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Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is a Fighting Game crossover between various light novel series published under the Dengeki Bunko imprint (and Valkyria Chronicles and Virtua Fighter) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the imprint. Developed by French Bread (of Melty Blood fame) and published by Sega, it was first released in Japanese arcades in March 18, 2014, with a PlayStation 3 and Play Station Vita release followed on November 13, 2014.

The gameplay consists of players choosing two characters from a playable and support roster, with the latter being used for various assist attacks. Each character can use weak, medium and strong attacks as well as a support button to summon the assist character. One can also utilize various Impact Skill attacks unique to each character as well as two Climax Arts (the Super Art and the Ranbu) for super moves. Blast Attacks can be used to escape from the opponents combos, launch an opponent allowing for more diverse combos and, when used neutrally, to power up the character and slowly gain more health and meter.

Modes found in the console release include a story mode; a Dream Duel campaign; as well as online multiplayer.

Despite many similar crossovers—like the previous Dengeki Bunko cross over Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venusnever being released outside Japan, it's been released by SEGA in North America and Europe on October 2015.

A new Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax title update was announced for Summer 2015, titled Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition, featuring new characters and updated mechanics, such as the Blast Character, a third set character that determines what kind of Blast you are able to use, as well as Ignition, a mechanic that allows you to assign a buff to one of your allies (Player, Support, or Blast) at the end of each Round.

    Playable Characters 

    Assist Characters 

See also Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel, another Massive Multiplayer Crossover 2D Mascot Fighter featuring a primarily female cast duking it out in anime-based Sprite/Polygon Mix style, except with Nitro+ characters.

The game received a 2018/2019 successor for mobile devices called Dengeki Bunko Crossing Void, a turn-based RPG also developed by SEGA that reuses assets from this game. However, it is defunct as of 2022.


This game provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Badass: The playable and support characters from Slice of Life series. Watch as characters like Kirino and Taiga go up against powerhouses like Akira and Shizuo.
  • Anime Theme Song:
    • The original arcade release has FIGHTING CLIMAX.
    • The original console version has Mami Kawada's belief.
    • The console release of IGNITION has LiSA's ID.
  • Assist Character: The Support-only cast.
    • Tomoka is also capable of summoning the rest of her team for attacks.
    • Accelerator's support attack features Last Order being summoned in. If the opponent attacks her, he jumps in and attacks the opponent.
    • Black Lotus functions as this for Kuroyukihime and does most of the fighting for her, as she is largely incapable of actual combat, except maybe some jabs and weak attacks. Think of it as a JoJo or Persona character.
    • Quenser fights alongside Milinda and Heivia. The former provides him with items while the latter unleashes gunfire on opponents.
    • Two Support-only characters, Ryuuji and Rusian, factor into the movelists of Taiga and Ako, even if they aren't selected as the main assist.
  • Art Shift: Each of the characters' portrait designs are taken from the light novels themselves so you have a huge variety of art styles into one game. Ranging from baby-faced moe characters (like Shana, Taiga, Kirino, and Tomoka) to characters with adult Shounen and Shoujo designs (like Shizuo, Rentarou, Mikoto, Miyuki, and Kuroyukihime).
  • Awesome, but Impractical: As stated under Taking You with Me, Selvaria's Self-Destruct EX Attack. It's an incredibly flashy way to end a match, but if your opponent knows anything about how to block an attack, chances are you'll never actually win a fight with it.
  • Badass Adorable: Kirino, Tomoka, Mikoto, Shana and Taiga.
  • Badass Armfold: Kirino's default pose is this, and since she's comparable to other fighters in terms of skill, it's actually badass.
  • Badass Boast: Many in Dream Duel. Shana and Mikoto's interaction is basically a battle of the boasts. Put Mikoto and Yukina against each other and they boast that their mascot (Gekota and Nekomata, respectively) is the cutest.
