Point Zero: Redefining Otaku

Hi there, Akai here, and this would be my first time doing a blog article (yea first time in my life -_-“).
This article would be talking about the current top 2D fighting game in Japan:

Blazblue

Developed by Arc System Works, [Blazblue] is designed to be the successor of their well known [Guilty Gear] series of fighting games.

This game has taken Japanese arcades by storm. In the following months after its release, it overtook [Arcana Heart 2] (Arcana Hearts series by Examu) and the popular [Street Fighter IV] (by Capcom) in popularity in the arcades, claiming title of #1 2-D arcade fighting game in Japan.
(Data taken from August issue of Arcadia magazine, Japan)

Character Design

Staying true to their unique character design style, Arc System Works has yet again placed a weird cast of characters in this amazing fighting game (although less weird than Guilty Gear, probably because GG’s cast was way too weird and turned some people away from it).

Blazblue has a small cast of 12 characters, with a heavy anime inspired design.
Any anime/manga fan who takes a glance at the characters will immediately be at home with them; cat girl, weird slimy creature, loli, booby lady, school girl, manly hero, mecha girl… you name it, they have it.

Although the game has significantly less characters compared to other recent fighting games, its strength is in the depth of its characters and system. Each character has its own very unique fighting style. It’s not like some other fighting games where if you know 1 character, you should be able to use 80-90% of the others in a rather average level.

The fighting styles of each character differ greatly from one another, from the rather simple run-in-and-swing-sword types, to extremely complex types like setup types that rely on stuff like curses and summoning bugs, frogs, rods to mow their way to victory (sounds weird? Yea I know, I have a hard time trying to figure out how to explain this part too -_-“)

Gameplay and Learning Curve

The game system has stuff like instant blocks (rewards for timed block), barrier blocks (something like a more powerful block that pushed opponents away more), and double jumps (some characters can even do triple), air dashes and more.

At first, these may seem too much for new players to handle, but it’s actually really easy to get used to, as most are just more or less the same thing, like the blocks. As for the double jumps and dashes, just come normally after a few minutes of play.

If you are a Guilty Gear player, it’s pretty much the same, but the system is a lot more lenient compared to GG, making the game more accessible to casual players as well as new players.

The game is surprisingly easy to pick up; it uses a simple 4-button control layout. The usual ABC and one that’s unique to the game, called the Drive button (aka D). So, some real fancy combos and moves, that you though might have to be done by some complex joystick movement, is actually just a press of a button.

Of course, apart from being accessible to new players, there are also highly complex and character specific combos that are hard to pull off. These combos are the ones that require some training, but are incredibly satisfying as you pull them off on a real opponent, as some of them look truly impressive.

Game Balance

The game balance is rather good, with only minor balance issues compared to most other fighting games. No characters have been banned in tournaments in Japan yet and all characters, even those regarded as the better few, are very ‘beatable’ as they have weaknesses of their own.

Console Special Goodies

The console version comes with a full story mode for each character, which is complete with multiple endings, character arts, animation, unlockables, and more. Every single sentence in Story Mode is fully voiced in both Japanese and English. Some of the Japanese voice actors are very well known in Japan and have acted in various highly-rated anime.

Visual/Graphics

The game is rendered in High Definition (HD 720p) and sports amazing graphics. The characters are well animated with a 60fps frame rate, and the backgrounds are highly detailed and in partial 3D.

I know what some readers would be thinking right now, I’m sure everyone had their fair share of bad 2D games which feels really weird with their partial 3D graphics, but trust me, these backgrounds looks seriously amazing. They will make you tempted to pause the game in the middle of a fight just to take a better look at them.

Sound

Sound effects are great as well, with character specific tracks as well as special tracks with vocals. There is even special sounds background sound on specific stages, like the sound of shoes rubbing on the icy floor, as well as the cute sound of  “nya~ nya~” from the cat girl stage. Its theme song is Aoi-Iconoclast sung by KOTOKO. (Youtube link below post)

Recommendation

I would recommend that people who like fighting games or anime/manga fans who want to give fighting games a shot to try it out. If you wanna try it out before buying, many arcades have this game on their new VirtualLand type cabinets, in HD.

Release

Blazblue is out on both Xbox360 and PS3. All versions have both Japanese and English voices (yes all, even the US version), as well as plenty of text/subtitle options (depending on which region u buy).

Content

Below are some pictures of the characters and backgrounds, as well as some videos for the theme song and other stuff.

(All pictures are distributed by Arc System Works for use on fan sites)
Special thanks to:
Arc System Works
Arcadia Magazine

Character Art & Backgrounds

Videos

Youtube (watch in HD, and yea with subs):

Anime Opening:

Promo Vid 2:

Anime Part:

Game Part:

Theme song, full version:

Done by:

紅い

Akai