Looking back at Ehrgeiz: God bless the Ring.

Ehrgeiz: the Arcade Fighter game by Namco and Squaresoft from the late 90s (98 to be precise) It's an OK game, but the importance is in...

No, not that...

Yes, this is the game with the secret Final Fantasy VII Characters. Cloud and Tifa in the Arcade version... Cloud, Tifa, Sephiroth, Zack, Vincent and Yuffie in the home version. I'm surprised they didn't add Cid (using Shuwen as a template for moves) Red XIII as a Django clone (though Django's p2 color is a nod to Nanaki) That makes me think that Square Enix should do a Fighting game out of Advent Children to cash in on FFVII...

But Back to Ehrgeiz.

Story:
This part is mildly complicated, as it's a Japanese Fighting Game made in part by a company well known for JRPGs, so the story can be a bit confusing.
The McGuffin is called Ehrgeiz, a sword with an eerie red stone embedded on its hilt. It seems to be linked to some ancient ruins where a great treasure lies. (To some it's glory, others is power, or the key to immortality, depending on who you ask.) The story is based on the ambition of the characters in their quest to obtain the great treasure...
Spike, roll that awful clip... Ya-yo, Ya-yo!

Not counting the Quest mode story. (Mildly related to the game, but involving Yoko's father.
5.0

Graphics:
This is a PS1 Game, so FOR A PS1 Game, the Graphics are pretty good. There's a few odd clipping issues during the game, but that often happened in PS1 games.
8.0 FOR A PS1 GAME...

Controls:
They are a bit awkward, especially blocking, jumping and pulling off some combos. Paired with the gameplay (more on that later) it CAN BE a frustrating experience, when you're out of practice... 4 years + since the last time I played the game.
5.0

Gameplay:

Just watch the video. Pair it with the unintuitive controls and you can understand SOME of the frustration.
Add a bunch of minigames:


Then there's Battle Runner, where you run laps on a stage, and the Adventure Mode, which is basically a dungeon crawler with slightly simplified Ehrgeiz controls.
If it wasn't for the unintuitive controls screwing things for you at times, I could rate this a bit higher, but taking that into consideration, the game gets a 6.0

Sounds and Music:
The Voices in the game are in Japanese, so I can't make too many comments about them...
Sephiroth's voice is none other than Japanese James... Roy Mustang, SFZ2 Sagat, Zamasu... Oh holy crap!
Cloud is Enishi!? Yusuke Urameshi, Tetsuo Shima!? Shadi!? The Japanese version of Dora's Map!?

The soundtrack is a bit funky! I like it, it has this 90s Japanese Fighting game feeling to it.
10.0

Overall:
Ehrgeiz gets a 6.8 as its overall score. The controls being awkward REALLY hurt its score... If you love FFVII, you most likely HAVE THIS GAME.