Hiya!

This will be my very first entry for Spooktober. When I found out we were going to be doing this, I was concerned. I’m generally a big scaredy cat. This makes my tolerance for spooky stuff pretty low. So, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to contribute anything for Spooktober. Well, after reading some of the past entries, I’m glad we didn’t have to go all-out on the horror. Anything horror-adjacent seemed to be fine.

That’s when it hit me. Frequent readers know I play a lot of Street Fighter 6. Capcom just released a new batch of DLC for the game. One of these is a new World Tour scenario based on the “super popular” Super Famicom visual novel game, Banshee’s Last Cry. It’s horror-ish so it should for Spooktober!

By the way, although Capcom released this piece of DLC a week or so ago, I will still be making this a SPOILER FREE review. I know a lot of loyal Street Fighter 6 players don’t even touch World Tour mode or don’t make it a priority. So, I won’t be revealing anything as there is a lot of mysterious stuff bundled in here. However, even though this is going to be a SPOILER FREE review, I will be embedding a bunch of YouTube videos with a lot of playthroughs. Those videos reveal a lot of stuff. So, if you see a video besides the one below, which is the trailer, some plot points will be revealed. Still, this review itself is pretty much a SPOILER FREE review.

Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry can be accessed through the One Fateful Day section of World Tour. This is going to be very different from the traditional World Tour experience as you won’t be running around with your Avatar here. Instead, it follows the original Banshee’s Last Cry, which is more like a visual novel or Choose Your Own Adventure kind of deal. Your World Tour Avatar gets invited to a vacation rest house for other fighters. To prevent each other from, you know, fighting each other for various grudges and such, the vacation home cloaks you in mysterious blue silhouettes. Don’t think about it too much.

Anyway, your fighter, in this case, under the alias of Max, visits the vacation rest house to supposedly have a relaxing weekend. The main scenario (and there are more than just a singular one) has you coming across a seemingly grisly murder. Despite having no detective training, you take it upon yourself to try to solve the mystery and possibly prevent a future killing which is supposed to happen at midnight…

Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry is definitely a huge departure from the other World Tour scenarios. I did take my first playthrough very seriously. As this is a visual novel, there was a lot of reading and I spent a lot of strength reading all of the little bits of texts in the hopes of finding a clue which will help me solve whatever is happening. Don’t make the same mistake I did. A lot of the text is intriguing and well-written. It’s just not really important in the grand scheme of things.

Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry also has one of the biggest pitfalls of every visual novel I’ve ever played: the repetitive nature. I already mentioned all of the text you have to read. Now, imagine having to read all those texts over and over again. There are times you’ll make a choice and then hit a bad ending for no logical reason. So, you’ll have to play through the game again in the hopes of getting a better ending. There is a chapter menu, meaning you don’t have to play through the scenario from the very beginning, the issue is the text. There is no way to skip the text!

There isn’t a way to automatically fast forward to the choices of a chapter. This becomes maddening, especially since some chapters have very long stretches of text before you get to the next choice. So, you’ll be basically by mashing the manual skip button repetitively like you’re trying to execute E. Honda‘s Hundred Hand Slap in Street Fighter II! While this goes against standard visual novel gaming, Capcom should’ve added a fast forward option for the text.

I mentioned the main plot is supposed to be you investigating a murder. The thing is, with some choices, the murder might not even happen! All of a sudden, Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry becomes something totally different and very nonsensical. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing because the main plot, the one with the murder and all that, feels pretty short. What I mean by that is, once you discover the body, you’re already more than halfway through the scenario! So, the extra stories are a welcome change.

Besides, the better mystery doesn’t involve murder. Remember when I mentioned how your character is covered by this blue silhouette? Well, that’s also happening to each and every character you meet! It just so happens everyone have appeared in Street Fighter 6! The thing is, they all look very different and you can’t just place who’s who based on how they look. There are clues you can ascertain from reading their dialogue and their mannerisms. However, some of them come off as pretty vague. Still, it’s kind of fun to try to piece together who’s supposed to be under each blue shell.

Finally, this World Tour scenario, like with most visual novels, is chock full of alternate endings. I highly doubt anyone will be able to get the either of the “true” endings on their first go. However, the problem is some of the ending paths will involve you playing the game from the start as a few of your earlier choices will influence how the story will progress. Some are even achieved by losing fights! There are even some endings which will not pop up until to get another ending! So, repeated playthroughs are a must if you want to get the best endings or get the most of Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry.

The question is: it is worth spending all that time? For most people, no. Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry can feel like a slog and confusing. There isn’t any real rhyme or reason why some endings occur. The central mystery gets lost in the shuffle. Completing the story or getting all the endings doesn’t unlock anything. For a lot of people, there won’t be a point to going through this. For completionists, however, this can be a lot of fun. Trying to figure out alternate paths to unlock chapters and trying different things to get all the endings can be satisfying… in a masochistic sort of way.

In my opinion, Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry didn’t do it for me. It was fun at the start but just got super draining after getting through a couple of the endings. I do applaud Capcom for trying something different for their World Tour mode. I would still be welcome if they try to do something else like this.

Byee!

Have you tried Banshee and Street Fighter’s Last Cry? Which ending did you get the first time? Have to managed to get all th endings? Let me know in the comments section below!