  • Badass Normal: As mentioned above, you have characters like Kirino and Taiga who have no powers whatsoever take on a Flame Haze, a Level 5 Esper, a Magician, two skilled VRMMO players, a Burst Linker, a martial artist and a Valkyria (just to name a few). Yet, they are able to hold their own against these fighters using nothing but every day traits and items from their seriesnote .
    • Akira also counts in a more traditional sense. While the above characters have their "normal" status enhanced by summoning other characters and props from Hammerspace, he adheres to a pure hand-to-hand fighting style with no added gimmicks.
  • Be the Ball: Tomoka does this to opponents.
  • Big Bad: Zetsumu, the mysterious, malicious alien-like entity which serves as the Final Boss by absorbing Denshin and taking the form of either Akira or Selvaria and is voiced by Ken Narita. It was later removed in Ignition, as the original arcade story line is replaced by the story line based on Dream Duels.
  • Big Ball of Violence: Taiga's Ranbu, Tiger & Dragon Beatdown!, grabs the opponent and submits them to this, then when Ryuuji tries to pull her out, she chucks her wooden katana at the downed opponent for the finisher.
  • Big Good: Denshin, who is based on the Dreamcast character from His Coool Seha Girls.
  • Blow You Away: When Leafa is called to perform her Neutral Support, she summons a gust of wind magic that throws the opponent into the air, which opens them up for air combos.
  • Bootstrapped Theme: Seaside Hill is largely synonymous with Sonic as much as Green Hill is at this point, and a heavily remixed version of its theme is used as the stage theme for Green Hill Zone.
  • The Cameo: Zetsumu first appeared as the Final Boss of Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Of a sort. Durarara has established that Dengeki Bunko properties exist in their universe. Here, Shizuo has the chance to fight said characters.
  • Charged Attack: Both versions of Tomo's Support can be charged by holding the S button; charging the Forward Support version causes it to home in on airborne targets. Her Climax Art can also be strengthened by feeding her more Climax Gauge; it deals a third of the opponent's health normally, half at one bar, a little more than half at two bars, and two-thirds at three bars.
  • Combat Medic: While Holo is fully capable of offense support, her Forward Support functions as this. When used, Holo generates a circle near her that restores the player's HP and Climax Gauge while the player stands in it. However, it will become less effective with successive uses.
  • Combo Breaker:
    • Escape Blasts, which throw the opponent away in the midst of a combo.
    • Certain Trump Cards can do this. For example, Asuna's Trump Card, Tekken Seisainote , is a Shoryuken Megaton Punch.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Taiga and Kirito's interaction.
    Kirito: I won't go easy on you in that case... shorty!
    Taiga: ... What did you call me?!
    Kirito: Woah?! Did a tiger just appear behind her? So the sword DOES have hidden powers!
  • Cosplay Otaku Girl: Kirino, who weaponizes cosplay. She transforms into a variety of cosplay outfits when she uses her attacks, and her Ranbu is simply her performing one long auto-combo of rapidly shifting cosplay outfits.
  • Counter-Attack:
    • Shizuo's Bring It On! and Kuroyukihime's Jyuhou Toshin.
    • Kuroneko's Forward Support creates a magic glyph around the player who called her; if the player is attacked while this is active, any knockback the player would've taken is negated and the player is instead shot straight into the air. If the opponent happens to be standing next to the glyph when it triggers, it also launches the opponent straight up and deals an equivalent amount of damage. The glyph also negates attacks if the player is hit in the middle of a Climax. The player has to watch Kuroneko though, since if she is attacked, the glyph disperses.
    • Hinata's Neutral Support causes her to appear in front of her summoner. If attacked by the opponent, the attack is negated and the opponent auto-blocks, whether he/she wants to or not. The Forward Support version causes her to appear behind the opponent and forces them to block away from the player, opening the opponent up for combo opportunities.
    • Accelerator's Neutral Support actually summons Last Order instead. If she is attacked by the opponent, Accelerator warps in behind her and retaliates with a powerful attack.
    • Izaya's Neutral Support creates a Judgement Cut-like move with his knife.
