Sentoki 3

戦闘機 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 part of the Sentoki series. Released in 2003 for Arcades (ACS NOVA-II System), PlayStation 2 as an exclusive title.

The game later received an update in 2004 in the form of 戦闘機 Sentoki 3: EVO, which added new characters and stages, as well as rebalanced some characters and included new unlockable outfits for customization. Released for Arcades (ACS NOVA-II System), PlayStation 2, XBox, Nintendo Gamecube and PlayStation Portable (under the name 戦闘機 Sentoki 3: EVO SP). A final update named 戦闘機 Sentoki 3: Final Tuned was released exclusively for Arcades (ACS NOVA-II System) in 2006, which added a balanced version of final boss K-001, as well as adding certain customization items from the console versions.

Gameplay
The game introduces a ranking system, where each player can level up their characters to a certain rank, from Beginner (lowest) to Lord of Sentoki (highest). The higher the rank, the tougher the enemy AI can be, while in multiplayer, ranks can determine a player's skill level. In the console version, character ranks can be used in modes such as Arcade and the newly-added Conquest mode, while in the arcade version, one must use either their Amaze.net access card or a specialized offline data card that can only be used in Sentoki 3 to access character ranks and customization (more below).

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. With the inclusion of the customization mode, the costume slot system has also been revamped, with the first two slots used for the character's default costumes, while the latter two now serve as slots for players' custom-made outfits.

The game introduces the Combo Wheel “Degree” system, where the strength of the Combo Wheel is determined via several factors, such as the timing and execution of the combo, as well as whether or not the player has accessed the Inner Combo Wheel. There are three degrees of Combo Wheels, each of which grant the player a damage boost and are determined by the color of aura around the characters’ fist and feet.


 * 1st Degree: No boost. Yellow aura.
 * 2nd Degree: +10% boost. Orange aura.
 * 3rd Degree: +20% boost. Red aura.

Other new gameplay additions include new stage hazards such as breakable floors and special wall effects (e.g. the electrfied walls in the Octagon Cage stage), as well as new gameplay mechanics such as "Sabaki" moves, which are moves that double as reversals when the attack collides against certain moves, as well as aerial catch throws, which are specialized that can be used against airborne opponents, whether jumping or launched. Most aerial catch throws can be used as juggle or Combo Wheel enders.

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
 * Expert
 * Hero
 * Champion
 * Fighter
 * Brawler
 * Master
 * Breaker
 * Ace
 * Icon
 * Veteran
 * Legend
 * Warrior
 * Innovator
 * Dominator
 * Conqueror
 * Deity
 * Greater Deity
 * Warlord
 * Demilord
 * Overlord
 * Lord of Fighting
 * Lord of Sentoki

Story
Near the end of the second tournament, Kei Ikushima, after defeating Regulus, discovers that the underground laboratory's self-destruct mechanism has been activated. As she was about to escape, she encounters Eileen Shore once again.

Kei tried to take Eileen out of the lab with her, but she hesitated. Eileen instead told Kei the answer that she was looking for all along: Kei was actually the daughter of none other than the CEO of Orion Corporation, Ranzou Kihara.

Eileen then gives Kei a letter and then tells Kei to go on without her and escape the lab now "before he gets you". Kei hesitates at first but then escapes as the lab explodes, leaving Eileen behind. It is unknown what happened to Eileen after the explosion.

Three years after the explosion at the Orion labs, Kei finds out more of her past from the letter Eileen gave her before the incident. She also found out that her DNA was taken for use in several mass-produced clones, which were then infused with Orion's fight data to create the "perfect fighter".

Fast forward to several weeks before Kei’s 20th birthday, several attacks on various martial artists have been reported. All done by people who look remarkably like Kei. Thus, 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 about the attacks.

Returning

 * Shin Ikushima

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Karate

Voice Actors: Tomokazu Seki (JP), Mark Atherlay (EN)


 * Ralph Rollins

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Fighting Style: Street Fighting

Voice Actors: Keiji Fujiwara (JP), Doug Boyd (EN)


 * Huang Long

Birthplace: 🇭🇰 Hong Kong

Fighting Style: Jeet Kune Do

Voice Actors: Nobutoshi Canna (JP), Scott Reyns (EN)


 * Joanna Spencer

Birthplace: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales

Fighting Style: Kuk Sool Won

Voice Actresses: Atsuko Tanaka (JP), Renee Hewitt (EN)


 * Bru Bronson

Birthplace: 🇬🇧 England

Fighting Style: Pro Wrestling

Voice Actors: Daisuke Gori (JP), J.S Gilbert (EN)


 * Kagero

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Ninjutsu

Voice Actors: Ryotaro Okiayu (JP), Scott Zeck (EN)


 * Douglas Freeman

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Fighting Style: Boxing

Voice Actors: Hisao Egawa (JP), Paul Jennings (EN)


 * Sonchai Damrongsak

Birthplace: 🇹🇭 Thailand

Fighting Style: Muay Thai

Voice Actors: Kosuke Toriumi (JP), Casey Robertson (EN)


 * Chen Zhixin

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Fighting Style: Drunken Fist

Voice Actors: Takeshi Aono (JP), Michael Bennett (EN)


 * Kei Ikushima

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Karate

Voice Actresses: Rica Fukami (JP), Roberta Kennedy (EN)


 * Kwon Eun-Soo

Birthplace: 🇰🇷 South Korea

Fighting Style: Taekwondo

Voice Actors: Nozomu Sasaki (JP), Jim Singer (EN)


