[nejime]
I might be late to the party by a year or two, but I recently got my hands on a great arcade stick for the X360 and a copy of Arc System’s latest stylish 2D fighter. Now, I realize that this isn’t a gaming blog, but something about BlazBlue has piqued my curiosity.
For one, the game feels suspiciously catered to anime fans, and not in a bad way. To prove my point, you’ve probably already heard of it, or at least seen some pictures – like Guilty Gear‘s Bridget, some of the characters and inside jokes make it out of the fighting game community and into the general otakusphere. The story mode also seems strangely fleshed out, though it’s still too early for me to comment on the plot.
At any rate, BlazBlue definitely isn’t beginner-friendly, but it seems to contain quite a few treats for the anime fans in the audience. Most of my attention is focused on learning how to play, but I can’t help but notice how polished the game feels outside of its core gameplay. Besides, with official art like this, how can you go wrong?
The story mode in particular is what drove me to write this post. You’ve probably already heard this if you follow the gaming community, but BlazBlue has a surprisingly deep single-player experience. I’m not sure if it has a surprisingly deep story since I’ve only played a couple of the routes, but I can already tell that it’s polished. Take a look at the screencap above: it’s from the Japanese version of the game, I know, but look at the sprites. We already know that the character designs are above-average, but this is professional eroge-quality art we’re talking about! Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the story mode’s BGM and the dialogue is kept to a minimum, but it has a pleasant amount of eye candy for a fighting game.
If you haven’t played the game before, you’re probably wondering why I mentioned the term “routes” in that last paragraph. Interestingly, none of the characters’ story modes are complete when you first start them: you have to move back and forth between routes, exposing the overall plot from different angles. This means that the game probably suffers from Tsukihime Syndrome in that there’s arguably a right and wrong order to play the game in, but the experience is pretty much seamless as long as you’re not too picky. It feels a bit like Ever 17 in that the structure forces you to play the role of the 3rd person narrator rather than the protagonist. The story also comes with a few CGs, and the prologue/epilogue scenes feel like something right out of a linear visual novel. Whether the plot is good or not, it’s all very pretty and attractive, which is a pleasant change of pace from the awkward story modes that some fighting games are known for.
There’s not much to say about the technical aspects of the game aside from the gameplay mechanics, but there’s enough to be impressed by. Daisuke Ishiwatari is the composer for most, if not all of the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series, and his tracks are all suited to the games. I’ve heard as many fans comment on the music of Guilty Gear as I’ve heard compliments to Castlevania music, and I’m starting to see that they were right.
I’m not sure who the character designer is, but whoever it is has also done a satisfying job on the entire cast, male and female. Being a typical moe fan, I’m obviously most interested in Noel and Rachel, but there’s quite a bit of creativity in the rest of the cast as well. Jin is one of the first badass bishounen to catch my eye in years, Litchi‘s hair makes me smile, and Nu is just awesome all around. Incidentally, Carl probably has more than a few female fans, and I still don’t really know what Taokaka is.
Also, for the seiyuu otaku, Rachel is voiced by Kana Ueda and Tao is voiced by Chiwa Saitou. And yes, you can freely switch the voice and text language in the English version of the game.
Official art. These guys know their marketing.
Unfortunately, no matter how many spectacular pieces of BGM and suggestive yuri promo art the developers create, nothing can change the fact that BlazBlue is inaccessible. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: 2D fighters are meant to be competitive, period. I bought this game because I wanted to learn how to play, and I’m still busy learning how to play. It’s amazing. It’s like dodging bullets. Even so, it’s not like your average anime-style JRPG that requires more time than skill – fighting games are awful if you do it wrong and incredible if you do it right.
Having said that, BlazBlue probably isn’t a bad entry point to the genre, and it’s current-gen so you’ll always have access to human opponents to fight. It’s definitely worth checking out for every anime fan who’s into gaming, but be warned: victory does not come cheap.
~ ETERNAL
つづく