    • Zero's Neutral Support will cause her to appear while holding an orb before her; if the opponent touches it, they will be blasted across the stage without taking damage. Like Imagine Breaker, it will also block attacks and Climaxes and will even blast the opponent anyways if they're close enough, but it only lasts for a few seconds, which means that you may be on the receiving end of a hard hit if a Climax takes long enough.
  • Cuteness Overload: Kirino's reaction to Shana. Shana is completely unamused.
  • Death from Above
    • Celty's Forward Support makes her fall from the sky on her bike to land on the ground in front of the player. If the opponent happens to be there, they'll get smushed too.
    • Same case for Enju's divekick and Dokuro-chan's vertical club stab.
    • Attacking Iriya's bowl after she's done eating will cause the bowl to fly into the air, then fall on the opponent seconds later for minor damage.
    • Ako's Magic Scroll (100G) has a Meteor Strike variant that drops a storm of meteors from above on an opponent.
  • Death Is Cheap: Kirito makes this observation about Brain Burst compared to Sword Art Online's All Deaths Final scenario. Kuroyukihime acknowledges this fact, but also notes that the threat of losing the ability to Brain Burst isn't much different from the threat of dying, as in SAO.
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts: Kirito is fueled by this playstyle, as his attacks are very weak individually, but he hits a lot. When he adds Dark Repulser into the mix with his Trump Card, this trope goes straight into up to eleven. Asuna also follows this playstyle, although less so than Kirito.
  • Death or Glory Attack: The Trump Cards - moves which, as their names imply, can turn the tide of battle if used properly. These are usually a powerful move that can act as a reversal, possesses great damage or can act as a combo utility tool. For some charactersnote  , they get transformations which buff up their movelist or stats. What makes it this trope is their limited amount: players can only use two Trump Cards throughout the whole match, with one stock restored after a loss.
  • Demoted to Extra: Just look at the Support cast list and count how many are actually the protagonists of their franchise, whereas their supporting cast are on the playable roster.
  • Developer's Foresight: Picking characters from the same franchise gives unique interactions. For example, Yukina and Shizuo have special introductions if Koujo and Izaya are chosen as their Supports, and player characters say the name of assists that hail from the same series (aside from the aforementioned examples, there's Ako and Rusian, Kirito and Leafa, and Tatsuya and Miyuki just to name a few).
    • One of Taiga's Climax Arts is a cinematic super where Ryuuji appears. Since he is also an Assist Character in the game, his color chosen as an assist will be the one used when he appears in the Climax Art. If he isn't Taiga's assist, the color he uses in the super will match the color palette that Taiga has. The same applies for Rusian if he is chosen as Ako's assist.
    • As both of the Shiba siblings can be chosen as point and assist characters in Ignition, neither can be picked as an assist if chosen as the lead to avoid duplicates.
  • Dual Wielding: Kirito normally only wields his trademark Elucidator, but once he activates his Trump Card, Extra Skill: Dual Wielding, he equips Dark Repulser using his Dual Wield skill, which dramatically changes his attack style and drastically increases his overall damage for the effect's duration.
  • Enemy Mine: Shizuo can pick Izaya as his Support. They will both comment on this in battle.
  • Excuse Plot: Arcade Mode, which doesn't have a coherent plot for any of the characters to begin with.
  • Fantastic Nuke: Selvaria's Self-Destruct.
  • From a Certain Point of View: Mikoto stretches the definition of "little sister" quite a bit when she refers to Kuroko as one in the technical sense.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Yukina's Sekkarou has the ability to negate magic. This does not affect any fights with magical characters such as Shana or Miyuki, although it does negate Reflect Guard.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Akira Yuuki, being a fighting game character, is the only character of the playable cast who fights purely with this style. The same can be said of his Support, Pai Chan.
  • Home-Run Hitter: Perfect Blizzard (10000G) is a command grab that captures the opponent, followed by Ako punting them in the air with her rod and blasting them with ice magic. The closer you hit toward the marked gauge line, the farther they'll fly and the higher rank you'll get.
  • Hypocritical Humor: A few instances hilariously occur in the game.
