I love this one, it's the best ring game, or even fighting game we've had since Selene... is what I want to say, but it's closer to Martial Arts King in design, frankly, beside some attack chains, it IS Martial Arts King, but with different heroine.
Not that I complain, I'm all about Viola's design, even though I think her "costume" is pretty bad looking, saved only by the boob window exposing her bold choice in bra. Well, and in general, how much it exposes to the world.
Beside that though, Viola's design as a whole is a huge W - from long flowing hair tied into top ponytail, neatly trimmed bangs and delicate shade on the lips to her whole body having just enough fat to spill out of her clothes, but not enough to make you look away. This gets even better during H-scenes, with player's hands sinking into tats and cheeks.
Combine that with her body language and expressions - you get the polite, yet prideful, strong-willed, enchanting woman that you'd want to get closer to... or break her down until she "knows her place".
Scenes-wise I have only 2 complaints:
1. That on-ropes scenes are available from knocked-down position.
2. Heroine still looks bad from profile, it'd be nice if JSK could improve on that front. This time, I can deal with it due to it giving us leg-lock+kiss scenes
As for the mechanics - I have personal thing for stances and changing positions, so it's good that those are here, just a shame it's not as broad as it was in Selene.
I am also happy to say, that game can be beaten without loosing - that is, Story Mode 1 can be beaten using only starting 500 points and Story Mode 2 with additional points from SM1. Ok, I'm saying that I'm happy to say it, but at the same time - Provoke is way too OP for it.
Not being able to remove boots and gloves is a bit of a letdown, though I'm pretty sure that's a tradition at this point.
As a side note - it took me way too long to recognise difference in Viola's stance between weak and strong attacks.
And now for some instructions:
