Nice work!!

"...to get the game working you will have to literally jump through hoops"

Really? We'll have to 'literally' jump through hoops to get it to work?

Stop raping the English language.

Good god, Anonymous. Calm down. A little too much country music and not enough poetry.

man, that looks pretty good.

Holy crap, this is what I've been hoping more people who remembered how to make games would do.

The industry is complete shit these days and a lot of people with talent probably don't make games anymore. It'd be nice to see more games being made in this fashion by people who remember how to make good games.

Wow, this looks great for freeware.

looks cool but wish I could get it to work on my Vista Home Basic.

Doesn't seem to have any Japanese Language Packs for it.

I don't own Vista, and even though I've found a possible solution or two I have no way of trying them out.

Seems like Vista Home Basic only allows one language pack to be installed at any time as well, so it's best not to fiddle with them just for one freeware game if you're unsure of what you're doing.

Anonymous: Yes, the industry is shit these days, but how is this game better than Street fighter4? I mean, it's just some good spriting put into Enterbain's engine. Nothing new to be so excited about, looks good though. This is how games should NOT be made, or we would all have japanese fighter clones instead of innovative fighter games.

I'm mystified. Could someone please explain how it is possible for a freeware game to look this good? What is their motive?

Wow... Seriously, I'm blown away. I can't believe this is freeware. The quality of the artwork, character design, and music is amazing. Very fun too!

i have japanese character (i can see them with their right names ヴァンガードプリンセス) but the game closes automaticaly as soon as i open it

Stop raping the English language.

Actually "literally" is taking on the meaning of "very" or "surprisingly" in modern English. You might as well complain about "Awesome" being used as something really cool instead of awe inspiring. Or we could even complain about "cool" not meaning cold.

In any case, this game looks awesome, can't wait to try it when I get home!

Don't fool yourself into thinking all freeware games should be like this. Spritework such as the sort showcased here takes an enormous amount of time. Not everyone can afford that.

People with the skill and dedication to make such sprites are usually doing so under the auspices of a game company, that they may profit from their extensive work. The release of this game as freeware is a testament to the japanese social ethos.

My little opinion - A lot of time and dedication seems to have gone into this!

I haven't actually played this, but the sprites look pretty good, and the video on that site shows some great animation (not too sure about Fighter Makers engine though).
Too bad it's probably filled with cliched anime crap that ruins everything these days (unnecessary panties shots, other kinds of fan service, lolis running around everywhere with huge weapons because that's soooo KOOKY RITE?, more lolis, etc).

Also, slightly relevant, slightly trollish, people have been doing some pretty incredible things in M.U.G.E.N for quite some time now.

Nonetheless, impressive if all done by one person.
Also, can anyone confirm this is all actually done by one person?

what bob said.
Also, the panties shots was probally the motivation to make this game.

Closes instantly upon opening. That's the Vista magic.

I've tried every imaginable to run this game, yet it fails to launch... wish he could release a Uni-Code version of the game for the rest of the world..

would someone that can type Japanese please email him so that we too can play this game... maybe a petition..a plea..something.. anything..

The game won't run. With or without AppLocale. I'm using Windows XP and the file isn't corrupted...

It looks excatly like Guilty Gear...

For those who want to use applocale to run this game, just rename the two files ヴァンガードプリンセス.exe and ヴァンガードプリンセス.kgt with an English name (e.g. Vanguard Princess.exe & Vanguard Princess.kgt); you can choose a name yourself, but the two files need to have the same name, while keeping their original extentions. After the renaming of the two files, start applocale and follow the instructions, don't forget to choose Japanese (日本語) and choose to make a shortcut for accessing the game later easier. After all this the game should be able to start via applocale.

Have fun!

Hm. I changed the unicode settings of my PC and then the game worked. Next time i will do it the way you said, TC-man. Thanks.

Your a champion tc-man, worked like a charm.

And if any vista users are having trouble with app locale like i did, try this.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/26/workaround-to-install-microsoft-applocale-utility-in-windows-vista/

The only reason it looks anything like Guilty Gear is because they're both anime-styled fighters. However, the character designs in GG are much more...original looking, than a bunch of schoolgirls with weapons.

I still can't get this to work. I followed the applocale instructions and it still won't work. When I start it, a black box will show then it will quit automatically.

WHat's wrong with panties?
For crying out loud.

It's not only the gamestyle, it's also the hit animations, some are nearly the same combos of Guilty Gear. (it's easy to see some Ky Kiske's look-alike attacks)

It's a miracle, I finally got it to work! Thank you TC-man. I wonder if I can get any other japanese game to work now..

Apparently this was done by an ex-capcom employee.

Has anybody succesfully run it under Wine or winelocale?(I have managed to run it with winelocale -it displays proper japanese signs- but after a while it shows error "GameDemo run error (somejapfile.demo)" and it stops running)

I think that the M. Bison Torpedo is a hilarious damage animation and should be used by all fighting games.

The game, while running fine, maxes out one of my CPU cores when it's 100% when it's open. It's running at perfect framerate though it seems. Weird.

ive installed APPlocale and it sais i need to use my windows cd to install the language packs is there any way to avoid thi plz let me know.

Simple way to slove it?
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=7057357&postcount=856

"Actually "literally" is taking on the meaning of "very" or "surprisingly" in modern English. You might as well complain about "Awesome" being used as something really cool instead of awe inspiring. Or we could even complain about "cool" not meaning cold."

No, no, NO. You are wrong. "Cool" is a metaphor. Using "literally" for something that's not used literally is just idiotic, and unlike the former, born out of pure ignorance. That word itself is meant to differentiate between the metaphorical and literal uses of "cool", or the hyperbolic and literal uses of "awesome". In your view, do we have to start saying "literally literally"? Using it the way you are is opening up a huge can of worms. Metaphorically.

So yeah, as the other Anon said: stop raping the English language.

@Kaps: This game has some new features, that little timing bar thing is not found in SF4 or many other fighters that i've seen... but yes it is a game that fits neatly in a genre, but i don't think thats a problem???

I think what the anonymous poster was saying is that he would like to see a return to games that were not afraid of being games.

(For Xardas): Yes, it works with Wine. Install the packs of Japanese language and execute it in a terminal, for example:

$LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8 wine vanpri.exe

"vanpri.exe" it is the name that I put to him executable file.

(Pardon for my bad english)

Thanks for the suggestion. I can play it now.

Anonymous wrote: "Really? We'll have to 'literally' jump through hoops to get it to work?

Stop raping the English language."

Stop being such an uptight, know-it-all jackass. To 'literally' do something nowadays is not only to physically do something, it is also a form of expression and exaggeration.

Why don't you learn about the English language before you become the untold linguistic god? Because from what I can see you were extremely hypocritical in what you said. Did he 'literally rape' the English language? I think not.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

@Maury, "I still can't get this to work. I followed the applocale instructions and it still won't work. When I start it, a black box will show then it will quit automatically"
I have the same problem.
Grr I've tried everything. SDomeone help please x_x

Aether: you're an idiot. Refer to: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/07/freeware_game_pick_vanguard_pr.html#comment-873039

Sorry, but pedantic as it may seem, I have to agree with the other anonymous people on this. Just because popular usage changes doesn't necessarily make it correct. In the case of a word like awesome it can, because the literal meaning of the word is exchanged for a hyperbolic one, with a much lighter impact behind it, yet it still conveys the same general meaning. Using literally in a metaphoric situation (like the above) only leads to confusion, as we have no word in the english language that can replace literally in every situation.