    • If Mikoto fights Shizuo, Mikoto calls Shizuo out on throwing vending machines, which is in one of Shizuo's EX Attacks. Shizuo immediately fires back by calling out Mikoto on kicking vending machines, which is her Trump Card attack.
    • Pit Taiga against Shana in a Dream Duel and witness Shana (understandably) mistake Taiga as a grade school kid. Keep in mind that the light novel series from which Shana comes describes her as a small girl whose body resembles that of an eleven year old's. Bonus points for both of them being voiced by the same person.
    • Invoked in the Yukina vs Kuroyukihime Dream Duel pre-battle dialogue. Yukina calls out Kuroyukihime for wearing such a skimpy outfit as her avatar's costume and is appalled just by looking at it. Unfazed, Kuroyukihime then goes on to justify her avatar's outfit by saying that her costume's tight fit is for practical reasons and goes on to stoically defend further. She then turns the argument around by pointing out how impractical Yukina's short skirt is in battle and complains because Kuroyukihime keeps getting a glimpse of her panties every time she jumps. Yukina angrily stutters in embarrassment afterwards in response.
      Yukina: T-that outfit?! How obscene!
  • I Know Madden Kombat: Tomoka Minato, who fights with the help of her team and shooting hoops. Much of her moveset consists of throwing basketballs into hoops that deal damage, or turning the opponent into a basketball and shooting them through hoops.
  • I Know Mortal Kombat: Pretty much anyone from Sword Art Online fights using moves from their VRMMO.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Kouko Kaga's Forward Support summons her with a bouquet of roses. She will then proceed to walk up to the opponent, and if she reaches him/her, she'll slap the opponent silly using her bouquet for a combo before shooting a kiss that drains the opponent's Climax Meter.
  • Improbably Female Cast: Not as extreme as other examples of this kind, but the playable cast consists of four guysnote  and ten girlsnote . By Ignition, that ratio has changed to six guysnote  and fourteen girlsnote . Practically averted for the Support cast, which features seven guys (all of which are protagonists) and seventeen females, including Last Order.
  • In-Joke: Many, many characters drop references and Mythology Gags that require the player to be familiar with the franchise in question to understand.
  • Incest Subtext: Kirino interprets Miyuki's love for Tatsuya as this. When Miyuki asks Kirino about her love for Kyousuke in return, she falters, then her inner tsundere kicks in.
  • An Ice Person: Miyuki, primarily. Until she performs Inferno.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down
    • Kirino's Trump Card, Life Consultation. She knocks down the opponent, then proceeds to mount them and slap them across the face.
    • Izaya's Neutral Support has him stomp sixth times then kicks the opponent, if not using the fighter character didn't utilize/out of Trump Card use. However when activating the Trump Card, see below.
    • And unlike in Blazblue, Under Night In-Birth and Persona 4: Arena, there is no sign of an actual OTG properties against downed opponent, including no actual wall bounced and crumpling down the opponent. A little subversion on Izaya's Neutral Support, if the fighter activates the Trump Card, Izaya cancel his stomping to an OTG kick.
  • Limit Break:
    • Climax Arts, which come in two general flavors: a "ranbu" which involves the user charging and launching a long combo if the initial hit lands, and a safer but less damaging ranged-type.
    • If Sadao Mao is your Support, he can also use one. Both of his Support Attacks are standard rushing punches that deal weak damage. However, if two punches connect in a row, the third will summon him in Demon Mode, where he will pull off an incredibly powerful and lengthy attack depending on what type of support you call; Neutral Support summons Frickin' Laser Beams, while Forward Support calls him with a BFS.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Obviously. Interestingly enough, the game also features stages taken from various SEGA franchises as well as playable characters from Valkyria Chronicles and Virtua Fighter.
  • Mistaken for Pedophile: Subaru from Ro-Kyu-Byu!. While he doesn't appear in person in the game itself, Kirino, in the dialogue before her Dream Duel with Tomoka, got really suspicious the moment Tomoka mentions that Subaru was a high school guy who volunteered to coach her and her elementary school-aged friends in basketball. Tomoka's vague description of him to Kirino probably didn't help his case.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: In Arcade Mode, you encounter Denshin, a persona based on Dreamcast and contains the data of various worlds based on SEGA's history.
