Pocket Bravery Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · September 5, 2023

For this Pocket Bravery Review, we play a game Inspired by classic fighting games from the 90s such as Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, and The King of Fighters, ‘Pocket Bravery channels the ‘Neo Geo Pocket’ aesthetic for a modern fighting game with a retro twist!

Pocket Bravery Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
12.12GB download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Graphics settings – resolution, display, brightness, scan lines, CRT filter, grain filter, and chromatic.
2D fighting gameplay.
Can rebind controls for both the keyboard and the controller buttons.
Edit controls for each player.
Accessibility options – announcer (default/descriptive), subtitles font size, high contrast, colorblind support, and intensity.
8 difficulty levels.
Rounds can be set to 1, 3, or 5.
Seven ways to play – story, arcade, versus, online, extra modes, tutorials, and training.
The tutorial is split into 3 areas – basic, gauge, and technical terms.
You have a light and heavy kick and punch.
Blocking will break down your shield icon and when it shatters you are momentarily stunned.
Uses the back movement for blocking.
The gray bar above your name is the stun bar, as you land attacks you fill your opponent’s bar, you fill it to stun them.
You can escape grabs.
Two controller types – default (standard inputs) and accessible (simple combination inputs).
Fast loading times.
The power gauge fills up as you fight and once full you can pull off special moves.
Full combo system at play.
The elemental bar is harder to fill up but once full does harder hitting and more game-changing attacks.
You can pull off breaks to stop an attack or combo.
S cancels allow you to use half your gauge bar to stop an opponent’s special.
Cancels are the same as above but for the elemental attacks.
The online mode consists of causal matches, ranked matches, invites, and ranking.
The profile is your character card and you can edit – avatar, background, title, favorite character, favorite stage, and your region.
Uses the title cards like in Street Fighter and the tags for rank like in Virtua Fighter.
You can see a full breakdown of your stats.
16 stages with 12 available at the start and the rest having to be unlocked.
The shop is where you can buy stages, colors for your Fighters, customisation items (titles/avatars, etc.), and rarities.
12 characters with ten available at the start and the rest to be unlocked.
The gallery houses all unlocked art, sounds, and videos.
The unlock conditions are shown so you know what to do.
Combo Factory lets you create and assign your own combo sequences.
Training mode lets you set up a scenario and practice.
The extra mode offers – survival, time attack, and trials.
Versus can be local play or against a CPU.
Arcade mode is a case of running through opponents until you get to the final boss.
Story mode houses cutscenes, and stories for the characters.
Really cool artwork and cutscene work.
Button mashers can still triumph.
The way that story mode flows is really cool and different.
Access at all times to the move lists for your character.
End of match breakdown.
Cool animated backgrounds and locations.
You get a bit of trash talk at the end of a match in arcade mode.

Pocket Bravery Review Cons:

The tutorial in the story mode is a million times better than the tutorial section in the menu.
I’m the tutorial mode you cannot skip a move you have trouble with.
A lot to take in with multiple gauges to fill and a host of cancels and Breakers.
Takes a lot from street fighters from the world map stage selection in arcade mode to the end of the fight trash-talking.
You can change the controller type (default/accessible) from the menu.
The AI can get very cheap, especially on higher difficulties.