Guilty Gear Neutered OR Confusing Cluster of a Mess
I never did buy into the hype surrounding BlazBlue. Upon initially seeing it, I thought to myself, "This is just Guilty Gear with prettier graphics."
Well, I was partially wrong. It is Guilty Gear with prettier graphics, weaker gameplay, and a twisted, lame mindscrew of a story.
Where to start? Well, the characters aren't as solid as Guilty Gear's. A few of them have endearingly quirky personalities, but nearly the entire lot of them are merely pastiches of their predecessors, either in terms of appearance, persona, or both.
Secondly, there is the plot. I am a firm believer that story is important in fighting games, and I am very fond of media such as Lost, Metal Gear, FLCL, and Donnie Darko where the "wtf" moments are flying at you a mile a minute. However, BlazBlue is less "wtf" and more just "w". The story is told very clumsily and even after seeing the events from multiple points of view, I can't help but just stare at my television and shrug, not even attempting to ponder the what just transpired.
Finally we get to the gameplay, inarguably the most important factor in a fighting game. While the combat would have flown as top-notch ten years ago, there have been leaps and bounds taken since then that have rendered BlazBlue as merely "semi-solid". Literally, it feels as if Guilty Gear, personified, were beaned in the head with a brick and was caused to suffer the loss of several I.Q. points. Sure, you can cook up a mean Rachel trap or abuse Iron Tager's magnetic powers, but it lacks the sheer polish of even early Guilty Gear games.
Some fanboys and girls out there might bemoan the constant comparison to Guilty Gear, but let's face it: BlazBlue is just a derivative of Arc's most famous title, with new, blander characters and weaksauce gameplay. It does not have the power to stand on its own legs.
