, fully titled Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring, is a 1998 fighting game developed by DreamFactory and published by Namco for arcades. It was developed as a partnership between Square and DreamFactory. It was ported to the PlayStation, where Square released it internationally while Sony Computer Entertainment published it in Japan, a direct inversion of the companies' usual publishing deal.

The game includes characters from Final Fantasy VII: Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart – which are playable in both versions; Sephiroth, Yuffie Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine, and Zack Fair – which were added to the PlayStation's roster exclusively.

Gameplay

Battle system

Ehrgeiz differs from most 3D fighting games by drawing heavily from the concepts of wrestling games and DreamFactory's own Tobal series, which allows for full 360-degree movement and does not require fighters to be facing one another at all times. This restricts the camera to a more or less fixed position, zooming in and out with the action, but not tracking around the arena as would be common in most other 2D and 3D fighting games. Characters can move freely in a 3-dimensional stage which is filled with many interactive objects and changes in elevation, allowing characters to leap on top of crates or use them as weapons, for example. There are four action buttons: guard, high attack, low attack, and special, which is a weapons-based attack that is different for each character.

Quest Mode

The PlayStation version includes a Quest Mode, similar to Tobal No. 1 and Tobal 2, titled Brand New Quest: The Forsaken Dungeon. The game was directed and designed by Virtua Fighter and Tekken designer Seiichi Ishii. The game's characters, both the original ones and those from Final Fantasy VII, were designed by Tetsuya Nomura. Ehrgeiz was announced as the first project to result from a licensing agreement allowing Square to develop games for Namco's Namco System 12 arcade board, and was exhibited at Namco's booth at the February 1998 AOU Show.

Music

Ehrgeiz Original Soundtrack contains sixty-one musical tracks from the game. It was composed by Takayuki Nakamura, who previously composed the DreamFactory and Square collaboration Tobal 2. It was released on November 21, 1998, by DigiCube.

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="clear:none; font-size:90%; padding:0 auto; margin:auto;"

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! colspan="2" | Ehrgeiz Original Soundtrack track list

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| valign="top" | Disc One (original) (66:38)

  1. "The Title" – 0:14
  2. "The Tale of 'Ehrgeiz'." – 0:46
  3. "Victory" – 1:13
  4. "Escape" – 1:45
  5. "Run Away in the Airship!" – 3:08
  6. "Hong Kong Reggae" – 1:36
  7. "Continental Train" – 1:19
  8. "The End of the Journey" – 1:31
  9. "Door of Truth" – 1:39
  10. "Fate" – 1:42
  11. "Those Who Fight (from Final Fantasy VII)" – 1:31
  12. "Prelude (from Final Fantasy VII)" – 1:45
  13. "A Song for the Man of the Future" – 1:35
  14. "The Legend." – 1:10
  15. "Der Ehrgeiz." – 1:27
  16. "A self-service Selector." – 0:43
  17. "Elevator" – 1:28
  18. "Fresh Fish" – 2:02
  19. "Continue" – 0:38
  20. "Stage Clear" – 0:09
  21. "Map Song 1" – 0:17
  22. "Map Song 2" – 0:25
  23. "Map Song 3" – 0:17
  24. "Map Song 4" – 0:17
  25. "Opening (Short Version)" – 1:34
  26. "Brand New Quest" – 2:48
  27. "Ruined Town" – 2:39
  28. "Dungeon 1" – 1:38
  29. "Dungeon 2" – 2:35
  30. "Dungeon 3" – 1:47
  31. "Dungeon 4" – 2:32
  32. "Dungeon 5" – 1:30
  33. "Dungeon 6" – 4:15
  34. "Dungeon 7" – 2:36
  35. "Battle in a Trap" – 1:26
  36. "Boss" – 1:21
  37. "Master Boss" – 1:33
  38. "Phoenix" – 3:01
  39. "Store 1" – 1:32
  40. "Store 2" – 1:44
  41. "Hotel" – 2:12
  42. "Magic Store" – 1:31

| valign="top" | Disc Two (arranged) (64:34)

  1. "The Tale of 'Ehrgeiz'." – 1:28
  2. "Victory" – 3:31
  3. "Escape" – 4:26
  4. "Run Away in the Airship!" – 3:54
  5. "Hong Kong Reggae" – 3:34
  6. "Continental Train" – 3:25
  7. "The End of the Journey" – 3:38
  8. "Door of Truth" – 4:34
  9. "Fate" – 4:06
  10. "Those Who Fight (from Final Fantasy VII)" – 4:24
  11. "Prelude (from Final Fantasy VII)" – 3:23
  12. "A Song for the Man of the Future" – 3:51
  13. "The Legend." – 2:05
  14. "Der Ehrgeiz." – 2:38
  15. "A self-service Selector." – 1:17
  16. "Elevator" – 3:47
  17. "Fresh Fish" – 3:47
  18. "11th" – 3:53
  19. "Der Ehrgeiz (long version)" – 2:56

|}

Release

Ehrgeiz was released in arcades in 1998 as a joint venture between Square and Namco. After the game's US release on the PlayStation, Square Electronic Arts sponsored the "Ehrgeiz Championship Tour," a series of contests in which players competed against one another playing the game. The contests were held at Electronics Boutique and Babbage's stores across America, beginning on July 10, 1999, in New York.

On September 28, 2000, Ehrgeiz was re-released as part of the Square Millennium Collection in Japan. It included a collectable digital clock and character diorama.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Ehrgeiz on their April 15, 1998 issue as being the sixth most-successful arcade game of the month.

Ehrgeiz sold over 222,000 copies in Japan by the end of 1998, and sold 340,937 copies in Japan by December 2004. It has scored a 32 out of 40 points by the Japanese gaming publication Famitsu. IGN rated the game a 7.5 or "Good", citing the game's beautiful graphics and presentation but noting both its generally simplistic gameplay and very difficult combination move executions. Ehrgeiz currently has an aggregate score of 76% on GameRankings based on twenty-one media outlets.

Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Technologically speaking, Ehrgeiz is an impressive fighter, but it does have balance problems, especially the one-button gameplay of the one-player game. Still, it's good to see developers straying from the accepted formula with new fighting designs that truly work."

See also

  • Power Stone
  • Tobal No. 1
  • Destrega
  • The Bouncer (video game)

References