Ehrgeiz can be considered to be the psuedo-sequel to both Tobal No.1 and Tobal 2, both fighting games done by Square and Dreamworks. As with most fighting games, Ergheiz has a reason for bringing these fighters together in a tournament.

Yes, you can play as Cloud, Tifa or Sephiroth... Yes, there's a RPG you can play... But, once you've fought through the actual game a couple times, you'll realize that the FMV endings that are your reward aren't much more than the FMV intro. The fighting moves are either extremely basic or ridiculously hard to pull off, thereby forcing to stick to just a handful of moves and hope that the computer doesn't catch on all that quickly (even though it will).

On the plus side, the game moves very fluidly at 60 fps and the addition of multiple-level arenas is a nice change.The 3D arenas, though small, look good. As a pleasant distraction, you can play the RPG or one of the other side games. Although they run in the same vein as the minigames found in Tekken, they seem to be a developed with a little less conviction. On the other hand, the RPG does seem like a warm-up to Vagrant Story, but don't assume you'll be spending 40+ game hours churning through it.

Consider this one a rental you can play with friends. There isn't enough here to really keep you playing for too long. If you want to play the RPG, there are actually RPGs out that would suffice better.

- - kinderfeld