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A giant gorilla is causing chaos and as Kaho you’re tasked with saving Anime Expo in Los Angeles.
2D brawler Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate (PBBGU) was released in April for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It’s a remaster of the 2013 Xbox 360 game from Rocket Panda Games based on Unreal Engine. PBBGU, in turn, is a spin-off of the fighting game series of the same name. A whopping 38 chibi-style characters are available in the game’s story, arcade, co-op, and battlegrounds modes. As if that weren’t enough, the KAHO DLC will be released on September 4th for €4.99/£4.29/$4.99, featuring web video producer, cosplayer, and former AV idol Kaho Shibuya as a playable character, a new LA EX stage, four new enemy types, and a new song, “WiSH,” performed by Kaho herself. We’ve already had the opportunity to play through the expansion both at gamescom in co-op and on our own setup, and to chat with Rocket Panda co-founder and CEO Mike McNamara and Kaho Shibuya.
Kaho’s outfit is a available in eight different colors in both co-op and Battlegrounds modes. She has numerous food-based attacks, including a pudding AoE attack, a baguette air blast, a stacked burger (the longer you hold the button, the more ingredients land between the buns), a giant donut, laser eyes, and she’s able to drop sugar cubes onto her foes. The new EX Stage LA takes you from LAX Airport via Figueroa Street to the LA Convention Center. We fight our way past numerous landmarks such as the Grammy Museum and the crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), just with fictionalized names. LA food truck Okamoto Kitchen and 3D latte art shop Latte Pocket from Japan are also represented, but we couldn’t find the Devolver parking lot back from E3. During our trip through LA, we are attacked by bloody furries with electric guitars, guards with bike helmets and shields, Robocop-style hyenas with guns, flying monsters, and vicious bikers on two lanes.
Just like in the base game, the screen quickly fills with all sorts of enemies, projectiles, coins, and crystals. This can be quite cluttered, especially in multiplayer, which supports up to eight players, and when someone is picking the nearly screen-filling truck character. Three difficulty levels are available at the start, and two more can be unlocked. On normal difficulty, with a bit of finesse, you can plow through the expansion in half an hour. Only the final boss fight against the mighty gorilla and his minions is a bit more challenging. He throws barrels at us (where have we ever seen that before?), catapults us halfway across the stage, and pummels us with his giant paws. Fortunately, he stays out of our way until we’ve defeated his colorful army of terror.
Kaho was instrumental in creating her character in terms of outfit and moves. As a bread enthusiast, she’s excited to be bashing the minions of evil with a baguette in her own DLC. Her appearance in PBBGU follows a sub-story role in RGG Studios’ Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii in which she fights for the rights of AV idols just like in real-life. Both genres, pixel-art 2D brawlers and realistic 3D brawlers, are among Kaho’s favorites. There are numerous other genres that would pique her interest, so we’ll stay tuned to see where we see her next.
Final thoughts
The KAHO DLC expands the vast ensemble of playable characters in the 2D brawler Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate with a creative new addition. Kaho has beginner-friendly attacks, but pros can use the higher difficulty levels to learn to maximize her move set. The jump height isn’t ideal for dodging the gorilla’s giant barrels; if things get too busy, you can simply switch to either fore- or background. It’s a visual spectacle to fight through the masses of enemies and use the numerous creative special attacks. The charming pixel art style prevails in the DLC, and Kaho, the new enemy types, and the new LA-EX stage have been designed with great attention to detail, especially with the inviting Anime Expo in mind. Fresh out of the coding oven like a tasty baguette, we highly recommend the KAHO DLC to all fans of the base game.
Rocket Panda Games provided us with PC code for the KAHO DLC for Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate, which we used to take the screenshots.
