style meets substance
With the recent release of Street Fighter IV, there has been a sort of renaissance in the world of fighting games. BlazBlue is in a lot of ways, the future of 2D fighters.
Visually, BlazBlue is impressive. The 3D rendered backgrounds are vibrant and filled with life. Each stage does a great job of making the world of BlazBlue feel lived in and adds to the character of the title. The hand drawn sprites are animated beautifully. Each character moves fluidly, and is dripping with personality. From Noel's awkward shyness to over the top self parody of Bang, each character has a certain humanity to them.
But there is more to BlazBlue than just a pretty face. The true beauty of BlazBlue is in the game play. While there are only twelve playable characters, each one of them has an unique style of play. The depth of the characters is truly staggering. If give the choice between a roster of 25 characters, most of them copies of three or four interchangeable archetypes (I'm looking at you Capcom), or the small but diverse cast of BlazBlue, I personally find it hard to imagine anyone not choosing BlazBlue.
While each character is diverse and technically demanding, Blazblue also deals with the issue of accessibility quite nicely. While Street Fighter IV uses "simplified inputs" to make the game more playable for less experienced fighters, BlazBlue has opted for command shortcuts. Each character has four moves (Two special attacks, and usually one "distortion drive" and their "astral finish") assigned to a direction on the right analog stick. In Ranked Play, this feature can be (and usually is) disabled. While this may feel like an oversimplification of the core game play, the fact that it can be avoided and disabled protects the overall skill levels of Ranked play while making the game fun and playable at a casual level.
The overall presentation of BlazBlue is great. It really is a game that will be rewarding to play at high levels while still fun to play casually. My only real complaint with BlazBlue is the loading between between pretty much any two screens. While it is usually just for a couple of seconds, it is a constant occurrence.