 * Shannon Meltzer

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Fighting Style: Catch Wrestling

Voice Actresses: Akiko Hiramatsu (JP), Christiane Crawford (EN)


 * Akechi

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Sumo

Voice Actors: Takashi Nagasako (JP), Peter Kepler (EN)


 * Liang Meilin

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Fighting Style: Tai Chi Quan

Voice Actresses: Motoko Kumai (JP), Melissa Hutchinson (EN)

New

 * Brandon Donovan

Birthplace: 🇮🇪 Ireland

Fighting Style: Kickboxing

Voice Actors: Kazuya Nakai (JP), Andrew Chaikin (EN)

Brandon Donovan is an kickboxer from Dublin, Ireland. One of the most well-known kickboxers of his generation, Brandon cares less about his skill and more about his popularity amongst fans and the thrill of a fight. Brandon decides to enter the Sentoki tournament to boost his popularity.


 * Ariana Melendez

Birthplace: 🇧🇷 Brazil

Fighting Style: Capoeira

Voice Actresses: Kotono Mitsuishi (JP), Desiree Goyette (EN)

Ariana Melendez is an actress and capoeira fighter from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Aside from her work as an actress, Ariana also takes care of her younger brother, who was also taught capoeira by their late grandfather, until one day, her brother was attacked by an unknown entity. As she learns that the attacker will be entering the Sentoki tournament as one of the participants, Ariana flies to Japan to participate in the Sentoki tournament to avenge him.


 * Lee Longwei

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Fighting Style: Ba Ji Quan

Voice Actors: Hozumi Gouda (JP), Roger Jackson (EN)

Lee Longwei is a police officer from China. Known back in his hometown for his reputation and mastery of ba ji quan, Longwei has solved many cases and brought down many criminal organizations with him. After being sent to a mission to investigate the mysterious attacks on several martial artists, Longwei enters the Sentoki tournament to get to the bottom of things.


 * Satomi Hara

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Aikido

Voice Actresses: Kaori Shimizu (JP), Julissa Aguirre (EN)

Satomi Hara is an aikido practicioner from Kyoto, Japan. Satomi was trained by her father Genjiro up until he was put in comatose by a mysterious entity who also went on to destroy her father's dojo. After hearing rumors that the entity was joining the Sentoki tournament, Satomi decides to enter the tournament in order to seek revenge for her father.


 * K-001

Birthplace:  Unknown

Fighting Style: Combination of all fighter's styles

Voice Actresses: Rica Fukami (JP), Roberta Kennedy (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 the fight data collected by Orion. Whereas most of the K-clones were mass-produced by Orion and were responsible for several attacks on martial artists worldwide, K-001 was left inside Orion's labs up until the third tournament, where she is planned to be unveiled by Orion come the finals.

EVO Additions

 * Gensei Nagano

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Judo

Voice Actors: Tomomichi Nishimura (JP), Bruce Robertson (EN)

Gensei Nagano is a semi-retired judo expert now residing in Kyoto, Japan. Gensei is a family friend of the Ikushimas, and was shocked to hear about the news surrounding the mysterious attacks against martial artists done by who appears to be Kei Ikushima. Thus, Gensei comes out from retirement one more time and enters the Sentoki tournament to see who was actually responsible for the attacks.


 * Mira

Birthplace:  Unknown

Fighting Style: Fujowpai

Voice Actors: Satsuki Yukino (JP), Debbie Rogers (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 continually 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 intention of killing all the others.

Stages

 * Warrior’s Shrine


 * Sakura Fields


 * Underground Pit


 * National Park


 * H.K. Boulevard


 * Szechwan Highlands


 * Cathedral


 * Garden of Roses


 * Street Ring


 * Military Armory


 * Natural Reserve


 * Parking Lot


 * Octagon Cage


 * Rio Resort


 * Deep Caverns


 * Unknown Location

EVO Additions

 * Nagano Dojo


 * Testing Facility


 * Neo Colloseum

Game Modes

 * Arcade


 * Quick Match


 * Conquest


 * Versus


 * Survival


 * Time Attack


 * Tournament


 * Team Battle


 * Story


 * 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 to not just access internet rankings, but also several other Amaze.net exclusive customization items. However, Amaze.net is only available in Japan and other Asian countries like China and South Korea.


 * This is the one and only ACS game to be dubbed by a San Francisco-based voice cast.


 * Ariana was considered one of the most broken characters in the initial version of Sentoki 3, due to her high damage output and being easy to button mash with. The EVO update rebalances Ariana to tone down her damage output, but her button mashing aspects still remain.


 * Although the ranking system of Sentoki 3 more resembles that of Tekken 5 (a more straight rank system with no branching), Sentoki 3 actually predates Tekken 5 by one year.


 * Sentoki 3 was the first game released for ACS’ NOVA-II arcade board, which is based on heavily modified PlayStation 2 hardware. In contrast, Sentoki 3 Final Tuned was the last game for the NOVA-II, being released in 2007.


 * Like “Punchy” in the original Sentoki, several unused data for a character named “El Puma” was found beneath the data for the console versions of Sentoki 3 EVO. By hacking the game data, one can reveal a half-finished character model for El Puma, but he has no portraits or movesets of his own.


 * According to concept artworks, the character of El Puma was going to be a luchador. But given the existence of two other wrestlers in the roster (Bru and Shannon), as well as the introductions of Ruslanovich and Gensei, two other grapple-based characters, the staff thought that it was “redundant” and thus scrapped the character as a whole.