When Psykyo decided they wanted to make another fighting game, they wisely chose not to connect it to Battle K-Road in any way or form. However, they didn’t want to create another fighter in terms of gameplay or atmosphere, and when they finally embarked on this journey four years later, the result would be a fighter that stood head and shoulders above their initial efforts, featuring a neglected and criminally overlooked character. **Daraku Tenshi** (literally translated as **Fallen Angels** for the American release) is not the most diverse or well-made fighter to ever exist, but it presents a fantastical dark and bold atmosphere with definitively unique characters that carry relatively realistic and simple movement, with what appears to be a “hadoken” move set. At the same time, there is an ambiguous plot involving a simple fighting tournament where a bear is champion. It includes a massive earthquake that tore apart an unnamed city that could have been an old Japanese city or Los Angeles (the latter would make sense in light of the significance of the “Angels” title).
The preface is as follows:
On February 10, 2000, at 7:13 AM, an earthquake struck the city, measuring 7 on the Richter scale.
With total information control, the peace cover that protected the city’s streets suddenly vanished, and the computer-controlled concrete jungle came to a halt.
A major shift in the earth’s crust severed the city from the land surrounding it, leaving it an island with nearly no external contact. Money crazies soon erupted in flames over the remaining yet useless remnants of power in the city, preaching salvation while hiding their malicious intentions.
Gender, crime, and drugs ruled the streets as the city began to decay. Ironically, they named the miserable remains of their city “Heaven – the final paradise.”
It was ten years later. The year was 2010.
