Maribato!

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Maria watches over us!

Gokigenyou.

Maribato! is a Doujin Fighting Game developed in 2004 by DK Software, based on the light novel Mariasama ga Miteru.

The game features the students from Lillian Girls' High School as playable characters, and all of them sport quirky yet very funny and interesting moves and styles, most of them as references to other fighting games, or aspects from the light novel. It is a Tag Team Fighting Game in a similar vein to the Capcom crossover games, where you can pick a team of two soeurs, and go against another group of two. Gameplay-wise, it uses three buttons: Two attacks (Weak and strong), and a third button to change to your partner. Each girl has their own Life Meter, however, if one of the girls is defeated, the entire team loses, unless you somehow manages to change characters just in time, the other girl can go on the fight even if her soeur is down.

An Updated Rerelease, called Maribato! Ver. 2.0 was presented in comiket 70 in 2005 as a standalone disc. It adds two characters in addition to the existing eight ones, as well as new stages; And later, in 2006, a third revision, called Maribato! Plus, was released: It adds three more characters, stages, and makes a big rebalance of everyone.

Playable characters:

• The initial eight: Yumi Fukuzawa, Sachiko Ogasawara, Youko Mizuno, Sei Satou, Shimako Toudou, Yoshino Shimazu, Rei Hasekura and Eriko Torii.
• Introduced in Version 2.0: Touko Matsudaira and Noriko Nijou.
• Introduced in Maribato! Plus: Shizuka Kanina, Kanako Hosokawa and Shiori Kubo.

Tropes used in Maribato! include:

