BlazBlue... did I miss something?

[Manji187]

Guilty Gear's characters were more badass...in general GG feels more "mature".

*Sigh*...I miss guys like Sol. Ragna....just doesn't have that X factor for me.

 

[Akihiko]

Hmm, I liked the story and characters of Blazblue, but I really dislike the gameplay itself. But, that said, I don't like any 2d fighters, so that's probably why.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Guilty Gear's characters were more badass...in general GG feels more "mature".

*Sigh*...I miss guys like Sol. Ragna....just doesn't have that X factor for me.

Pffffffft. Real men mained May. Taste my anchor of justice!

 

[Alizee Serenity]

Hype says BlazBlue is the greatest fighting game in recent history and that if you like fighting games you should play it cus it's awesome.


Well, I must've gotten a defective copy that didn't spit out a wad of cash every time I played it because I didn't see anything amazing about it, let alone anything good. Why is this game held in such high regard?

I'll give you a little background, before anyone starts saying that I can't handle a "Deep and complex" game. I've played a lot of fighters before, and I've liked all of the ones I've played (Even King of Fighters: Maximum Impact) and they all have something in common: When you start playing them, you suck at them, but you can still have fun learning the more advanced mechanics by playing the game. Blazblue is a different story; you can't learn the advanced mechanics by playing, you have to sit through over an hour of tutorials to even find out that some of these mechanics exist. They're incredibly situation-specific and odd. No one would've figured out that you could cancel CERTAIN moves by pressing 3 of the buttons when you have a specific amount of specials.

The controls were another issue. Attacks differ depending on how the joystick is positioned; attacking with the joystick in a neutral position does one attack while attacking with the joystick in any other position performs a different move. It sounds fine in theory but in practice, it becomes a nuisance. I don't know if it's just me, but I'm used to pressing towards my opponent while I attack. In my experience it's madness to combo with the joystick in a neutral position, it's just not something a sane person would do.


On a more personal note, I hated the characters. In fighting games I've never played I always go about selecting my first character like this: First, look for any known characters (In cross overs) if none are found, go for any small characters (they're usually fast) if not, look for any female character that's not dressed like a stripper (The female characters that dress like normal people aren't usually main characters and they usually have a well-rounded move set. Fighting games are built around a lot of stereotypes and templates.) In Blazblue, I found a few characters I thought I could play as, but for personal reasons, I didn't want to play as any of them. Would I like to play as the generic anime pretty-boy with a sword? What about the generic anime pretty-boy with white hair and a dark past? What about the generic lolita goth who looks like she robbed a Hot Topic store? The catgirl? The androgynous little kid with a puppet or that girl with the guns from Melty Blood? None. I didn't want to play as any of these. I asked myself "Where are all the cool characters!? Where are the badass cops? Where are the robots, the kangaroos or the American stereotypes?" So I settled for the ninja guy, who was designed by someone who has been watching too much Naruto. Yes, the only tolerable character, is a Naruto reject.


TL;DR: I didn't like BlazBlue because I felt it was annoying and complex just for the sake of being complex. It feels like it puts being a 'serious' tournament fighter over being an enjoyable fighter. I also believe that most of the people who rave about it do so so they won't be called "softcore" or noobs.

Another over-long post, from Emo, PhD.

Ah yes the Dissidia Syndrome. I know alot of gamers tell me SO many games they like or play are THE best and NOTHING will ever compare to their games because they are so AWESOME and PERFECT *coughs* FF7 *coughs* but you also have to keep in mind people -even gamers- are different and their tastes are going to rival someone else's ~guaranteed~ so even if I told you to play Kingdom Hearts because its the Alpha and Omega of Square Enix/Disney creations-I will be wrong always somewhere.

In short-just rent the game. Test it out. You like it, get it. Ya don't? Give it back.

 

[-Seraph-]

Guilty Gear's characters were more badass...in general GG feels more "mature".

*Sigh*...I miss guys like Sol. Ragna....just doesn't have that X factor for me.

Pffffffft. Real men mained May. Taste my anchor of justice!

Pfft, I was all about everyone's favorite crack head ninja president, Chipp fuckin Zanuff. Drugs may have ruined his defense, but his bullshit speed and air superiority will make the mightiest men tremble in fear

 

[Ken_J]

Honestly, the only thing that annoyed me about BlazBlue was the Xbox's frustrating D-pad.

That's why I have it for the PS3

 

[Manji187]

Guilty Gear's characters were more badass...in general GG feels more "mature".

*Sigh*...I miss guys like Sol. Ragna....just doesn't have that X factor for me.

Pffffffft. Real men mained May. Taste my anchor of justice!

Hehe, yes she packed a helluva punch...literally. I didn't main Sol though, just liked his whole attitude.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Then you guys will like the last DLC char a whole lot, she's like a mix of May, Zappa and Faust.

 

[mikev7.0]

Wow. People who like fighting games hate Street Fighter?? The literal Mother of fighting games?? If it's not to your tastes, that's fine, but why bother hating it? Just don't waste your own energy on it.

I don't. The only Street Fighter I can stand these days is SF3, but I don't usually bring that up.

I'm too busy playing Melty Blood and Arcana Heart.

Third Strike is Excellent! Could you tell me what system Melty Blood is on and compare it to another fighter please?

