This game brings new dimension and and complications to 2D fighters.
Story: The game starts off with some bizarre scientific study going on and if you've seen any sci-fi horror movies you know that something goes horribly wrong. A huge gate appears and we have no idea what's going on. The story seems to gradually make more sense the more you play through the story mode. The central character, Ragna, is in possession of a very powerful artifact, the Azure Grimoire, also known as Blazblue. He also happens to be the most wanted human being on the planet considering everyone is either trying to kill him, trying to arrest him, or trying to get him down to the center of the planet and fuse with this robotic chick to become a gigantic monster that's said to ruin society as we know it. That sounds a bit far-fetched doesn't it? Everyone in the game ends up in a large city called Kagatsuchi, either looking for someone, trying to find something, or waiting for the enemy to make their move. There are two bosses in the game, both with different motives. There's Hakumen (who closely resembles Justice from GGX2) who wants to kill Ragna and prevent the monster from being born, and Nu-13 who wants to fuse with Ragna to become the so-called "Black Beast." The story seems to get weirder the more I talk about it. It sounds like some twisted sci-fi anime. Well, actually it kind of is. The story is kind of interesting, but it gets really weird.
Design: As with many fighting games, the fights always take place on a 2 dimensional plane. Mano y mano with your opponent. There are 3 attack buttons: weak, mid, and strong. There's also a "Drive" button which is an attack that always has a different effect depending on which character you use. For example, Ragna's drive steals health, and Hakumen's drive is a counter-attack. The characters all play differently and have their own strategies and special moves. There are several game modes in the game: Story, Arcade, Versus, and the all important Training Mode among others. The Arcade mode follows the basic fighting game concept, fight a series of enemies until you win. There are several difficulty levels that are selectable from the options menu. I used to play on Hell difficulty, but my skill has diminished so now I play on hard. The game follows most standards, but brings a few good twists into the formula (which I haven't really explained yet, but it's coming.).
Gameplay: The game's fighting system is what really makes the game great. It's more technical than most fighters like Tekken, but less complicated than games like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. You have several attacks at your disposal as well as defensive moves such as air dashing, ukemi (hitting a button just as you hit the ground), air recovery, combo breakers and others. You can always grab your enemies and throw them if your standard attacks aren't getting you anywhere. This game is full of ridiculous moves. You will have to practice with each character to get good and figure out combos, but for the most part you can just pick it up and play. I've noticed that this game actually has very few projectile attacks. There are actually only...... two characters that have traditional hadouken-style projectile attacks. You know what that means? NO SPAMMING! TAKE THAT STREET FIGHTER! This game also has moves called Astral Heats, which are similar to both the Instant Kill moves from Guilty Gear and the Fatalities from Mortal Kombat. In Guilty Gear, you could use Instant Kills during any point in the match. In Blazblue, you can only use it during the final round when the enemy is at a certain amount of health. In Mortal Kombat, characters start out with all of their fatalities. In Blazblue, they have to be unlocked through Arcade mode, but three characters start out with their Astral Heats (Ragna, Rachel, and Nu.). The gameplay follows Guilty Gear, but brings some new twists into the fighting system, most of which are positive.
Presentation: This is a very pretty game. The backgrounds all glow with beauty and charm. Strangely, the backgrounds are mainly 3D, while the rest of the game is 2D. The game is sprite-based, just like the 2D fighters from the '90s, but has some great looking effects for special moves and overdrives. The characters are all based on characters from previous games and other popular video games. Ragna's appearance is based off of that of Dante from Devil May Cry, while he plays much like Sol from Guilty Gear. Hakumen, as addressed earlier, looks a lot like Justice from Guilty Gear, so some fans call him Samurai Justice. The backgrounds remind me a lot of the Hayao Miyazaki films, such as Castle in the Sky, or Spirited Away. If you haven't seen those movies, do so now. The voice acting is actually pretty good. I wasn't expecting it to be very good, but it actually kind of surprised me. I had heard Street Fighter IV's English voice acting and, to say the least, it wasn't very good. If you had issues with SFIV's voice acting, this game should be a breath of fresh air. The sound effects are similar to those from Guilty Gear, and some sound like they came out of Final Fantasy. And yes, that is a good thing. The game looks great and sounds great.
Overall: 9.0
It's a great fighting game, and it should not be missed. Now I'm gonna see if I can find Tekken 6 at a decent price.