  • Mythology Gag: From attacks to victory poses and quotes, there's tons of them.
  • No Indoor Voice: All of Shizuo's attack names are meant to be screamed like he does. And for that matter, Shizuo himself.
  • No-Sell:
    • Touma's Imagine Breaker. It will stop any attack in its tracks, including Climaxes, and stops opponents from approaching directly by dealing minor damage and blasting them on contact. The player summoning him just has to make sure he doesn't get hit anywhere else.
    • Erio's Neutral Support has her run up to the opponent and wrap herself in a futon, then hop around. This neutralizes all attacks the opponent throws while she stands near them, and unlike Touma, she can get hit anywhere without getting desummoned. However, this only works in proximity, so it's no good if the opponent simply runs past her.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Mikoto points out that Rentarou and Touma are actually very similar characters. The thought of it is enough to make Rentarou cry.
  • Older Than They Look: Flame Hazes don't age. When Shana discovers that Taiga is actually in high school, she automatically pins this phenomenon on being a Flame Haze despite the fact that Taiga isn't even remotely supernatural.
  • Overly Long Fighting Animation: Boogiepop's Forward Support makes her appear, then the background turns black while a song plays. This lasts for a good five seconds before she turns around, after which slashes flash across the screen and smack the opponent, which is an unblockable Always Accurate Attack. Interestingly, unlike many assists of this type that appear in other fighting games, Boogiepop is completely invincible during the animation, which essentially means that if the summoner can avoid taking damage, it grants them a free hit.
  • Parrying Bullets: When Kirito and Rentarou meet, Kirito manages to block Rentarou's bullets with his sword. When asked how he was able to do this, Kirito just explains that he had experience from a previous game. Explanation
    Rentarou: You stopped my bullet with a sword...? Are you serious!?
    Kirito: When it comes to fighting gun users, I've had a little experience in a previous game. It's thanks to that experience that I've made it this far.
  • Pinball Projectile: Kino's Forward Support makes her appear and shoot a bullet high. If the initial shot misses, it'll bounce off the walls and come back for a surprise attack.
  • Playing with Fire: Shana's trademark, of course.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: This was naturally a given considering the majority of the roster hails from non-action oriented properties. Characters like Taiga, Kirino and Tomoka don't fight at all in their home series, those like Akira and Shizuo fight a lot, and that's not counting all the other blatantly superpowered individuals that populate the roster who they can beat in a fight.
  • Power-Up Food:
    • When Ryuuji is called for his Neutral Support, he tosses out a bento bag, a bento box, or bento boxes, in that order. The first adds a little regenerative HP to the player's HP meter, the second adds to the Climax Gauge, and the third does both. However, taking a bento bag after bento boxes actually reduces the player's Climax Gauge by one stage, albeit until the player takes another bento bag. Also, if your opponent is savvy, they can steal the food for themselves.
    • Iriya's Neutral Support also involves food, except she eats it, not the player. Upon being summoned, she will appear in front of the player, summon a table and a bowl of food, and begin to chow down. Every time you summon her, she will eat another bowl; once Iriya eats two bowls, the player gains a Status Buff, and at three bowls, the buff becomes stronger. Once the third bowl is consumed, a congratulatory party ball opens behind her, followed by a screen-wide burst of confetti that damages the opponent.
  • Promoted to Playable: Tatsuya Shiba, originally a Support, was made into a full playable character in Ignition. He can still be chosen for Support provided he has not been chosen as the point character, and his sister, who originally started as playable, can now also be a Support as well under the same rules.
  • Punny Name: Kirino's Amazon Upper is a play on both "amazon", the race of Action Girls, and "Amazon", the online shipping company. The attack itself is a Shoryuken that starts with Kirino crouching over a mail order package. Averted in English versions, which call it Net-Purchase Uppercut.
