Sentoki 3

Sentoki 3 (戦闘機; fighter) is a 3D fighting game developed and published by ACS. It is the sequel to Sentoki 2 and the third installment of the Sentoki series. Released in 2003 for Arcades (ACS NOVA-II System), PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo Gamecube.

The game later received an update in 2004 in the form of Sentoki 3: EVO, which added new characters and stages, as well as rebalanced some characters and included new customization items. Released for Arcades (ACS NOVA-II System), Xbox 360 and PlayStation Portable (under the name Sentoki 3: EVO).

A final update named Sentoki 3: Final Tuned was released for Arcades (ACS NOVA-II System) and PlayStation 3 as an exclusive title in 2006, which added a balanced version of final boss K-001, as well as as rebalanced some characters and included new customization items.

Gameplay
Gameplay remains the same as previous installments, but with a few new changes. Stage interaction has been vastly expanded from the previous title. While uneven stage terrain, a prominent feature of the previous game, has been removed from the game entirely due to balance concerns, in its place are several new types of stage hazards such as breakable floors.

New gameplay mechanics have been added, such as wall throws, which, as their name suggests, are throws that can be used against opponents that are cornered by the stage walls, as well as Sabaki reversals, which are auto-counters built into specific moves that automatically parry certain attacks briefly during their startup. Sabaki reversals are typically designed to counter specific types of attacks, such as high kicks, low punches, etc.

The biggest addition to the game is the ranking system, where each player can level up their characters to a certain rank, from Novice (lowest) to Lord of Sentoki (highest). A character's rank denotes their player's current skill level. Character ranks can be used in modes such as Arcade and the newly-added Circuit mode. In the arcade version, one must use a specialized Amaze.net data card to access character ranks and customization.

The game also features character customization, where one can unlock various costumes and items in gameplay and equip them to their character. Customization items can be bought with in-game currency, called Gold Points (GP), which are earned during battles. Players are also able to buy extra costumes for the characters via GP through the shop, but they cannot be customized.

Ranks

 * Novice
 * 10th kyu
 * 9th kyu
 * 8th kyu
 * 7th kyu
 * 6th kyu
 * 5th kyu
 * 4th kyu
 * 3rd kyu
 * 2nd kyu
 * 1st kyu
 * 1st dan
 * 2nd dan
 * 3rd dan
 * 4th dan
 * 5th dan
 * 6th dan
 * 7th dan
 * 8th dan
 * 9th dan
 * 10th dan
 * Contender
 * Hero
 * Master
 * Champion
 * Legend
 * Warrior
 * Dominator
 * Ruler
 * Sage
 * Overlord
 * Lord of Sentoki

Story
Near the end of the second tournament, Kei Ikushima, after defeating Regulus in the finals, discovers that the underground laboratory's self-destruct mechanism has been activated. As she was about to make her escape, she would end up crossing paths with Eileen A. once again.

Kei tried to escape the lab with Eileen, but she hesitated, instead telling Kei the answer she was looking: Kei was actually the daughter of none other than the CEO of Orion Corporation, Ranzou Kihara. She then gives Kei a letter before telling her to go on and leave the building without her. Kei hesitates at first but soon obliges as the lab eventually explodes, leaving Eileen behind, her fate unknown.

Three years after the explosion at the Orion labs, Kei finds out more about her past from the letter Eileen gave her before the incident. She also found out that her DNA was taken for usage in Orion's Perfect Fighter Project, the very same set of experiments that orphaned her adoptive father Shin and ruined the lives of many others.

Fast forward to several weeks before Kei’s 20th birthday, several attacks on various martial artists have been reported. All of them perpetrated by people who bore a striking semblance to Kei. As a result, Kei has been blamed for all the attacks, despite having no hand on them. Kei then began to suspect that it had something to do with the Perfect Fighter Project that Eileen had mentioned.

Then, on the day of Kei’s 20th birthday, Orion announces the third Sentoki: Global Martial Arts tournament. Kei joins the tournament in order to cleanse her name and find out the truth of it all.

