Ehrgeiz – God Bless the Ring (USA)

Ehrgeiz (エアガイツ, Eagaitsu, German: [ˈeːɐ̯ɡaɪ̯ts] “Ambition”), fully titled Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring, is a 3D fighting video game developed by DreamFactory and published by Namco in 1998 for the arcade platform. It was first ported to the PlayStation and published by Square Co. in 1998, then to Japan’s PlayStation Network by Square Enix in 2008.

The game includes characters from Final Fantasy VII. Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart are playable in the arcade and the PlayStation versions; in addition, Sephiroth, Yuffie Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine, and Zack Fair were added to the PlayStation version’s roster.

Gameplay – Ehrgeiz – God Bless the Ring (USA)

Battle system – Ehrgeiz – God Bless the Ring (USA)

Ehrgeiz differs from most 3D fighting games by drawing heavily from the concepts of wrestling games and Dream Factory’s own Tobal series, which allows for full 360-degree movement and does not require fighters to be facing one another at all times. This restricts the camera to a more or less fixed position, zooming in and out with the action, but not tracking around the arena as would be common in most other 2D and 3D fighting games. Characters can move freely in a 3-dimensional stage which is filled with many interactive objects and changes in elevation, allowing characters to leap on top of crates or use them as weapons, for example.^[4] There are four action buttons: guard, high attack, low attack, and special, which is a weapons-based attack that is different for each character.^[5]

Quest Mode – Ehrgeiz – God Bless the Ring (USA)

The PlayStation version includes a Quest Mode, similar to Tobal No. 1 and Tobal 2, titled Brand New Quest: The Forsaken Dungeon.^[6] Players fight through an extensive dungeon crawl, much like the Blizzard title Diablo, and can equip different weapons and items. There are also several smaller minigames, such as a race mode, where players run laps around a course while engaging in combat to slow down their opponent, and a board game similar to Reversi.