Pocket Bravery

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Pocket Bravery
250px
Cover artwork
Developer(s)Statera Studio
Publisher(s)PQube, PixelHeart
Director(s)Anderson Halfeld
Producer(s)Jonathan Silva
Designer(s)Ed Junior
Márcio Hypólito
Programmer(s)Arthur Graña
Julio Centeno
Lucas X. C
Artist(s)Allan "Natural"
Allyson Maciel
Edson "Benhazard"
Elias Vaz
Guilherme "Gaiden"
Verion Julian
Writer(s)Jefferson Silva
Pedro Gomes
Composer(s)Angelo Ceccatto
Douglas Rodrigues
Franklin Lisboa
João Paulo Oliveira
Luan Lucas
SeriesBravery
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Windows
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
Xbox One
Xbox Series X/S
Nintendo Switch
ReleasePC
  • WW: August 31, 2023
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Pocket Bravery is a indie fighting game developed by Statera Studios and published by PQube and PixelHeart.[1] The game was created in pixel art inspired by the chibi aesthetic of the Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix game and the Neo Geo Pocket Color fighting games.[2] And influenced by the retro 2D games like Street Fighter, Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters which it pays homage to.[3]

The game was announced in April 2020, and during its development there were several tests and even championships, in addition to two beta phases, a closed beta that started on August 10, 2023, exclusively for people who donated to the game, and an open beta in the following day.[4][5] Pocket Bravery was released on August 31, 2023, and intends to be released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S but no date has been set yet.[6][7]

The creation of Pocket Bravery was somewhat turbulent due to a lack of funding and distrust among the gaming community due to the controversies surrounding the game Trajes Fatais, on which producer Jonathan Silva had previously worked on.[8][9] Despite the disbelief, the project managed to win over the public, raising funds that not only made its release possible, but also has continuous support for DLCs and updates.[10]

Gameplay[edit]

Nuno Alves the protagonist of the game fighting Shō Kamui from Breakers series.

Pocket Bravery is an indie 2D pixel art fighting game, with four main button controls inspired by The King of Fighters, one for weak punch, one for strong punch, one for weak kick and one for strong kick. However, it also features Breaker system, originating from Breakers.[11]

And the additional buttons for, grab, and combo breaker and the optional ones, two for punch and two for kick and elemental.[12] The game has four bars for each character, the uppermost gray bar is the stun bar that fills up as the character receives a hit; the health bar is the orange one and is the largest located further down, it decreases in each hit the character receives; the power bar that fills as the player keeps fighting, with this bar the character can do special attacks or cancel enemy special attacks; and finally the elemental bar, which fills like the power bar but takes longer and with it the character attacks with more strength and can make different moves such as canceling attacks and enemy combos.[13] The grab command is executed by pressing the two weak attack buttons and the opponent can break away from the command by pressing the same buttons.[14] Characters can also run, dash backwards, do normal and long jumps.[14] The game also offers simplified commands that help players with special needs.[15]

Each battle rewards the player with battle points (BP), which can be used to unlock new stages, new colors to customize characters, arts and even extra characters.[16]

Game modes[edit]

Some of the many game modes of Pocket Bravery.

The game can be played in single player or two player mode offline and multiplayer online, the latter featuring rollback netcode.[17] It has seven modes; story mode, arcade, combo factory, training mode, gallery, versus and online multiplayer.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]

Plot[edit]

A strange phenomenon has taken over the world and few people are able to feel or manifest it.[26] Some are able to release energetic powers through their hands, others tone their muscles, while others transfer their energy to objects and weapons.[26] No one can understand the reason for all this and tries to unravel the mystery of this phenomenon.[26] In the midst of this disturbance, a terrorist group called Pack steals artifacts and ancient relics from countless nations, causing chaos wherever they go.[27] Nuno Alves, a former member of the Pack, opposes its leader Hector and ends up being brutally punished and thrown into a captivity called place Kennel. There he meets a man called Lobo with whom he creates an alliance and gets mentored by him, teaching him how to use the strange force known as Ichor that has taken over the world.[28] Nuno and Lobo manage to escape from captivity and plan to take revenge on Hector. On this journey they meet Mingmei who is an agent of the Ghost Hat organization that aims to stop Nuno's tormentor and in this endeavor they meet and become friends with Sebastian and Hadassa who have goals similar to Nuno's, as well as the rest of the cast around the world.[29]

Characters[edit]

The game was launched with 13 playable characters at the start,[30] with 3 of them being unlockable via cheat code or through specific objectives for each character.[31] The game will also have 2 season passes that will be included via DLC. Characters in italics are unlockable, while those in bold are guest characters.

