Sentoki 2

戦闘機 Sentoki 2 (戦闘機 sentoki; fighter) is a 3D fighting game developed by Orange Soft and published by ACS. It is the sequel to Sentoki: The Strongest Warrior. Released in 2000 for Arcades (ACS NOVA System) and the PlayStation 2 as an exclusive title.

Gameplay
Gameplay was improved from its predecessor, featuring a revamped fighting engine. Stages are more wider, allowing for free movement, and include certain obstacles such as breakable objects, destructible walls and pitfalls that can be used to reveal new fighting areas within the stage. Also, some stages are semi-walled, while others include slants or uneven terrain. Because of these changes, winning by Out of Ring is also removed from the game. Movement has also been significantly improved from the last game, with characters now being able to maneuver in all eight directions whilst still retaining jumping and crouching.

New features in the game include the Wall Jump, a special maneuver which can be done while cornered to a wall, with each character being able to perform certain attacks during a wall jump such as a diving punch or a jump kick, and Reaction Counters, a special counter-attacking technique that pushes the opponent away from a distance, similar to the Alpha Counters in the Street Fighter Alpha series, but without the meter requirement, performed by pressing P+K while blocking the opponent’s attack. Players are also now allowed to escape from reversals, whereas escaping from a reversal was impossible in the first game.

The Combo Wheel system from the first game also received a major revamp, with the introduction of the “Inner Combo Wheel”. This time around, players can press P+K+H at any point in the middle of a Combo Wheel to cancel out of their current combo and grant access to the “Inner” Combo Wheel, an alternate, more damaging set of Combo Wheel attacks. Unleashing the Inner Combo Wheel also extends the combo for up to six hits. However, the timing window does not, so the longest and most damaging Combo Wheel combos require fast hands and pinpoint timing.

Each character now has four outfits instead of just three, with two available from the start, while the other two can be unlocked by finishing Arcade and Story mode with said character, respectively.

Story
After destroying Antares near the end of the first tournament, Shin Ikushima attempted to find the CEO of Orion Corporation, Ranzou Kihara, in order to finish him off.

However, when he went to the chairman's office, there was no Ranzou, but only a young girl inside a cryosleep chamber. Shin then releases the girl from the chamber and runs off. Realizing that she lacks any memory of her past, Shin decided to adopt the girl, naming her Kei.

Ten years later, Kei, under guidance from Shin, grows up to become a beautiful young lady, and an accomplished black belt in Kyokushin karate. Kei still had no memory of her past prior to Shin saving her, but this did not bother her one bit.

Until one day, Kei encounters a mysterious woman named Eileen Shore, who claims to be a former employee of Orion. Eileen told Kei about the Orion Corporation and how Ranzou Kihara is the one holding the answers to her missing past, before leaving Kei behind, never returning.

Several months after Kei's run-in with Eileen Shore, Orion announced the second Sentoki Global Martial Arts tournament. Kei, along with her guardian and master Shin, joins the tournament in order to find more about her past.

Returning
Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan
 * Shin Ikushima

Fighting Style: Full Contact Karate

Voice Actor: Tomokazu Seki Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA
 * Ralph Rollins

Fighting Style: Street Fighting

Voice Actor: Keiji Fujiwara Birthplace: 🇭🇰 Hong Kong
 * Huang Long

Fighting Style: Jeet Kune Do

Voice Actor: Nobutoshi Hayashi Birthplace: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales
 * Joanna Spencer

Fighting Style: Kuk Sool Won

Voice Actress: Atsuko Tanaka Birthplace: 🇬🇧 England
 * Bru Bronson

Fighting Style: Pro Wrestling

Voice Actor: Daisuke Gori Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan
 * Zakuro

Fighting Style: Ninjutsu

Voice Actor: Ryotaro Okiayu Birthplace: 🇷🇺 Russia
 * Ruslanovich

Fighting Style: Command Sambo

Voice Actors: Fumihiko Tachiki Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA
 * Douglas Freeman

Fighting Style: Boxing

Voice Actor: Hisao Egawa Birthplace: 🇹🇭 Thailand
 * Sonchai Damrongsak

Fighting Style: Muay Thai

Voice Actor: Kosuke Toriumi Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China
 * Chen Zhixin

Fighting Style: Drunken Fist

Voice Actor: Takeshi Aono Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan
 * M.A.C.