Returning

 * Shin Ikushima

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Karate

Voice Actors: Tomokazu Seki (JP), Jeff Manning (EN)


 * Ralph Rollins

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Fighting Style: Martial Arts

Voice Actors: Ryo Horikawa (JP), Eric Kelso (EN)


 * Huang Long

Birthplace: 🇭🇰 Hong Kong

Fighting Style: Jeet Kune Do

Voice Actors: Nobutoshi Canna (JP), Dario Toda (EN)


 * Joanna Spencer

Birthplace: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales

Fighting Style: Kuk Sool Won

Voice Actresses: Rica Fukami (JP), Lisle Wilkerson (EN)


 * Bru Bronson

Birthplace: 🇬🇧 England

Fighting Style: Pro Wrestling

Voice Actors: Daisuke Gori (JP), Barry Gjerde (EN)


 * Kagero

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Ninjutsu

Voice Actors: Takumi Yamazaki (JP), Jack Merluzzi (EN)


 * Ruslanovich

Birthplace: 🇷🇺 Russia

Fighting Style: Command Sambo

Voice Actors: Fumihiko Tachiki (JP), Ryan Drees (EN)


 * Sonchai Damrongsak

Birthplace: 🇹🇭 Thailand

Fighting Style: Muay Thai

Voice Actors: Mitsuaki Madono (JP), Jeff Gedert (EN)


 * Chen Su

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Fighting Style: Drunken Fist

Voice Actors: Takeshi Aono (JP), Dennis Falt (EN)


 * Kei Ikushima

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Karate

Voice Actresses: Ryoka Yuzuki (JP), Rumiko Varnes (EN)


 * Kwon Eun-Soo

Birthplace: 🇰🇷 South Korea

Fighting Style: Taekwondo

Voice Actors: Nozomu Sasaki (JP), Peter von Gomm (EN)


 * Shannon Meltzer

Birthplace: 🇨🇦 Canada

Fighting Style: Catch Wrestling

Voice Actresses: Akiko Hiramatsu (JP), Donna Burke (EN)


 * Douglas Freeman

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Fighting Style: Boxing

Voice Actors: Hisao Egawa (JP), Michael Naishtut (EN)


 * Liang Meilin

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Fighting Style: Baguazhang

Voice Actresses: Motoko Kumai (JP), Terry Osada (EN)

New

 * Brandon Donovan

Birthplace: 🇮🇪 Ireland

Fighting Style: Vale Tudo

Voice Actors: Kazuya Nakai (JP), Guy Perryman (EN)

Brandon Donovan is a vale tudo fighter from Dublin, Ireland. Brandon had been tearing up all of the competition in the vale tudo circuit until recently, when a series of mysterious assaults took place within the circuit which left a lot of his potential opponents injured, eventually leading to his brother being attacked as well. Outraged by all the violent attacks going on, Brandon decides to enter the Sentoki tournament in order to avenge his brother.


 * Fiona Andrade

Birthplace: 🇧🇷 Brazil

Fighting Style: Capoeira

Voice Actresses: Kotono Mitsuishi (JP), Bianca Allen (EN)

Fiona Andrade is an actress and capoeira fighter from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Fiona had been preparing for her latest movie: a high-octane action film, but unfortunately, the film's leading man had to pull out at the last minute due to injury after being attacked by an unknown assailant. Opting to seek out a new leading man for herself, Fiona flies to Japan to participate in the Sentoki tournament in order to start talks with her new leading man: Huang Long.


 * Yao Shuren

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Fighting Style: Xingyiquan

Voice Actors: Hidekatsu Shibata (JP), Michael Rhys (EN)

Yao Shuren is a veteran assassin and xing yi quan master from China. Having spent most of the 66 years of his life as an assassin, Shuren is revered and feared as one of the most formidable men within his profession, with a long list of kills to his name. Having done dirty work for Orion in the past, Shuren enters the Sentoki tournament with a new task in his hand: to eliminate the Ikushimas.


 * Inori Kinomiya

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Aikido

Voice Actresses: Miyu Matsuki (JP), Lynn Harris (EN)

Inori Kinomiya is a shrine maiden from Kyoto, Japan. Inori was trained by her father Genichiro Kinomiya up until he was put in comatose by a mysterious entity who also went on to destroy her family's shrine and steal some of the clan's heirlooms. After hearing rumors that the entity was joining the Sentoki tournament, Inori decides to enter the tournament in order to seek revenge for her father and retrieve the stolen heirlooms.