Base roster DLC
  • Nuno Alves
  • Mingmei Wong
  • Sebastian Mcclane
  • Hadassa Silva
  • Aleksander Arshavin
  • Kimberly Moore
  • Ekon Ndidi
  • Daisuke Sato
  • Malika Sharma
  • Ximena Guadalupe
  • Hector Silva
  • Jorge Chagas
  • Sho Kamui

1st Season

  • Rick Johnson
  • Brandon Carter
  • Son Ji-Sung
  • Camille Leclerc

2nd Season

  • (Soon)

Pocket Bravery has two confirmed seasons, others could come if it gets high demand. Sho Kamui from the fighting game Breakers is a guest character in partnership with PixelHeart.[32] Rick Johnson is the second guest character who comes from another Statera's game, Guns N' Runs.[33]

Jorge Chagas is the only official character in the game who has no importance in Story Mode despite having a background plot. His moves are also based on famous characters from other fighting games such as Ralf Jones, Ryuji Yamazaki, Terry Bogard, Leona Heidern and Kim Kaphwan from The King of Fighters series in addition to Luke Sullivan and Guile from Street Fighter series. His theme "Goodbye Osasco" is a homage to Kyo Kusanagi's theme song "Goodbye Esaka" in The King of Fighters. Non-playable characters that appear in the game and are relevant to the plot are; Lobo, Sergei Arshavin, Arcano and Hiraku.[28]

Development[edit]

The origin of Pocket Bravery was the disappointment with the development of the game Trajes Fatais.[34] Jonathan Silva, the creator of the franchise had previously worked on the indie fighting game 'Trajes Fatais' from Onanim Studio and was also the publicity face for the project.[35] He started working on the project in 2016 and in 2017 he was faced with a huge lack of money raised for the game's development.[36] The studio ended up suffering from this financial shortage and this affected many members who ended up being dismissed.[37] The studio's harmony was no longer the same and he decided to leave the project in 2020 but with his dream of creating a fighting game.[37] Wanting to separate himself from the bad reputation he unfairly gained, he met Anderson Halfeld and they founded Brazilian developer Statera Sudio.[38]

Initially they wanted to create the game Bravery which would be in the style of The King of Fighters XIII but would require a lot of manpower which they did not have at the time.[39] They then decided to make a simpler (pocket) version of this initial project, taking inspiration from SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Neo Geo Pocket's games and Pocket Fighter, with the visual part having a hint of Metal Slug and Scott Pilgrim.[40] Thus, both Bravery and its pocket version are different projects of the same universe.[39] Along with this, they wanted to bring back the nostalgia of the fighting game fever in the arcades of the 90s but bringing new elements giving the title its own originality.[41]

The studio was committed from the beginning to bringing transparency to the development of the project so that players can regain confidence their lost in Trajes Fatais.[38] They started a funding campaign on Indiegogo bringing exclusive rewards to donors using an all-or-nothing format.[42] If they did not achieve the goal in the estimated time, they would refund the money raised and the project would be ceased.[43] The campaign offered several contribution options that led to different rewards: from the possibility of becoming a beta tester, obtaining a digital artbook and even creating a character for the game.[44] The extended options also included a new game mode (Tag Strike), character color editing, a version for mobile devices and even new characters.[45] The deadline coincided with the launch of the open beta version.[46]

From the beginning, they wanted to create a game that clearly showed the fundamentals for applying strikes, understanding why and how they work the way they do and how to link one strike into another.[14] In addition, it also addressed the diversity of nationalities, so the Nigerian character Ndidi was created because Nigeria is one of the African countries with the largest fighting community of the continent.[8]

Critical reception[edit]

