When the yellow area completely depletes, the Beast form will negate when the character is hit by an effective technique from the opponent.

[5] Alan Gadou is a French lion zoanthrope, a professional mercenary and military genius who took part in a mission with his best friend and Yūgo's father, Yūji, years ago.

An expert in assassination, he was enlisted in an infamous underground organization and put in charge of sabotage and the abduction of zoanthropes for experimentation.

After her daughter (who is also a zoanthrope) was abducted, she went on a quest to find her, the only clue being the kidnapper's steely eyes and insanely sardonic grin.

Afterward, his great skills in the martial arts and zoanthrope powers brought him recognition, and he was enlisted by an underground assassination unit.

[15] Gregory Jones (Greg for short) is an American gorilla zoanthrope who, in his youth, fulfilled his hope of running away to join a circus.

[23] The arcade soundtrack was composed by Atsuhiro Motoyama, Kenichi Koyano, Manabu Namiki, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata and Tomoko Miyagi, and published in 1997 by Wonder Spirits.

[24] Bloody Roar received generally positive reviews from critics, and its success resulted in its re-release for The Best range on October 14, 1999.

[2] Critics widely praised the easily executed, accessible moves,[26][21][27][28] the fast pace,[26][20][28] and most particularly the way it freely borrows gameplay elements from past greats of the genre such as the Tekken series and Fighting Vipers.

[26][21][27] Douglass Perry of IGN called it "a schoolbook example of how to take the best attributes from past fighting games and hone them into one great beat-'em-up",[21] while Next Generation said that it "really excels at combining and even improving on known gameplay paradigms.

[26][20][21][27] Next Generation and Sushi-X and Crispin Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) further added that while Bloody Roar has a wide variety of possibilities for over-the-top combos, the comprehensive system of counters and reversals prevent button mashers from overcoming skilled players and gives the game a great deal of depth.

[26] Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot argued that while it is possible to achieve most combos through button mashing, there are plenty of tricks that can only be learned by those who devote time to the game.

"[20] Perry noted that the "high frame rates and a speedy graphic engine enable moves to be executed quickly and without wait.

The game's moves are also very dynamic, resulting in a lot of oohs and aahs as a wolf bites a chunk out of his opponent's neck and blood spurts everywhere, splattering on the ground.

"[27] GamePro gave it a 4.5 out of 5 for graphics, 4.0 for sound, and a perfect 5.0 for both fun factor and control, and concluded that even with competition from the upcoming PlayStation port of Tekken 3, Bloody Roar had the potential to be a major sleeper hit.

[28] Bloody Roar received a nomination for "Console Fighting Game of the Year" during the AIAS' inaugural Interactive Achievement Awards.