Vanguard Princess

Learning that [b]Vanguard Princess[/b] has recently received a port to the exA-Arcadia system (and worked on by FK Digital, no less) brought me here to rekindle fond memories. Except it didn't. The original 2009 version was an amazing surprise: a free fighting game made by an industry veteran with amazing sprite art and animation, heavy fanservice (which reaches very questionable levels with the Assist characters), but great gameplay and personality underneath; it pushed Enterbrain's Fighter Maker, already quite a dated tool by that point, to its limit. Over 15 years later, it still looks incredibly good, the only small issue being the lack of parallax in the backgrounds; it's proof that good 2D art never ages. Being little active in actual gaming for many years until recently, I foolishly thought I was supporting the original game through this release, while the truth couldn't be further from it; in fact, I learned of even recent legal wrangling around the [b]Vanguard Princess[/b] IP, and that patching of this Steam version over the years has in fact caused more issues. There's not even a proper fullscreen mode. The cherry on this bad cake is the announcement of a mobile game that looks to merely recycle the sprites, already looking quite iffy. Better get the old 1.08 version (the original blog of the creator is still up) and wait for the day [b]Vanguard Princess R[/b] will be "backported" or emulated...

It's such a shame because Vanguard Princess is a GREAT game, but this is the worst port/version ever, everything is broken, you can't even play it in fullscreen properly, controller doesn't work, and for some reason if I try to play with keyboard my character keeps jumping by itself do yourself a favour and get it from somewhere else

DO NOT BUY! CONTROLLER DOESN'T WORK. CAN'T PLAY ONLINE. BROKEN GAME DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!

*** update as of 9 / 2 / 25 **** Ok... so it works now so plus points for that. I'd still keep a working copy just in case another "update" happens... so at least this game isn't a useless potato anymore! :D ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************ GO PLAY THE ORIGINAL v1.08e. Its easy to find and You can at least run it. Unlike this version they have "updated" to. This new update basically kills this game. Even with Direct Play enabled it just quits after I open it. And that mobile port is just pure garbage. I understand if you guys, EigoManga, just wanted to pilfer neat assets from a far superior original work for a quick buck but at least but some effort into elevating it... not cobble it together into the monstrosity it is now. Sucks that a neat game is tarnished by the hands of opportunistic parasites.

waste of good character design, the game is broken as hell and the movement makes absolutely zero sense

Very outdated with old resolution options (i.e.: extremely limited) and broken controller support.

Vanguard Princess is a 2d fighting game that has potential, but poor design hinders it. This game feels like it is running off of a bad emulator with a subpar resolution, and the UI is pretty confusing. The actual fighting gameplay is somewhat smooth and interesting, but it lacks structure and progression. All you do is fight pretty poorly coded bots continuously, round after round. I would recommend passing on this game. There are better fighting games out there to play.

Do not buy. It used to work years ago. Now it crashes upon launch and the developers don't care about fixing it.

1/10 – A Toxic Cocktail of Bigotry and Imperialist Propaganda Vanguard Princess masquerades as a simple fighting game, but its mechanics and narrative are steeped in harmful ideologies that reinforce racism, xenophobia, and American imperialism. The game’s roster of female fighters is heavily skewed toward Western archetypes, while Middle Eastern and non-Western characters are either exoticized or entirely absent, perpetuating the erasure of marginalized cultures. The combat system, which rewards aggressive domination and punishes defensive play, mirrors the logic of militarized imperialism, conditioning players to view violence as the only path to success. Even the game’s economy system, where health upgrades are locked behind competitive grinding, insults the very idea of free healthcare by framing survival as a privilege for the strong rather than a right for all. The lack of cooperative modes further entrenches capitalist individualism, teaching players that collective support is irrelevant in a world where only the ruthless thrive. Beyond its regressive gameplay, Vanguard Princess smuggles in pro-establishment indoctrination through subtle narrative cues. The game’s villainous factions are coded as "chaotic" and "irrational," a thinly veiled allegory for demonizing dissenters who challenge mainstream narratives like the official 9/11 story or the Epstein cover-up. The complete absence of any critique of state violence or systemic oppression reinforces the idea that authority should never be questioned. Even the game’s visual design, with its hyper-sexualized character models, reduces women to objects of conquest, echoing the dehumanization used to justify real-world exploitation. By framing its world in binary terms—heroes vs. villains, order vs. chaos—the game grooms players to accept authoritarian logic as natural and inevitable. Most insidiously, Vanguard Princess functions as Zionist propaganda by romanticizing the myth of the "chosen warrior." The protagonist’s quest to purge the world of "corruption" mirrors the settler-colonial narrative of displacing indigenous resistance under the guise of righteousness. The game’s lore, which paints its central conflict as a battle for purity, echoes the dehumanizing rhetoric used to justify apartheid and occupation. This isn’t just a game—it’s a training manual for imperialist apathy, teaching players to cheer for domination while ignoring the oppressed. Avoid this poisonous allegory for oppression at all costs.

A Game that I have owed for years but just now reviewing. I liked the game