Pocket Bravery received favored reviews, with GameBlast giving it an 8 out of 10, highly praising the number of single player modes, but complaining about the progress in Story Mode not being saved in the cloud.[27] The website Round 1 praised the ease of gameplay and the educational way of teaching the game to be handled, also giving it an 8 out of 10 and emphasizing that the traditional controls seem somewhat "hard".[28] Gamerview while also praising the gameplay also highlighted the considerable modes, despite saying that Hot Pursuit mode didn't add anything, and gave it a rating of 95 out of 100%.[29] Siliconera gave it a 7 and praised the complexity of the cast, the fun modes and the help tools.[47] Retrolike jointly praised the numerous modes and the pixel art but complained about the unbalanced characters, the issues in the hitbox and blocking of attacks, finishing with a rating of 7 out of 10.[11] Hey Poor Player emphasized the beauty of the character design and praised the amount of content at the beginning without the need of an overpriced DLC and that despite the difficulty in some Story Mode sessions the game is formidable, giving it a 3.5 out of 5.[12] Hardcoregamer expressed that the game is a tribute to classic fighting games while bringing a modern touch with various modes, options and extra content and the website Pizza Fria added that the game stands out in the saturated scene of the genre by standing out with its facets made with passion.[48][49]

Awards[edit]

Year Award Category Results Ref
2023 Brasil Game Awards Brazilian Game of The Year Won [50]
Flow Games Awards Brazilian Game of The Year Won [51]
The Game Awards 2023 Best Fighting Game Nominated [52]
2024 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Fighting Game of the Year Nominated [53]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Costa, Leon. "Pocket Bravery: Indie Brasileiro de luta anuncia sua data de lançamento". Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  2. ^ Aires, Juliano (September 1, 2023). "Pocket Bravery". Adrenaline. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  3. ^ Maia, Diego. "Pocket Bravery Chega em Breve ao Xbox". Xboxers. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  4. ^ Paulino, Rodrigo "Shiro Aoi" (August 10, 2023). "Jogamos o beta do Pocket Bravery: nossas primeiras impressões". Round 1. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  5. ^ Scapin, Pedro (August 6, 2023). "Jogo brasileiro, Pocket Bravery chega primeiro aos PCs". Game Arena. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  6. ^ Galvão, Bruno (August 5, 2023). "Brasileiro Pocket Bravery chega no final de agosto". Eurogamer.pt. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  7. ^ Sales, Gabriel (August 31, 2023). "Pocket Bravery, indie de luta brasileiro, é lançado no Steam e terá 2 passes de temporada". IGN. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Camillo, Livia (May 25, 2021). "Pocket Bravery: criadores 'lutam' para finalizar jogo". Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  9. ^ Anelise (August 25, 2020). "Fatos e Curiosidades: Games no Brasil". Revista Jovem Geek. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  10. ^ "Pocket Bravery is OUT NOW on Steam!". Steam. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Danny (October 1, 2023). "This Pocket Bravery review is played and tested on PC". Retrolike. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  12. ^ a b Peterson, Greg. "Pocket-Sized, Pixelated, Pugilists Delivers A Rumbling Roundhouse To The Genre". Hey Poor Player. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  13. ^ Smale, Jim (September 5, 2023). "Pocket Bravery Review (Steam)". Gertlush Gaming. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  14. ^ a b c Demetrio, Andrea "Jens" (November 25, 2021). "Pocket Bravery (Demo)— from Brazil with a burning Heart". Super Combo. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  15. ^ "Análise: Pocket Bravery". Combo Caster. September 15, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  16. ^ Aethyna. "Pocket Bravery". WWGDB. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  17. ^ "Pocket Bravery Demo". Xbox. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  18. ^ Demartini, Felipe (September 12, 2022). "Jogo brasileiro de luta terá crossover com clássico dos arcades". Terra. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  19. ^ Sales, Gabriel (November 14, 2023). "Títulos desenvolvidos por estúdios brasileiros concorrem ao prêmio de Melhor Jogo de Luta". IGN. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  20. ^ Fernandes, José Renato (September 11, 2023). "O ano de 2023 está sendo incrível para os jogos de luta e com Pocket Bravery não foi diferente". Suco de Manga. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  21. ^ Soket (August 30, 2023). "Pocket Bravery já está disponível hoje para PC!". Suco de Mangá. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  22. ^ Reis, Fabio (September 4, 2023). "JOGAMOS POCKET BRAVERY: ÓTIMO JOGO DE LUTA BRASILEIRO". Warp Zone. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  23. ^ "POCKET BRAVERY PUNCHES ITS WAY ONTO STEAM". GamingLyfe.com. August 31, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  24. ^ Gutierrez, Barbara (September 3, 2017). "Como funcionava o Street Fighter de rodoviária?". UOL. