Epic Battle Fantasy

Epic Battle Fantasy is a simplistic RPG, and the first game in the Epic Battle Fantasy series. Developed by Matt Roszak, it follows the adventures of two characters, Matt and Natalie, which were previously used in flash animations he posted on Newgrounds, as they fight their way through many waves of enemies on a seemingly aimless quest.

Gameplay[]

Epic Battle Fantasy contains some basic elements of a turn-based RPG, and is basically a marathon of waves containing various types of enemies. You control a party of two heroes - a swordsman named Matt and a mage named Natalie - who each have different abilities. Matt is more damage-oriented and has high attack power, while Natalie is more support-oriented and has several healing abilities. Aside from their basic attacks, the heroes' skills cost Magic Points (MP), which can be replenished by certain consumable items. Other consumable items have different functions, such as restoring the heroes' HP and dealing damage to enemies. The goal of the game is to beat all the waves of enemies and defeat the final boss without letting both heroes lose all their HP.

Items[]

These items are used in-battle to help out your party members. They can be bought from the two shops that you'll encounter in the game (one at the beginning of the game, and one after defeating the Defender boss), and also sometimes drop from defeated enemies.

Potion: Partially heals a party member.
Max Potion: Fully heals a party member.
Ether: Partially restores a party member's MP.
Max Ether: Fully restores a party member's MP.
Attack Potion: Buffs a party member's attack.
Magic Potion: Buffs a party member's magic attack.
Antidote: Cures Poison.
Water of Life: Revives a dead party member.
Bob-omb: Damages an enemy.

Status Effects[]

Status Effects are special conditions that can be inflicted on any character during battle through various attacks. Some help characters through various means, while others bring harm. They are as follows:

Attack Up/Down: Increases or decreases the target's normal attacking power.
Defense Up/Down: Increases or decreases the target's normal defense.
Magic Attack Up/Down: Increases or decreases the target's magic attacking power.
Magic Defense Up/Down: Increases or decreases the target's magic defense.
Dispel: Removes any buffs and positive effects from the target.
Seal: Prevents the target from using anything except their most basic attacks.
Freeze: The target is frozen in ice and can't do anything. The target takes extra damage if attacked while Frozen.
Poison: The target loses some HP every turn.
Autolife: Allows the target to instantly revive if killed.

Skills[]

Matt's Skills[]

Bushido[]

These are offensive skills that primarily focus on dealing damage, usually concentrated on a single enemy.

Drain: Leeches an enemy's HP, giving it to Matt. Is more effective with the Blood Blade or Sword Eater.
Wind Slash: Dash attack that damages all enemies. Is most effective with the Soul Eater.
Quake: Earth-based attack. Is most effective with the Stone Edge.
Eruption: Fire-based attack. Is most effective with the Inferno.
Seiken: Holy-based attack. Is most effective with the Heaven's Gate or Rune Blade.
Legend: Powerful attack that hits the target multiple times. Is more effective with the Soul Eater.

Special[]

These skills serve to either support the heroes or dehabilitate enemies.

Mog: Summons Mog the Moogle to bring a random support item and use it on either Matt or Natalie. Sometimes Mog shows up at the start of your turn without being summoned.
Temper: Buffs the party's attack.
Protect: Buffs the party's defense.
Air Strike: Bomb-based attack that either hits one enemy with a big bomb, or hits all enemies with smaller ones.
Screamer: Dark-baed attack that hits all enemies and lowers their magic attack.
Power Metal: Hits all enemies and heals the party. Is most effective with the Razorback.

Swords[]

These are the different weapons Matt can equip; they each have different properties and most of them boost the power of certain skills.

Heaven's Gate: Holy sword that boosts the power of Seiken and Legend.
Devil's Sunrise: Gothic sword that lowers Matt's attack but boosts his magic attack, defense, and magic defense.
Blood Blade: Vampiric sword that boosts the power of Drain.
Stone Edge: Earthly sword that boosts the power of Quake and Eruption, and heavily boosts Matt's defense.
Inferno: Fiery sword that boosts the power of Eruption.
Rune Blade: Ancient sword that boosts the power of Seiken, and moderately boosts Matt's magic attack and magic defense.
Soul Eater: Demonic sword that massively boosts Matt's attack but lowers his defense, magic attack, and magic defense.

Natalie's Skills[]

White Magic[]

These are support skills that almost exclusively deal with keeping Matt and Natalie standing in battle.

Purify: Removes negative status effects from both party members.
Barrier: Boosts the party's magic defense.
Heal: Basic healing spell that heals one party member.
Healmore: Advanced healing spell that heals both party members.
Revive: Revives a dead party member, or inflicts Autolife on a living one.
Judgement: Holy-based attack that also heals Natalie when used.