  • Rank Inflation: Ako's Perfect Blizzard (10000G) has a rank system attached that scales based on how close you are to the target line when you stop the moving gauge; ranks can range from B to SSS.
  • Rare Random Drop: In-universe, Kirito thinks Shana's Nietono no Shana and Yukina's Sekkarou are this. When he and Yukina meet, he wonders to himself if he can sell the Sekkarou for a high price on the market for its "negate magic" debuff properties.
  • Royal Rapier: Asuna's weapon, Lambent Light. This is also Emi Yusa's.
  • Running Gag:
    • Kirino has a thing for little sisters. She's particularly jealous about Mikoto having 20,000 of them.
    • Many characters comment on Taiga's height.
    • Kirito asks about "rare weapons" quite a bit.
    • Several characters make a point of calling out Kuroyukihime's interesting choice of wear.
  • Schrödinger's Player Character: Regardless of who your player is when you start Story Mode, the backstory is the same: everyone else was already defeated by Zetsumu, and the player character is the last remaining hope for the worlds. Averted with Ignition's Story, which is more akin to Dream Duel mode; the opponents fought here are the actual characters themselves and not Zetsumu assuming their forms.
  • Shield Bash: Lucien does this in his Neutral Support and in Ako's Climax Art. The associated Skill is even literally called "Shield Bash".
  • Shock and Awe: Mikoto Misaka, who can control electricity in a variety of ways, including creating arcing lighting bolts, bolts that travel across the ground, or magnetically attracting rubble to herself to increase her airtime. She can even charge up her power to perform her signature "Railgun" attack.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Many of the alternate colors available for the characters references characters from SEGA franchises or other anime, among other things, such as Touma having a Sonic alt, Enju having a Hatsune Miku one, Holo having a Lawrence, from her own series, Spice and Wolf, colored one, or Tomoka having one that looks a lot like a Rikka one. Akira has a palette swap similar to his full white gi from Virtua Fighter 5. The list could go on and on for a long time. Some characters also have shout-outs to other characters related to them, such as Taiga having a Shana alt.
    • Most of the stages are drawn directly from various SEGA franchises, such as Green Hill Zone or the ARKS Shop Area. Ignition adds in a bigger shout-out to Sega: an arcade with cameos of previous games and consoles Sega made.
    • The finishing attack for Kirino's Ranbu has her smack the opponent across the stage with a Fossil Victor. There's even a figurine dedicated solely to this move.
    • One of Rentarou's victory quotes has him exclaim, in Gratuitous English, "I-I'll be back!".
  • Shown Their Work: A lot of attacks have some degree of authenticity to them.
    • Shana's Kessen Ougi is a recreation of her moves from the final battle of the light novel.
    • Tekken Seisai is based off Asuna's reaction to Kirito asking to "spend the night together". Mother's Rosario is also based off a description of an attack described in the light novel to be "of god-like speed, with five strikes from the upper right, five strikes from the upper left, and a single thrust at the point they meet." In Ignition, Yuuki (the move's creator) has the original version, which the game labels as such.
    • Chaser! references a scene where Mikoto kicks a vending machine to force it to dispense a can of drink. It's too fast to catch, but it does indeed dispense a drink, and some of the drinks are even flavors from the light novel.
    • All of Kirino's outfits are outfits she wore in the light novel. Claw Machine Mutilation's SFX were also imported directly from the latest UFO Catchers, courtesy of SEGA.
    • Unlike other characters, Shizuo only gets Super Armor on Ranbus as opposed to start-up invulnerability, which is meant to represent his personality and his status as The Juggernaut. This was replaced in Ignition as part of his balance changes.
    • The finishing pose of Ro-Kyu-Bu! is a recreation of the pose the team's voice actresses make when they perform live.
    • Extra Skill: Dual Wielding additionally grants Kirito the ability to auto-string attacks by Button Mashing, which represents his Skill Connect from Alfhiem Online.
    • Tiger & Dragon Beatdown! is a recreation of the scene where Taiga assaults the student council president.
