Triple Entente Network

D - 8/10: The newest game from Arc System Works (the development team behind the Guilty Gear series) is exactly what one would come to expect from the studio - a very solid, however not perfect, 2D fighting game.

Guilty Gear, though not a massive mainstream success, has garnished itself with a large cult of followers. The series (of many renditions) is easily identifiable by its anime inspired sprites and the overall style of the game – in which BlazBlue is no different. In fact, it’s hard not to coin BlazBlue as the “REAL Guilty Gear 2” (mostly because death would be a preferable alternative to playing Guilty Gear 2: Overture). The game does play differently however, with less emphasis on countering and canceling and more emphasis on its character roster.

Speaking of its character roster, BlazBlue doesn’t boast a large one. There are only 12 characters in the game. Luckily, BlazBlue more than makes up for its small roster, with a unique character set. Each of the 12 characters present in the game are completely different - they each play differently, have different attacks, setups (even their normal attacks are specialized). In most fighting games it’s common to see clones of characters or at least characters that require similar controls to play; BlazBlue destroys this nuance and gives players incredible depth of game play even with the constraint of so few characters.

However, the story of the game is confusing to say the least. If you actually understand what the hell is going on in the opening cutscene then you're much more adept and understanding to random yelling then I am. The story mode may be hard to follow as far as the main plot goes, however character back-stories are surprisingly well developed in such short time. The story also offers options that will bring you down different paths and allow you to experience alternate endings; however this ends up feeling more like a chore than anything else, seeing as you have to go back and play through the fight that leads up to the ending choice if you want to get an 100% completion for each of BlazBlue’s characters.

Online play overall is fun, and the game carries a stat and ranking system that I have no complaints about. All in all, the game carries everything one could want from a fighting game, but it stops dead in its tracks after that. The game has nothing special, nothing that allows it to stand far apart from other fighters. Nevertheless, it’s a well made game that offers hours and hours of fun, but unfortunately it never makes it much farther than that.