 * K-001

Birthplace: Unknown

Fighting Style: Composite

Voice Actresses: Ryoka Yuzuki (JP), Rumiko Varnes (EN)

K-001 is a clone of Kei Ikushima created by Orion. K-001 is actually the first of several clones created using Kei's DNA during her time in cryo-sleep for the purpose of discovering the "perfect fighter", having been infused with fight data, mass-produced and sent out to orchestrate several attacks on martial artists. As all the other K-clones wreak havoc, K-001 is left inside Orion's lab until the third Sentoki tournament, where she is planned to be unveiled by Orion come the finals.

EVO Additions

 * Akechi

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Sumo

Voice Actor: Ryuzaburo Otomo (JP), Chris Wells (EN)

Tohru Togashi, better known by his shikona Akechi, is a sumo wrestler from Osaka, Japan. Once a promising rikishi, Akechi's career came to a halt when he was involved in a rigging controversy, which caused his career and reputation to crash and burn until the CEO of Orion Corporation hired him as his henchman. As the CEO's henchman, Akechi joins the Sentoki tournament to please the CEO and hopefully give him some of his riches.


 * Mira

Birthplace: Unknown

Fighting Style: Kalaripayattu

Voice Actors: Satsuki Yukino (JP), Lenne Hardt (EN)

Mira is a genetically-enhanced assasin who currently serves for Orion. Once a skilled martial artist who didn’t want anything to do with Orion, Mira was kidnapped by Orion and subject through various horrible experiments, which deteriorated her mind, turning her into what she is now: a bloodthirsty assasin prone to violent tantrums. Under orders from Orion, Mira enters the Sentoki tournament with the intent to kill all the others.

Stages

 * Warrior’s Shrine
 * Sakura Fields
 * Underground Pit
 * Garden of Roses
 * Wolves' Den
 * H.K. Boulevard
 * Szechwan Highlands
 * Natural Reserve
 * All-Out Gym
 * Military Armory
 * Parking Lot
 * Cathedral
 * Rio Resort
 * Deep Caverns
 * Nature's Spring
 * Unknown Location

EVO Additions

 * Sumotori Dohyo
 * Boiler Room
 * Neo Colosseum

Game Modes

 * Arcade
 * Story
 * Quick Match
 * Circuit
 * Versus
 * Team Versus
 * Tournament
 * Survival
 * Practice
 * Customize
 * Gallery
 * Options

Sequel
A sequel to the game, Sentoki 4, was released in 2009 for the Arcade (System 202: ENDYMION), PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It featured new characters as well as new gameplay mechanics and stages.

Trivia

 * This is the first ACS arcade game to support their propietary Amaze.net online service. Amaze.net users can use their access card in order to save progress and access internet rankings.
 * Amaze.net was only available in Japan at the time. To remedy this, the international releases of Sentoki 3 instead utilized a magnetic IC card system similar to those used in Sega's Initial D series and, later, Namco's Tekken 5.
 * This is the first title in the Sentoki series to be fully dubbed in English. These voices were provided by Japan-based English-speaking voice talent. This dub came with the North American and European console release of the original Sentoki 3 by default, but the console ports of EVO and Final Tuned featured an option to toggle between the Japanese and English voices.
 * Due to the unfortunate circumstances of the death of Kaneto Shiozawa in 2000, shortly after finishing his voice work for Sentoki 2, his role as Kagero was recast to Takumi Yamazaki.
 * Sentoki 3 was the first game released for ACS’ NOVA-II System arcade board, a successor to the NOVA System, with both boards based on PlayStation 2 hardware. Ironically, Sentoki 3 Final Tuned would end up becoming the last first-party game released for the NOVA-II, in 2006.
 * The PlayStation 3 port of Sentoki 3: Final Tuned, which was a launch title for the PlayStation 3 in 2006, was lambasted for being only capable of pushing up to 540p resolution, compared to the 720p resolution found in the Xbox 360 port of EVO. This was attributed to the sheer complexity of the PS3's infamous "Cell" microprocessor.