    • Inzen Kokutei Unlimited Burst and Final Strike are recreations of combos Rentarou performed in the light novel.
  • Shoryuken: Commonly for Impact Skill users, particularly Kirino (Amazon Upper), Tomoka (Dancing Playday - Anti-Air), Taiga (Tiger Upper), Rentaro (Unebiko Ryu), Emi and Selvaria (Pursuit). However, Asuna, Yukina, Shizuo and Akira are different:
    • Asuna's Shoryuken move, Tekken Seisai, is a Trump Card move.
    • Yukina's STRIKE THE BLOOD opens with this.
    • Shizuo's is a Counter-Attack.
    • Akira's Shoryuken, Renkantai is very unique: One is for QCF+C (which bounce the opponent on the corner), while the air version has variation ranges (such as EX).
  • Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: Sword Art Online has slightly heavier representation than any other franchise; the original title included two playable characters and one support whereas most other playable franchises had a single character. In Ignition, this gets expanded to three playable characters and two support; the only other franchises with two or more playable characters are Index (three support characters; the most of all of the roster) and Magic High (both characters can be chosen as either playable or support).
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: The game utilizes 2D sprites against 3D backgrounds, akin to games like BlazBlue.
  • Super-Strength: Shizuo, naturally. He can chuck vending machines, lampposts, signs, or even his opponent to fight. His Climax Art even consists of chucking a ton of rubble at the target for massive damage.
  • Taking You with Me: If Selvaria has two Trump Card Stocks remaining in the final round and gets knocked down, she can perform her Self-Destruct EX Attack. This causes her body to float into the air before exploding spectacularly, instantly killing herself and her target. It will kill the opponent regardless of whether or not they blocked it, but if they did, you basically threw the match.
  • Teleport Spam: Kuroko's specialty.
  • The Paralyzer: Tatsuya Shiba's Neutral Support can basically paralyze an opponent entirely, even when they try to use a Climax. However, the effects can be dispelled with an Escape Blast.
  • Theme Song Power Up: If a match reaches the final round, the BGM is replaced by the theme song.
  • Turns Red: When called to use his Forward Support, Ryuuji sweeps the floor sparkling clean, then comes back around and hits the opponent multiple times from behind. However, if he is hit prematurely with a projectile or an EX Attack, he gains a red Battle Aura and speeds up. This also allows him to hit his target on the first pass instead of the second, and he hits more times.
  • Uniformity Exception:
    • Akira Yuuki sticks out from the crowd for the sheer fact that he's actually a fighting game character. His moveset is influenced as such, and bears semblance to many standard fighting game moves and famous moves ripped directly from Virtua Fighter.
    • Tomo is the only Assist Character to have a true Limit Break via a half-circle command.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: The game's antagonist, Zetsumu, uses this in the Arcade ladder to pose as other characters, culminating with either Akira or Selvaria in the final stage. While he fights normally as Akira, finishing matches with enough Climax wins has him assume Selvaria's form for the last battle.
  • Weird World, Weird Food: When Shana laments the lack of melon bread in Sword Art Online, Kirito reassures her that Asuna can recreate it with the proper ingredients. He then proceeds to list off a series of monster drops found in an average Fetch Quest. Shana is subtly, yet absolutely horrified.
  • What If?: Dream Duel Mode is fueled by this. The essential premise is to put two different characters together and see how they react to each other, occasionally with humorous results.
    Kuroyukihime: You hold this much power, and yet you're only Level 5... What frightening potential. Very well. In that case, as a Level 9, allow me to fight you using my utmost strength.
    Mikoto: Level... 9!? Just who are you!?Explanation
  • Wingdinglish: The local cipher used on Oracle is comprised of substitution symbols for the English alphabet. In the case of Fighting Climax, the red text in the background spells "WARNING".
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Subverted with Shizuo: In Durarara!!, he believed passionately and firmly that "hurting girls is bad", however, in this game he seems perfectly fine with fighting female adversaries and openly threatening to kick their asses. And speaking of which, Izaya also has no problem stomping on them.

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