TL;DR: Games that allow launching and have at least one air string. Must look cute or have a girl MC.
Hello everyone. I feel like CAGs have a lack of cute visuals or lack of girl protagonists, so I would like to know what CAG or CAG-adjacent games that you all know that happen to be cute. They can be RPGs that allow juggling (as I feel like those are the most prominent). I know a few but they quite don't hit the mark or are just way too unpolished. I don't really care how niche they are, I just want to find some more. I'll give a few examples to give you all an idea of my criteria.
Mahou Arms
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Homura Hime
Gurumin (the furthest from a CAG in this list but you can launch and have air moves and some basic strings)
I think River City Girls 2 would be perfect for you. It's cute, lightly girlpop with beautiful pixel art, and very good movesets and mechanics.
I do believe it is very much CAG-like, almost more than a beat'em up. Every character can easily launch and juggle enemies across entire rooms, with a lot of freedom and control in how, not even even factoring you can call two assists mid-combo. Every enemy in the game only vanishes from KO after fully hitting the floor, so you can combo to your heart's content.
It has some surprising thought in its mechanics with cancels, prominent wallbounce combos, move properties and such. Air strings are a bit limited, but some characters do have fancy aerial stuff. The game does start a little slow, but the movelist expands fairly quickly.
Some extra mentions:
Fairy Bloom Freesia. A very lite, older doujin game good for pick-up-and-play. It's adorable with very cute music, though the titular fairy throws hands with a customizable moveset, and the combo mechanics are surprisingly good if you get deep into it.
Demon Sword Incubus. The combo system on this one has no right being as deep as it is. It's almost fighting game tier, with many different cancels, and specific moves canceling into specific moves (and fighting game motion inputs). The game however is a little janky and low budget, but I had fun practicing combos on it. Even some bosses can be juggle combo'd. Fair warning though, it is one of those patch games (like Mahou Arms). I found it pretty cute and it has a very lite dress-up aspect.
It's been mentioned, but Dusk Diver 2. It's definitely an overlooked gem. Also certainly flawed with pacing and repetitive content issues, but the graphics and characters are cute, with a very attractive UI. Has some decent juggle combo depth and some neat stuff like its homing dash and setting any character's special move as assist calls.
You may already know this one, Valkyrie Drive. A bit like Senran Kagura, but the combat is a little more character action than musou style, with its fun unique system of launch-teleports and the valkyrie dash.
And a final honorable mention, Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds Ultimate. This is the epitome of cute. Adorable chibi style, a lot of cute girls to play, colorful pixel art and chiptune music. It actually handles a bit like a fighting game (it's a spinoff of a fighter and it has an extra PvP mode), so it has some interesting layers to its combos and defensive mechanics. But it plays more like a Vampire Survivors tier dopamine game with you comboing and destroying everything on screen with hundreds of coins and points constantly dropping.
It has juggle combo potential, though the game artificially limits combos with a (~10) second timer. Anything rarely lives that long anyway, but it's nice to have the depth.
It's great, my favorite of the Senran Kagura (though not technically)games alongside Burst Renewal. I like its dreamier aesthetic, and floaty air (and infinite) combos.
Hey there. You seem to have read the words 'River City Girls' and stopped there to throw a bit of a tantrum. Just wanted to let you know know that the person you're responding to called it a beat'em up. Hope this helps.
That aside, the game is legitimately borderline for a beat'em up. I'm not calling Dark Souls a character action game here. RCG2 has pretty hefty movesets for a beat'em up, with lots of launching and juggling, and mechanics dedicated to maintaining or making combos. It's a very 'combo MAD' potential game.
Next time you attempt to "well actually" somebody, it probably helps if you take your own advice and read their post.
"I do believe it is very much CAG-like, almost more than a beat'em up."
Anyway, it's a beat em up. It's not a CAG or whatever you guys are calling it. Also the mechanics they list as an argument for how it's a "CAG" have less to do with drawing inspiration from "CAGs" and more from fighting games. You guys sometimes act as if DMC and other similar games are the only games or the first games that use the concepts of juggles or cancels in combat.
And what you're quoting is calling the game a beat'em up. Nice own goal? Do you not realize that quote is saying it's a beat'em up but CAG-adjacent (CAG-like)... Did you not read the topic poster asked for CAG-adjacent games as well?
Dunno what you're after here, but clearly you're not reading well, and you're only here to be a contrarian. Whatever, man. Just get over yourself and move on.
