“Throughout time, life forms on this planet have evolved and prospered. Some life forms do not evolve, but what is the cause behind the choices on who evolves and who dies? Gaia is a life form that is the entire earth, and it has a self-balancing nature and it is a way that the environment can be controlled. Mankind has taken on many forms though Gaia, though natural selection, as well as the Unborn: the life forms that would have survived if they evolved. Exactly one year ago, during the X-Genome Code Incident, there were many riots on earth by beasts that were not in the XGC. Soon it all ended and no one knows the true cause of it, but people began to blame it on a Stone Seal. The seal is locked away, but the riots have increased even more so. What is the cause behind it all, and can this be stopped?”
Bloody Roar 4 Opening
This installment brings some drastic changes in the gameplay mechanics of the Bloody Roar series.
The Beast Gauge still remains in the series, which allows the player to switch to a Beast Form. However, unlike previous installments, the Beast Gauge can now be charged up with the Charge Power, by maintaining the Beast button, at the expense of health. In addition, characters can still Beastorize without the Beast Gauge being filled up completely.
The Beast and Health gauges are now intertwined, if his health meter is completely depleted, the player will automatically transform himself into his Beast form and fight with his Beast Meter as his, now, Health meter for the remainder of the round. In the same way, if the Beast Meter is empty during the Beast form, the fighter will automatically come back to his human form (if his Health meter is not empty too) without having to take a Guard Breaking attack from his opponent like in the previous games.
The Hyper Beast Mode returns also but can be attained differently than the previous games. This time, the fighter has to be in human form then uses the Charge Power until he spends all the remaining health. Once done, the fighter will transform into his Hyper Beast Form and remains in this form until the end of the round.
A new Career Mode allows player to take one character through a legion of matches. By winning matches, players can obtain ‘DNA Points’ which can be used to purchase ability enhancements such as strength and defense increase. It is even possible to purchase new moves for the selected character as well as use moves used by other characters, changing the flow of the character altogether. The character selected in Career mode can be used in normal play by pressing L1 to switch to the character’s ‘Career’ mode. Hidden characters can be unlocked by achieving a certain number of DNA Points