Black Magic[]

These are Natalie's attack skills, capable of heavily damaging enemies as well as debuffing them in various ways.

Lucky Star: Basic non-elemental attack that deals random damage to an enemy.
Fireball: Fire-based attack that sometimes lowers enemies' magic defense.
Glacier: Ice-based attack.
Thunderbolt: Thunder-based attack that sometimes stuns enemies.
Pulsar: Dark-based attack that hits all enemies and deals massive damage.

Summons[]

These are creatures that can be called into battle to fight for the heroes.

Pichu: Uses a Thunder attack that either does moderate damage to all enemies or heavy damage to one random enemy.
Registeel: Uses a non-elemental attack that hits all enemies and lowers their magic defense.
Canti: Uses a non-elemental attack that deals massive damage to a random enemy. Occasionally, he uses a more powerful weapon that deals even more damage.
Catastrophe: Makes several swords fall from the sky, dealing extreme damage to all enemies, but also damages Natalie.

Worlds[]

Forest Clearing: A grassy area where you fight some Slimes, and then the King Slime.
Scorched Wasteland: A more desolate section of the Forest Clearing populated by Eyeballs and the Beholder.
Seaside Harbor: An area near the sea where you battle some Haunted Trees.
Seaside Army Base: A fortified area where you face the Defender.
Rocky Beach: Another seaside area where you fight some Crabs, followed by Regice and Regirock.
Volcano Field: A molten area where you fight against Ancient Eyes.
Artillery Bunker: Another military zone, this one guarded by the Mecha.
Graveyard: The last area, a gloomy cemetary where you find and battle Zombie Goku after clearing a few waves of Skull Ghosts.

Enemies[]

Slime: Weak enemy that uses basic physical attacks. It only appears in the game's first few levels.
Eyeball: Slightly stronger enemy that uses basic physical and magic attacks. Appears early on in the game.
Haunted Tree: Mid-level enemy that uses plant-based attacks which can sometimes Poison your party members.
Crab: Defensive enemy that uses powerful physical and water attacks, and can hide in its shell to reduce the damage it takes from your attacks. Appears in the middle of the game.
Ancient Eye: A more powerful version of the Eyeball that uses strong physical and magic attacks, and can sometimes Seal your party members. Appears towards the end of the game.
Skull Ghost: Very powerful enemy that uses hard-hitting physical attacks as well as magic attacks that can Dispel or Poison your party members. Appears in the game's final area.

Bosses[]

King Slime[]

King Slime is a giant Slime being used as a mount by a mischevious cat named NoLegs. As the first boss, King Slime has a pretty simple and straightforward movepool; it simply uses powerful physical attacks, attacking your party members by either slamming into them or by having NoLegs shoot at them with the cannon he installed on King Slime's head. Sometimes, King Slime can also heal itself. It can easily be defeated by hitting it with strong attacks.

Beholder[]

The Beholder is a grotesque, evolved form of the Eyeball enemy. Besides using the laser attacks that normal Eyeballs use, the Beholder has tentacles it can use to attack by whipping or - disturbingly enough - make love to the party members. The love-making "Censored" attack also Poisons your party members, which might make it necessary to use Natalie's Purify skill to remove the Poison depending on how the battle plays out.

Defender[]

The Defender is a huge military robot that attacks with an array of weaponry stored inside its bulky body. It hits hard and always goes on the offense, so make sure to constantly buff your party's defense and heal them when necessary! It normally attacks with razor blades, machine guns, and rockets, but when the Defender's health gets low, it'll start launching huge artillery shells from its main cannon, creating a massive explosion that deals an absurd amount of damage to both party members! That said, you should try to take this behemoth down as quickly as possible to minimize the damage it does to your party. The Defender takes extra damage from electric and bomb-based attacks, so use those to get in some decent damage on it.

Regice and Regirock[]

Yes, you read that right - Regice and Regirock, the Legendary Pokemon Golems, appear as bosses in this game! (Although this might not be too big of a surprise considering that Registeel, another Legendary Pokemon Golem, is one of Natalie's Summons.) You fight them one at a time, and then both at the same time.

Regice[]

Regice is the first one of this dynamic duo you'll encounter. It attacks by smacking your party members and shooting ice beams that can sometimes Freeze them. Its attacks can be quite damaging, but luckily it's extremely weak to fire-based attacks, so spamming the Eruption and Fireball skills will finish it off quickly.

Regirock[]

After warding off its icy cousin, Regirock drops in to take a swing at the heroes. It excels in physical damage and mostly attacks by punching your party members, dashing into them, and jumping to create damaging tremors. Sometimes, though, it can fire a laser that deals magic damage. Regirock is more durable than Regice, but it's considerably weak to ice and bomb-based attacks, making Airstrike and Glacier the ideal skills to use against it, along with some much-needed defense buffs for your party members.