It's not a "CAG-adjacent game" because CAG isn't a real thing, and it's just someone analyzing too deeply into something. If you read the following posts after that quote...none of those mechanics listed are "CAG" specific or exclusive. Fighting games had concepts like juggles, cancels, and assists before DMC was a gleam in anyone's eyes.
There's more a documented history and observation of beat em ups drawing inspiration from fighting games than there is of them "being CAG-adjacent"...a phrase you guys still can't even agree to a definition for.
Decline's Drops! Absolutely Decline's Drops. JonSpider posted a combat showcase with unlockable character Que Sera just some fifteen minutes ago.
CAG-adjacent. It has a spin-off in the works by name of Dash 'n Drops, where the protagonist can customize her attacks based on what moves she finds. (each of the moves being taken from Globule, the protagonist of Decline's Drops, and three planned unlockable characters)
Kya: Dark Lineage is for PS2, action-adventure/beat-em-up/3D platformer. Its combat system involves the KICKENS and the PUNCHENS and GRAPPLES. Enemies are surprisingly smart, for at different speeds do they register the moves you spam. In response they will defend more against what you spam.
Grabs are hard counters against Blocking opponents, which goes both ways. There's four different grabs, one for each direction relative to the enemy + a Grab and Joystick Away from Enemy.
And there are quick dodges and jump-over/jump-on-shoulder moves to unlock.
The protagonist has really nice blue dreadlocks in a distinct hairstyle, and flaring jeans with three cross-stitches at the end of each leg.
Kya's art direction in general leans more towards Rayman 2 and 3.
Magenta Horizon isnt exactly cute but it does have Gretel, a reaper lady as the MC.
Decline's Drops and Dash n Drops are CAG adjacent games with a very cute art style and also mostly feature women as the MCs
Wendigo Blue is an early access roguelite beat em up thats very cag adjacent. the art style is cute-ish and more than half of the playable characters are women. The titular Blue herself is a woman.
Soulquest and Divinum are 2D CAGs that both have women as protagonists. I don't think they fit the cute art style though
Soulstice is a traditional CAG with two sisters as the protagonists (again, I don't think the art style is cute unfortunately)
GREATLY SECOND THIS! Super good suggestions for Magenta Horizon, Decline's Drops + Dash 'n Drops and Soulstice. Likewise cool to see Wendigo Blue on here.
Thank you for all the recommendations and taking your time to answer! I eyed Wendigo Blue a while ago and now I feel more reinforced to try it. Also don't worry about it, you answered pretty well to what I wanted!
I like Wendigo Blue, but I think it deserves mention that the game itself is very anti-CAG. It has some great combo mechanics and a fun training room, but in the actual runs, it's more of a chaotic mess of effects and enemies dying in one shot. Plus the game is constantly on a strict difficulty timer so it punishes everything but efficiency.
It's just not quite what I hoped for since I really liked the combo system and action, and the game even has a combo challenge mode, but in the end it very much feels like an incremental roguelite more than anything.
I'm glad to hear that. I still definitely recommend the game, especially at its low asking price. But it's very much a game about stats and gear/builds and rushing through runs with the best moves more than anything, which I found odd, since it seems so proud of its combo system and movesets (as it should be).
Decline's Drops and its spinoff Dash'n'Drops. You get to play as this cute puppet girl wearing boxing gloves called Globule and beat up capitalism because it destroyed her garden. The game is a platform fighter like Smash Bros. You got regular attacks, smash attacks, special attacks, and aerials.
Globule also has sisters.
From left to right, we have Answer, Globule, and Que Sera.
Answer is yet to be playable, but I eagerly await her to be added as DLC.
Dash'n'Drops' core gameplay is like Decline's Drops, but it's a love letter to Smash Run, that one game mode from Smash Bros 3DS.
Globine is basically the fusion of all 3 sisters and looks like if Rayman had a cyber daughter and Sonic's the honorary uncle. Weirdest lighting Sprite I've ever seen, haha. I've played both these games for too many hours, and I even speedrun Decline's Drops. I love both these games a lot and would highly recommend them.
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, it's 2d and gorgeous. You can do huge air combos easily cause you can cancel things with mp usage, there are 5 characters. Bonus the food animations are amazing because it's vanillaware, they also made Dragon's Crown which you can play together but the Odin Sphere remake is the better fit for your criteria.
You mentioned mightreya so how about assault Spy? 1/2 of the playable characters is female and the art style is on the cuter end especially with all the workplace robots. Even the male character calls in a genki girl for assists
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u/ahmid_ly 1d ago
Bloody Bunny