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  25. ^ Reis, Fábio (September 4, 2023). "POCKET BRAVERY: UMA JOIA RARA DOS JOGOS INDIE BRASILEIROS". Warpzone. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  26. ^ a b c Scagliusi, Guido Giuseppe (October 9, 2023). "Jogo de luta foi desenvolvido pela Statera Studio e distribuído pela PQube". Nerdice. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  27. ^ a b Oliveira, Alecsander (September 13, 2023). "A bravura dos pequenos sofre com alguns problemas, mas é feito com o carinho de fãs do gênero". GameBlast. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  28. ^ a b c Paulino, Rodrigo "Shiro Aoi" (September 1, 2023). "Pocket Bravery é divertido e com ótimo custo benefício". Round 1. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  29. ^ a b Marco Antônio (September 26, 2023). "Cães que ladram e mordem". Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  30. ^ "Coming to Consoles Digitally & Physically Soon!". Game Developer. August 31, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  31. ^ Meluna (October 8, 2023). "Pocket Bravery Unlock Characters". naguide. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  32. ^ João Antônio (September 11, 2022). "Pocket Bravery, jogo de luta brasileiro, anuncia crossover com a série Breakers e novo lutador Sho Kamui". Combo Infinito. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  33. ^ Ippoliti, Enrico (September 27, 2023). "Pocket Bravery: mostrato il gameplay del prossimo combattente, Rick Johnson". Games Village. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  34. ^ Kayo, Jefferson (May 2, 2020). "Pequenos e corajosos". Start UOL. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  35. ^ "A Jornada de Resiliência e Paixão da Statera Studio no The Game Awards". WGEEK. September 7, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  36. ^ Zambarda, Pedro (October 31, 2020). "História complicada de desenvolvimento Parte do dinheiro havia sido desviado por outro membro da equipe". Drops de Jogos. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  37. ^ a b Breve, Giovanna (October 18, 2020). "Como o game Trajes Fatais perdeu R$ 48 mil após sucesso em campanha". Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  38. ^ a b Eloi, Arthur (December 6, 2023). "Homenagem aos clássicos de luta se reergueu do fracasso e conquistou jogadores do mundo todo". Jovem Nerd. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  39. ^ a b Sales, Gabriel (October 22, 2021). "Pequenos e corajosos: Pocket Bravery é novo game de luta para ficar de olho..." Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  40. ^ Kayo, Jefferson (May 2, 2020). "Pocket Bravery, o jogo indie de luta brasileiro que almeja chegar à EVO". Start UOL. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  41. ^ Santos, Vitor (October 22, 2021). "Pocket Bravery: conheça o jogo de luta brasileiro que pretende chegar à EVO". BTS Brasil. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  42. ^ Bicudo, Everson (May 11, 2021). "É do Brasil! Pocket Bravery chega ao Indiegogo com gráficos nostálgicos e bônus exclusivos". TudoCelular. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  43. ^ "Conheça Pocket Bravery, o jogo de luta brasileiro cheio de estilo". TecMundo. May 13, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  44. ^ Nikolai Barkow Castilho, Ivan (May 11, 2021). "Jogo brasileiro Pocket Bravery recebe campanha de financiamento e pode chegar ao PS4 e PS5". PSX Brasil. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  45. ^ Verneque, Neto (May 11, 2021). "Pocket Bravery: jogo de luta brasileiro lança campanha de crowdfunding". Project N.
  46. ^ Young, Rory (April 16, 2021). "Pocket Bravery Fighting Game Revealed Ahead of Crowdfunding Campaign". GameRant. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  47. ^ Couture, Joe (September 16, 2023). "Review: Pocket Bravery Is a Complex, Approachable Fighter". Siliconera. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  48. ^ Leclair, Kyle (September 8, 2023). "Pocket Bravery is a valiant attempt to pay tribute to the classic fighting games of old while still providing a modern twist". Hardcoregamer. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  49. ^ Feldmann, Matheus (October 1, 2023). "Hoje, talvez estejamos vivenciando uma das melhores eras para jogos de luta". Pizza Fria. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  50. ^ "Confira os ganhadores do Brazil Game Awards 2023". Brasil Game Awards. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  51. ^ Bassani, Thais (December 5, 2023). "Alan Wake 2 é GOTY! Veja todos os vencedores do Flow Games Awards 2023". Flow Games. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  52. ^ Jackson, Destiny (November 13, 2023). "The Game Awards Nominations: 'Baldur's Gate 3,' 'Alan Wake 2' And Nintendo Reign Supreme". Deadline. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  53. ^ "2024 Awards Category Details Fighting Game of the Year". interactive.org. Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
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