Blazblue Review

Hey everyone Tsukune here and this is my review of Blazblue for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Prior to the events of BlazBlue, humanity was on the verge of extinction from the "Black Beast", a creature of Darkness. The world was saved by six heroes who wielded magic. They helped humanity create "Armagus", a fusion of magic and technology, to defeat the Beast.

After the war, the Novus Orbis Librarium (the Library or NOL for short) was created to govern the world with the use of Armagus. A great deal of dissent was caused by the Library, partly due to Armagus' use in nearly every facet of society, and the widening socioeconomic gap between those who could and couldn't use Armagus. This dissent would eventually form years later into The Ikaruga Civil War, when the Ikaruga Union openly rebelled against the Library. After the war, the Library imposed a harsher rule on the world, punishing any rebellion against the Library with the death penalty.

In December A.D. 2199, several years after the Ikaruga Civil War, a branch of the Library was utterly destroyed by an SS-class rebel named "Ragna the Bloodedge" also known as the "Grim Reaper", in an attempt to destroy the entire Library. The Novus Orbis Librarium, hoping to stop him, immediately announced the largest bounty ever, available to anyone who could capture him. Interestingly, Ragna possesses a powerful form of Armagus known as the "Azure Grimoire" (Grimoire of the Blue in Japan), also known as the BlazBlue. This led the Librarium, as well as the Ikaruga Union and other fighters, to hunt Ragna not just for his bounty, but also his grimoire.

You have 12 characters to choose from. Ragna the Bloodegde (the main protagonist of the game.), Jin Kisaragi (A hero of the NOL during the Ikaruga war and commanding officer to Noel.), Noel Vermillion (A lieutenant in the NOL and a subordinate to Major Kisaragi.), Iron Tager (Commonly referred to as the 'Red Devil' he works for a group known only as Sector Seven.), and Rachel Alucard (A mysterious vampire.) just to name a few.

BlazBlue is a traditional 2D fighter where two characters participate in a duel on a two dimensional plane. A round is called a "rebel" and one match can consist of one to five "rebels". To win a round, one player must either incapacitate the other by inflicting damage through various attacks to reduce health or by having more remaining health after the clock runs out if the rules of the match has one.

Every character has a weak, medium and strong attack. Also every character has a "unique" technique, called a Drive attack, which is different for each character. Those attacks are also known as "A", "B", "C" and "D". Various combos can be performed by every character through careful input of regular and drive attacks. A combo consists of two or more consecutive attacks that hit an opponent without them retaliating. As combos become longer, each attack will do less damage than normal to give the opponent a chance to retaliate. Grabs can be incorporated into combos also by pressing the "B" and "C" buttons at the same time. Occasionally, some attacks (e.g. Jin's Hirensou) will use portions of the player's heat gauge at the bottom of the screen. The heat gauge is filled by either dealing or receiving damage. When at a certain percentage, special moves called "distortion drives" can be performed. When a distortion drive is successfully performed and connects with the opponent, it deals massive damage and is visually flashier than normal attacks.

Along with attacks every character has two types of block. One is the regular block that can be broken with a "guard crush". That can be achieved by pushing the "guard libra" gauge all the way to the opponent's side through repeated attacks. If the opponent keeps blocking, then their guard can be broken, leaving them open for attack. The second type of block is a barrier block, which is initiated by blocking while holding the "A" and "B" buttons at the same time. A barrier block cannot be broken like a normal guard, but there is a limit on how long one can be held, which is indicated by the barrier gauge. If the barrier gauge empties, then the player will receive 150% damage until it regenerates to half-full.

A form of an advanced tactic is a "rapid cancel". These can be done after any attack to instantly cancel the character sprite's animation frames and reset back to the resting position. However this can only be done at the cost of 50% of the heat gauge.

Counters are the one of the easier tactics to perform. All that is required is for a player to strike their opponent while they are in the middle of an attacking animation to stop them in their tracks. This leaves an opponent open for a combo.

In addition to a player's regular block options, they can also "instant block", which requires stricter timing, but reduces the amount of time the character is stuck in their blocking animation and gives you a little heat.

If a player is under pressure from the opponent, a "barrier burst" can be done at any time to send the opponent away to create some space at the cost of having no barrier block and receiving 150% damage for the rest of the round. A barrier burst may also be used offensively to break the opponents guard (your character will still suffer the extra damage and be unable to barrier block for the remainder of the round).

So over all I give Blazblue a 8 out of 10. Stay tuned for more reviews from me, Tsukune (aka Darkness).

Controls: 7 out of 10

Characters: 9 out of 10

Gameplay: 10 out of 10

Soundtrack: 8 out of 10