Blazblue

[lunaCremisi]

I was just wondering, does anyone here play Blazblue?

[DanTheTimid]

I do, arcade mode was about as good if not better then most, but I LOVE the story mode. This is the first appearance of these characters and already I feel like I know them better then any of the street fighter characters who in 15 years continue to have paper thin and constantly changing/conflicting personalities/back-stories sadly : - / I'm big on story with any game I play, be it rpg, card game, or obviously fighting game, so this feature has really endeared the series to me. The fact the limited edition version came at retail price and contained nearly as much extra stuff as the SF4 collectors edition that cost 20 dollars over retail was a pretty classy move on ark systems part as well.

Purely from a game play stand point I love how generous they our on links in this game, coming from SF4 that requires nano-second like precision to pull of the "pro" combos, its nice to get to have access to all of my characters options with out years of extensive practice and human reflex enhancement drugs. On the flip side, SF4 did spoil me with their "I think I know what you meant to do" special input system. Now I'm forced to correctly input moves again instead of just sort of violently swinging the stick around and watching ultras come out. Then again, if I used a controller instead of a stick I believe Blazblue lets you map specials to the right analog stick directionals so if I ever goof up a special I have no one to blaim but myself for using an arcade stick.

I also love how uniquely quirky the characters are, especially the Drive button moves. In most fighting games lately I find that the majority of characters feel very similar. I don't just mean comparing ryu to ken, akuma, sakura, dan, and sagat but even to say Cammy. Characters are at their heart pretty similar and its just little quirks to their specials that often differentiate them. In blazblue no one controls 2 characters but Carl, no one controls the wind but Rachel, etc etc these are all abilities that create very unique styles of fighting and really differiante the characters.

My biggest caveat so far with the game is that it does seem to be a combo-centric game, that is to say a lot of the play is setting up for then executing a long combo, I'm not a big fan of long combos, they reduce a 1 on 1 battle amongst two player to a 1 on none test of one players reflexes and combo memorization. Theres still plenty of player interaction in getting toward the long combo, and rarely will a single combo ever finish a match no matter how long do to damage scaling, further I know so people prefer that type of fighting game so it isn't really a true negative of the game, just a personal preference of mine, but it bared mentioning.

It also bares mentioning that though I haven't gotten to play online yet (darn microsoft and their charging for online play -_- ) I hear the netcode is of HDR quality resulting in very little lag compared to say Soul Calibur 4 or Street Fighter 4 whose netcode is so bad that they are often laggy to the point of unplayable. I spent only a tiny bit of time playing SC4 online because of how laggy it was, but spent a ton of time online playing HDR which was more times then not an almost offline perfect experience, so if its true BB has similar netcode that is another huge reason to like the game.

[lunaCremisi]

I must say that everything Dan said is pretty spot on. Truth be told, I'm not that much of a long combo guy either, but I can always learn. The thing about the netcode is also correct. I've only played a few matches online(my friend has a ps3...free online is nice...), but the game really doesn't lag, which is great considering how input lag etc. can have a big impact on fighting games.