Fighting Style: Mimicry (switches through other characters' styles per round)

Voice Actor: None

New

 * Kei Ikushima

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Full Contact Karate

Voice Actress: Rica Fukami

Kei Ikushima is a young martial artist who currently resides in Saitama, Japan. Kei was raised by her current guardian Shin Ikushima after he had released her from her cryo-sleep chamber years ago, and has since lived a peaceful life until now, when a mysterious woman told her about a certain man, and how he had the answers to her missing past. Kei decided to enter the tournament in order to meet the man that she was referring to: Ranzou Kihara.


 * Kwon Eun-Soo

Birthplace: 🇰🇷 South Korea

Fighting Style: Taekwondo

Voice Actor: Takahiro Sakurai

Kwon Eun-Soo is a taekwondo fighter from Seoul, South Korea. Eun-Soo showed a lot of promise after being enrolled by his parents in taekwondo lessons, but emotional turmoil with his father caused him to run away from his home and enter the dark world of underground street fighting, where he went undefeated for the longest time. Growing tired of the underground circuit, Eun-Soo decides to enter the Sentoki tounament to face more unique opponents.


 * Shannon Meltzer

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Fighting Style: Catch Wrestling

Voice Actress: Akiko Hiramatsu

Shannon Meltzer is a professional wrestler from Austin, Texas. Originally an amteur wrestler, Shannon went on to work for various wrestling promotions and has quickly become a fan favorite for her technical wrestling style, but she felt that her skills against other fighting styles are inadequate. Wanting to learn more about other fighting styles, Shannon enters the Sentoki tournament to hone her skills.


 * Akechi

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Fighting Style: Sumo

Voice Actor: Ryuzaburo Otomo

Tohru Togashi, better known by his shikona (sumo name) Akechi, is a sumo wrestler from Osaka, Japan. Akechi was once 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 make sure that no one will win the tournament but him.


 * Liang Meilin

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Fighting Style: Tai Chi Quan

Voice Actress: Motoko Kumai

Liang Meilin is the daughter of the martial artist Liang Meifen, from China. Meifen thought Meilin the art of tai chi in her reborn dojo up until one day, Meifen was attacked by Orion's personnel, which left her injured and unable to fight. Furious, Meilin decides to join the Sentoki tournament to seek revenge for her mom.


 * Regulus

Birthplace:  Unknown

Fighting Style: Combination of all fighter's styles

Voice Actor: None (roars)

Regulus is the latest bio-weapon created by Orion. After Antares' defeat in the hands of Shin during the first tournament, Orion decided to use its remains, as well as some of their newly-gathered fight data, to create their newest bio-weapon. Regulus is set to be unveiled by Orion come the second Sentoki tournament.

Stages

 * Neo Colosseum


 * Karate Dojo


 * Rooftop


 * Sacred Temple


 * Backstreets


 * Rainforest


 * Ocean Aquarium


 * Shopping Mall


 * Kadokawa High


 * Boiler Room


 * Train Station


 * Beach


 * Chinatown


 * Video Arcade


 * Underground Laboratory

Game Modes

 * Arcade


 * Versus


 * Survival


 * Time Attack


 * Tournament


 * Team Battle


 * Story


 * Practice


 * Gallery


 * Options

Sequel
A sequel to the game, Sentoki 3, was released in 2003 for the Arcades (ACS System 201), PlayStation 2, XBox and GameCube. It featured new characters as well as new gameplay mechanics and stages.

Trivia

 * Just like its predecessor, the American console versions of Sentoki 2 featured Engilsh voices for the Western characters (Ralph, Joanna, Bru, Ruslanovich, Douglas and Shannon). The Japanese and European console versions still retain their Japanese voices, however.


 * Related to the above, both the Korean arcade and console versions of Sentoki 2 feature a special Korean voice for Kwon. This was done due to regulations regarding the use of Japanese language in Korean products.


 * There were two versions of Sentoki 2 in arcades. Version 1.0. included several bugs and glitches, most of which were patched by the release of the later Version 1.5., which also added a special code to play as Regulus, the final boss. The console versions were based on 1.5., but the code to play as Regulus has been removed in favor of being an unlockable.


 * This is the first game in the Sentoki series to feature the Slo-Mo Replay, which plays right after the normal speed Replay after the end of each round.


 * Alongside Blazin' Wheels 2000, Sentoki 2 was the first game released for ACS’ NOVA System arcade board, which was based off of the hardware for the PlayStation 2.


 * Early screenshots of the game depict a stage that takes place in a rose garden. This stage was cut from the final version for unexplained reasons, but was eventually remade and added in Sentoki 3 as “Garden of Roses”.


 * The PlayStation 2 port of the game features an unlockable demo of ACS’ then-upcoming survival horror game fade.II.