BlazBlue

BB is Arc Systems Works' newest fighting game series. From the very beginning, it looked to be very Guilty Gear inspired, from the artstyle down to the character designs, Ragna and Jin being the most obvious. Many people thought it was going to be Guilty Gear's successor, but it turned out to be a very different game.

My opinion of BlazBlue is of intense disappointment. I really wanted to like the game, and I had a lot of faith that it was going to be great since the creators of Guilty Gear were making it. Anyway, I guess I'll start with what Blazblue did right.

The presentation and graphics. The game looks gorgeous, the sprites are really detailed, and like Guilty Gear there's an all-star voice acting cast to support the characters. All of the winscreens are voiced, and Rachel, Litchi, Ragna, and Taokaka in particular have great performances.

The amount of support that ArcSys and its American counterpart AkSys are pouring into promoting the game is amazing. I really wish that all fighting games had the same advertising campaign as BB. To mention only a few things, BB has a semi-frequent radio show called Bururaji, it has an official comic that is also translated, the BB website has 4komas and also has special images everytime a character's birthday comes up, and the limited edition American release of the game came with a tutorial DVD created by the top US Blazblue players.

BB also has, without a doubt, the best console port of a fighting game I have ever seen. The netplay is good(for console fighting game standards, at least), the training mode is great and has tons of options, and lastly I should mention the story mode. While BB's story isn't exactly a very deep one, it avoids the story that 99% of all other fighting games have, where someone organizes a big tournament to see who's the strongest warrior or whatnot. The story mode in BB is perfectly executed, as a somewhat complex plot like BB's is best told in the visual novel style. The Teach Me Miss Litchi tutorial segments are also golden.

Unfortunately, the good stuff ends here. BB fails in the most important department, which is its merit as a fighting game. As a fighting game, BB is terrible: it is not fun to play or watch, the gameplay is clunky, and characters spend way too much time in the air as opposed to the ground. The game honestly reminds me much more of Melty Blood than it does Guilty Gear. It's really clear that Mori wanted to make BB a very different game than GG; however, I get the impression that some of his design decisions were made just for the sake of being different, without really thinking them through. One prime example is being able to throw during hit and blockstun, which is pretty much unheard of in fighting games. While this doesn't seem like a big deal at first because of the much wider throw break window for these type of throws, it led to things like Carl's clap-loop infinite in Calamity Trigger. The burst system was horribly handled in CT, and the new bursts are just as bad in CS.

I also have to mention the ukemi system. There are no true knockdowns in BlazBlue, as every knockdown that can't be comboed after is ground techable and rollable, like Vampire Savior. While this doesn't seem like a problem at first, it is indeed one because BB is a very slow paced game. Many characters can't punish tech rolls, and the slow nature of the game makes it very difficult to maintain offense after an opponent rolling, in contrast to Vampire Savior where the attacker can still maintain pressure after a roll because of the frantic pacing. This pretty much makes BB have very little in the way of okizeme, with some exceptions. In an interview with Mori before the first iteration of BB came out, he stated that he did not want the game to center around okizeme and knockdowns, so it seems this was intentional. He probably wanted the game to not be as momentum based as Guilty Gear, and have the focus be in the neutral game. However, it doesn't work out because the neutral game is extremely shallow and sluggish, as jumping is way too strong and throws are terrible.

The balance in BB is also really terrible. In both Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift, it's the case of the top tier characters being really good and braindead, while the bottom tier characters are horrible. The gaps between the tiers are huge and the tournament results are a good reflection of this.

BB is also pretty notorious for being an extremely easy game, lowering the execution requirements a la Street Fighter IV. While I don't exactly have a problem with making games easier, I do feel that BB went too far in lowering the execution barrier. Not every game has to be as hard as Hokuto no Ken or Eternal Fighter Zero, but being able to hold a button for 5 frames to get a repeat input is silly, and the easy barrier/throw option select on defense makes blocking way too strong in this already slow paced game.

I should also mention the sound in this game.. to be more specific, the voice looping. BB has the worst voice looping I have ever heard in any fighting game. Characters talk way too much, as they have voice clips every time they attack, move, and block. They even say stuff when they're idle. Voice clips repeat and cut each other off. For example, a character that has the clip "Muda yo" when blocking... if you made them block a multi hit blockstring, you would then hear something like m-m-m-mu-mu-muda yo. Rachel is easily the biggest offender, since there's basically three people talking everytime she does something.

So yes, disappointment. Or rather, wasted potential. There are so many good things about BlazBlue(like Litchi!), but unfortunately BB fails when it comes to the most important things about fighting games: the gameplay. I remember when people were just discovering the little details of the plot and the game presentation(like all the character specific quotes and the intricate story mode), calling BB a fighting game with visual novel elements. However, the way the game is now, it's really the other way around.