability to transform into a great ogre. Now known as Kongou, he is terrorizing his own homeland, wielding a massive spiked club and reducing those who stand in his way to nothing.

Ravange (or Secmeto) - is a four-headed chimera from Alanbird, a desert nation. He has the heads of an eagle, a snake, a lion, and a goat. Although he crawls around on all fours, he is quite intelligent and each head is dangerous in its own right. He once was a human Pharaoh named Arumana IV, but was given this new form by Scion. His statue is brought to life by the sorceress Clara Tantra.

Lavia (or Luan) - is a vicious harpy whose power was increased by Scion's sorcery. She resides in the country of Gora and prompts Mai Ling to hunt the others that have been empowered by Scion, when she destroys the young martial artist's village.

Gigi - is a four-armed stone warrior. Originally a statue of Incan design, Gigi was brought to life by Scion. Its original intent being a stone guardian, it guards the crypt it was originally found in. In battle, it wields a curved sword in each of its four hands, and can summon a spear from below the ground to stab an unsuspecting opponent.

Blade (or Jihad) - Former leader of Leo's bodyguard unit, Blade became Scion's finest and strongest creation. Blade is nothing more than a small emerald crystal, but it calls to itself a large set of armor equipped with a massive sword named Adrayer. Blade was completely constructed by Scion, so it is unquestioningly loyal to the evil wizard.

Scion (or Valdoll) - is an evil wizard and the final boss of Red Earth. He is responsible for the invasion of monsters in different countries. His ultimate goal is to conquer the world in the name of his new nation, Darminor. His two dragons are named Misery and Despair.

[edit] Story

Red Earth takes place in 1999 on an altered earth that is stuck in a medieval/mythological state. A new country has risen led by the evil Blade, who sends out various monsters to take over the world. Four heroes emerge to defend earth.

The western translation has the same premise, but takes place in 13XX.

[edit] Gameplay

There are four heroes and eight bosses; and two game modes, Quest and Versus. In Quest Mode, the player chooses one of the four hero characters, and progresses through a story while battling the various boss characters and gaining experience. In Versus Mode, two players fight against each other, but they can only choose from the four main characters. Red Earth also uses a special password system that allows the player to play the game later on the same skill level he reached when it ended the last time. The character is able to "learn" special attacks and gain new equipment depending on the skill level that has been reached.

The fighting engine itself is similar to games such as Street Fighter, however with a few differences. First of all, the health bar of the enemy 'bosses' the player battles in Quest mode is displayed across the bottom of the screen, and is much larger than that of the players. Also, as the player lands hits on the bosses, various coins and treasure chests come out. Collecting coins provides experience, while various things can be found in treasure chests such as orbs (used for super attacks) and food (that restores health). These elements make the game very similar to an action/beat-em-up style game rather than a traditional 1-vs-1 fighter.

In addition, Red Earth is one of few Capcom games with "Fatality" attacks; fatalities include, splitting the opponent in half both horizonally or vertically, decapitation, artery rupture, organ removal, limb slicing; the Darkstalkers games are others holding this distinction (though these employ such attacks in a slightly more comic vein, as seen in some of Bishamon's sword-slicing attacks).