Epic Battle Fantasy

Epic Battle Fantasy
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game
Developer(s)	Matt Roszak
Publisher(s)	Matt Roszak
Platform(s)	Browser game Windows iOS Android
First release	Epic Battle Fantasy May 1, 2009
Latest release	Epic Battle Fantasy 5 Nov 30, 2018

Epic Battle Fantasy is a fantasy turn-based role-playing video game series created by web animator and game developer Matt Roszak. The series was inspired by the Final Fantasy series and contain many pop-culture references. Originally developed as a browser game using Adobe Flash, the games have since been ported to desktop platforms, and later, mobile platforms. In 2022, Epic Battle Fantasy 5 marks the first game in the series to be released on iOS and Android.

Games

Main series

Release timeline

2009	Epic Battle Fantasy and Epic Battle Fantasy 2
2010	Epic Battle Fantasy 3
2011	Bullet Heaven and Adventure Story
2012
2013	Epic Battle Fantasy 4
2014
2015	Bullet Heaven 2
2016
2017
2018	Epic Battle Fantasy 5

The first entry of the Epic Battle Fantasy series was released on May 1, 2009, for web browsers on Newgrounds. There are currently five games in the main series and three spin-off games.

• Epic Battle Fantasy - released on May 1, 2009, on Newgrounds. The robot Canti from the anime/manga series FLCL made an appearance in this game.
• Epic Battle Fantasy 2 - released on August 20, 2009, on Newgrounds.
• Epic Battle Fantasy 3 - released on September 1, 2010, on Steam and two weeks later, on September 12, on Newgrounds.
• Epic Battle Fantasy 4 - released on February 24, 2013 on Steam and on March 10 the same year on Newgrounds. The game was also included in the "Overwhelmingly Positive" Humble Bundle released in January 2017.
• Epic Battle Fantasy 5 - released on Steam on November 30, 2018, then on January 21, 2020, on Newgrounds. This game was the first in the series released in both English and Japanese. It was additionally released in French, German, Polish, Russian, traditional and simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese. In late 2022, Epic Battle Fantasy 5 was released on iOS and Android.

Spin-offs

• Bullet Heaven - released on April 2, 2011, on Newgrounds. Its name is a play of the name of its genre, Bullet Hell.
• Adventure Story - released on December 29, 2011, on Newgrounds. It is a platformer game.
• Bullet Heaven 2 - released on November 15, 2015, on Newgrounds, and on December 7, 2015, on Steam.

Common elements

Gameplay

The Epic Battle Fantasy series are turn-based role-playing games in which the player controls a party of characters as they explore the world and fight enemies, usually called "foes" in-game. Combat is turn-based and features a menu-driven interface to issue combat actions—like "Tactics", "Skill", and "Summon"—for each player character. Starting with Epic Battle Fantasy 3, the games feature an overworld that the player characters can explore, interact with non-player characters (NPCs), complete quests, and collect items and equipment. The fourth game introduces "back-up" party members, who can be swapped with one of the three active party members during combat. In most of the games, Skills require mana points (MP) to use, while Summons generally require either MP or summon points (SP) to use. In Epic Battle Fantasy 5, MP is removed, and Skills now have cooldowns to restrict how often they can be used.

Characters

There are five playable main characters in the Epic Battle Fantasy series. In the first and second installments of the series, only Matt and Natalie are playable characters. In each of the successive games, a new character is added to the party, with Lance joining in 3, Anna in 4, and NoLegs in 5.

• Matt - the warrior sword of the team, present since the first game.
• Natalie - the red mage of the team and has been present since the first game. She is the most responsible member of the team, and a frequent source of fanservice.
• Lance - a human soldier that has appeared in each game since Epic Battle Fantasy 2. While he initially serves as the villain, a fascist attempting to conquer the world, in Epic Battle Fantasy 2, but then joins the party afterwards. He appears as a regular character in 3 and 4, before becoming a villain and fascist once more in 5 and again rejoining the party.
• Anna - a ranger from Greenwood Village. Though she was debuted in the side game called Bullet Heaven, her first appearance in a main series game occurs in Epic Battle Fantasy 4, in which she seeks out Matt, Natalie, and Lance, the prime suspects in the theft of the village's sacred jewel, and leads them into battle with the world's creator, Godcat.
• NoLegs - a blue limbless cat that accompanies the party. He fights with a sword and shield, though like the other characters, he can wield other weapons and random objects in a similar manner. Despite first appearing in Epic Battle Fantasy 1 as first bosses and assisting the party since Epic Battle Fantasy 2, NoLegs did not become playable until Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

The series features several recurring creatures, including slimes, bushes, cats, and monoliths. Cats are limbless but are still able to use weapons and build forts and are common recurring enemies. Monoliths are extremely powerful magic-casting stone slabs that are recurring enemies and Summons.

Reception

On Destructoid, writer Nior called the series "charming as hell" with a "frankly staggering amount of content on offer."

The third installment received a B score from Japanese gaming site Gekikarareview.com.

Hikaru Nomura of IGN Japan called the fifth installment of the series "an otaku JRPG, made by a JRPG otaku" and gave it an 8/10 in an in-depth review and later included the game on place 3 on his personal 2019 Game of the Year list. It was listed as the best free game of February 2020 on the Italian site ICrewPlay.com.