• Academy of Adventure: The stages are based on actual locations at Lillian, a girl-only school that serves as the main setting for the light novel.
• Adaptational Badass: Marimite featured pure and beautiful schoolgirls in a Catholic One-Gender School, and now they appear as playable characters in a Fighting Game, throwing down like ever before.
• Apologetic Attacker: Considering the setting, ad the fact the the girls are fighting their soeurs, close friends and classmates, expect to hear them saying Gomen nasai a lot.
• Ascended Extra: The five characters introduced in the updated rereleases (Touko, Noriko, Shizuka, Kanako and Shiori); special mention to Kanako and Shizuka, who had little screentime in the light novel and anime series.
• Assist Character: Noriko can summon Stand-like Buddhist statues in battle to protect her, as a reference to her passion for that religion; the orange one has a Rapid Fire Fisticuffs attack, the grey one swings a sword upwards, useful as an anti-aerial; And a bigger, reddish one which catches Noriko's opponent, and crushes her with a grappling move.
• Attack Reflector: Noriko can use her rosary to create an snergy shield that reflects projectiles back to her opponent.
• Big Freaking Gun: Shiori fights with a cross-shaped gun, almost as big as she is; It can be used to fire missiles, and has a hidden machine gun on its back, Or Shiori can also swing it as a club.
• Car Fu: In a reference to how Sei Drives Like Crazy, one of her supers has her driving a car, in an attempt to run over her opponent.
• Catch Phrase: All the girls open the duels sometimes with a calm Gokigenyou!, and there's also Onee-sama, when the petit soeurs tag with their grand soeurs.
• Chain Pain: Not exactly a chain, but Noriko is able to use her rosary as an Improvised Weapon, following a similar principle as a chain.
• Combos: Like other doujin games, this game follows the Guilty Gear route, as it incorporates chain combos, such as: Weak-Strong-Special, or also Weak-Strong-Launcher-Air Combo. It's also possible to switch characters in the middle of the combo, and extend it for devastating damage.
• Cross-Popping Veins: Both Yoshino and Sachiko sport them when defeated. They certainly are not happy about their losses.
• Dance Battler: Shimako fights with a pair of folded paper fans, and most of her moves are based on some sort of Japanese dance. She also takes a few from Anji Mito.
• Double Jump: All characters can jump again in mid-air.
• Energy Bow: Touko creates one of these for one of her supers, and fires an electrically charged arrow. Of course, being Touko, the point of the arrow has the shape of a drill.
• Excited Show Title!: Maribato! and Maribato! Plus, including the exclamation mark!
• Final Boss: In vanilla Maribato!, Youko and Eriko are the last opponents. Particularly, Eriko's moveset makes references to other final bosses in fighting games back then, as she has Geese Howard's Reppuken, her DP is a Genocide Cutter-esque kick, and one of her supers is a powerful Wave Motion Gun. Later, in Maribato! Plus, the last opponents can sometimes be Sei and Shiori.
• Human Cannonball: Yoshino's throw turns her opponent into this. Yoshino starts by stuffing her opponent into a trick cannon, and fires her up into the sky, slamming her against a wall.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Kanako can throw basketballs in battle, in a similar fashion to Lucky Glauber.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Although not a pure Iaijutsu stylist (Because she's more of a Kendo master), Rei has some iai-styled attacks that she can perform with her wooden sword, one f them as a reference to a similar move by Moriya, from The Last Blade. One of her supers has her adopting a side stance, and swinging her wooden sword in rapid succession.
• Improbable Weapon User: Due to the game following the slapstick route, weapons used in this game include: Roses, an umbrella, basketballs, magician implements, a rosary, paper fans, and even a car!
• Improvised Weapon: One of Yoshino's supers has her throwing a barrage of magician implements, such as hats, staffs, paper fans, wooden swords and even shurikens in an arcing trajectory. And there's also Noriko with her rosary which she uses as a chain of some sort.
• Joshikousei: The characters are all High School students, and all of them wear their uniforms to fight; the only exception is Shiori, who wears a nun robe instead.
• Kick Chick: Most of Sachiko's moveset are kicks, and some of her special moves include a horizontal flying kick, and a very fast Diving Kick; although not to the point of being an Extremity Extremist, as she has other tricks at her disposition.
• Little Bit Beastly: Yumi can temporarily grow tanuki ears, and a tail, which she uses to slap opponents. One of her supers has her spinning in mid-air while turning red, and ram her opponent with a powerful tail slap. In a (possible) reference to Super Mario Bros 3, she can also float in the air while waving her tail.
• Long-Range Fighter: Youko is the local zoner: Her whip gives her a good range, and she has a lot of options for her projectiles, and one of her supers has her creating a rain of roses to keep her oponent at bay. However, the range of her whip leaves her vulnerable up close.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Shizuka (aka Rosa Canina) uses her voice in battle; when she sings, she produces a note that causes damage, and her DP has her creating a force field with her voice.
• Musical Theme Naming: Some of Shizuka's moves have music terms, such as Aria, or Soprano.
• Mythology Gag: When Yumi and Sachiko are paired, they share an intro where Sachiko fixes Yumi's scarf, similar to how she did it in the light novel.
• Nerf Arm: Rei uses a wooden sword in battle, as a reference to her position as captain of her Kendo team. Her soeur Yoshino also wields a wooden sword of her own, although she has other tricks up her sleeve.
• No Plot? No Problem!: So, the characters of Marimite started fighting, but there's no story to speak of.
• Parasol of Pain: Some of Yumi's normal moves has her swinging an umbrella around, and it's adorable.
• Parasol Parachute: Yumi can also use her umbrella to slowly descend to the ground, useful to avoid punishment.
• Prehensile Hair: Kanako is able to use her long hair as a weapon, she even has a rapid-fire move, from Millia Rage's moveset.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The music of the character selection screen, and one of the stages, is a rendition of Ave Maria by Charles Gounod, a piece played in piano by Sachiko, and later sung by Shizuka in the anime. The music has a fast pace to correspond with the action.
• Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat: Well, not exactly a rabbit, but one of Yoshino's specials has her aiming at her opponent with her magic hat, then. birds come out flying and damaging her if she touches them; the move is useful as an anti-aerial.
• Regenerating Health: The idle soeur can recover the red part of her life bar, although at a very slow pace.
• Self-Duplication: Several of Shizuka's supers has her creating energy duplicates of other characters to attack: She has a rushing super where clones of Rei and Yoshino strike her opponent, and a command grab where a clone of Sei crushes her with a Spinning Piledriver, then a clone of Shimako strikes her while she's down.
• Sempai-Kohai: As a reference to the soeur system at Lillian, the girls in Arcade Mode are paired according to which group they belong, older sister with younger sister (For example, Yumi with Sachiko, Sei with Shimako, Rei with Yoshino, etc.), and when they tag, the petit soeur usually shouts "Onee-sama" so her grand soeur can go on. A particular example is Yumi who, when paired with the leader of one of the groups, doesn't call them by name but by her position, so she exclaims "Rosa Foetida" for Eriko, "Rosa Chinensis" for Youko, and "Rosa Gigantea" for Sei.
• Shotoclone:
  • Yumi can throw roses as projectiles, her DP is an upwards Rolling Attack, and she also has a rushing horizontal Rolling Attack.
  • Her soeur Sachiko is not far behind: Like Yumi, she can also throw roses in a horizontal line, her DP is a rising energy palm, very reminiscent of Athena's Psycho Sword, and her rushing move is a very fast flying kick.
• Shout-Out: This game follows The Queen Of Heart and Eternal Fighter Zero route, and there are multiple references to other fighting games, as well as aspects from the light novel.
• Something About a Rose: The girls from the House of Chinensis throw roses in battle, although each one has their own style. Yumi, for example, throws roses describing an arc, Sachiko and Touko do it in a straight horizontal line (Altough Touko's roses vanish at mid distance), and Youko can throw three roses at the same time, or unleash a flurry of roses raining from above.
• Stage Magician: Aside of using a wooden sword as her main weapon, Yoshino also relies on tricks to fight: When performing, her wooden sword temporarily transforms into a black staff with a white tip, she can summon birds from her top hat to damage airborne opponents, and her throw has he stuffing her opponent into a trick cannon, and fire her up into the sky.
• Sword Beam: One of Rei's supers is of the Ground Wave variant, as she thrusts her wooden sword with enough force to create an energy wave that travels across the floor.
• Tag Team: Gameplay is built around this, as you can switch characters in the midst of battle.
• This Is a Drill: Touko fights by summoning drills in her hands, and ram her opponents with them. In general, Touko seems to have an obssession for drills, as most of her normal attacks, specials and even one super are related to drills. Curious enough, if you look carefully during her standng A animation, she actually hits her opponents with one of her Mega Twintails, which you guessed, are drill-shaped.
• Wave Motion Gun:
  • One of Eriko's supers has her firing a powerful blast to her opponent.
  • Shiori also has a super where she uses her cross-shaped gun to fire blasts of energy in three directions, essentialy forming a bigger cross.
• Whip It Good: Youko fights with a whip, giving her good range and a decent defense.
• A Winner Is You: "Congratulations!! You are best Soeur"
• Wrestler in All of Us:
  • Sei incorporates a lot of grappling moves in her moveset, most of them from Zangief's book, such as a Spinning Piledriver, a double suplex, her aerial throw is an Izuna drop, and one of her supers is a Final Atomic Buster variant.
  • One of Noriko's supers has her summoning a huge Buddhist statue in front of her opponent, if it connects, it will crush her with a Potemkin Buster variant.