Where Every Character is an SNK Boss!
There's going to be two types of people that are probably going to read this review. The first group are the people that are on the fence about the purchase of this game, whilst the second group are probably people that are curious as wo why this game has a 3/6 star rating. Well, the reasons could pretty much be summed up to two issues: a disorganized, muddle story, and a grossly unbalanced cast of characters. Despite these two issues, however, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger has some enduring qualities all of it's own that allow it to stand out in the fighting game genre.
BlazBlue is unique in alot of different ways, but most of all it's character design. While most of the 12 character roster are basically a "by-the-books " version of a time-worn stereotype (Noel, the flat-chested young cop, or Ragna, the anti-hero of the moment with a overly large sword), the cat-girl Taokaka is at least somewhat original in her appearence. I mean, does she have a whole Black Mage from Final Fantasy thing kicking, or is that really her face? Point is, none of these characters are particularly interesting in design, which doesn't make it a negative for the game, but alittle more originality would have been appreciated. Despite that, some characters have an interesting personality to them (such as the aforementiond Taokaka) and are reenforced with a system that allows you to switch between the English and Japanese voices in the option screen, which is a nice touch for those that like one over the other. I should note, though, that the English voice acting is pretty good and generally well cast in a surprise twist.
In the audio department, BlazBlue delievers in a way few games in it's genre could. Every stage, theme, and track shows an approprate variety that keeps it from ever getting old and can get you pretty riled up to fight. Perhaps one of my favorite tracks (though not at first) was that of the Mrs. Litchi sub-sections, it really goes a long way in establishing the atmosphere for that particular set of weird skits. As mentioned before, the voice talent is actually quite good. Almost every type of match up (both story mode or otherwise) causes the characters to change dialogue during battle, a nice touch that goes along way in design consideration.
It's a shame that the semi-interesting character roster of the game isn't properly backed with an adquete storyline. I give the game points for actually investing some time in a plasable storyline, but I have to refund those same points because the story is never presented in a tangable way. The Story Mode of the game allows the player to experience the main setting of the game through the eyes of all the playable characters using a variety of different paths that the player can choose from. While one would think this creates replayablity, and a better understanding of what's going on, it doesn't. To get a 100% of any character's storyline, you've gotta lose to every enemy you encounter, watch the result of losing in the form of a story gameover, load, beat the enemy, make a choice, follow that path, load back to that same choice to see the other side. I think you may get the point. Not only that, but you may have to do that with another character just to get a 100% for another character, and like the Giantbomb review stated, you have to do that with every freaking character. And while you're doing all of this, the story never becomes clear. It's extremely tedious and comes off more as a chore than entertainment.
However how you view the story is a different story, this game is very nice to look at. Each stage has a certain life to that most other fighters are without, such as the dusky glow of Orient Town and it's natives, and the night life of the Kagetsuchi port. In fact, as typical with 2D fighters, the backgrounds are so nice that it kinda shows the flaws of the actual sprites. While the sprites are large, colorful, and animated well, they can't quite compare to the backgrounds. Regardless, the sprites are well done and demand the attention of the player. Likewise the various menus in the game are very streamlined and easly navigated.
Finally, the gameplay. I've personally been playing fighting games since Street Fighter II but I haven't been a "hardcore" player in many years, so it's hard for me to bridge the world of casual players and the world of hardcore players. What I can tell you is that this game borders on broken. It's not quite there, but it's close. The system in BlazBlue utilizes a variety of systems most gamers are familar with. You have a super meter, you have your counters, you have a meter that gauges how long you can block before your enemy breaks it, and you have your assortment of fireballs and dragon punch manevers. The game also utilizes four buttons, the "A" button (for weak attack), the "B" button (for medium attacks), the "C" button (for strong attacks), and finally, the "D" button (to activate character specific abilities). Let's talk about the "D" button real quick. The "D" button is special for every character in BlazBlue and goes a long way in keeping each character different from the other, exampled by the character Litchi who can control her bo staff using the "D" button to place it and recall it. Characters such as Arakune can place a curse on enemies so that his "D" button motions can auto-aim toward them. This function allows players to choose a play style most appropriate to their likes and dislikes, which is nice, but the problem is in the balancing of each character. You have characters such as Nu that are absolutely unbalanced in the sense that she can utlize materlized swords using only the "D" button to make it next to impossible for newbie players to have any idea on defeating her. A widely known match up between her and another character known as Tager properly illustrates her advantage. The aforementioned character Arakune, likewise, has an advantage that makes it almost impossible to counter in the Curse move. If only these moves where balanced in how much each could take off, that's fine, it could still be somewhat balanced, but that isn't the case here. If Jin Kusaragi's ice moves held just alittle less priority over moves, then he also would be balanced, however, at this time, you'll probably find yourself going "oh what the ****" as your character is frozen solid by any of his "D " moves, when you could have sworn that you hit him first. Other systems within BlazBlue such as the "Barrier" and "Barrier Break" are meant to regulate the funk, and if used correctly, can pretty much keep you from getting your butt handed to you. The "Barrier" is an advanced block that is controlled by a seperate bar under your health meter, and this barrier can be purposely broken to initiate a "Barrier Break" that instantly sends your enemy flying in the event you're getting floored with combos. Regardless though, it's only a small safety that keeps you from getting knocked out, and it's something every character has a good chance of bypassing in their own way. One would think that if every character could be considered cheap, then it's balanced, but that's not the way it works in fighting games. A combo in a fighting game should rarely knock off 50% of your life, but it can in BlazBlue and it can happen at a moment's notice. To be fair, you can practice and learn to adapt to this irratation, but the point is that a well designed game doesn't make the player make it a good game, the game accomdates to you, not you to it. It also begs to mention that BlazBlue has an excellent built in netcode. Of the many online fights I've gone through, very few have had much lag, and it has ran smoothly. On that note, the game also utilizes a sort of business card system that showcases to other players your main character and sub character, your title (gained by winning a number of fights and "leveling up") and your win/loss ratio. Other fighting games can learn a thing or two from BlazBlue in this regard.
In conclusion, BlazBlue has all the makings of a great game. It has the music, the character, and the almost lag free netcode, but what it lacks is the very reason to even play it to begin with: gameplay. The balancing issues are something I don't have much hope in them patching, because the entire game would have to be redone to fix that problem. I will say though, if given the chance to rent it, I would, however, I couldn't possible recommand any kind of player to actually buy the game unless they've accepted all the flaws inherint in the system.
Alright boys and girls, this is Vagabond reminding you of President Harry Truman's immortal words: "I never give them hell. I just tell them the truth and they think it's hell." Haha, good night everybody!