Both of Them![]

Once you beat Regirock, it'll instantly recover and Regice will rejoin the fray, forcing you to fight both Legendary Golems at once! Focus on defeating Regice first, since it's the more fragile one of the pair - remember to spam fire attacks! Once Regice is down, you can deal with Regirock the same way you did before.

Mecha[]

The Mecha is another giant battle robot, this one even more fearsome than the Defender. Keeping your party's defense up and healing them when their health gets low is vital to winning this battle! Much like the Defender, the Mecha has a wide variety of weapons to attack with, but its weapons are even deadlier! It can use melee attacks with razor blades, chainsaws, and the giant spiked ball at the end of its right arm to heavily damage one of your party members, or it can attack with machine guns, rockets, or bombs to hit both party members at once. Once the Mecha's health is low, though, it will also start using a pair of energy cannons as well. The energy cannons deal magic damage, and the Mecha can use them to either fire a single shot from each one to deal high damage to both party members, or simply charge them up and then unleash an enormous laser blast on its next turn which deals insanely high damage to your party members. Use Barrier to defend against the Mecha's energy cannon attacks, and use Protect to defend against all its other attacks. When the Mecha charges up its energy cannons, make sure to have both party members defend to avoid being killed by the laser blast!

The Mecha is weak against electric and earth-based attacks; thus, between the two heroes, you can get in some great damage on the Mecha using Matt's Quake and Natalie's Thunderbolt (although, as you must play defensively in order to defeat the Mecha, you may want to consider using Matt primarily to keep up the party's defense with Protect and give Natalie items to prevent her MP from running out). Using Screamer to debuff the Mecha's magic defense is also a great idea, since that will result in Thunderbolt doing even more damage due to it being a magic attack.

Zombie Goku[]

Zombie Goku is the final foe you face in this long trek. He's been killed by Matt twice before, and now he's back with an unholy vengeance! As the game's last boss, Zombie Goku is insanely powerful and has a very wide range of skills he can use against you. These skills include powerful physical attacks, dark-based attacks that Dispel your party members, poison attacks that can hit and Poison one or both of your party members, a healing skill, magic attacks that Seal your party members, devastating energy attacks, and the dreaded Spirit Bomb which has a one-turn delay but deals massive magic damage when it lands! At first, Zombie Goku heavily relies on his physical and status-inflicting skills, which may result in your party members being Poisoned or Sealed often depending on how the battle plays out; this is best countered by playing defensively and using Antidotes and/or Purify to remove those effects. As his health gets lower, though, Zombie Goku will use his status-inflicting skills less often and start using some of his stronger energy attacks. At critically low health, Zombie Goku breaks out his most lethal attack, the Spirit Bomb. Not only does it have a ridiculously high damage output, but Zombie Goku gets to attack again after it lands! For this reason, the only way to counter the Spirit Bomb is to have both party members defend, which will almost certainly allow them to survive the blow as long as their health is high and their defense is buffed.

Being an undead monster, Zombie Goku is weak to holy attacks, making Seiken and Judgement the obvious best methods of attack to use against him. Fire attacks are pretty effective against him too. Using these skills can be made difficult by Zombie Goku's ability to Seal your party members, but that can be remedied with Antidotes or the Purify skill.

Glitches[]

The Skull Ghosts and Zombie Goku were supposed to be able to use a dark-based attack that had a small chance to instantly kill a party member, but due to a programming error they never use this attack.

Trivia[]

Zombie Goku being the final boss of the game is a direct reference to one of the story arcs in Matt Roszak's animations, as well as another one of his games titled Brawl Royale.
- In some of Roszak's animations, Goku has appeared as an antagonist. He was eventually killed by Matt.
- Goku returned in Brawl Royale as a zombie, acting as the game's final boss. He was killed again by Matt; this would then lead up to Goku returning from the dead a second time in this game.
The game uses music from various other video games, mostly The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy games.
- However, in the upcoming Epic Battle Fantasy Collection coming to Steam in the future, Epic Battle Fantasy will have an original soundtrack.
The game also includes several copyrighted characters; these too will be replaced with original creations in the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection.
- Regice and Regirock are set to be replaced by two similar but original characters, Metaice and Metarock. Same deal with Registeel, which will become Metasteel.
- Pichu will be replaced with Pikablu.
- Zombie Goku will be renamed Roku (he can get away with only a name change because his appearance in EBF is drastically different from the original Goku as he appears in Dragon Ball).
- The Bob-omb item will be replaced with the Hand Bomb, which has already replaced the Bob-omb in every other EBF game to avoid a copyright dispute with Nintendo.
Although some enemies and bosses are weak to certain elemental skills, Epic Battle Fantasy doesn't have a fully functional element system; its sequel, Epic Battle Fantasy 2, would be the first game to fully implement elements in its gameplay.