DrEmo said:
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.
Well, you've commited a few problems. Don't ever let anyone tell you something is the best thing ever until you've had a crack at it yourself. Also, this isn't like other fighters, unlike most companies. This game is not skewed to the general audience. it was market almost purely for people who played Guilty Gear. As it is like an identical twin, so the mechanics are totally easy to understand an do if you were an end-game GGX player which, again, this was marketed to. Also, direction + attack isn't odd and has been around for 20+ years as people have stated.
I personally love the characters of the series (GGX and BB, I find them much more creative than SF, SC, and Tekken as by your description you picked out generic fighters like 'the robot' 'badass cop' and such.), some characters are annoying but I don't really pay it much mind since I'm really just concerned with, "What one is gonna allow me to kill my opponent the most efficiently with my playstyle?" Turned out to be Noel of all people.
If you wanna pick up an easy to learn but hard to master fighting game that has more tournament plays then BB, go with SSF4. It's essentially the best game for that out right now, MvC3 looks good too.