I know I said I was going to get BlazBlue and post what I think but I'm kinda' busy playing it! All I can say is thanks for the suggestion, I really like it! I do wish I knew more about the back story though, it feels like I'm missing a lot.

Oh and Noel's ending is evil. Seriously man, that's a long way to go for a gag reel. But it was fun so I don't really care. They just suckered me into thinking she was the hero with her Professor Konoe cut scene....which was hilarious. So was her ending actually.

 

[Gralian]

Complex for the sake of being complex?

That's like saying your food has flavour for the sake of flavour. What a terrible argument.

I'm sorry you didn't like BlazBlue. It's definitely not for everybody. I didn't even know it was a popular game. I picked up Calamity Trigger several months ago for £17 and i loved it. It's punishing if you don't know all the moves, combos, distortion drives and so on, but once you learn the ropes it really hooks you in. Unfortunately, you can't learn the ropes by using the simply right analogue stick motions to pull off special moves, you have to learn them the old fashioned way - looking through combo lists and repeatedly pulling them off in training mode until you learn it by heart. I know it's tough, but that's just the nature of fighting games. If you don't want to bother learning the moveset, maybe the fighting genre just isn't for you. The artstyle is, again, not for everybody. I really like the 2d anime artstyle, but to some people, it's downright repulsive. I can't speak for the story mode. If that doesn't interest you, just go play the arcade mode and fight your way through eight or so rounds without the need for cutscenes or dialogue.

You didn't miss anything, it just wasn't to your tastes. That's about it.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Never played the game so I cant say much. I've been meaning to try it out but never got the chance. That said the amount of praise and love it gets clearly means the games are doing something right. Then again I never trust games with loads of hype from its fans and sadly BB suffers from this as well. I've been burned before from fans hyping and I fell this might happen to me again. But besides that I think it a good looking fighter. Not my favorite but still overall fun.

Perhaps its just not your type of fighter and thats ok. Everybody has different tastes.

 

[Sovereignty]

You... have a problem with different directional inputs giving different attacks?

Dude, that's been a staple of fighting games since Street Fighter II. Neutral+attack is a weaker, faster move, forward+attack is a stronger, slower move. That's how it's always been. That's how it is in every single fighting game I've ever played.

I'd take BB's cast of imaginative characters over the regurgitated crap in Tekken or Mortal Kombat any day.

I really like the regurgitated MK and Tekken characters...

They feel well developed most times, and still balanced. I don't feel that for Street Fighter or BB though.

 

[Ice Car]

214c214c214c214c214c214c

Is that what you're missing?

 

[KarumaK]

Your problem with BB is that you don't like it... why are you telling strangers about this again?

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, doctor, the good thing about a game that has critical acclaim is that you don't have to like it. It's well-loved enough that you don't have to agree that the graphic and art style is kickass, or that the character design is both interesting and/or funny. And in the end, it doesn't matter if you don't like the great action and weird freakin' plot of the games. You don't have to like a single inch of it.

But in return, you can't tell us to stop having fun.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Wow. People who like fighting games hate Street Fighter?? The literal Mother of fighting games?? If it's not to your tastes, that's fine, but why bother hating it? Just don't waste your own energy on it.

I don't. The only Street Fighter I can stand these days is SF3, but I don't usually bring that up.

I'm too busy playing Melty Blood and Arcana Heart.

Third Strike is Excellent!

That it is. And Makoto's half the reason I have any interest at all in 4, and Yun and Yang are the other half (if they added Remy, I'd be in heaven...but they already have Guile, so that's pretty unlikely).

Could you tell me what system Melty Blood is on and compare it to another fighter please?

Depends on which version. There are four by now (Melty Blood, Melty Blood: Re-Act, Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, and Melty Blood: Actress Again). The first three are on the PC, and the second two are PS2 assuming you're willing to import them from Japan.

And compared to another fighter...think Guilty Gear, with SF3's animation quality and Arcana Heart's button setup. I've actually <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.230960-TYPE-MOON-reviews-Melty-Blood>reviewed the first game and plan to do the other ones, but if you're interested in it as a fighting game, I'd recommend Act Cadenza (or Re-Act as a second choice, and if you're interested in Story Mode). Both have been translated by <url=http://mirrormoon.org/projects/melty_blood_act_cadenza>Mirror Moon.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

BB is a bit too fast really, and the story mode is just horrible. Seriously, I have to click through ten pages of dialog, actual on screen text, to get to a one round fight? Seriously? It doesn't help that the story is utter nonsense, complete and utter nonsense, and that the dialog is appallingly written and lacking in characterisation: noone gets a sentence out, it takes them six pages to say anything beyond "what the...!"

Extraordinary!

Online is dead for people not in the US or Japan.

The story is visual novel style. You clearly have not played the prequel, the story picks up right off so you need to know what happens for stuff to make sense. It's a typical type of anime-like thing which is great. It is NOT about the fights, it's about the characters. Every other mode in the game is about fights, this one is about STORY, as it is in the actual name of the mode. You're just used to things like Sf having sorry excuses for stories and when a real story hits you you're sent packing like a dog with a firecracker up its butt.


As for online, that's equally true for all niche games. Nothing you can do about it other than move. Take this from someone who did move, it rules. (seriously, I play folks from Europe often, England and Sweden and whatnot, it's not laggy, your internet sucks)